Monte Hellman, cult director and Reservoir Dogs executive producer, dies aged 91

[turbinetree]

Source: The Guardian

Director of cult classics Two-Lane Blacktop and Cockfighter also directed Jack Nicholson and helped Quentin Tarantino with his feature debut

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Monte Hellman, the director behind 1970s cult classics Two Lane Blacktop and Cockfighter, as well as being instrumental in getting Quentin Tarantino’s directorial debut Reservoir Dogs off the ground, has died aged 91. His daughter Melissa, who produced his 2010 film Road to Nowhere, confirmed the news to the Hollywood Reporter, saying Hellman had died in hospital after a fall at his home.

Hellman was born Monte Himmelman in 1929, and after studying theatre at Stanford University set up a theatre company in Los Angeles. Like many directors of his generation, Hellman gained early experience working for Roger Corman’s low-budget exploitation-movie factory. Corman hired him to make Beast from Haunted Cave, shot simultaneously with the same cast and crew as another Corman film, Ski Troop Attack. (“It wasn’t fun to make at all,” he said.) Along with contemporaries such as Francis Ford Coppola and Jack Nicholson, Hellman became a regular Corman collaborator, at first helping to rework and reshoot material. According to Hellman: “Corman was great because he really gave you a lot of freedom. All he cared about was that you came in on budget and that he had a product he could sell.”

After directing Nicholson in two Corman-produced films in the Philippines – Flight to Fury and Back Door to Hell – Hellman persuaded Corman to back a pair of US-set westerns, The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind, both featuring Nicholson. Neither film was released in the US, but attracted cult and critical followings: the influential French film magazine Cahiers du Cinema named Ride in the Whirlwind in its Top 10 films of 1968.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/apr/21/monte-hellman-two-lane-blacktop-reservoir-dogs-dies-aged-91

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[Doc Sportello]

1. Two Lane Blacktop is one of the most underrated films of the 70s

A great era for films that Hellman helped usher in with Two Lane Blacktop, which gave a window into that time period. I got the Criterion edition and have visited some of the filming locations. I wish Hollywood would have given him the financial backing they gave to later filmmakers who were a lot less talented and interesting.

[turbinetree]

2. Agreed .......................

that movie brought back what I was doing in Southern California with my 56 Chevy in the late 60's and early 70's when we use to race for pink's or cash or just go cruzing on the weekends after school .....most people see the movie as some love story it was not, it was about racing......

[Doc Sportello]

5. True but racing was the backdrop

It was about a lot of things, but for me foremost it was about the transition from the 60s to the 70s, where people were making existential choices regarding their present and future.

[Paladin]

3. I hope some of Hellman's lesser-known flicks turn up on TCM or elsewhere.

I'm a big "Two-Lane Blacktop" fan.

[turbinetree]

4. Agreed ......

You would hope so.......

[BoringUsername]

6. Cult director

Made me think this guy was a leader of an actual cult rather than a director of a cult classic movie. I was thinking that's awfully interesting that this movie producer was also running a cult.