Monte Hellman

"Frequently beset with distribution problems, most of Hellman's films are rarely seen, and this fact, coupled with their obsessive violence, quirky charm and at times apparently wilful obscurity, has made him something of a cult figure." - The Illustrated Who's Who of Cinema, 1983
Monte Hellman
Director / Editor / Producer
(1929-2021) Born July 12, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Top 250 Directors

Key Production Country: USA
Key Genres: Drama, Western, Revisionist Western, Road Movie, Psychological Western, Psychological Drama
Key Collaborators: Warren Oates (Leading Actor), Josep M. Civit (Cinematographer), Millie Perkins (Leading Character Actress), Fabio Testi (Leading Character Actor), Harry Dean Stanton (Leading Character Actor), Jack Nicholson (Leading Actor/Producer), Steven Gaydos (Screenwriter), Gregory Sandor (Cinematographer), Laurie Bird (Leading Character Actress), Brandon Carroll (Character Actor), B.J. Merholz (Character Actor), George Mitchell (Character Actor)

“Got his first chance to direct under the aegis of Roger Corman. Made a couple of poverty-row adventures in the Philippines with the unknown Jack Nicholson in 1964… He has, with very few films, retained his reputation as a maverick like his favourite actors, Jack Nicholson and Warren Oates.” - Ronald Bergan (A-Z of Movie Directors, 1983)
"It is characteristic of Hellman’s fringe career that The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind were made simultaneously, in the Utah desert, with a minimal crew, two cameras, and screenplays by Adrien Joyce and Jack Nicholson. Hellman has chosen to say of them that, “We thought they would be a couple more Roger Corman movies that would play on the second half of a double bill somewhere. So any thoughts about doing something different were for our own personal satisfaction. We never thought that anybody would ever notice.” In fact, their stark originality prevented either film from having a wide release in America, and contributed to making Hellman a cult figure." - David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2010)
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Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
"American director whose wilful, almost self-destructive independence has kept him in a cinematic wilderness for most of the last 20 years. Hellman's world peruses the deserts, highways, byways, backstreets and underbelly of American life. His stars are similarly independent-minded people, such as Jack Nicholson and Warren Oates. His films exude a raw power, even if they are barely likeable and sometimes not even easily understandable. They are, however, by and large, experiences worth undergoing, if not to be repeated." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999)
"At their best, Hellman’s films alight upon deeper, unspoken mysteries – especially the enigma of what drives his frequently obsessed characters, invariably blinded by their own passions and fixations. And when such troubled characters are embodied by Jack Nicholson (in his early roles) or Warren Oates (in his prime), it is hard to look away from the screen." - Adrian Martin, 2012
"A cult figure for European cinephiles but sadly neglected in his own country, Monte Hellman was the existentialist of the exploitation circuit. When both philosophies fell out of fashion in the 1980s, Hellman's career petered out." - Tom Charity (The Rough Guide to Film, 2007)
"Monte Hellman stands out as something of an anomaly in the Roger Corman stable of film-makers. Corman's success and longevity in the exploitation field was largely a result of his shrewd commercial sense: keeping his budgets low and peppering the films with liberal sprinklings of sex, violence and teen appeal… Hellman's work, however, steadfastly ignores these commercial instincts. His budgets were equally low, but his are perhaps the most cryptic and esoteric films to have been produced by Corman, sitting more comfortably with the European art cinema tradition." - Andrew Syder (Contemporary North American Film Directors, 2002)
Selected Filmography
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GF Greatest Films ranking ( Top 1000 ● Top 2500)
21C 21st Century ranking ( Top 1000)
T TSPDT R Jonathan Rosenbaum S Martin Scorsese
Monte Hellman / Favourite Films
The Asphalt Jungle (1950) John Huston, Casablanca (1942) Michael Curtiz, Les Enfants du paradis (1945) Marcel Carné, Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) Tsai Ming-liang, House of Flying Daggers (2004) Zhang Yimou, Outcast of the Islands (1951) Carol Reed, Le Samouraï (1967) Jean-Pierre Melville, The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) Victor Erice, Stavisky (1974) Alain Resnais, Storm Over Asia (1928) Vsevolod Pudovkin.
Source: Sight & Sound (2012)
Monte Hellman / Fan Club
Guilherme Martins, Steven Gaydos, Jeffrey M. Anderson, Brad Stevens, Marcelo Alderete, Regina Schlagnitweit, Milton do Prado, Ulrich von Berg, Steve Rybin, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Filipe Furtado, Vic Pratt.
Ride in teh Whirlwind