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Don Siegel

 

TSPDT Rating

 Top 200 Directors 
 
  Key Noir Filmmaker  
 
 Expressive Esoterica 
 
501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers
 
See Also
Jack Arnold
Robert Aldrich
Jules Dassin
Clint Eastwood
John Frankenheimer
Sam Fuller
Anthony Mann
Sam Peckinpah
Arthur Penn
Stuart Rosenberg
John Sturges
Peter Yates
View video clips relating to this director at YouTube.com
Director / Producer
1912 - 1991
Born October 26, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Key Production Country: USA 
Key Genres: Crime, Action Thriller, Action, Chase Movie, Crime Thriller, Police Detective Film, Western, Thriller, Drama
Key Collaborators: Clint Eastwood (Leading Player), Lalo Schifrin (Composer), Bruce Surtees (Cinematographer), Sheree North (Character Player), Harry Guardino (Leading Player), Howard Rodman (Screenwriter), Dean Riesner (Screenwriter), Hal Mohr (Cinematographer), Jack Elam (Character Player), Leo Gordon (Character Player)
Highly Recommended: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Recommended: The Big Steal (1949), Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), The Lineup (1958), Hell is for Heroes (1962), The Killers (1964), The Beguiled (1971), Dirty Harry (1971), Charley Varrick (1973), The Shootist (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
Links: [ IMDB ] [ TCMDB ] [ All-Movie Guide ] [ Senses of Cinema: Great Directors ] [ Film Reference ] [ A Don Siegel Page ] [ Film Forum Tribute ] [ Wikipedia ]
Books: [ A Siegel Film: An Autobiography ]
DVD's: [ Amazon ]
1,000 Greatest Films: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Dirty Harry (1971)
250 Quintessential Noir Films: Private Hell 36 (1954), The Lineup (1958)
 
nvasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)The Big Steal (1949)Escape from Alcatraz (1979)Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
 
     
  "His classically composed and edited images were as clean, uncluttered and direct as his storylines; his disenchanted but professional (anti-)heroes tended to express frustration through violent action rather than words; the world they fought against was depicted with broad, vivid strokes." - Geoff Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999)  
     
  "In the late 50s Siegel was discovered by the young critics (and future directors) of the Cahiers du Cinema - among them Godard, Truffaut, and Rohmer - who crowned him a gifted auteur with a consistent style and point of view, much to his own surprise. In the last 60s, following a mixed bag of less-than-memorable productions, the director began a fruitful collaboration with actor Clint Eastwood that resulted in 1971 in Dirty Harry." - (The MacMillan International Film Encyclopedia, 1994)  
     
  "Siegel's style does not encompass the demonic distortions of Fuller's, Aldrich's, Losey's, and, to a lesser extent, Karlson's. Siegel declines to implicate the world at large in the anarchic causes of his heroes. Nor does he adjust his compositions to their psychological quirks. The moral architecture of his universe is never undermined by the editing, however frenzied. Nevertheless, the final car chase in The Lineup and the final shoot-up in Madigan are among the most stunning displays of action montage in the history of the American cinema." - Andrew Sarris (The American Cinema, 1968)  
     
  "One of the best action directors working today. Siegel imbues his films with well-motivated violence, brevity, psychological tension, and humor." - William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978)  
     
  "I think in America I'm looked upon as the equivalent of a European director -- which is quite laughable. I've never had a personal publicity man working for me. So all this came out of the blue -- all this publicity. The cult was not engineered. It festered, in a sense. And erupted. And it did me a lot of good." - Don Siegel  
     
 
 
 
 
 

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Last updated: 28/01/2010 10:35 AM.  Contact Us: bill@theyshootpictures.com.
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