Sir Alan William ParkerCBE (14 February 1944 – 31 July 2020) was an English film director, screenwriter and producer. His early career, beginning in his late teens, was spent as a copywriter and director of television advertisements. After about ten years of filming adverts, many of which won awards for creativity, he began screenwriting and directing films.
Parker was born on 14 February 1944[4] into a working-class family inIslington,North London, the son of Elsie Ellen, a dressmaker, and William Leslie Parker, a house painter.[5] He grew up on acouncil estate in Islington, which always made it easy for him to remain "almost defiantly working-class in attitudes" said the British novelist and screenwriterRay Connolly. Parker said that although he had his share of fun growing up, he always felt he was studying for his secondary school exams, while his friends were out having a good time.[6] He had an "ordinary background" with no aspirations to become a film director, nor did anyone in his family have any desire to be involved in the film industry. The closest he ever came, he said, to anything related to films was learning photography, a hobby inspired by his uncles: "... that early introduction to photography is something I remember."[7]
Parker attendedDame Alice Owen's School, concentrating on science in his last year. He left school when he was 18 to work in the advertising field, hoping that the advertising industry might be a good way to meet girls.[6]
Parker's first job was office boy in the post room ofOgilvy & Mather an advertising agency in London.[8] But more than anything, he said, he wanted to write, and would write essays and ads when he got home after work.[7] His colleagues also encouraged him to write, which soon led him to a position as a copywriter in the company. Parker took jobs with different agencies over the next few years, having by then become proficient as a copywriter. One such agency wasCollett Dickenson Pearce in London, where he first met the future producersDavid Puttnam andAlan Marshall, both of whom would later produce many of his films. Parker credited Puttnam with inspiring him and talking him into writing his first film script,Melody (1971).[6]
By 1968, Parker had moved from copywriting to successfully directing numerous television advertisements. In 1970, he joined Marshall to establish a company to make advertisements. That company eventually became one of Britain's best commercial production houses, winning nearly every major national and international award open to it.[9] Among their award-winning adverts were the UKCinzanovermouth advertisement (starringJoan Collins andLeonard Rossiter), and aHeineken advert which used 100 actors.[10] Parker credited his years writing and directing adverts for his later success as a film director:
Looking back, I came from a generation of filmmakers who couldn't have really started anywhere but commercials, because we had no film industry in the United Kingdom at the time. People likeRidley Scott,Tony Scott,Adrian Lyne,Hugh Hudson, and myself. So commercials proved to be incredibly important.[7]
After writing the screenplay for theWaris Hussein filmMelody in 1971, Parker shot his first fictional film titledNo Hard Feelings in 1972,[11] for which he wrote the script. The film is a bleak love story set againstthe Blitz in London during the Second World War, when theLuftwaffe bombed the city for 57 consecutive nights.[12] Parker was born during one of those bombing raids, and said "the baby in that [film] could well have been me".[9] With no feature film directing experience, he could not find financial backing, and decided to risk using his own money and funds from mortgaging his house to cover the cost.[9] The film impressed the BBC, which bought the film and showed it on television a few years later in 1976. The BBC producerMark Shivas had, in the interim, also contracted Parker to directThe Evacuees (1975), a Second World War story written byJack Rosenthal which was shown as aPlay for Today. The work was based on true events which involved the evacuation of school children from centralManchester.[13]The Evacuees won aBAFTA for best TV drama and also an Emmy for best International Drama.[14]
Parker next wrote and directed his first feature film,Bugsy Malone (1976), a parody of early American gangster films and American musicals, but with only child actors. Parker's desire in making the film was to entertain both children and adults with a unique concept and style of film:
I'd worked a lot with kids and I had four very young children of my own at the time. When you do have young children like that you're very sensitive to the kind of materials that's available for them ... The only kind of movies they could see were Walt Disney movies ... I thought it would be nice to make a movie that would be good for the kids, and also the adults that had to take them. So to be absolutely honest,Bugsy Malone was a pragmatic exercise to break into American film.[15]
The film received eight British Academy Award nominations and five Awards, including two BAFTAs forJodie Foster.[16]
Parker next directedMidnight Express (1978), based on a true account byBilly Hayes about his incarceration and escape from aTurkish prison for trying to smugglehashish out of the country. Parker made the film in order to do something radically different fromBugsy Malone, which would broaden his style of filmmaking.[15] The script was written byOliver Stone in his first screenplay, and won Stone his firstAcademy Award. The music was composed byGiorgio Moroder, who was also awarded his first Oscar for the film.Midnight Express established Parker as a "front rank director", as both he and the film were Oscar nominated. The success of that film also gave him the freedom from then on to direct films of his own choosing.[17]
Parker then directedFame (1980), which follows the lives of eight students through their years at the New York City'sHigh School of Performing Arts. It was a huge box-office success and led to a television spin-off series of the same name. Parker stated that after doing a serious drama likeMidnight Express, he wanted to do a film with music, but very different from typical musicals of the past.[15] Having already doneBugsy Malone, he felt confident that he knew how to go about creating a musical where the songs emerge from real situations.[7]
ActressIrene Cara recalled that "the nice thing about the way Alan works with everyone is that he allowed us to really feel like classmates."[7] However, Parker was refused permission to use the actual school portrayed in the film because of the foul language in the screenplay.[7]
Parker's next film wasShoot the Moon (1982), the story of a marital break-up that takes place in Northern California. Parker calls it "the first grown-up film that I'd done".[15] He again chose to direct a subject distinctly different from his previous film, explaining, "I really try to do different work. I think that by doing different work each time, it keeps you creatively fresher."[7] He described the theme of the film being about "two people who can't live together but who also can't let go of one another. A story of fading love, senseless rage, and the inevitable bewildering betrayal in the eyes of the children."[18] Its stars,Albert Finney andDiane Keaton, received Golden Globe nominations for their performances.[19]
The film also had a personal significance for Parker, who said he was forced to examine his own marriage: "It was a painful film to make for me because there were echoes of my own life in it. It was about a breakup of a marriage, and the children in the story were quite close to my own children in age.Shoot the Moon was very, very close to my own life."[7] He spent days with the writerBo Goldman on developing a realistic story, and states that his marriage became "infinitely stronger" as a result of the film.[9]
Also in 1982 Parker directed afilm version of thePink Floyd conceptualrock opera,The Wall, which starredBoomtown Rats frontmanBob Geldof as the fictive rocker "Pink".[20] Parker later described the filming as "one of the most miserable experiences of my creative life."[21] Though not a major box office success, receiving lukewarm reviews from critics, the film has since become a cult classic amongst Pink Floyd fans.
Parker directedBirdy (1984), starringMatthew Modine andNicolas Cage. It recounts the story of two school friends who have returned from theVietnam War but who were both psychologically and physically injured. Parker called it a "wonderful story" after having read the book byWilliam Wharton. However, because of the nature of the story, he had no idea how to make it into a movie: "I didn't know if you could take the poetry of the book and make it cinematic poetry, or if an audience would actually want it."[15]
The film became a critical success.Richard Schickel says that Parker had "transcended realism ... [and] achieved his personal best", whileDerek Malcolm considersBirdy to be Parker's "most mature and perhaps his best movie".[9] The message of the film, writes critic Quentin Falk, is "joyously life-affirming", which he notes is common to much of Parker's work. He adds that Parker's films manage to achieve a blend of "strong story and elegant frame", a style which he says typically eludes other directors who rely too much on the purely visual.[22]
Continuing to explore different genres, Parker made a film that bridged horror and thriller territory,Angel Heart (1987), starringMickey Rourke,Lisa Bonet, andRobert De Niro. He later wrote that he was fascinated by its "fusion of two genres: the noir,Chandleresque detective novel and the supernatural."[23] The film was a disappointment at the box office, and received mixed reviews at the time, but has since become a cult classic.[24]
WithMississippi Burning (1988), Parker received his second Oscar nomination for Best Director. The film is based on a true story about the murders of threecivil rights workers in 1964, and starsGene Hackman andWillem Dafoe. Hackman was nominated for Best Actor, while the film was nominated for five other Oscars, including Best Picture. It won forBest Cinematography.[25]
Despite commercial success,Mississippi Burning received considerable criticism for centering three white characters in a story about the civil rights movement.[26] Parker later wrote, "Certainly, the two protagonists ofMississippi Burning are white. At that time the film would never have been made if they weren't."[27] He tried to address this in his next movie,Come See the Paradise (1990), about theinternment of Japanese-Americans duringWorld War II. Before and after making the film, he sought input from the community, agreeing to cast Japanese-American actressTamlyn Tomita in the lead instead of a Chinese-American actress. However, the film ultimately faced similar criticism toMississippi Burning, for focusing on a white character played byDennis Quaid. As one woman who was born in theGila River internment camp told theRafu Shimpo newspaper, "My parents saw the movie and they said the camp scenes were authentic. It was interesting for me. I liked it." However, she added, "I would've preferred to see a Japanese actor in the role of Dennis Quaid."[28]
In 1991 Parker directedThe Commitments, a comedy about working classDubliners who form a soul band. The film was an international success and led to a successful soundtrack album. To find a cast Parker visited most of the estimated 1,200 different bands then playing throughout Dublin. He met with over 3,000 different band members. Rather than pick known actors, Parker says he chose young musicians, most of whom had no acting experience, in order to remain "truthful to the story".[29] "I cast everybody to be very close to the character that they play in the film. They're not really playing outside of who they are as people."[7] Parker says he wanted to make the film because he could relate to the hardships in the lives of young Dubliners, having come from a similar working-class background in north London.[29]
Film criticDavid Thomson observes that withThe Commitments, Parker "showed an unusual fondness for people, place, and music. It was as close as Parker has come to optimism."[30] Parker said that it was the "most enjoyable" time he had making a film, to the extent that he would have been glad he made it even if it had ended up being terrible.[7]
Parker's next film wasThe Road to Wellville, an adaptation ofT. C. Boyle's novel aboutDr. John Harvey Kellogg, the eccentric inventor ofcorn flakes (played byAnthony Hopkins). The film proved unsuccessful with both audiences and critics.[31] However, novelist Boyle was pleased with the adaptation, calling it "daring, experimental, ballsy – it's something new for Christ's sake, new!… and killingly funny."[32]
Parker's next film wasAngela's Ashes (1999), a drama based on the real-life experiences of the Irish-American teacherFrank McCourt and his childhood. His family was forced to move from the United States back to Ireland because of financial difficulties, which led to the family's problems caused by his father's alcoholism.[35]
Colm Meaney, who acted inThe Commitments, noticed the dramatic shift in theme and style of Parker's films. He said "It's the variety of his work that sort of staggers me. He can go fromEvita toAngela's Ashes. When Alan starts a project, it's going to be something very interesting and completely out of left field."[7] Parker explained that "To do a film likeAngela's Ashes, I suppose, was my reaction against a big film likeEvita."[7] He said that he tried to avoid the "obvious movies",[7] and "You want the film to stay with people afterwards ... It just seems to me that the greatest crime is to make just another movie."[15] Parker said it is important to carefully choose which films to write and direct:
My mentor was the great director,Fred Zinnemann, whom I used to show all my films to until he died. He said something to me that I always try to keep in my head every time I decide on what film to do next. He told me that making a film was a great privilege, and you should never waste it.[7]
Therefore, when Parker visited film schools and spoke to young filmmakers, he told them that the new film technology available for making films and telling a story is less important than conveying a message: "If you haven't got something to say, I don't think you should be a filmmaker".[36]
British film criticGeoff Andrew described Parker as a "natural storyteller" who got his message across using "dramatic lighting, vivid characterisation, scenes of violent conflict regularly interrupting sequences of expository dialogue, and an abiding sympathy for the underdog (he is a born liberal with a keen sense of injustice)".[37]
Parker produced and directedThe Life of David Gale (2003), a crime thriller about an advocate for the abolition ofcapital punishment who finds himself ondeath row after having been convicted of murdering a fellow activist. The film received generally poor reviews.
Parker was married twice; first to Annie Inglis from 1966 until theirdivorce in 1992, and then to producer Lisa Moran, to whom he was married until his death.[38][39] He had five children, including screenwriterNathan Parker.[38]
Parker died in London on 31 July 2020 at age 76, following a lengthy illness.[38][40]
TheBritish Film Institute (BFI) produced a tribute to Parker in September and October 2015 with an event titled "Focus on Sir Alan Parker" which included multiple screenings of his films and an on-stage interview of Parker by producerDavid Puttnam. The event coincided and marked the donation his entire working archive to the BFI National Archive.[44][45]
^Hishak, Thomas (2008).The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film and Television. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 229.ISBN978-0-19-533533-0.
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