Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel

Even while I truly enjoyed watching this documentary, I still felt somewhat disappointed by the end. Something was missing.

I often love watching dumb, low-budget B-movies, no matter how bad they are. It's sort of relaxing to watch and helps to make you forget all your sorrows for a short while. Besides, the thing about B-movies is that it keeps reminding you about it how complex and painstaking the movie making process actually is. With good and big budgeted movies you can't really see how the movie got made but with B-movies you notice every little detail. Every piece of bad dialog becomes more notable, editing, camera-positioning, storytelling, acting is often so simplistic and lacking that it makes you appreciate the art, passion and talent that often goes into making a movie. When it's done right, you hardly pay attention to it but when it's done poorly, you all suddenly start to realize this and appreciate and respect the movie making business all the more.

And Roger Corman is everywhere- and by everyone regarded as the king of B-movies. No wonder, since his movies are pretty much form the definition of a B-movie; cheap, simplistic and they got put together as fast as possible, even if there isn't a completely finished script to work with. And not only that, it is hard to find a film-maker with more movies behind his or her name. He has produced over 400 movies in the past 7 decades and directed over 50.

And this is a documentary about the film-maker Roger Corman and his methods of filmmaking and about his views on the industry. So don't expect an insightful documentary about the man behind the film-maker. In that regard this really isn't a documentary that goes deep into things but that doesn't mean that it also doesn't have plenty of different stuff to offer.

No doubt that you'll still learn a lot from this documentary and makes you realize what Corman has done for the industry and how his movies and his style of film-making have influenced the business and helped to give many film-makers a boost. Many people that normally wouldn't had been given a chance in the industry started out their careers with Corman's movies. I'm not just talking about actors but also lots of people involved with the work behind the cameras. Many of them actually grew out to become big names in the industry as well, such as James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante, Ron Howard, Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, Dennis Hopper, Talia Shire, Sandra Bullock, Robert De Niro, David Carradine and William Shatner. Some of them participate in this documentary as well, which makes you realize all the more what Corman and his movies must have meant for them.

The whole documentary is presented as a light and fun one to watch. It never gets too serious and when it does, there is something to laugh about 5 seconds later again. This ensures that the entire documentary remains pleasant to watch but I surely wouldn't had minded some more depth and also some more focus on the negative aspects at times. You feel that this movie is mostly being a tribute to Corman and his work, over the many decades.

Perhaps the documentary would had featured some more depth and feeling to it if it was about 30 minutes longer. Normally a documentary of movie can feel to long but in this case it could had truly benefited from a longer running time. I don't have the feeling that this documentary told the entire story and especially the ending, when Corman receives an honorary academy award feels very rushed, as if it got put into the documentary at the very last moment.

It's still good and fun to watch, especially when you are a Roger Corman enthusiast but it's lacking a bit of depth and substance at time.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

True Roger Corman was well before my generation and time of film viewing yet over the years I've read enough about him and watched some of the early Jack Nicholson(my favorite actor) classics to know that Corman is a Hollywood cinema legend. His films were cheap, different and off beat clearly Roger Corman did it his way. From three headed monsters, and cult challenging films of teen rebellion clearly one could say that Roger started a cultural movement. And this documentary "Corman's World:Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel" is a historical and educational look at the life and work of still one living Hollywood legend.

This informative picture shows how that cheap filmmaking and hard quick work would lead Roger to make over 100 films by the year 1967 his films always low budget and cult hits would later help him start his own company New World Pictures. His independent streak was so strong he eventually branched out to drive in raw exploitation female films of the mid 1970's. Most memorable is his start when he meet Jack Nicholson in an acting class and Jack would later become a star after appearing in many of Roger's works. It's nice seeing the interviews on this documentary ranging from legends like Peter Bogdanovich, Joe Dante, Jonathan Demme, Bruce Dern, Peter Fonda, Ron Howard, Eli Roth, Quentin Tarantino, and most of all it's nice to hear the words from Jack in fact Nicholson even gets emotional when speaking about his good friend Roger. It's hard seeing Jack choked up and emotional. Still Corman still works today even though in his 80's he's not slowing down, yet as the film mentioned the births of films like "Star Wars" and "Jaws" made it even more tougher for independent film to have success, but still the underground circuit produces.

Overall well worth a view as this long over due culture legend icon is now getting the respect he deserves this documentary is informative and educational a tribute to one man named Roger Corman who clearly did it his way.

Hail! Hail! King of the B's

Cannes favourite 'Corman's World' is a heart-warming portrait of one of the true greats of American independent cinema, the champion of outlaws, freaks and fools and the master of the macabre. All the more touching as numerous interviews and testimonies paint a picture of a curious man indeed: not a dark twisted soul but a warm and genteel man with a wonderfully warped and fertile imagination.

What's more astonishing is the dazzlingly array of aspiring filmmakers and actors he mentored during the 60's and 70's. Reading like a Who's Who's of the golden age of the American auteur, Peter Bogdanovich, Peter Fonda, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, Robert De Niro and David Carradine, amongst many others, all pay tribute here, including a tearful Jack Nicholson.

Beginning in the 50's as a story analyst at 20th Century Fox, Corman moved into writing, eventually selling scripts to fund his own productions for the burgeoning American Independent Pictures. His debut 'Monster From the Ocean Floor' in 1954 was the start of a prolific production output, with increasing forays into directing, notably 'Little Shop of Horrors' shot in only 2 days!

Corman really made his mark in the 60's. A series of classic Edgar Allan Poe adaptations featuring the splendidly cast Vincent Price define his legacy but the maverick Corman was often making use of down time and vacant sets to pursue other projects during this period. Most notable was the 1963 piece of Gothic absurd-ism, 'The Terror', using sets from 'The Raven'. Proceeding with barely plot, nor script, a shoe string cast including Nicholson and an ageing Boris Karloff, the disparate visions of four different directors contributed to this chaotic opus, including a young Francis Ford Coppola and even Nicholson, who recalls this curious episode.

The 60's also saw critical acclaim for Corman, tackling themes such as racism in the segregated south in 'The Intruder' and counter culture movements in the 'The Wild Angels' and 'The Trip' but the 70's heralded changes for Corman and he looks back on this era with a hint of melancholy. With the release of 'Jaws' and then 'Star Wars' the big studios finally caught up with the B's. Schlock horror from the deep and invaders from space were now big budget and Corman was once more an outsider and destined for the straight-to-video market in the coming decade but before taking a back seat, Corman's masterstroke was to spot the black comedy of the rubber shark and raise the stakes with 'Piranha' in 1978.

The denouement sees Corman still active today, well into his eighties, on the set of the self-explanatory gore-fest 'Dinoshark'. His output has barely abated since the 70's but he takes an increasingly hands-off executive role these days. He remains ever philosophical, contented and visibly touched by the receipt of an honorary Academy Award in 2009. His calm and collected bizarre genius is deeply uplifting and I'd recommend anyone take a trip into Corman's World.

Believe it or not... I have watched the documentary feature on life and works of this man with smiles and tears throughout. Smiles at my realization how crazily, madly, and fiercely independent Mr. Roger Corman has proudly been and how fascinating his ups and downs in his film life must have been. The man's integrity and strength deserve admiration at all levels. It can never be easy to go against an establishment for decades and to remain self-fulfilled, commercially successful, and happily married. Worse, the very establishment or Hollywood itself has to succumb when it unanimously gives him an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. Tears at a life of man denied his rightful place for a very, very long time. He gives birth to the likes of Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Jonathan Demme, Jack Nicholson, and the almost endless list of names in the 285 films he makes, and yet the father has been treated almost as an embarrassment by the children because most of his works are of exploiting nature. I find it greatly unfair and very sad. It is true that Mr. Corman himself may never have craved for meaningless glory and praises, but can't we be a little stronger and award courage and human free spirits as opposed to those bricks in the wall? I think it is appropriate for Jack Nicholson to cry during the interview because, I believe, of such hard truth. In fact, this film shows several people who look back and rediscover, after all, their deep love and gratitude to Roger Corman. It is amusing to see many of these film celebrities cracking, smilingly while doing it, at a mere mention of Mr. Corman's name, as if they feel slightly ashamed of failing early on to realize his genuine values, personal goodness and morality code, and the real contribution of him to their very lives. They almost think of him now as a father whom they disgust, ridicule, and make fun of in their previous lives. Now they know all too well from whom they obtain their secrets of success. Roger Corman is a wonderful subject matter of this wonderful, and unpretentious, film about a man who is strictly his own among the devious crowd.

A documentary on DIY producer/director Roger Corman and his alternative approach to making movies in Hollywood.

As a fan of horror, science fiction and cult films, the name Roger Corman is legendary in my home. I have watched and reviewed countless of his works, and interviewed more than a handful of his colleagues. To say he is the biggest influence in the history of modern cinema is an exaggeration, but not by much.

What I found most interesting about this documentary was that it covered so much that I did not know. I was aware of Corman's connection to Scorsese, Nicholson and Demme. I knew about James Cameron (who is practically ignored here for some reason). But I did not know about Shatner and "Intruder"... and indirectly the "Twilight Zone"?

This is a must-see for all fans of horror, science fiction, and film history in general.