The other day my wife and I were watching the SyFy reality show, Face-Off (which if you haven't seen and enjoy knowing how movie monster magic is made, it's a really great show). On Face-Off, writer-director-smodcaster Kevin Smith was brought in as a celebrity judge, because of his knowledge of superheroes. At that moment I thought, "Is Kevin Smith our generation's Orson Welles?"
To show you how I got to this conclusion, I guess I have to give both of them a bit of history. Orson Welles was a stage actor turned radio personality that directed what is arguably the go-to film representing masterpiece cinema, Citizen Kane. Released in 1941, Citizen Kane is a black and white film that was co-written by Welles and Herman Mankiewicz. Welles directed the film and starred in it with other actors from his Mercury Theater players. The movie today is seen as a masterpiece in storytelling and cinematography. At the time though, it was a box office flop and it took years before it became the beloved and often spoofed film it is today. After Kane, Welles directed the Magnificent Ambersons. Upon completion, RKO Pictures, the studio that released Kane and Ambersons, felt Magnificent Ambersons was too long and they weren't happy with the downer of an ending. Welles was out of the country when he was notified that the studio would like to make changes. He didn't want to both with it, so the studio made the changes themselves without Welles' approval. To this day, the general public has yet to see Welles' original cut of the film and they probably never will. Welles continued to make films, but sometimes they were never finished or no one cared to see them. He had acted in the film The Third Man, with his Mercury Theater co-star, Joseph Cotten. The film had critical success, but nothing for Orson Welles, who was found as being difficult on the set. In 1958, Welles directed himself as a supporting actor to Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh in Touch of Evil. Welles gained weight, supposedly for the role, playing a corrupt Police detective. Again, the film was recut after Welles finished it without his approval. He wrote a memo to the executives saying how he would have cut the film and decades later, Universal studio unearthed the film and recut it to Welles' specifications in the memo. Welles continued directing, but nothing ever got the acclaim as Citizen Kane. Instead, Welles acted more, did voice acting for movie trailers and commercials and became a television personality and talk shows like the Tonight Show and the Dean Martin Comedy Hour. His second to last feature film credit was as the voice of Unicron in the classic animated film Transformers the Movie.
Ok, ok, so after that history you're probably saying to yourself "yeah, so how is he like Kevin Smith?" Kevin Smith directed a small independent comedy, Clerks, in 1994. It may not be considered a masterpiece like Welles' Citizen Kane, but it did change the way of independent movie making. Suddenly film students wanted to make movies about people dealing with their everyday life, talking about pop culture. From the mid-90's to early 2000's there's a slew of these films. One reason is because there were so many people that wanted to make them and the other reason is because they were so inexpensive, the movie studios were willing to pay for them. If the returns weren't at the box office, the studios would get their money back in video rentals/sales. Clerks also was the beginning of the View Askewniverse. Like Welles, Smith would use a cast of actors over and over again, but he would also write characters, like Jay and Silent Bob, to make appearances in many of the films. After Clerks, Kevin Smith was asked to direct a film at Universal Studios. Mallrats was made and released in 1995 and Smith was given a budget of $6,000,000, 25 times the budget he had for Clerks. Mallrats was released with not much acclaim and poor critical reception. The film only made $2,000,000 at the box office, a million less than what Clerks had made. Smith decided to go back to making smaller films at Miramax, the studio that released Clerks. While Mallrats was finally finding an audience on video and becoming a cult favorite, Smith directed the film Chasing Amy with a budget of $250,000, roughly the same amount he made Clerks for. Chasing Amy was a huge financial and critical success. With Miramax's money and blessing, Smith continued making films that meant something to him. Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back both were financial successes... and then came Bennifer... er, I mean Jersey Girl. Smith hired his favorite star, Ben Affleck, the play the role of a widower dealing with being a single dad. He also hired Jennifer Lopez, whom Affleck was dating, to play the role of Affleck's dead wife. This film came right after the Affleck/Lopez disaster Gigli and also the press talking about the couple non-stop. The film ended up being a dud (even though in my honest opinion, I find it entertaining and probably Smith's most mature film to date). Smith took this flop to heart, and never really made another personal film again. Clerks 2 came next, which was modestly successful, and then Zack and Miri Make a Porno, again modestly successful. In between all of these directing ventures, Smith was acting more and not just as Silent Bob. He started doing voice overs and even acting in the fourth installment of Die Hard. Ultimately he was playing a version of himself, but it was a very entertaining part. Smith next directed Willis in Cop Out (originally having the much better title A Couple of Dicks before the MPAA said nay nay). This was the first film that Smith directed, but did not write and I think Smith expected this to be finally his big break into a major studio production. The movie was a modest critical and financial success, and I don't think that was good enough for Mr. Smith. His next film was a much smaller thriller, Red State, which never made it's modest budget back. At this point, Smith said he was retiring from directing and focus on his podcast empire that he created with his longtime producing partner, Scott Mosier. The podcasts have become quite a success and have even started producing original content for Hulu. What's interesting about the podcasts, is that Kevin Smith is almost working in reverse from Orson Welles. Welles started as a theater and radio actor before moving onto film. While Kevin Smith started in film and is now working in podcasts, which in essence is a version of radio. Kevin Smith is also becoming more of a personality on the web and on TV. Judging on a reality show and even having a recurring bit on the Tonight Show. Now I'm just hoping that Kevin Smith makes a War of the World type podcast that puts the nation into a tizzy and one day to see Smith starring on Broadway as MacBeth... someday.... someday....
(This post was really long winded, I feel like I will have a bit more focus next time.)
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