“I don’t like it”: the movie Howard Hawk wasn’t proud of
There’s something intoxicating about the ‘Golden Age’ of Hollywood. Perhaps it is the rose-tinted hue of nostalgia that leaves us longing for a time when cigarette smoke would fill the mammoth studios, and canvas backdrops would be crafted to represent every corner of the universe. There are many stars of the silver screen who have come to represent such an era of creative and commercial acceleration, but Howard Hawks likely surpasses them all.
A maverick filmmaker whose creativity was only surpassed by his versatility. A landmark character in the ‘Golden Age’ of Hollywood, under the watchful eye of Hawks, classic capers like Bringing Up Baby, the brutish boisterousness of Red River and the game-changing grit of The Big Sleep all came to the cinemas of the world and noted themselves as defining moments in the growing history of cinema.
It was in this chameleonic talent for transcending genre that the director truly found his niche. While Hollywood continued to grow, directors found themselves easily pigeonholed, claiming to be the best in one area or another. However, Hawks was able to adapt his inimitable style to all sorts of different pictures, making him a perfect filmmaker for any studio. Coupling this with his ability to handle some of the era’s biggest stars, counting John Wayne, Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart as collaborators, Hawks was like no other.
But, like any true artist, he wasn’t always happy with what he produced. Though the studios rarely complained and box office sales were usually good, Hawks was a tough man to please. Red Line 7000 was one such movie which eternally disappointed the filmmaker.
When speaking with the BFI in 1971, Hawks was damning in his verdict of the picture, which put the high-octane action of stock car racing onto the big screen. The 1965 movie has been considered an underrated gem by many, but certainly not Hawks: “I don’t like it. I was trying to do something, I tried an experiment.”
The push to make such a movie came from Hawks’ own experience with racing. The thrill of the action was enough to convince him that a film could be made about the circuit: “I had three good stories about the race track – I used to race, I know it pretty well – but none of them would make a picture, so I thought maybe I can put them together. And just when I got people interested in two people, I cut over and started to work with two more, and when the audience got interested in them, I went over to two others.” While there is some degree of hyperbole being added by a creative who didn’t quite get their vision, the final verdict feels quite harsh: “Pretty soon the audience got disgusted, and I got disgusted too.”
Thankfully, Hawks wasn’t completely disparaging of the picture and certainly saw some elements that were not completely below expectation: “To be serious, I think there were some pretty good things in it, but as a piece of entertainment, I don’t think I did a good job. I think there were some individual scenes that were pretty good, and there were a lot of great race scenes. But I’m not proud of the picture as a whole.”
Considering Hawks’ wide range of movies, it was only a matter of average that one would fall short of his desired creative vision. It just so happened to be the one he cared most deeply about.
