“A moment of revelation”: the musician Ron Howard compared to Frank Sinatra
If anyone was tasked to name an Academy Award-winning director who also carved out a side-line in documentaries, then Martin Scorsese would probably be the first that comes to mind. However, Ron Howard has become increasingly prolific in that regard, and every bit as versatilie.
With 29 features under his belt since debuting under the wing of Roger Corman on 1977’s Grand Theft Auto, the former child star and Happy Days favourite has kept himself continually busy. He may not be regarded as an auteur on the same level as many of his contemporaries, but the fact he’s the 11th highest-grossing director in history indicates that he’s very good at his job.
It wasn’t until two decades into his filmmaking career that Howard even dipped his toes into documentarian waters, and when he did, it was as a producer-only on 1999’s professional wrestling doc Beyond the Mat. It would be over ten years later that he eventually directed one of his own, but he opted to start at the top.
2013’s Made in America focuses on not only the festival of the same name created and curated by Jay-Z, but what the festival represents for those involved, and how the the music mogul relates to and identifies with the various artists who performed, which in its first year included Pearl Jam, Skrillex, Janelle Monáe, and Run-DMC.
Even though he’d never helmed a documentary before and Jay-Z isn’t the first person anybody expected the erstwhile Richie Cunningham to focus on when he did it, Howard explained to The Telegraph that he wasn’t interested in making the film about the music and nothing else. As an Oscar winner with vast experience, he fit the bill nicely.
“Jay-Z was interested in promoting the idea of rigid genres disappearing in popular culture,” Howard offered. “He said to me, ‘You make all kinds of movies, tell all kinds of stories, and maybe you can find an interesting story here.'” There isn’t a whole lot the rapper and ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes’ have in common, but the filmmaker was nonetheless hit with a realisation that led him to compare Jay-Z to Frank Sinatra.
Admittedly, the two couldn’t be more different as a billionaire with a multimedia empire and a crooner, award-winning actor, and member of the Rat Pack, but Howard found the similarities in the way they carried such wide-ranging appeal with a huge audience covering almost every demographic and age group.
“I really understood why Jay-Z was great when I photographed him, it reminded me of a moment of revelation I had many years ago,” he continued. “I went with a friend to see Frank Sinatra in Las Vegas, in the last year that he was performing. He wasn’t necessarily on top form, but the way he could connect with an audience and the way he communicated through the lyrics was something I hadn’t ever really seen before.”
Jay-Z and Sinatra don’t become part of the same conversation very often, but it inspired Howard enough to agree on Made in America becoming his maiden feature-length documentary.
