The one movie Ron Howard “saw over and over again”
One of Hollywood’s most adored filmmakers, Ron Howard is a multi-faceted talent who joined the industry in the 1960s as an actor before turning his attention behind the camera in 1977 with his directorial debut, Grand Theft Auto. It wasn’t exactly a triumphant beginning but it certainly gave Howard a taste of what was possible. Years spent in the industry allowed him to realise that if he wanted his true vision on the screen, he needed to work behind the camera instead of in front of it.
So, he began his filmmaking career in earnest and began to not only more intently listen to those directors with whom he had fostered relationships but pay closer attention to the movies he saw. Steadily working his way into the industry, Howard would end up making some of the most beloved movies of the 1980s, including Splash with Tom Hanks and Willow with Warwick Davis.
Having initially earned his fame in such TV series as The Andy Griffith Show, The Smith Family and Happy Days, Howard’s turn to creating feature films was a little unexpected. Yet, decades later, Howard has earned two Academy Awards for his efforts, winning ‘Best Picture’ in 2002 for his drama A Beautiful Mind, starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris.
As for the movies that inspired him to become a filmmaker in the first place, Howard sat down with the Academy to discuss the five releases that spurred him on as a creative. Outlining a number of classic movies, including Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist and Miloš Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there was one other film that seemed more important for his professional development than any other.
“Bridge on the River Kwai is a movie that I literally studied and saw over and over again,” he told the publication in reference to David Lean’s 1957 war classic. The picture has gone down in history as one of the most pivotal of the war movie genre, and cemented Lean as one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation.
Continuing, he added: “The first couple of times, I didn’t realise it was based on actual events. And then, I learned that it was, and that impressed me.” To capture real-life events, but tell them in an engaging narrative across only a few hours was a marvellous feat. Howard went on: “I loved history, but I didn’t think about history as a jumping-off point for great drama and great performances. But the complexity and the paradoxes in the characters really stayed with me, and the fact that the movie was inspired by real events shaped my thinking about what true stories could offer audiences.”
Starring Alec Guinness, William Holden and Jack Hawkins, among others, the ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’ winner told the story of a group of British prisoners of war who are forced to build a bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors. Recognised as one of the greatest war movies of all time, the film was seminal in the careers of Lean, Guinness and cinematographer Jack Hildyard.
Continuing in his comments about the movie: “It took years and years for me to develop the courage to tackle a story based on true events. I was terrified. I felt like it would limit my creativity. I’d been working in the worlds of Cocoon and Splash and Willow, and I thought I’d be limited in the way the characters could behave and what they could really say and do. When I did Apollo 13, I wrote on my script: Just show it. That became my mantra. Tom Hanks had such confidence in the story, and he loved the space program and the organic drama around it, and I began to trust it.”
Howard would find untold success with Apollo 13. The movie, much like Bridge Over The River Kwai had for Lean, emblazoned his name across the Hollywood hills as one of the most beloved filmmakers of his age. While Howard has not necessarily always produced masterpieces, he learned from Lean how to tell a truly captivating story.
