May 27, 2008, - 1:53 pm
Sydney Pollack: So-So Director Was Great in “Tootsie,” But Whitewashed Islam From Terror Plot Film
By Debbie Schlussel
The entire entertainment world is abuzz with news of the death of director/producer/actor Sydney Pollack at the age of 73 from cancer.
Frankly, he was a highly over-rated director. He did some good films, like “The Firm,” “Tootsie,” and “Three Days of the Condor,” and some okay films, like the highly-overrated, pan-Communist, “The Way We Were,” and the annoying, “Out of Africa.” But his real star turn was in front of the camera, in his co-starring role as Dustin Hoffman’s agent in “Tootsie,” in his best scene ever–below. And a lot of his movies were dreck, chick flick stock, and standard left-wing pap. I like the other Sidney–Sidney Lumet–far better.
In the dreck/left-wing pap category, foremost in my mind is “The Interpreter,” which Pollack executive produced and directed, and from which he whitewashed all references to Islam. As I wrote in my review of the movie, when it was originally written the script was about the plot of Arab Muslim terrorists to murder thte leader of their country at the U.N. But the whole thing was changed to Black Africans with AIDS who try to murder their leader (but, hey, no racism, right?) in order to not offend Muslims. The movie stank anyway, but stank far more with the stench of Pollack’s PC machinations.
Pollack’s last role was in the awful “Made of Honor,” currently in theaters. But like I said, his best role–his best scene–is the one above from “Tootsie.”
I never evan heard of him.
PrincessKaren on May 27, 2008 at 2:24 pm