Ted Kotcheff

Looking to Get Out: A Comparative Analysis of the Ted Kotcheff Vision

What do the movies First Blood and Weekend at Bernie's have in common? One man with a clear and curious thematic focus, that's what. Ted Kotcheff is an auteur filmmaker. He is a director with a unifying style, a clear thematic concern, and a coherent vision of life. This video essay defines these elements with an in-depth analysis of his filmography, which also includes Wake in Fright (1971), The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974), Fun with Dick and Jane (1976), North Dallas Forty (1979), and many others.

The Planters

Awkward telemarketer Martha Plant is down and out — sucking at her job and grieving her recently deceased parents. When she finds unlikely friendship in Sadie Mayflower, a bubbly vagrant with multiple personalities, Martha discovers having three friends in one may be more than she bargained for.

Erase and Forget

'Bo' Gritz is one of America's highest decorated Vietnam veterans and the real life inspiration behind Rambo. He also killed 400 people, turned against Washington and moved to the Nevada desert where he now sleeps with many weapons. Filmed over ten years using impressive visual material, Zimmerman's portrait of Bo embodies contemporary American society in all its dizzying complexity and contradictions.

Ted Kotcheff's Gourmet Cinema

Documentary interview the director Ted Kotcheff on his film 'Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?'

Barney's Version

The picaresque and touching story of the politically incorrect, fully lived life of the impulsive, irascible and fearlessly blunt Barney Panofsky.

Not Quite Hollywood

As Australian cinema broke through to international audiences in the 1970s through respected art house films like Peter Weir's "Picnic At Hanging Rock," a new underground of low-budget exploitation filmmakers were turning out considerably less highbrow fare. Documentary filmmaker Mark Hartley explores this unbridled era of sex and violence, complete with clips from some of the scene's most outrageous flicks and interviews with the renegade filmmakers themselves.

Segal

A documentary focusing on the life and career of actor George Segal.

Shattered Glass

The true story of fraudulent Washington, D.C. journalist Stephen Glass, who rose to meteoric heights as a young writer in his 20s, becoming a staff writer at The New Republic for three years. Looking for a short cut to fame, Glass concocted sources, quotes and even entire stories, but his deception did not go unnoticed forever, and eventually, his world came crumbling down.

Weekend at Bernie's

Two young insurance corporation employees try to pretend that their murdered employer is alive by puppeteering his dead body, leading a hitman to attempt to track him down to finish him off.