Bill Forsyth

The Scottish director who failed to salvage Burt Reynolds’ career

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The biggest danger to Burt Reynolds‘ career was always Burt Reynolds, with the actor developing an unfortunate habit of shooting himself in the foot.

There are only so many times an established star can turn down a game-changing role before they’re no longer an established star, and by the time Reynolds reached the end of the 1980s, his unbroken five-year stint as the biggest box office draw in American cinema seemed like a distant memory,

To be honest, he didn’t really have anyone to blame but himself. He should have continued striking when the iron was at its hottest, but instead, he kept knocking back parts in acclaimed, awards-worthy, or crowd-pleasing smash hits in favour of making rubbish action flicks, thrillers, and comedies, which gradually saw him slide down the Hollywood ladder and into irrelevance.

After all, you can’t turn down Die Hard, Pretty Woman, Jack Nicholson’s Academy Award-winning gig in Terms of Endearment, James fucking Bond, and Star Wars‘ Han Solo, go on to make Stroker Ace, Stick, Malone, Rent-a-Cop, and Striptease, and expect that everything will turn out alright in the long run.

Even Paul Thomas Anderson failed to drag Reynolds back to mainstream prominence, with his career-best and Oscar-nominated outing in Boogie Nights leading to absolutely nothing, with the veteran quickly falling back into the habit of knocking out B-grade genre fare, and he even turned down a reunion in Magnolia because he hated the director so much.

However, there was a brief silver lining, which was more of a false dawn than anything else. In 1989, Reynolds deliberately shed his marquee leading man baggage for the first time to play a character part, accepting top billing in Scottish director Bill Forsyth’s Breaking In, albeit only after Nicholson and Paul Newman had passed.

Acting his age for once, the 1989 crime caper saw him playing an aging burglar with eyes on retirement, but only after he pulls off the fabled ‘one last job’. When he does, he accidentally discovers a protégé instead, with the unlikely duo forging a bond that finds the old-timer teaching the newcomer the tricks of the trade.

“No, it wasn’t a risk,” Gregory’s Girl director Forsyth told Film Talk of hiring Reynolds. “He had played the same roles successfully in those big movies for more than 15 years. There’s a certain point in your life as an actor when you are becoming older. Time is telling on you, so you can’t play the same action comedy roles, and also, you’re maturing. For him, it was time out after playing the endless Burt Reynolds type of roles.”

Admittedly, Breaking In was a flop, but it was nonetheless the star’s best-reviewed film since Semi-Tough, which was released 12 years previously. It was also his best performance in just as long, if not longer, and should have opened the door to a new era as a character man. What were his next headline roles? The woeful comedy Modern Love and the awful Cop and a Half, so not a single lesson was learned.

Source: The Scottish director who failed to salvage Burt Reynolds’ career

The Scottish movie Martin Scorsese called “special”

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Martin Scorsese once spoke of a Bill Forsyth movie, a 1980 Scottish coming-of-age tale, that he called “special”. The film stars John Gordon Sinclair

There are few names in the forever-turning world of cinema quite like the one Martin Scorsese. Eternally entwined with the medium of film itself, Scorsese has woven himself into the fabric of the movies’ long and rich history, establishing himself as one of its finest and most memorable auteurs.

Ever since the New York City filmmaker burst onto the scene in the early 1970s with Mean Streets, it has been clear that Scorsese possesses a talent that so many of his contemporaries could ever dream of. Delivering masterpiece after masterpiece with the likes of Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino and The Wolf of Wall Street, the champion of American cinema has proven that he has a special eye for film and an unrivalled talent that has ensured his legacy will remain unscathed.

Scorsese has frequently offered his opinions and reviews on all four corners of the cinematic world, from blockbuster mega-hits to the weird and wonderful pieces of film that no one’s ever heard of. The director’s knowledge of the history of cinema never fails to impress, and he once spoke glowingly of a 1980 Scottish coming-of-age film by Bill Forsyth.

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Review: Newly restored “Gregory’s Girl”

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Out on blu-ray for the first time thanks to a BFI restoration, Bill Forsyth’s Gregory’s Girl has a golden reputation; a key film in Scottish and UK cinematic history, it’s also an indie darling that’s still talked about and quoted today. But in 2023, it’s also a problematic film that’s of it’s time and needs a little unpacking. It’s a tale of a lovelorn Cumbernauld teenager named Gregory (John Gordon Sinclair) who loses his place in the school football team to Dorothy (Dee Hepburn). He fancies her, of course, but life has other plans for Gregory.

Gregory’s Girl was made back in 1980, and bridged the gap between Forsyth’s debut, the enduringly pawky That Sinking Feeling about a Glasgow sink heist, and his best film, the accomplished Local Hero. Gregory’s Girl does a good job of getting inside the head of a young West of Scotland male; perhaps too well at times. We start with a group of boys spying on a nurse’s changing room at a local hospital; using binoculars, they watch a girl undress, and we share the view. There’s nothing wrong with the human body, but enforced voyeurism isn’t such a great look, and scenes like this aren’t subtext, they’re the text.

Similarly, it’s seen as a great gag that when Dorothy scores a goal at football, not only do her own players land congratulatory kisses on her, but the opposition do as well. In the light of the on-going Spanish football scandal, with a male official resigning for doing the same to a female player, it’s a joke doesn’t play so well today. And while the badinage in the school staffroom is well caught, particularly Chic Murray’s brief but iconic turn as a CGAF headmaster, there’s also a suggestion about a potential paedophile teacher that’s also treated like just another what-are-men-like? joke.

1980 was a year awash with crude, sexist comedies, and despite the issues listed above, Gregory’s Girl is more wholesome and honest than any leering Porky’s could aspire to. There’s a cheerful, summry attitude to life, with compassion for Gregory’s predicament, and some faith put in the women who collectively act together to release him from his self-appointed dwam. For all it’s flaws to the modern mind, Gregory’s Girl is a remarkably wholesome film; the bigger picture is that it sees beyond a limited male POV and evokes a wider, humanist picture of life, and that’s why it struck a chord with audiences worldwide.

At over four decades old, Gregory’s Girl is still a classic, well worth reviving and looking better than ever before in HD; you can practically smell the fresh cut crass as Gregory strolls around Cumbernauld in the evening. If Forsyth’s examination of sexism requires a few trigger warnings today, then fine; it’s a film of a specific moment. But Gregory himself is not a thug, a Neanderthal or a sexist, but a young, growing boy afflicted by chronic self-consciousness, and his lessons learned in growing up are ones that many young Scottish males are still struggling to come to terms with.

Gregory’s Girl is out on blu-ray from Sept 11th 2023. Thanks to BFI for access. 

Source: Gregory’s Girl