They rose like a pair of phoenixes to create the highly successful Weinstein Company and have gotten a lot of Oscars (in fact, the Oscars were permanently moved forward to February mainly due to the company’s aggressive Oscar campaigns, which the Academy hoped to shorten). Miramax was, sadly, absorbed by Disney and the brothers eventually ousted. Pulp might have found a home at another company but, even then, Miramax attracted good people and that helped a little known film maker (at the time) to make something that looked and felt most professional. Harvey Weinstein had believed in Pulp Fiction from the get-go, supporting it all the way, including keeping it out in theaters with heavy promotion until it hit the $100 million dollar mark, something more commercial films did frequently (though it was a first for Miramax). Without many of the things mainstream Hollywood deemed essential to box office success, Miramax and other indie producers had to offer quality and creativity in order to get somewhere. Though Miramax films never looked cheap (and advances in technology allowed even lower budget films to look good by that point in time), they never cost so much and, if a big star did choose to work in one, they did so at a reduced salary for the prestige of it all. As with virtually all companies making indies (and, sadly, most did not survive financially over the long run), Miramax realized that big stars, franchise films, and huge budgets weren’t where it was at for their viewers. The brothers realized that the people who might come to the films they wished to present were young, hip, progressive and wanted to see films, even lighter films, which had an edge to them. The new part came in with the type of films the company chose to make. In that sense Harvey Weinstein, no gentle pushover to be sure, was very hands on. The brothers wanted to make money, surely, but they wanted to make good films that would make money honestly by giving the audience its money’s worth and saying something. The company was run much like the old Hollywood studios in that quality and economic concerns were balanced rather evenly. Like its most iconic film, Miramax was both old and new. With a moniker derived from the given names of their parents (Miriam and Max), the company was the brainchild of brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Why? The following brief list tries to shoot out a few theories as to the why of it all.Įvery jewel must have a fine setting and, truly, the indie movement in American film making would not have been the same without Miramax. Though its production company, now in existence in name only, had bigger hits at the box office and its creator has gone on to make other memorable films, nothing else was ever quite like Pulp. When the iconic film critic Pauline Kael, then retired due to poor health, was interviewed in 1994, the big question was what were her thoughts on the two big films of the year, Forest Gump and Pulp Fiction (she hated Gump and said that she enjoyed Pulp tremendously but warned that it was in danger of being “taken too seriously”). At a moment when it looked like few passionately cared about the movies anymore, it had many people talking (and make no mistake, its high level of violence had some talking in negative directions, always a sign that a film has said something). It started careers and put new life into old and seemingly dead ones. The irony is that it was both very new and pretty old. It came out of virtually nowhere, altered lives, careers, and directions (literally) and was a true game changer. Though the indie revolution of the 1980s and 90s produced some memorable films, is there any better remembered than Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994)?Īnyone who was around and at all aware of film in 1994 and, truthfully, the years just thereafter, knew and had an opinion of Pulp. Singin’ in the Rain is the epitome of the Hollywood Musical. Out of the Past seems a perfect illustration of film noir. New Hollywood will always be identified with the film that started it all, Bonnie and Clyde or, perhaps, The Godfather. With Italy’s Neo-Realist movement it was Bicycle Thieves. There always seems to be the chosen few or, really, THE ONE in any movement of film history.
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