Oscar Profile #269: Robert Zemeckis

Born May 14, 1952 in Chicago, Illinois, Robert Zemeckis was educated at the University of Southern California where his fellow students included writing partner Bob Gale and future producer/director George Lucas.

While at USC, Zemeckis won a Student Academy Award for A Field of Honor, an urban action film set to Elmer Bernstein’s score for The Great Escape. Using the film as his Hollywood calling card, he became a protégé of Steven Spielberg who produced his early films. His first films as writer-director were 1978’s I Wanna Hold Your Hand and 1980’s Used Cars, cult classics today which were not successful at the time of their initial release. His first successful film as a director was 1984’s Romancing the Stone starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. It was followed by the enormously successful 1985 film, Back to the Future which made Michael J. Fox a bankable film star and earned Zemeckis and Gale an Oscar nomination for their screenplay. 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit starring Bob Hoskins was a much admired mix of live action and animation that was also a major box-office success.

Zemeckis’ 1989 sequel to Back to the Future called Back to the Future II was only mildly successful but 1990’s Back to the Future III was considered to be almost as good as the original. His 1992 black comedy Death Becomes Her starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn was also well received. 1994’s Forrest Gump top-lining Tom Hanks became a cultural phenomenon. Nominated for thirteen Academy Awards, it won six including Best Picture and Best Director for Zemeckis.

1996’s Jodie Foster starrer, Contact from the novel by Carl Sagan, was another critical hit as well as a major box office success. 2000’s What Lies Beneath with Harrisoin Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer was only marginally successful, but that same year’s Cast Away again starrign Tom Hanks returned him to major critical and box-office success.

Zemeckis’s films for the remainder of the decade were not successful either with critics or at the box office, but he rebounded in 2012 with the Denzel Washington starrer, Flight. His most recent film, 2015’s The Walk starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt was well received by the critics, but failed to gain an audience at the local cineplex.

At 63, Robert Zemeckis remains one of Hollywood’s busiest writer-producer-directors. His next film is an as yet to be titled World War II thriller starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

Back to the Future (1985)

Opening July 3, 1985, Back to the Future was the big summer hit that everyone had to see, a film that is still immensely popular thirty years later. Starring beloved TV icons Michael J. Fox (Family Ties and Christopher Lloyd (Taxi), the time travel comedy had teenager Fox meeting his parents (Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover) as teenagers themselves in 1955 and deftly influencing the way they turned out thirty years later. It appealed to the “what if” notions in everyone. A lackluster 1989 sequel was followed by a more gratifying third outing in 1990.

Forrest Gump (1994)

An even bigger phenomenon than Back from the Future, Zemeckis’ film of Winston Groom’s novel with a screenplay by Eric Roth was made to order for middle-aged audiences of the day whose own experiences encompassed those of Tom Hanks’ character in the film. Encompassing everything from the Vietnam War to the AIDS crisis, the film earned Hanks his second Oscar a year after winning his first for Philadelphia and made stars of Robin Wright and Gary Sinise as well as providing Sally Field with her best role in years. Included in its six Oscar haul was one for Zemeckis and one for Best Picture.

Cast Away (2000)

This clever, albeit unacknowledged revamping of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe provided Tom Hanks with another of his signature roles as a FedEx executive stranded on a deserted island four years with only a volleyball named “Wilson” for company. Hanks imbues his character with such grace that you almost believe, as he does, that the inanimate volleyball is a real person, causing him to sob uncontrollably when he loses it. The rest of the cast, including Helen Hunt as Hanks’ fiancé, is mere window dressing. It’s every bit as good as Zemeckis’ Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Forrest Gump.

Flight (2012)

Denzel Washington had his best role in years as an airline pilot who saves the lives of almost all his passengers on a malfunctioning airliner, but is subject to scrutiny at a hearing which may uncover his alcohol and drug abuse. John Goodman, Don Cheadle and Bruce Greenwood have major supporting roles. Brian Geragty and James Badge Dale have featured roles. Two-time Oscar winner Washington (Glory, Training Day) received his sixth Oscar nomination for his performance. The film was also nominated for its screenplay, but Zemeckis failed to be nominated for Best Director.

The Walk (2015)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives another of his remarkable performances as real-life Fench high-wire artist who gained fame in 1974 for his unauthorized walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, making eight passes between the buildings. The film is narrated by Gordon-Levitt as Petit from New York where he has lived for more than forty years. The film, which is one of Zemeckis’ best, follows Petit’s preparation for the walk in Paris and New York as well as the walk itself. One of the year’s best films, it was not a box-office success, possibly because audiences found it too soon to revisit the Towers in their former glory.