Lawrence Kasdan is a smart filmmaker. A dedicated student of cinema, Kasdan began his career as a uniquely adventurous and successful genre-hopping screenwriter who had quite the incredible run as director, beginning with the critically acclaimed 1981 erotic thriller, “Body Heat”, through 1994’s polarizing Western, “Wyatt Earp”.
Born January 14, 1949 in Miami (but raised in West Virginia), Kasdan attended the University of Michigan during the revolutionary political heyday of the late 1960’s. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature, he completed his Master’s in Education and planned to teach English. Veering off his education course, Kasdan became an advertising copywriter, eventually winning a Clio Award for one of his first campaigns. A longtime cinema buff, Kasdan wrote screenplays during his down time, eventually (after years of rejection) selling “Continental Divide” to Steven Spielberg. That gig led to his involvement in the “Star Wars” series, which sent the young writer (and soon to be director) off and running on his film career.
With sponsorship from George Lucas, Alan Ladd Jr. gave the young Kasdan the go-ahead for his directorial debut, 1981’s “Body Heat”. Kasdan’s debut was an exceptional motion picture. Writing the screenplay and sitting in the director’s chair for the first time, Kasdan bathed the film (and the audience) in a film noir atmosphere, creating an intoxicating character thriller full of well-drawn characters, dramatic surprises, and breathtakingly effective eroticism. William Hurt was perfectly cast as a lawyer blinded by sex, who gets involved in murder. Kathleen Turner gives one of the great feature film debuts in a smoldering performance of calculated manipulation and the hottest seduction. The actress (and her director) used her sexuality as another character, steering away from exploitation and crafting a deadly serious carnal atmosphere that drives the story. The great Mickey Rourke is equally on fire as a client of Hurt’s character whose intense presence steals every moment the actor is on screen in his star-making performance.
Kasdan’s adult and supremely literate screenplay stands as his finest to date, while the film (also his best) is one of the great directorial debuts and one of the best erotic thrillers in cinema history.
His sophomore effort, “The Big Chill”, was another triumph. Co-written with Barbara Benedek, the film was a perfect storm of the right cast meeting the right script and director. Grasping a smart and humorous commentary on the immortality of idealism for late-thirty somethings moving toward middle age, this is an entertaining and insightful motion picture, one the director called “a comedy of values”.
Lawrence Kasdan’s generation is one that struggled with maintaining their romanticized view of how the world should be once they left the safe cocoon of college life. Hurt’s “Ned” from “Body Heat” is the filmmaker’s first example of a once-young idealist (a do-gooder of sorts, as he is a defense lawyer) who gives way to the temptations of the dirty real world. Taking inspiration from Jean Renoir’s “Rules of the Game” (1939), it was “The Big Chill” where Kasdan began to explore these themes more fully and realistically, adding humor and heart; his sophomore effort being the real jumping-off point to the audience experiencing his ability to relate to these people and their moral predicaments.
It is obvious that Kasdan saw a bit of himself and the friends he grew up with in the film’s characters. While the people who populate “The Big Chill” endear themselves to us, they are forced to confront their misguided entitlement that the world will conform to their beliefs. As each one discovers (through the wake up call of their friend’s suicide), society is more complex and refuses to comply. Kasdan understands these people, as he takes from his own post-college awakening that good intentions are not contagious in the real world. As it stands, the 1983 box office hit continues to be a sharp, perceptive, representation of the baby boomer generation coming to terms with middle age. The entire piece is grounded by a great cast doing some of their best work. Keven Kline, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly, William Hurt, and Tom Berenger were rarely more natural or engaging.
Introduced to the genre by his brother Mark, Kasdan became an avid lover of the American Western at a young age and would direct two that I am quite fond of.
1985’s “Silverado” is a rousing tribute to the old school shoot-em-ups and a film where Kasdan wanted to show what is so special about Westerns, plus he wanted to have a bit of cinematic fun. Featuring another tremendous cast (an area where Kasdan excels better than most), Kasdan’s first foray into the genre benefits from a great screenplay (co-written with brother Mark) and a classically robust, Oscar nominated score from Bruce Boughton. After cutting his scenes from “The Big Chill”, Kasdan wrote Kevin Costner a star-making supporting role as a two-gun slinging hero. The actor stood out amongst the strong cast (Scott Glenn, Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Linda Hunt, Brian Dennehy, and more) with his exuberant and vivacious performance. Although the film was not a box office success (it found a following on home video), a star was born and Costner and Kasdan would become lifelong friends and colleagues. Regarding him as a mentor, Kevin Costner called Kasdan “My Yoda”.
1994’s “Wyatt Earp” was more polarizing, giving a somber tone to the Wyatt Earp/Doc Holliday legend that left audiences uneasy after the previous year’s rootin’-tootin’ guns-a-blazing hit, “Tombstone”. Kasdan’s deadly serious take features some classic Western elements and another fine cast. Both Kevin Costner (as Earp) and Dennis Quaid (as Holliday) turn in some of their best work, while Michael Madsen, Gene Hackman, and more lend strong support.
Co-scripted with Danny Gordon, Kasdan’s picture is admittedly too long and dramatically unfocused now and again. Still, “Wyatt Earp” has many merits, including some of the best pure Western moments in some time. As the passing years seem to be kinder to the film, it has always been much stronger than its reputation would lead one to believe.
The characters within both of Kasdan’s Westerns are linked to his other pictures in their design. The four horsemen of justice in “Silverado” and Wyatt Earp (and to a certain extent, Doc Holliday) are cowboy forms of the idealistic visionaries found in the films of Lawrence Kasdan. Even in the Old West, he understands this type of character.
1988’s “The Accidental Tourist” (adapted from the Anne Tyler novel and co-written with Frank Galati) is a mature treatise on love and the changing landscape of the heart. A quirky and unpredictable drama infused with acute observations, this could be the director’s most mature work. Kasdan’s grasp of human emotions was never more evident and the director presents the drama and quirkiness of the characters and their situations with a convincing ease that gives way to a deeper subtext. The human race can’t control the universe; a concern for the filmmaker that permeates his screenplays.
In fairness, the same can be said for Kasdan’s 1991 film, “Grand Canyon”. Written with his wife Meg, this is an imaginative and profound film of connections and the search for meaning and second chances. Scoring another trademark Kasdan cast, Danny Glover, Kevin Kline, Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, and Mary-Louise Parker fill the film with honesty and truth, set against the background of a changing Los Angeles. It is in both “Grand Canyon” and “The Accidental Tourist” where Kasdan lets his audience know that a certain ambivalence about life and its outcome in our later years is a healthy expression of our humanity. The baby boomer generation certainly came to grips with this over the course of three decades of the most radical change.
A more engagingly funny ensemble piece was 1990’s “I Love You to Death”, a dark comedy based on the true story of a woman who botched her husband’s murder-for-hire. Tracy Ullman was Oscar-worthy comedy gold as the put-upon wife whose cheating hubby (Kasdan mainstay Kevin Kline) just won’t die. Grounded in reality, Ullman’s work may have put viewers off, as the rest of the characters are more cartoonish in their design. Certainly not a negative, William Hurt, Keanu Reeves, Joan Plowright, and River Phoenix showed then-untapped comic gifts in their respective portrayals. The film didn’t do well with audiences and received only mixed critical praise; the studio pulling it from theaters after only a few weeks. As it stands, “I Love You to Death” is at times hilarious, occasionally moving and an undervalued gem within Kasdan’s filmography and a film that explores some of Kasdan’s favorite themes in a more broadly comedic manner. While he didn’t write this script, it can be argued that a slight distance can be felt between director and the material. Regardless, the picture is a delight.
As a screenwriter-for-hire, Kasdan touched on themes that he would become known for, even when the films were geared to the more fantastical. His work on “The Empire Strikes Back”, “Return of the Jedi”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, and the recent “Star Wars” entries “The Force Awakens”, “Rise of Skywalker”, and the undervalued “Solo”, gave each film interesting character arcs and kept the idealistic spirit alive. While Kasdan wasn’t the sole screenwriter on these films, his unique input can be felt.
Kasdan’s screenplay for Michael Apted’s undervalued 1981 treasure, “Continental Divide”, is smart and funny and showed his knack for finding the seriocomic possibilities in his themes of human connection and one generation’s growth. John Belushi’s lead character is an idealist who opens up to change in the form of Blair Brown’s polar opposite representation of changing with the times while maintaining you core beliefs.
In 1992, director Mick Jackson guided Kasdan’s screenplay, “The Bodyguard” to commercial success, giving Kevin Costner another steadfast hero role while showing the world Whitney Houston could act. Kasdan wrote the film in 1975 with John Boorman set to direct. Ryan O’Neal and Diana Ross were tapped to star and the young screenwriter was excited. Unfortunately, Boorman changed too much of the script and the film never got off the ground until almost 20 years later.
As a filmmaker, Kasdan’s output since 1994’s “Wyatt Earp” has not been as strong as the films from his heyday. 1995’s “French Kiss” (another film not written by Kasdan) was an almost-too-light foray into romantic comedy. The film goes down easy, but Meg Ryan’s cinematic persona was growing stale while Kevin Kline’s funny but over-the-top French accent doesn’t gel with the actress’s performance. Funny now and then but ultimately pointless, the film can’t be considered an outright failure, but more of a pothole in Kasdan’s career.
1999’s “Mumford” benefited (somewhat) from a good cast, save the dreadful idea of having bland actor Loren Dean in the lead. The Kasdan-penned screenplay was too flatline to generate much dramatic or comedic interest.
His 2003 Stephen King adaptation, “Dreamcatcher” was an inexplicably dreadful picture that completely botched the author’s creepy tale while proving that horror is not Lawrence Kasdan’s forte. The film is clunky and the actors stumble over ridiculous dialogue and embarrassingly goofy sequences that make a mockery of the good cast. Truly a disappointment, considering the adaptation was penned by both Kasdan and the great William Goldman.
While 2012’s “Darling Companion” was a return to the type of character-driven story he excels in, the film was too slight to leave much of an impression and while the great cast (Kevin Kline, Diane Keaton, Richard Jenkins, Dianne Weist) is uniformly good, the director failed to capture the spark of his earlier works.
While a few critics have accused Kasdan of pandering to (and overstating the tribulations of) white-bread urbanite yuppies and yippies, the man has proven himself an insightful writer and an inspired filmmaker who has a deep respect for (and keen understanding of) his generation. Where some may find his outlook on life self-righteous, Lawrence Kasdan should be commended for keeping his and his generation’s 60s idealism alive.
While the popular culture continually morphs into greater worship of fame and money over artistic value, Kasdan has kept his integrity. His earnestness can be found in the characters who inhabit “The Big Chill”, “The Accidental Tourist”, “Grand Canyon”, and to a certain extent, “Darling Companion”, and even his two Westerns. These are people who struggle with more than the simple fact of getting older. One of the great concerns for Kasdan’s generation is aging while keeping your principles intact in a morally corrupt America. Through his films and their characters, Kasdan was never speaking against the United States, but he is aware of how society measures truth against personal status. For the baby boomers, it must be heartbreaking to watch as their beloved country and its societies have become a minefield of false values and hero worship. The people who exist in Kasdan’s screenplays refuse to fully conform and are just trying to come through life unscathed.
The best example can be found in the tension between the William Hurt and Kevin Kline characters from “The Big Chill”. Hurt’s “Nick” is still casually floating through life. Adrift and unfocused (and selling drugs to make his money), Nick chastises Kline’s “Harold” for starting a lucrative business, having a big house and family, and making lots of money, causing their friendship to take a hit. The two friends come to resent how one sees the other. As Harold chastises his old buddy for mouthing off to a local cop, he may be truthful in not wanting his local reputation sullied, but the moment gets at something deeper. Does Harold envy Nick’s freewheeling attitude just a little bit? As Harold tells him, “I’m dug in.” Kline’s delivery might cloak a bit of jealousy, as Nick is the only one of the group to still wear his idealism on his sleeve. The chasm between the old friends is jarring to both, expanding on Kasdan’s exploration of the fear of not being in control.
As was Robert Altman before him, Lawrence Kasdan is adept at anchoring elaborate narratives with carefully selected casts. The writer/director takes sometimes hefty subject matter and makes it accessible to mainstream audiences, while keeping his work clever and intelligent.
As the current Hollywood climate cares less and less for smart and intuitive films for and about adults, the time for Kasdan’s work to find studio backing and audience acceptance may be behind him. This doesn’t change the fact that his work once found a proper place in cinema history and spoke to a generation that was trying to keep its voice heard in the ever-changing moral landscapes of America.
For the revolutionary generation who began the winds of change and stood up for what is right, Lawrence Kasdan stands as the filmmaker who understands them best. His deep connection to the privilege of youth burns through his work. Now 75, but still profoundly in tune with his generation and the ideals they lived by, it would be a gift if the director had one more statement to make. The baby boomers and those who respect pointed and reflective filmmaking would be fortunate to have another Kasdan picture, while modern movies would benefit from a dose of something special.
