Elmore Leonard

Elmore John Leonard was born in New Orleans, in the state of Louisiana, on October 11, 1925. His father worked at General Motors, which forced the family to move frequently, until they settled in Detroit in 1934.

A restless man, he graduated from the University of Detroit in English philology and philosophy, and also enlisted in the Navy, let’s see the world we could say. What was happening around him fascinated him, and specifically the case of the gangster couple Bonnie and Clyde, who made the front page of the newspapers, would later serve as inspiration for his literary career, where criminal plots are frequent, where highlights the vividness of the language and the irony of some very sharp dialogues. Other authors like Stephen King and Martin AmisThey admired his narrative freshness, the second spoke of “his eye and his ear, the rhythm and the phrases.” Since 1951, she has published many stories in magazines such as Argosy, authentic “pulp fiction” set in the Wild West or in the criminal world. It is not surprising the admiration of Quentin Tarantino , who titled his most famous film precisely as Pulp Fiction , in addition to the fact that he adapted one of his novels, “Rum Punch”, into Jackie Brown (1997). Among the principles that guided Leonard’s writing was that it should seem authentic, “if it sounds like something written, rewrite it.”

Among the most outstanding adaptations of Leonard’s work, several westerns stand out: the two versions of The 3:10 Train , by Delmer Daves in 1957 and James Mangold 50 years later, A Man (1967) by Martin Ritt , and Coming Valdez (1971) by Edwin Sherin . His tough style suited Richard Fleischer like a glove in 1974 in Mr. Majestyk , with Charles Bronson . His ironic look at the movie mecca gave rise to How to Conquer Hollywood (1995), by Barry Sonnenfeld, with a great John Travolta as the gangster Chili Palmer, but its sequel, Be Cool (2005), was not up to the task. Nor does Paul Schrader achieve much with Touch (1997), critical of the commercial exploitation of religion, while Oliver Stone , faithful to his wild style, managed to distill authentic film noir in A Very Dangerous Romance (1998).

As a screenwriter, he wrote the script for the western Los cautivos (1957) with Budd Boeticher and Burt Kennedy . He adapted his own novel in The Whiskey Inferno ( Richard Quine , 1970), but he also faced other people’s works such as the one that gave rise to The Rosary Murders ( Fred Walton , 1987). Since 2010, television has given him more scope with Justified: Ryland’s Law , a series that started from his story “Fire in the Hole”.