Howard hawks

Howard Winchester Hawks was born in Goshem, in the state of Indiana (USA), in 1897 and died in Palm Springs, California, in 1977, seven years after shooting his last film as a director, Río Lobo . His family’s work led him to live in different places until he finally landed in Hollywood in the 1920s, where he began working as a props assistant. Very soon he began directing and came to make eight films before the arrival of sound.

Already from the silent era, he took special care in writing the scripts, and although he does not usually appear accredited as a screenwriter, apart from suggesting the themes and plots of his films, he was directly involved in their writing. He also knew how to seek the invaluable collaboration of prestigious writers such as Raymond Chandler , William Faulkner or Ernst Hemingway with whom, curiously, it was bet that he was capable of making a great film based on the worst of his novels: the writer gave him To Have and not have and sure enough, Hawks made it a great script and a great movie.

This care and concern for the script is logical since, as he himself stated, the main thing in any film is the story. The actors, dialogues, scenarios, camera movements etc. they are at the service of what the film wants to tell. And his intention when telling stories, when making movies, was none other than, in his own words, “to please the public”. The best reward for him was to go into a movie theater and hear how the audience laughed watching one of his comedies, La novia era él , for example, or some comic scene inserted in films of another genre such as Río Bravo or the aforementioned Having and not have .

Hawks did intense pre-shoot work, trying to minimize editing as much as possible. Editing the film was for him like seeing it a second time, and he was never happy with his own work. Limiting the editing possibilities was also a way of avoiding possible studio interference in the final result of the film. Let’s not forget that Hawks always eschewed dependence on major studios, which is why he produced most of his works himself. The fact that he did not want to leave the final production of the film for editing led him to carefully plan the script in order to “assemble” the film during the shooting process itself. This perfect planning can be the explanation of the solidity, coherence, measure and perfection that we can find in the works of this director.

Hawks tackled all the classic genres: comedy ( My Girl’s Beast ), western ( El Dorado (1966) ), film noir ( Scarface, the terror of the underworld ), war ( The Dawn Squad ), drama ( Sergeant York ) , musical ( A Song is Born ), adventures ( Hatari! ) and even made a foray into historical cinema, Land of the Pharaohs.. But all of them, according to Hawks himself, respond to a single theme: action. For Hawks that is cinema, an action story in which the characters are placed in dangerous situations from which they must emerge with intelligence, courage, strength and, usually, also with irony and a sense of humor. This same theory was applied to comedies and explained that they are based on placing the characters in “unusual” situations from which they must come out unscathed. And we understand it easily when we remember Cary Grant leaving Europe dressed as a female soldier, Gary Cooper learning to kiss Barbara Stanwyck and defending her from a gangster gang, or Ginger Rogersdeclaring herself a child by confusing him with her involved husband in I feel rejuvenated .

This approach leads Hawks, as he himself explained, to get his films to go “20% faster” than those of other directors. The comedies Luna Nueva (1940) or La fiera de mi niñaThey are a clear example of this. However, nothing in his works suggests precipitation or exhausting acceleration. Everything is contained and in its proper measure. In fact, this speed is not achieved with spectacular action scenes or with violent and risky camera movements, since, although it may seem paradoxical, a typical sign of his style is the use of a calm camera, at the height of the shoulders of the actors, who follow them with the necessary distance to capture their emotions and frame them in the appropriate setting. She doesn’t like to abuse close-ups, but she does study the frames in detail so that, and we will say it in her own words, “everything that has to come out in them comes out.” It is then the story itself, the story itself, which makes the film move forward with the speed that its director intended.

But where Hawks truly shows himself to be a true master is in the creation of atmospheres, unforgettable scenarios where an individual and/or collective drama takes place, affected, for better or worse, by the characteristics of the environment. Each story entails or is framed within a different universe and Hawks succeeds in the composition of the elements that contribute to drawing the necessary atmosphere in each case. We can enter closed and claustrophobic spaces like the greenhouse of the retired soldier who hires Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep , or enjoy the carefree atmosphere of a group of professional hunters in the African savannah of Hatari!. But where it can be said that this creation of universes reaches its greatest perfection is in the Barranca of Only Angels Have Wings , a place where aviators who carry mail between the peaks of a Latin American mountain range live their personal dramas in the mist, the mist, the noise of the engines or the smoke of the cigarettes. In any case, Hawks surrounds his characters (usually strong men with latent sensitivity, who are beaten by the irruption of a woman with an overwhelming personality) with the environmental elements necessary for the viewer to be introduced to the story and live as their own, the feats that the protagonists have to undertake to carry out the mission they must fulfill.

Without a doubt, Howard Hawks is one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema. Through his simple, direct and intense style (the “invisible” director, according to Fernando Trueba ) he has left us a generous handful of works of art that reflect the main virtues, feelings, weaknesses and greatness of the human being.