Roland Emmerich

Roland Emmerich was born in Stuttgart, Germany, on November 10, 1955, although his early years were spent mostly in Sindelfingen. Although he loved painting and sculpture, his travels accompanying his parent, a businessman, made him see the world and discover Star Wars , a title that would encourage him to train in cinematography.

He studied at the Munich Film School and it soon became clear that he liked commercial cinema for the general public, with a genuine American flavour. In fact, his first film, the science fiction fantasy The Beginning of Noah’s Ark (1984), which was born from a student exercise, surprised locals and strangers, it was not usual in Germany to make a genre cinema with neat special effects of this kind. Type; the tape would be chosen for the Berlin Festival. Both in this film and in the next one, Joey’s Secret (1985), it is noted that the shadow of George Lucas and Steven SpielbergIt’s long, you can tell that it’s just trying to emulate the entertainment that characterizes these filmmakers, and there are even explicit nods to dolls, spaceships, and various tributes. On this occasion, his own production company, Centropolis, put together with the help of his sister Ute Emmerich, premiered. She continued filming titles like Lunar Station 44 (1990) in Germany, but of course, the call from Hollywood was not long in coming, the German had more than demonstrated that he could shoot special effects films with rigorous and tight budgets.

He shot one of Jean-Claude Van Damme ‘s best titles , which is perhaps not saying too much, with Universal Soldier (1992), about the creation of theoretically emotionless computerized warriors in the future; He was helped as a screenwriter and producer by Dean Devlin , with whom he was associated until 2000. And he would follow the galactic and cosmic vein with Stargate, Door to the Stars (1994), one of his most popular titles, which linked archeology in Egypt with secrets of the universe world and dimensions unknown to the human being; he would give rise to a franchise in which Emmerich did not intervene. Thus, the field was paid for his most popular title, and the one that has made him bear the label of “destrozator”. IndeedIndependence Day (1996) spoke of an alien invasion that was determined to destroy the most emblematic buildings in the world universe. The film was so jingoistic and Yankee that Emmerich was showered with criticism for having sold out to the US industry, but from what you can see he had a great time with Will Smith and company. Of course, with such a title, the film was released on the day of American independence, that is, on July 4.

Fans of a certain Japanese monster were very excited about Godzilla (1998), the Hollywood version of the creature that starred in dozens of Japanese films by Ishiro Honda and company. Although they tried to create expectation with the creature, and promotionally insisted that “size matters”, the destruction of the special effects did not captivate too much, and although the film did reasonably well at the box office, it left a taste of disappointment; it certainly didn’t help the career of the lead, Matthew Broderick , an unlikely action hero. All this did not prevent Emmerich from producing a Godzillian miniseries between 1998 and 2000.

Those who believe that the “history-fiction” of Anonymous (2011), about William Shakespeare and the authentic author of his works, is his first foray into period cinema, forget that the German signed up for another American patriotism film from very expressive title, The patriot (2000), set in the time of American independence, with Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger as father and son, the first widower resists fighting for the fledgling nation, the other, more impulsive and youthful, it will cheer you up. Emmerich commented that “I have tried to analyze those criticisms and learn from them” when he was told about the abundant doses of love for the American motherland of that film and Independence Day ..

And since the way of approaching history in Emmerich is usually very “personal”, it should be noted that after making history he made prehistory in 10,000 (2008), a title that made In Search of Fire more than good . Faced with the possible accusation of inaccuracies to which he was exposed, the filmmaker assured: “It is evident that he did not want to make a documentary, or give a history lesson. I know that they will attack me a lot, and that they will tell me that the pyramids were not built using mammoths.”

He has also fallen into the apocalyptic subgenre within catastrophic cinema with El día de mañana (2004), a warning about the extreme situation that climate change could lead to, very different from the way of approaching the question of Al Gore in Una uncomfortable truth ; and 2012(2009), which tells us that the world has two newscasts left according to the Mayan calendar. And it is that the most curious thing about Emmerich is that he tries to reach a wide audience without the easiest resources of the mecca of cinema: in 2004 he assured me that “I am quite critical of what is done in Hollywood, especially in summer. Only sequels and remakes are produced, and it seems that nobody wants to take risks. And it must be recognized that daring to say that Shakespeare did not write the works that are attributed to him is taking a risk, even a little; although the emmerician version seems quite… lame.

Emmerich, in the field of production, has supported films like Level 13 , Arac Attack and Trade. The price of innocence . Admittedly gay, when asked why he hasn’t dealt with it in his movie, he explains that he will “if the right movie comes along. I’d like to include more openly gay characters in my films for a broad audience, and I’m really working on that. Honestly, I’m constantly trying, thinking to myself, ‘who can I make gay?’ But I don’t want to do it blatantly.”