Film Career
Wexler briefly made industrial films in Chicago, then in 1947 became an assistant cameraman. Wexler worked on documentary features and shorts; low-budget docu-dramas such as 1959's The Savage Eye; television's The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet; and TV commercials. (He would later found Wexler-Hall, a television commercial production company, with Conrad Hall.)
In 1963, Wexler served as the cinematographer on his first big-budget film, Elia Kazan's America, America. The film had a stunning look, and Kazan was nominated for a Best Director Academy Award. Wexler worked steadily in Hollywood thereafter. Wexler was cinematographer of Mike Nichols' screen version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), for which he won the last Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Black & White).
He won a second Oscar for Bound for Glory (1976), a biography of Woody Guthrie (whom Wexler had met during his time in the Merchant Marine). Bound for Glory was the first feature film to make use of the newly-invented Steadicam, in a famous sequence that also incorporated a crane shot. Wexler was also credited as additional cinematographer on Days of Heaven (1978), which won a Best Cinematography Oscar for Nestor Almendros. Wexler was also featured on the soundtrack of the film Underground, recorded on Folkways Records in 1976.
He has worked on documentaries throughout his career. The 1980 documentary Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang earned an Emmy Award; Interviews with My Lai Veterans won an Academy Award. His most recent documentaries include Bus Riders' Union, Who Needs Sleep, Good Kurds, Bad Kurds, Tell Them Who You Are and Bringing King to China.
Wexler has also directed fictional movies. Medium Cool (1969), a film written by Wexler and shot in the cinéma vérité style, is studied by film students all over the world for its breakthrough form. It influenced more than a generation of filmmakers. The making of Medium Cool was the subject of a BBC documentary, Look Out Haskell, It's Real: The Making of Medium Cool.
Produced by Lucasfilm, Wexler's film Latino was chosen for the 1985 Cannes Film Festival. He both wrote and directed the work. Another directing project was From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks, an intimate exploration of the life and times of Harry Bridges, an extraordinary labor leader and social visionary described as "a hero or the devil incarnate, it all depends on your point of view."
In 1988, Wexler won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography for the John Sayles film Matewan, for which he was also nominated for an Academy Award. His work with Billy Crystal in the 2001 HBO film 61* was nominated for an Emmy.
Read more about this topic: Haskell Wexler
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