Road to the Oscars: Paul Schrader Retrospective

With many stellar screenplays in his array that include Sydney Pollack’s “The Yakuza” (1975), Brian De Palma’s “Obsession” (1976), Johnny Flynn’s “Rolling Thunder” (1978), Peter Weir’s “The Mosquito Coast”(1986), Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” (1976), “Raging Bull” (1980), “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988), and “Bringing out the Dead” (1999), some people are unaware just how prolific and versatile Paul Schrader’s career has been as a director.

Schrader is mainly known and celebrated for being the writer of “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull” , and sadly many of the films he has directed are left out of discussion, or are not as celebrated by many modern film buffs that seem to only narrow the discussions to Wes Anderson, P.T. Anderson, David Fincher, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Darren Aronofsky, and Christopher Nolan. While Schrader’s directing career hasn’t quite reached the level of discussion the way the famous “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull” have, you will see the same themes reappear in his filmography that include self-destruction, moral decay, guilt, insecurity, repression, and obsession that leave his characters down a complex path of violence. Most of films actually feature right-wing conservative male protagonists who are trapped and confined to the changes in society and their worlds, and they are left in a moral crises where they must confront and deal with the catharsis of changes before it reaches a level of normalization. Schrader, who grew up in my home state of Michigan, in Grand Rapids in a Calvinist setting is certainly the motivation for the themes found in his artistry. Schrader’s filmography is certainly essential, and it’s baffling how it took “First Reformed”, a film about a Calvinist minister who fights for the suffering of the worlds sins of pollution to get him recognition from the Oscars. If anything, hopefully more film critics, film buffs, and cinephiles who love “First Reformed”, will bring them down a retrospective that is every bit as essential as the great directors mentioned above.

In honor of Schrader receiving his long overdue and very first Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay for “First Reformed”, I have ranked and rated each of Schrader’s 21 features. Just as with any filmmaker, not every film is entirely successful, however each film at least has something interesting or fascinating to say about the human condition and the changing environments they are succumbed to.

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1. Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)

Hand’s down Schrader’s finest work as a director, a film that is visually arresting, superb in technical execution, and dynamic and epic in scope, that holds George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola as executive producers, is a triumphantly remarkable accomplishment. A rare biopic, and rather a study of the wounded and fractured soul of conservative Japanese poet Yuko Mishima, Schrader has crafted a film that is richly stylized and luminous of what molded Mishima’s principles that led to him standing up for Japan’s culture and traditions that he felt was co-opted into materialism and Western influences. The film is very dense and layered, as it holds different story threads from different Mishima novels, along with artificial art direction that provides an experimental film style that’s never incoherent and always comprehensible. Each story serves as a reflection of who Mishima is, and what he stood for. The film also has a haunting score by Philip Glass, overall this is a complicated and profound portrait to one of history’s most talented and controversial artists.

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

2. The Comfort of Strangers (1990)

One of Schrader’s most elegant, sexually charged, and shocking films to date is an evocation of the old world confronting the new world. Crafting the film with the mood of a erotic thriller merged with elements of a horror film, Schrader directed a Harold Pinter Script that is based on a Ian McEwan novel, and it’s certainly Schrader’s most misunderstood and underrated. The film has a first-rate cast that includes Christopher Walken, Natasha Richardson, Rupert Everett, and Helen Mirren. The film is very intriguing and mysterious, and is crafted almost like a Brian De Palma or Bernardo Bertolucci film.  The film uses the beautiful city of Venice as the back drop, with brilliant foreshadowing that ends in a shocking finale of the camera pulling back to reveal one of Schrader’s most devastating images of his career. The craft and artistry in this film only proves just how much of a craftsman and visual artist Schrader really is. Out of all of Schrader’s films, this is the most macabre and disturbing that features a brilliant score by Angelo Badalamenti.

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

3. Blue Collar (1978)

Schrader’s directorial debut tells the story of three Detroit auto workers (Yaphet Kotto, Richard Pryor and Harvey Keitel), who are financially drained from inflation, the IRS, and other socioeconomic complications that was created by the disastrous centralized planning and price floors that was mishandled by the Federal Reserve and by the Nixon and Carter administrations. Meanwhile , they discover that the union that represents them doesn’t have their best interests at heart. The three men decide to rob their local union that ends up going awry, this only leads each of them down a journey of betrayal, deception, and selfishness among their friendship. This is perhaps Schrader’s most naturalistic movie yet, being a Michigan native he got all the details down so authentically of the blue collar manufacturing life that would soon be vanished by outsourcing Reaganomics of the 1980’s. Some of the best moments of the film involve the three men working on the assembly line floor and getting brews together at the local bar down the street from the factory they work at. In my hometown of Pontiac, MI these bars are now abandon that rest right next to the cryptic factories. This is overall a brilliant study how the institutions that are supposed to make us prosperous us like unions, the government, and manufacturing companies, in fact wage a war to divide us.

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4. Hardcore (1979)

Almost like a 1970’s remake of John Ford’s “The Searchers”, or even a companion piece to “Taxi Driver”, Schrader’s “Hardcore” is a deeply disturbing study of the erotic sleaze and seedy subculture that emerged during the 1970’s from the porno industry. Borrowing from his own experiences from his Calvinist upbringing, the film stars the great George C. Scott as a conservative Michigan father and businessman who discovers his abducted daughter is cast in hardcore porn movies after a private detective (Peter Boyle) gives him a film reel of the seedy actions. The film raises a lot of questions about guilt, faith, and human nature. How does a principled religious man raise a daughter that succumbs to that lifestyle? Like Travis Bickle, Scott’s character dives more into a terrain of a seedy sex industry that involves sex rings, pimps, porno movie producers, porn actors/actresses, and prostitutes to find pieces to the puzzle on the whereabouts of his beloved daughter. What’s so effective about the film is just how tragic the story is of Schrader’s protagonist losing his soul and facing the grim and gritty truths of the outside world that is polar opposite of middle America.

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

5. Cat People (1982)

Schrader’s first and finest attempt at exploring the horror genre, “Cat People” is an exuberant and intoxicating film about unfulfilled love. It features David Bowie’s original song Cat People (Putting out Fire) along with an exceptional and unforgettable score by Georgio Moroder. Overall this is one stylish exploration of myth and eros of sexuality and forbidden love. Malcolm McDowell delivers a menacing performance, and Natasha Kinski is quite ethereal in her role here, she delivers a perfect on screen performance that is never ridiculous or overacted. The use of the beautiful black leopards in the film are quite magnificent. The special makeup effects by Tom Burman still hold up well today. Certainly one of Schrader’s most impressive and popular films in his oeuvre.

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

6. Auto Focus (2002)

Scharder’s third attempt at the biopic (Mishima and Raging Bull if you count the scripts) is perhaps his most disturbing. It stars Greg Kinnear in his finest performance to date as Hollywood actor and television icon Bob Crane. who played Hogan in the hit sitcom “Hogan’s Heroes”. Like most of Schader’s scripts and movies, this is a masterful study of self-destruction and the deterioration of celebrity. Before he got famous, Bob Crane was a humble family man that was faithful. Once he got fame his repressed fetishes on photographing women led him down a negligent lifestyle of sex addiction, divorces, the destruction of his acting career, and ultimately his murder. Willem Dafoe also delivers an exceptional performance as his seedy hi-tech friend named John Carpenter, who ultimately encouraged and enabled Bob’s destructive sex habits by introducing him to cutting edge technology at the time of video recorders and cameras. Schrader brilliantly balances the mixture of satire and biopic, and it’s a chilling study of obsession.  This film is right up there with Steve McQueen’s “Shame” as one the finest films yet to explore sex addiction.

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

7. Light Sleeper (1992)

The themes of the isolated loner that are found in “American Gigolo” and “Taxi Driver”  are revisited once again in “Light Sleeper”, the film stars frequent collaborator Willem Dafoe as the main character as a sober junkie that still deals cocaine for the high-brow market with his associate Ann (Susan Sarandon), while the film doesn’t have the energy or rawness of Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver”, or even the dramatic surprises of “American Gigaglo”, however the humanity is still there. It’s very much a restraint character study, and Dafoe’s performance as John LaTour also goes down the path of self-destruction, we can’t help but not root for him along the way because Schrader and Dafoe together have created a wounded character of despair searching for hope, it’s rather refreshing to see a drug dealer in a film not be so unhinged, but who is more conflicted and exhausted, and the end result is a greatly acted, scripted, and directed film about people pushing through the walls of bad misfortunes and circumstances.

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

8. Affliction (1998)

Perhaps one of the finest late era films of Schrader’s career, the 1998 drama “Affliction” is deeply disturbing and one of the most emotionally bleakest films about the complexities of fathers-and-sons, and the legacy and sins that are passed down to us from our own primal natures. This is Schrader’s most raw and emotionally wrenching film to date at it examines domestic violence, alcoholism, physical and emotional abuse, and the aftermath of consequences that are passed down to the human psyche.  Nick Nolte and James Coburn both received Oscar nominations at the 1999 Oscars for their raw performances. Nolte plays a sheriff in a small town who is still scarred from the emotional abuse he endured as a child. By resorting to alcoholism like his father, Nolte reconnects with his father and younger brother (Willem Dafoe), in which Nolte’s character ends up becoming an exact replicate of his father. The film is certainly unpleasant to watch, but it is commendable that Schrader took an uncompromising look at such lofty subject matter that would have been overwrought in the wrong hands. Coborn won the Oscar that year for Best Supporting Actor, and his character is one of the cruelest and sinister ever seen on the big screen.

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

9. Patty Hearst (1988)

It’s commendable how mature and respectful Paul Schrader’s retelling of Patty Hearst’s kidnapping really was. The film, “Patty Hearst” which recounts Patty Hearst’s kidnapping and brainwashing she endured by the far-left guerrilla terrorist group, the Symbionese Liberation Army is done carefully and in a non-judgmental way. The film never feels exploitative or sensationalized, it just observes and unravels inside Patty’s perspective. You feel her confinement, confusion, and the films stylistic choices heighten her world. The films aesthetics which are very low budget only benefit the atmosphere and tone of the film that feels horrifying. Everything from using low light, high contrast, and dark shadows of Patty locked in a basement and closets, only for Patty to released into the light only to find these radicals are confused in their political purposes. Overall this film is a fascinating study of the power of indoctrination. Richardson’s performance here is very muted and restrained, and while she mainly is either terrified, or just parrots the propaganda that others say, yet she still appears to be fully cognizant. With endless mainstream media being flooded with talking points in deeply divided polarized times where facts are now replaced with fiction, and ad hominems are replaced with reason from both sides of the political spectrum, was Schrader warning us about the impacts of brainwashing?

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

10. American Gigolo (1980)

Schrader’s  follow-up to “Hardcore” once again dived into the underworld of seedy and degenerate Californian underground lifestyles, and using the “loner protagonist” tropes of a character living in the world of upscale hustling. Not as disturbing or as wrenching as “Hardcore”, the film still has it shares of great dramatic exchanges that features pimps and prostitutes. Very much in the vein of a noir film, the film stars Richard Gere as Julian, a high-maintenance and materialistic male escort who’s clients are wealthy widows and high-end rich woman who’s husbands don’t give them the passion or physical needs they urge for. Julian ends up being framed for murder, and he ends up falling for one of his clients, who is married to a local politician that has plans running for state senator. The brilliance of “American Gigolo” lies in the fact the murder mystery is only schematic, the real interest Schrader has here is the character study of Julian, and the loneliness, emptiness, and self-destruction he endures in a world that is very cutthroat, and how hellbent it is in pushing him out for much younger gigolos.

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

11. First Reformed (2018)

Borrowing heavily from Ingmar Bergman’s “Winter Light” and Robert Bresson’s “The Diary of a Country Priest” about isolated priests enduring a crises that puts their faith into question, “First Reformed” is perhaps Schrader’s most critically acclaimed directed film of his career. A film that has generated him the most accolades, acclaim, and awards from film critics circles than any of his previous films.  It’s certainly an artistically crafted film that is anchored by a raw performance by Ethan Hawke, but it is Schrader’s most preachy and didactic film of his career. The message of it’s cautionary tale of pollution and man-made global warming destroying the planet is said loud and clear. One could argue that it’s a ticking time bomb, that we must throw subtly out the window when dealing with such issues as the environment, let’s just hope nobody goes to the extreme measures Hawke’s character goes through. It is relieving that Schrader has for once received an Oscar nomination, but just as Scorsese received the Oscar for “The Departed”, for a far lesser work than the far greater “Goodfellas”, “Raging Bull”, and “Taxi Driver”, the nomination and acclaim is enthralling to see, and I would say it is earned because it’s certainly a really good film, but it’s just not a great one. The critics are certainly putting political emotions over being consistent, because let’s face it, the film is just a more polished, left-wing version of the faith based Christian films that are mostly panned, and it’s every bit as didactic. That being said you can’t deny how strong some of the writing and exchanges are, and like the Schrader tradition, the film builds towards a shocking climax about a Calvinist minister fighting for Christ’s core principles of loving the world we inhabit. It’s certainly a haunting film, and if anything hopefully newer audiences that are now getting acquainted with Schrader will discover more of his films.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

12. Dog Eat Dog (2016)

Schrader’s most depraved film in his filmography, but there is a purpose to the morally questionable tactics on display in this film. If anything Schrader is deconstructing the noir film genre, and he examines just how nasty and deranged the genre really is. Schrader is almost showing the genre as a dying one that has reached it’s final path. How much more can really be done with this genre? There is nothing else to transcend or even elevate it now thanks to the Coen Bros. Schrader just turns the genre upside down, and just makes it more dark and morally bankrupt about a group of three freshly released prisoners who quickly go back to their old habits and attempt to kidnap an infant for ransom, of course nothing goes as plan. What we get is some edgy dark humor, some solid suspense, and genre provocations in the vein of Michael Haneke. It’s a visually slick and undeniably fascinating noir caper that has colorful aesthetics along with a deranged performance by Willem Dafoe, and Nicholas Cage does a hilarious Bogart impression during the films dreamlike purgatory finale that ties everything together in what Schrader is saying and doing with the noir genre.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

13. Light of Day (1987)

Schrader has personally denounced this film, I find it a relief and it’s possibly Schrader’s lightest film of his career. It’s a mainly a rock-and-roll film that takes some melodramatic detours, but it’s still a joy to watch, despite some heavy emotional material the film has, the writing always pays off here. Michael J. Fox and Joan Jett are absolutely wonderful as a Joe and Patti, a brother-and-sister rock duo who play in bars around Cleveland. Patti is very focused and driven with her music that leads to her being negligent with her younger son, in which Joe mainly looks after. Meanwhile their mother played wonderfully by Gena Rowlands disapproves of Patti’s lifestyle choices, this causes huge tension between the family. While the film isn’t quite as visually arresting or technically elegant as something like “Mishima” or “Cat People”, the film rings true as a slice-of-life Midwestern film that is wholly enjoyable and fun. Michael J. Fox and Gena Rowlands are terrific in their roles here, and so is the music.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

14. The Canyons (2013)

Infamous upon release, mainly for the hatred and disdain the press and audiences had for Lindsey Lohan and her shenanigans that consisted of alcoholism, car accidents, and other reports of her being belligerent.  There were also numerous reports of the films production having a lot of problems with scheduling, financing, and going way over-budget, even for it’s limited 6 figure budget that was supposed to be a career booster for Lohan. The collaboration of Brent Easton Ellis and Paul Schrader was meant to be a dream team, but once the film was released it was wildly hated and panned by film critics. The film almost become like a tabloid, and what is interesting is to watch this film now 5 years upon it’s release it doesn’t feel as remotely as disastrous as it did then. The film is nowhere near as bad as the critics say it is, and what you will find is a deeply compelling film that holds some strong themes about narcissism, and yes while it has some soft-core nudity, Schrader’s direction here is actually absorbing, and what is accomplished on such a shoe string budget is indeed impressive. The film continues the signature of Brent Easton Ellis themes that observe shallow people living in inescapable worlds of moral decay. The film is not a great film, it does hit a lot of the same notes, but it’s not the disaster you are led to believe it is either. Porn actor James Deen is quite effective here, and it’s anything its more fascinating than it is scandalous. Filmmaker Gus Van Sant has a small role as a psychotherapist as well. How often can we say we saw that?

⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

15. Witch Hunt (1994) (Made for Cable)

Schrader’s made-for-cable film is perhaps the strangest film of his career. With campy humor in the vein of David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” with a wild blend of genres that includes noir and horror movie tropes, along with moments of parody, and a exuberant performance by the late Dennis Hopper. It’s quite funny to watch and very otherworldly. But the script is very ham-handed as it over drives it’s didactic parallels of the 1950’s McCarthy red scare. The effects are very clumsy and Erik Bogosian is over-the-top, especially the moment once a spell that’s cast on him comes off very ridiculous and just poorly executive. The first two acts of the film are strong, but it flies off the deep end towards the end while maintaining it’s strangeness. This would have been stronger had HBO turned it into a mini-series.

⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

16. Touch (1997)

Undeniably comical at times, along with a great cast, “Touch” was released in a time where everyone wanted to adapt Elmore Leonard after the critical and commercial success of the excellent “Get Shorty”. Schrader’s adaptation is the only one in that era that doesn’t involve crime, however it failed to find the audience and success “Get Shorty”, “Jackie Brown”, and “Out of Sight” had in the late 90’s. The film is highly watchable and certainly enjoyable, just not entirely successful. It’s overall a mixed-bag that doesn’t generate consistently, and the satire is lightly-sketched by its characters that consists of journalists and TV shows that are just ready to mock, exploit, or unravel the truth about a young man named Juvenal (Skeet Ulrich), a stigmatist healer that has the power of healing people with the touch of his hands. Christopher Walken plays Bill Hill, an evangelist opportunist who believes there is money and a career to be made off of Juvenile with book deals and TV appearances. He ends up persuading his old friend, Lyn (Bridget Fonda) to disguise herself as an alcoholic at the Catholic healing center Juvenal works at, but religious fanatic Auggy (Tom Arnold) takes matters in his own hands because he doesn’t want to see Juvenal exploited. While the film doesn’t have the same energy as the other, more well known Elmore Leonard adaptations, it was perceived of being a duller adaptation. Schrader certainly has a knack for Leonard’s voice, even if the film feels lightly sketched, you almost wish Schrader spent more time with some of the dynamic supporting cast of characters (Gina Gershon,  Janeane Garralofo) that are so comical, they get very little screen time.

⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

17. Forever Mine (1999)

Schrader here is certainly inspired by 1950’s melodramas, but here it comes off almost like unintended self-parody. Joseph Fiennes, plays a young cabana boy at a luxurious Miami beach resort, who ends up having an affair with an unhappy wife (Gretchon Mol) who is married to a cutthroat and wealthy businessman (Ray Liotta),  which leaves Fienne’s having a near-death experience that changes his life. Years later Fiennes is a disfigured criminal attorney who ends up helping Liotta out of some tough criminal charges, however the bad make-up effects are hard to swallow since neither Liotta or Mol recognize him, and it plays out like a few episodes of a drawn out soap opera that are just flat out implausible. Though with Liotta’s strong performance, the sun-bathed cinematography, along with some engaging and intimate moments prevent it from a total disaster.

⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

18. Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)

Schrader’s bold attempt to reboot the landmark horror franchise was just too expository in its theological ideas to make it a successful horror film. While far more mature and undeniably smarter than your typical horror movie that doesn’t depend on cheap jump scares, the film was originally shelved by Warner Bros., and Schrader’s version was scrapped, which allowed Morgan Creek Productions to hire Renny Harlin to rewrite and reshoot a far more traditional horror movie, which went onto to be a critical and commercial disaster. Morgan Creek brought Schrader back and they allowed him to work with editors. The film has a stellar opening of a Catholic priest (Stellan Skarsgard) sparring the lives of Jewish citizens under the brutal Nazi regime. Years later Skarsgard is now an archaeologist who discovers that a young boy in the community is possibly possessed by Satan while they dig for Egyptian artifacts in British occupied Kenya. The result is certainly a smart and compelling movie, and it is thoughtful, it just suffers from dated CGI and a climatic and ineffective third act that fails to get under your skin, or even horrify or scare you the way William Friedkin’s vision in the original did.

⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

19. Adam Resurrected (2008)

More commendable than anything in Schrader’s career, an adaptation of Yoram Kaniuk’s novel is about a Holocaust survivor played wonderfully by Jeff Goldblum, who in fact delivers an Oscar worthy nomination. The film is about Adam Stein (Goldblum) who attends a Israeli asylum that treats survivor’s trauma and grief. Stein was a showman before the Nazi regime took power in Berlin, years later when the Nazi soldiers detain and send his family off to concentrate camps, a brutal officer (Willem Dafoe again) recognizes Adam and adopts him as his own “Dog” which forces him to do tricks to humiliate and rob his dignity. Schrader has touches of Federico Fellini here, with outstanding visuals, striking flashback sequences, but the film aims to do too much. The scene of a young boy in the asylum acting like the dog becomes a little too much, and after a while it runs its course and the film becomes tedious.

⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

20. The Walker (2007)

Released in the era of Bush-era politics, that resulted in just more scandal, war, and corruption in Washington D.C, “The Walker” is almost like a companion piece to “American Gigolo” and it’s takes the classic “lonely man” movie tropes. The film is about a middle aged gay man, Carter Page III (Woody Harrelson) who walks wealthy men’s wives to social gatherings, opera’s, and dinners in Washington, D.C. Like “American Gigolo, Carter is framed for murder, and the film opens up quite promising, along with a great cast that includes such great veteran actresses as Lily Tomlin, Lauren Becall, and Kristen Scott Thomas. The film examines Carter’s alienation he endures from his profession, however the film missteps when it attempts at tying the mystery together. Overall the film is still a highly absorbing and engrossing film that shows the shady town of D.C., which is a town that can’t maintain it’s own loyalty due to double crosses and betrayal.

⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

21. Dying of the Light (2014)

Paul Schrader’s 2014 feature film “Dying of the Light” stars Nicholas Cage in another overwrought and overacted, but of course watchable performance as Evan Lake, a once respected CIA agent and veteran who is disgusted with how political and abusive the CIA has gotten under the Obama administration. He’s also fed up with how the government is wasting resources on pointless interventions in other parts of the world that only benefit special interests and defense contractors instead of benefiting the security of the country. Meanwhile the true enemies of the US are still left roaming and plotting terrorist attacks. The ideas and the writing on display in the film are to be searched for, but you can clearly see outside influences harming Schrader’s vision here with misplaced action scenes that feel rushed, choppy, and poorly staged. There is a lot of bad cuts here that just harms Schrader’s style. You can even see shaky cam after effects being replaced with Schrader’