Andrew Davis (director)
Andrew Davis | |
|---|---|
 Davis in 2024 | |
| Born | November 21, 1946 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (B.A., 1968) |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer |
| Years active | 1969–present |
| Father | Nathan Davis |
| Relatives | Richie Davis (brother) |
| Website | andrewdavisfilms |
Andrew Davis (born November 21, 1946) is an American filmmaker, known for having directed several successful action and thriller films during the 1980s and 1990s.[1] His best known works include Above the Law (1988), Under Siege (1992), The Fugitive (1993), Chain Reaction (1996), A Perfect Murder (1998), and Holes (2003). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director and a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film for The Fugitive.
Early life and education
[edit]Davis was born on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, and has directed several films using Chicago as a backdrop. He is the son of actor Nathan Davis and Metta Davis, and the brother of musician Richard "Richie" Peter Davis (co-founder of the cover band Chicago Catz) and Jo Ellen Friedman. Davis had his father fill out many character roles throughout the years, notably as the grandfather to Shia LaBeouf's character in the Disney film Holes. Davis' paternal grandparents were Romanian Jewish immigrants.
After attending the Harand Camp of the Theater Arts summer camp program and Bowen High School, Davis went on to study journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was issued a degree in journalism in 1968.[2] It was not long before his interest in civil rights and anti-war issues converged with his growing interest in filmmaking.
Davis was mentored by cinematographer and director Haskell Wexler,
Career
[edit]1969 - 1978: Early works to directorial breakthrough
[edit]For the 1969 film Medium Cool, Davis was mentored by cinematographer and director Haskell Wexler with whom he worked on Medium Cool. Wexler and Davis reunited in 2014 to discuss the film before a screening at the Pollock Theater on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara.[3]
Davis continued his film career as a director of photography for the films Cool Breeze (1972),[4] Private Parts (1972),[5] Hit Man (1972),[6] and The Slams (1973).[7]
In 1975, Davis was credited for his writing, cinematography, and producing for the family film Paco, directed by Robert Vincent O'Neil and starring José Ferrer and Allen Garfield.[8]Also in 1975, Davis was the director of photography for Menahem Golan's Lepke.[9]
Afterwards he worked on two Charles Band films Mansion of the Doomed (1976) as cinematographer,[10] and Crash! (1977) as director of photography.[11]
On this period of his life Davis said "when I went to work for Gene Corman for Cool Breeze, Hit Man, Private Parts , and The Slams, they had small $300,000 budgets or less. It allowed me to see what it took to make a movie. I worked with first time directors, learned with them, and could recommend things, so I was able to get my hands in the works. Everybody was a character. When I worked with Menahem Golan for Lepke, I got to shoot in 35mm anamorphic Panavision and Tony Curtis was a big actor. There were fancy sets and arclights, so it was a big deal for me. I worked on some other really small movies with Charles Band like Crash! and Mansion of the Doomed. I did this because I wanted to see what it was like to make a movie for very little money. This allowed me to later say ‘let’s try to make Stony Island’."[12]
His first feature film as a director was the 1978 semi-biographical picture Stony Island. The film had a theatrical release in 1978 and was eventually released on DVD on April 24, 2012.[13] Stony Island centered on young musicians forming a band in their impoverished south side neighborhood. The film stars veteran musicians like saxophone player Gene Barge and soul singer Ronnie Barron as well as relative newcomers like Dennis Franz, Edward "Stony" Robinson, Rae Dawn Chong, Susanna Hoffs and Davis brother Richie Davis. Roger Ebert describes the movie in a 2012 article, "The energy, I gather, came in large part from the performers themselves. The movie is more or less based on fact; the director and co-writer, Andy Davis, has a brother, Richie Davis who was the last white kid on the block down on Stony Island, and actually was involved in a band something like the one in the movie."[14]
1979 - 1985: continued career and action film breakthrough
[edit]Moving forward, Davis was credited as director of photography for the film Hot Rod (1979),[15] Over the Edge (1979),[16] and Angel (1983).[17] He was a second unit cinematographer on Robert Downey Sr.'s 1980 film Up the Academy.
In 1981, Davis directed a horror film titled The Final Terror, which was released in 1983. The film was produced by Joe Roth and features several early performances from stars like Rachel Ward, Daryl Hannah, and Joe Pantoliano, among others. Davis co-wrote a screenplay for a Harry Belafonte project Beat Street which was a rap musical featuring breakdancing and the street music culture of early eighties New York City. Mike Medavoy and Orion Pictures tapped Davis to direct the Chuck Norris vehicle, Code of Silence.
1986 - 1993: Major successes and wide recognition
[edit]Davis co-wrote, produced and directed a film titled Above the Law for Warner Brothers in 1988. This film is most notable for being the feature film debut of Steven Seagal. Davis then went back to Orion with his project The Package, working with Gene Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones.
Davis brought Jones with him to his next project, which was originally titled Dreadnaught but eventually carried the title Under Siege. In the picture Davis re-teamed with Seagal to create the top grossing fall film of 1992.
His 1993 film The Fugitive received seven Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, while Jones won for Best Supporting Actor, which is his only Oscar win to date. The Academy ultimately gave the 1993 Best Picture award to Schindler's List. That year Davis was also honored with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director by the Hollywood Foreign Press. The Directors Guild of America nominated him for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Direction.
Roger Ebert reviewed The Fugitive in 1993. He commented: "Andrew Davis' The Fugitive is one of the best entertainments of the year, a tense, taut and expert thriller that becomes something more than that, an allegory about an innocent man in a world prepared to crush him." Ebert observed that "Davis paints with bold visual strokes" and that he "transcends genre and shows an ability to marry action and artistry that deserves comparison with Hitchcock, yes, and also with David Lean and Carol Reed."[18]
1995 to 2019: Subsequent films to hiatus
[edit]Davis continued directing big budget adventures throughout the 1990s including Steal Big Steal Little, Chain Reaction, and A Perfect Murder.
In the fall of 2001, Davis was set to release Warner Brother's Collateral Damage starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, the initial release date was pushed in an effort to be sensitive to the tragedies of 9/11, as the film's plot and content too closely echoed the tragedy. The film was finally released theatrically in 2002.[19]
In 2003, Davis directed Holes, an adaptation of Louis Sachar's book by the same name, for the Walt Disney Company starring Shia LaBeouf, Sigourney Weaver, Patricia Arquette, Tim Blake Nelson, and Jon Voight.[20] The film is about a boy who is sent to a mysterious juvenile detention camp where he uncovers buried secrets. Davis chose to direct Holes to show he was capable of making more than action films such as The Fugitive and Collateral Damage. He encouraged author Sachar to participate in the production and adapt the novel into a screenplay. To break down the novel's action into a film, Davis and Sachar storyboarded over 100 scenes on 3-by-5 note cards, each of which had specific time allotments. Sachar said Davis "went through and said, 'Now as you rewrite it, this card should take half a minute, this one should take three minutes, this one should take one minute, and so on.'"[21] The film went on to receive favorable reviews.[22] A.O. Scott's review in The New York Times called it "the best film released by an American studio so far this year".[23] In the US the film grossed $67,406,573 theatrically, and $56.2 million on home video.[24]
Davis filmed the Disney/Touchstone feature film, The Guardian in 2006. The film focuses on the Rescue Swimmers of the U.S. Coast Guard and stars Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. Costner plays a legendary rescue swimmer who returns to the training facility to bring up the next generation of swimmers, including a rescue swimmer played by Kutcher. Production was halted when the film's New Orleans location was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. The real-life Coast Guard advisers on the film were immediately deployed to rescue victims of the storm.
Afterwards Davis went on a hiatus, he explained that "the things that were being offered to me were bad action movies that I didn’t want to do. I became busy developing my own films, and then I was marrying children, burying parents, and being a grandfather."[12]
2020 to present: Current work
[edit]In 2020, Davis released his documentary Mentors—Toni & Santi at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.[25] It is the relationship between two renowned photographers, Santi Visalli, 87, and Tony Vaccaro, 97, characterized by friendship and a mentor-protégé dynamic. Davis made Mentors: Tony & Santi as a labor of love, After an encounter where Visalli credited Vaccaro as a pivotal influence on his life. It moved Davis, who recognized the opportunity to explore not only their relationship but also the broader themes of mentorship and creativity. With access to their vast photographic archives, Davis crafted a documentary that celebrates their personal and professional journeys while reflecting on the profound impact of mentorship on art.[26] Matt Fagerholm of RogerEbert.com called it "a gem" and explained that Davis enriches Mentors with endearing moments of the subjects' personalities, like playful banter and lighthearted remarks, instead of being strictly biographical. Fagerholm also pointed out the opening, and said that Davis powerfully captures the emotional warmth of a reunion between two friends and collaborators.[25]
In April 2024 in France at the Reims Polar Film Festival, Davis was the guest of honor with a career tribute ceremony. Stony Island was also featured at the 25th anniversary of Ebertfest in Champaign Illinois in April 2024 featuring a live performance by the films costar and Davis’ brother Richie Davis, and his band, The Chicago Catz.
In 2024, Davis published his first novel, which he co-wrote with Jeff Biggers, the thriller Disturbing the Bones.[27] Jim Hemphill of IndieWire said that "one of the great pleasures of Disturbing the Bones is the wealth of detail that accumulates from page one and never lets up."[28]
Filmography
[edit]Film
[edit]| Year | Title | Director | Producer | Writer | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Paco | No | Associate | Yes | Also cinematographer |
| 1978 | Stony Island | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1983 | The Final Terror | Yes | No | No | Also cinematographer |
| 1985 | Code of Silence | Yes | No | No | |
| 1988 | Above the Law | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1989 | The Package | Yes | Co-producer | No | |
| 1992 | Under Siege | Yes | No | No | |
| 1993 | The Fugitive | Yes | No | No | |
| 1995 | Steal Big Steal Little | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1996 | Chain Reaction | Yes | Yes | No | |
| 1998 | A Perfect Murder | Yes | No | No | |
| 2002 | Collateral Damage | Yes | No | No | |
| 2003 | Holes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| 2006 | The Guardian | Yes | No | No | |
| 2020 | Mentors - Tony & Santi | Yes | No | Yes | Documentary |
Cinematographer only
[edit]| Year | Title | Director | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | Cool Breeze | Barry Pollack | |
| Private Parts | Paul Bartel | ||
| Hit Man | George Armitage | ||
| 1973 | The Slams | Jonathan Kaplan | |
| 1975 | Lepke | Menahem Golan | |
| 1976 | Mansion of the Doomed | Michael Pataki | |
| The Stronger | Lee Grant | Short film | |
| 1977 | Crash! | Charles Band | |
| 1979 | Over the Edge | Jonathan Kaplan | |
| Hot Rod | George Armitage | ||
| 1980 | Up the Academy | Robert Downey Sr. | 2nd unit photography |
| 1984 | Angel | Robert Vincent O'Neil |
Awards and honors
[edit]| Institution | Year | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago Film Critics Association | 1994 | Best Director | The Fugitive | Nominated |
| Chicago International Film Festival | 1978 | Gold Hugo | Stony Island | Nominated |
| Directors Guild of America Awards | 1994 | Outstanding Directing – Feature Film | The Fugitive | Nominated |
| Golden Globe Awards | 1994 | Best Director | Nominated |
References
[edit]- ^ Weinraub, Bernard (October 26, 1992). "The Talk of Hollywood; Director Who Blends Action With a Bit of Art". The New York Times. Retrieved December 14, 2010.
- ^ Kagan, Jeremy (April 26, 2000). "Biography 1994". Directors Close Up. USA: Focal Press. p. 223. ISBN 0240804066 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Flores, Gilberto (November 27, 2013). "'Medium Cool' Revisited". The Bottom Line. Associated Students of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Retrieved February 25, 2014.
- ^ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
- ^ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
- ^ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
- ^ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
- ^ "Paco". TVGuide.com. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
- ^ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
- ^ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
- ^ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
- ^ a b "Made in Chicago: Andrew Davis on his Career and Disturbing the Bones (CIFF 2024)". FilmInt.nu. November 13, 2024. Archived from the original on January 28, 2025. Retrieved January 28, 2025.
- ^ Bey, Lee (April 4, 2012). "Revisiting 'Stony Island': Soulful 1970s Chicago cult film hits the streets again". WBEZ91.5. Archived from the original on June 5, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (November 24, 1978). "Stony Island". RogerEbert.com (Review). Retrieved February 25, 2014.
- ^ "Hot Rod". TVGuide.com. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
- ^ "Over the Edge". TVGuide.com. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
- ^ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (August 6, 1993). "The Fugitive" (Review). RogerEbert.com. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (February 8, 2002). "Collateral Damage". RogerEbert.com (Review). Retrieved February 26, 2014.
- ^ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Archived from the original on January 27, 2025. Retrieved January 27, 2025.
- ^ Debruge, Peter (April 18, 2003). "Dig Deeper". The Austin Chronicle. Archived from the original on February 10, 2023. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
- ^ Holes at Rotten Tomatoes
- ^ Scott, A. O. (April 18, 2003). "Holes (2003) Holes (2003) FILM REVIEW; Not Just for Children, a Suspenseful Allegory of Greed, Fate and Racism". The New York Times. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
- ^ "Year End 2003 Top-selling titles (combined VHS and DVD)". variety.com. December 31, 2003. Archived from the original on January 27, 2025. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
- ^ a b "SBIFF 2020: The Night, Mentors—Tony & Santi | Festivals & Awards | Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com. January 19, 2020. Archived from the original on January 27, 2025. Retrieved January 27, 2025.
- ^ Woodard, Josef (January 15, 2020). "SBIFF: Andrew Davis Interviewed". The Santa Barbara Independent. Archived from the original on January 27, 2025. Retrieved January 27, 2025.
- ^ "Chicago filmmaker Andrew Davis debuts first thriller novel 'Disturbing the Bones'". ABC7 Chicago. October 23, 2024. Archived from the original on January 28, 2025. Retrieved January 28, 2025.
- ^ Hemphill, Jim (October 23, 2024). "The Director of 'The Fugitive' Returns to What He Does Best — but Not on the Big Screen". IndieWire. Archived from the original on February 1, 2025. Retrieved February 1, 2025.
