haskell wexler

The Sundance Channel showed this really wonderful documentary called "Tell Them Who You Are" filmed and directed by Mark S. Wexler. It is a very touching and thought provoking documentary about his father, Haskell Wexler, who is one of the great cinematographers of the past 40 some odd years, having filmed "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", "American Graffiti", "Coming Home", "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolff?" and"Bound For Glory". He won an Academy Award for each of these last two films and was the cinematographer on dozens of others films, as well.


What makes this particular documentary truly universal is that it is more about the father-son relationship than Haskell Wexler's career...something all of us can relate to in many ways. In this case, a son trying to come into his own and establish his own identity behind a powerful controlling famous father. And by doing this documentary, one feels Mark S. Wexler has accomplished this difficult passage. He has made many documentaries before this one and will after this one, too...but this, it seems to me, is a true 'right of passage'. There is also the 'sins of the father' theme...Haskell Wexler's father was not exactly "Father Knows Best"...having said to his son Haskell, 'You can take a lot of money and turn it into shit!'.


There are many famous people who were interviewed for this film and even their participation is different because you feel that each of these people---like Martin Sheen and Jane Fonda and George Lucas and Conrad Hall and Sidney Poitier for instance, are terribly sympathetic to Mark Wexler and this difficult relationship. What I personally found so moving were the things that each of them said to Mark Wexler, on camera, about how important it was to make peace with one's parent before it is too late.


Jane Fonda's words were particularly sensitive and touching, having emerged herself from a difficult father-daughter relationship with a father who was larger than life and was also afraid of intimacy, as we see that Haskell Wexler is, too. She was so articulate and spoke in such a caring manner....I found that quite moving and actually her words were very very profound, too. What she said probably resonated to me more than the other people who were filmed, having had a larger than life father myself. I plan to get the DVD for myself because one of the 'extras' on it is more of these interviews in a fuller and more extensive way.

There is a scene where Haskell Wexler goes to visit Marian Wexler---his ex wife and Marks mother--at the place she lives now because she suffers from Alzheimers....This too was deeply touching. Haskell W. was so moved by his ex-wife's (they were married for thirty years) plight and the memory's of the good times, that we see him cry. Somehow this very angry prickly passionate man being moved to tears melts one's heart in a way that brings me to tears as a write this.

Of course there is quite a bit about the film business and Wexler's struggle with his need to control the films he shot and the film director's he worked with....This is very interesting, too, because this is not an easy man in any way...But, he was and is a genius, behind the camera. He is forgiven much because of this. But to be his child growing up in his shadow----Oh My Lord! This had to be incredibly difficult and in some ways, impossible. But Mark S. Wexler not only has survived his childhood but he rose above it to where he is a very productive member of society, having become this wonderful Documentary film maker himself. Here he is with his father, still the hard task master, waving his finger at his son

In many ways this is a painful film to watch because Haskell Wexler is continually critical of his son. But, it is very much worth seeing on so very many levels...to the final frame, believe me. As a piece of film history, of course. But more important I think, there is much to be learned from the journey that Mark S. Wexler took by making this film about his father in the first place.

An interesting side note: The Wexler's lived up the hill from me for many many years. I never met Haskell Wexler or his son, Mark. But I did know Marks mother, Marian. She was a very fine artist and during those years --the 60's and early 70's--the Los Angeles Art Scene was much smaller than it is now. I never knew her terribly well, but she was a very strong presence if you were in her presence. A woman with strong beliefs and convictions...which I always find attractive! A very definite personality and someone I never forgot. It is terribly sad to me to think of her in the state she is in now. Their home on Oporto was one of the older wonderful Spanish Style houses built in the late twenties and early thirties...A great looking house, now with so much foliage covering much of it, it was difficult to photograph. But, here it is, anyway....

I cannot say enough about this film and the meaningful experience I had being able to see it. If you are interested in family relationships do yourself a big favor and put this film on the top of your "must see" list! You won't be sorry.



A QUIZ, A QUIZ, A QUIZ, A QUIZ, A QUIZ, A QUIZ

Can anyone tell me who the people in the picture below are? Awwwww give it a try....Come on and guess....This is just for the fun of it you know?....What the heck, why not try? Leave the answer in your comments....!

More To Come.....