Harold Becker

by D.K. Holm

Birthday unknown, New York City; --

Films as director and producer:

arold Becker's identity is so aligned with the world of Joseph Wambaugh that it is easy to miss the truly defining characteristic of his career: whether by accident or design, Becker was there at the creation for many actors who went on to at least some measure of stardom. The list of future names peeking around the scenery of his movies is impressive: Victoria Tennent in the early Daughter; James Woods, Ted Danson, and Christopher Lloyd in Onion Field; Michael Dudikoff in Marble; Sean Penn and Tom Cruise in Taps; Matthew Modine, Daphne Zuniga, Forest Whitaker (and Madonna) in Vision Quest; Ellen Barkin and John Goodman in Sea of Love.

Becker brings an almost documentary quality to some of his films, but the attempt at kitchen sink subject matter in Daughter and strict The Wrong Man-style realism of Onion is not carried through to the the often preposterous tales he tells in later films. He tends to make dark, grainy works, almost black and white but happening, due to the exigencies of commercial cinema, to be in color. He seems drawn loosely to tales of men in crisis; young or old, his heroes are poised at some crucial moment of transition that will change the rest of their lives.

That few of these movies were star making vehicles in and of themselves suggests that Becker is not tapped into the Zeitgeist and that the flaw of his career is one he shares with so many other directors - - absorption of a once original personality (as seen in Daughter) into the generally commercial and impersonal projects Hollywood offers and proffers. If he is more a casting director than a director, this means simply that actors love him (though he tends to work with them once and no longer), and as such he is dependent on good, clever screenplays, such as the brilliant and underrated Malice, credited to Aaron Sorkin and Jonas McCord, and the initally gripping but ultimately disappointing City Hall, credited to Ken Lipper and Paul Schrader. When Becker has neither the cast nor the script, you get dull disasters such as Mercury Rising.

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