Ron Howard? Has Bill Maher lost his mind?
I love Bill Maher’s attitude and comedy and watch “Real Time” without fail.
But I was totally stumped as to why he would devote a half-hour last week to an interview with Ron Howard. Especially on a special-edition show where the other half-hour was devoted to a one-on-one interview with Gore Vidal.
How do they even equate?
I mean, I sort of get it: Maher hurled brickbats, smashed icons and otherwise gave the finger to religion with his audaciously funny documentary, “Religulous,” last year. He has a constant stick up his ass about religion – and Howard has just directed a sequel to “The DaVinci Code,” which caused consternation within the Catholic Church. The new film, “Angels & Demons,” is sure to ruffle Vatican feathers as well.
But it’s not as though Howard is an iconoclast himself; he just happens to be directing a movie that caused controversy – not because he believed in its ideas but because it was based on a best-selling book and was a guaranteed box-office smash.
So why would Maher kiss Ron Howard’s ass, giving him the one-on-one treatment as though he were a major filmmaker? What – wasn’t Joel Schumacher available? Is Richard Donner dead? God knows there’s a long list of hacks of similar mediocrity.
I hate to be harsh about Howard. When I see him on TV, despite the beard and bald dome, I still see Opie and Richie Cunningham and Winthrop Paroo in “The Music Man” and even the snarly teen in “The Shootist.” (Whereas my 17-year-old son, who was watching Bill Maher with me, admitted that Howard just looked like “somebody’s dad.”) I’ve interviewed Howard a number of times over the years (beginning with “Cocoon”) and he’s always been gracious, articulate and friendly.
But a major filmmaker deserving of that kind of attention?
Please. That’s the kind of hagiography I expect from Turner Classics (which actually did run a Richard Schickel-produced career retrospective of Howard last year.)
Howard is a highly competent middle-brow movie director. Nothing wrong with that. Given a film as rousing and over-the-plate as, say, “Apollo 13,” Howard can hit it out of the park. (I still believe Howard deserved the Oscar for that film far more than Mel Gibson’s overlong, overrated “Braveheart”). Even last year’s “Frost/Nixon” showed that Howard had a mastery over a certain kind of material and an ability to work with actors that can’t be denied.
Give him a sweet-natured comedy – “Splash,” “Parenthood” – and he’s all over it. On the other side of the ledger: “Willow.” “The Paper.” “Edtv.” And – can I even type this without gagging? – “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
For that matter, there’s “A Beautiful Mind,” which gave mental illness a heroic Hollywood gloss – and “The DaVinci Code” itself, as lumbering a thriller as you’re likely to find. Even Tom Hanks looked bored during that one.
Perhaps some critic in the distant future will look back and crown Howard the king of some school of filmmaking that has yet to be recognized or named. It will be a stretch, even then.
But, for the moment, Howard is simply a successful commercial director. He’s no visionary, no ground-breaker, no voice-of-a-generation.
C’mon, Bill Maher – we expect you to be a little more discriminating than that.
April 15th, 2009 at 12:30 am
No one’s been accused of being a bigger snob than I, but come on! In terms of cultural impact, Howard is a major player. Do you really think Maher should have flown to Switzerland and talked to Godard? Maybe he should have given the half hour to Bela Tarr…
April 15th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
I think if you look a the films Ron Howard has made since winning the Oscar, they’ve all been of a decidedly adult tone and “The Da Vinci Code”, “Angels and Demons” and “Frost/Nixon” are challenging material. It’s worth Maher noting on his show how a major filmmaker isn’t bothering with “EdTV 2″, but is instead switching to more mature filmmaking.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Although Howard has had his share of misses (and most filmmakers do), he’s still a major force in the entertainment industry. Maher recognizes that, even if you don’t, but he was also intrigued by the step into politics Howard made this year with his viral video. A lot of us grew up with Ron Howard, watching him onscreen and and mature as a filmmaker. He may not be your cup of tea, but a lot of us take our tea without lemon.
April 16th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
You must have been reading my mind - and if you weren’t, you certainly articulated my reaction to the “interview”. I love me my Bill Maher, but found it quite shameful especially given the next half hour with Mr. Vidal. I guess we all make mistakes.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Equating Ron Howard’s work with Dick Donner and Joel Schumacher is absurd. You may not care for his films, but he has a number of excellent films in his body of work, and is in no way a hack. Do you really think that “Apollo 13″, “Ransom”, “A Beautiful Mind”, “Parenthood”, “Cocoon”, “Splash”, “The Missing”, “Cinderella Man”, and “Frost/Nixon”, the work of a hack? If so, you are seriously misguided.
April 20th, 2009 at 5:10 am
The answer to your question is yes, Bill Maher has lost his mind — or perhaps it was displaced by his expanding ego when the Bush folks warned him to watch what he said. Getting axed by a network and having to move to HBO was a boon to his career. The comedy is lame and too often takes the easy path at a time when poking fun at politicians and the crazies on the right is like shooting fish in a barrel. A little humor and a leftward slant can get you an adoring following these days (as Keith and Rachel have shown on MSNBC), but if you throw in a Lou Dobbs-like obsession with a single issue, you turn yourself into the mirror image of a lot of the people you spend a lot of time laughing at. Unlike my fellow respondents, I haven’t seen enough Ron Howard movies to assess whether you missed the boat there, but I’ve seen enough of Bill Maher to wonder why you are still watching.