Ticket 2 Ride

A lot of people won’t know the name: Ed Zwick. If you mention the Civil War film, Glory, or the television series, thirtysomething, there might be a faint recollection.

The truth is, unless you are Spielberg, Tarantino, Eastwood, Abrams, Nolan or a Marvel director, people don’t know directors. Ed Zwick has a great body of television and films he’s written, produced or directed, going all the way back to the 1980s.

Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood (2024, Gallery) is a really good read about Zwick’s career and his life. It’s not a coincidence that Zwick is a fine writer because he is a fine writer. Zwick is known for his partnership with Marshall Herskovitz, and their company, The Bedford Falls Company.

Zwick fills his book with stories, as one might expect from someone with a forty-plus year career in Hollywood, but he mostly avoids what would fill tabloids. He does unload on Harvey Weinstein regarding Shakespeare in Love, and if you read the book or interviews, you can find out the story. Mostly, the stories are film-related, and quite interesting, at least to me.

Zwick is a director much like his friend/mentor Sydney Pollock, someone who moves between genres without being tagged with a type of film or even an attributed film style. Zwick addresses this issue by saying he was never interested in being known as an auteur-type, imposing a style on a story or film. He says elevating the story and the performances is the objective, that’s his job as a director.

Zwick is known as an “actor’s director,” a term he dislikes. It’s about supporting the best performances, and the director better be focused on that.

Zwick also addresses the issue that filmmakers have a responsibility to use the power of the medium. “For better and worse, though my films haven’t always been entirely successful in addressing what I saw as urgent social and political issues, I suppose you could say what I’ve wanted is a place at the table.”

The story of the making of Glory is one of the best in the book. Denzel Washington had a deeply emotional and important scene to film, in front of a large group, where Washington’s character is whipped, is gut-wrenching just to read about it. I’ve never seen Glory, I’m not a Civil War fan, but I might make an exception to see this film.

“But something told me there was more to be mined,” Zwick recalled. “I told Denzel we needed to adjust something at camera and that we would do the scene only once more.”

Instead of cutting the scene where it was written to end, Zwick had it continue, without discussing it with Washington. As the whip’s lashing continued, Washington began to show what Zwick knew the character was experiencing, but was controlling.

The lashing pushed Washington deeper and deeper into the experience as the camera captured it all. A risky thing to do, but Washington delivered something beyond how the scene played out in earlier takes. Denzel Washington would be presented with an Academy Award for this role.

It’s interesting to read Zwick retell the period following Glory, a successful and revered film, when he enjoyed being the at the top of everyone’s list. He turned down Thelma & Louise for Leaving Normal, a flop. The phone stopped ringing for a while. Failure teaches one a lot, if you are willing to embrace it.

These lessons are listed at the end of each chapter, advice to young filmmakers, especially directors in charge of a crew of professionals, but also wisdom fitting for life in general. This book is Zwick’s journey, as a filmmaker, but more about being a decent person and appreciating the contributions of others in your education and success. Zwick’s father was one of his greatest teachers, of what not to be. Hollywood is an exceeding difficult place to navigate the values that Zwick holds as desired human capital.

Another intriguing story involved Shakespeare in Love, the film that Julia Roberts mysteriously dropped out of and that nearly defied being made. Even more incredibly, it beat Saving Private Ryan for the Best Film Oscar.

“How can a comedy about a sixteenth-century playwright be compared to a drama about the men who died on Omaha Beach?” Zwick recounts. “I look out into the audience and see Steven Spielberg. He’s sitting in an aisle seat so he’d be ready to come onstage if his name was called. He is stone-faced and looks upset. His marvelous film has just lost. Does that make him a loser?”

Hollywood is a strange place indeed. If you want a great read about success and failure in modern Hollywood, Zwick provides a ringside seat. He encountered both, and came through it with his marriage intact, his sanity, an Academy Award and a bunch of Emmy Awards, and some great stories.

Final thought.

“After all this time, I have come to understand that there are four ways to measure a movie’s success and the first three don’t count.Box office is a false accounting, critics no longer matter, and awards are forgotten within days. Time is the only measure.”

4.5/5

Select television and film:

Family series, story editor/writer

thirtysomething (1978-1991) series, creator/executive producer/writer/director

About Last Night (1986) director

Glory (1989) director

Legends of the Fall (1994) producer/director

My So Called Life (1994-95) series, executive director

Courage Under Fire (1996) director

The Siege (1998) screenplay/director/producer

Shakespeare in Love (1998) producer

Once and Again (1999-2001) series, co-creator/executive producer/writer/director

Traffic (2000) producer

I Am Sam (2001) producer

The Last Sumurai (2003) screenplay/director/producer

Blood Diamond (2006) producer/director

Defiance (2008) screenplay/director/producer

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016) screenplay/director

Nashville series, executive producer/writer