On founding the Austin Film Society, Linklater said with a laugh, “[As I got into films] I realized no one could really keep up with me.” He added that he got used to going to films alone, but started to notice others doing the same. “Eventually after a few months, you start noticing the other loners and you eventually get the courage and say, ‘Hey, man’,” as the audience burst into laughter, “truth is that’s how it started, just an odd collection of weirdos.” He recalled that growing up he didn’t have access to many films in Austin, so this is a nice way of giving the gift of cinema back to the community he grew up in.
Linklater is also a huge fan of the CinemaScope era, mentioning Otto Preminger and Vincente Minnelli as the masters of the form. The technique was developed and used heavily in the late 1950s and was used to shoot widescreen movies. “Some Came Running” by Minnelli perfected the use of CinemaScope, as one of the film’s most famous scenes would not have been possible without it. “This film is absolutely one of my favorites, “ Linklater said proudly, “and one of Shirley MacLaine’s best roles.” Dean Martin himself said that his character in the film was one of his favorite roles.
In “The Long Goodbye” by Robert Altman, Linklater noted that in addition to the use of CinemaScope, Altman made a choice to keep an obvious flaw in the film. “When Elliot Gould drops the cigarette,” Linklater says, “I realized it was a flaw that the director opted to keep in the film. It was a choice he made because it worked for the scene. It felt real.” Once again Linklater expresses his commitment to realness and how these real moments stood out to him most in film. In terms of technique, “the camera is always moving,“ Linklater said of Altman’s work, “he was the master of the zoom in, while Hitchcock was the master of the zoom out.”
The final film discussed was cult favorite “Two Lane Black Top.” “The way it ended,” Linklater said, “you just think f*ck yeah! To have this idea and the courage to just go all the way with it is beautiful.” He likened this to the end of his film “Slacker” as echoing that same sentiment. “That’s my own version of that,” he said fondly. Even though the last sequence of “Two Lane Black Top” is all internalized, “the way the sound goes away,” Linklater said, ”it was beautifully impressionistic and brilliantly done.”
With all these influences, it’s no wonder that Richard Linklater’s work is some of the most recognized and remembered in American cinema, and it’s not a surprise that “Last Flag Flying” is being hailed as one of his best.
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