By Erin Free
FilmInk salutes the work of creatives who have never truly received the credit that they deserve. In this installment: director Jeff Kanew, who helmed Natural Enemies, Revenge Of The Nerds and Tough Guys.
Considering the ultimate trajectory of his career, no director’s debut feature film could be less indicative of what was to come than that of Jeff Kanew…which could certainly also have something to do with why he remains such an under celebrated filmmaker, despite boasting a number of major successes on his decades-deep resume.
In 1979, Kanew proved himself a potentially daring and provocative voice with his powerful adaptation of Julius Horowitz’s novel Natural Enemies. A tough watch even by the standards of that often tough and deeply introspective cinematic decade that was the 1970s, this quietly searing drama tracks the anguished interior life of magazine editor/founder Paul Steward (Hal Holbrook), who has made the grim decision to murder his manic-depressive wife (Louise Fletcher) and three children, and then turn the gun on himself. Throughout the day on which he has chosen to do the horrific deed, Paul works his way through coded discussions with a number of heavy thinkers (the magazine he runs goes deep on philosophy and intellectualism) on his precarious mental state, and the horribly destructive nature of what he has chosen to do. Being the 1970s, Paul also discusses these issues with the five happy-to-chat prostitutes he engages for an end-of-life bucket-list orgy.
In terms of subject matter, Natural Enemies is about as serious and cerebral as it gets. Intelligently and sensitively adapted by Jeff Kanew himself, and beautifully performed by quietly reliable powerhouses Hal Holbrook and Louise Fletcher, Natural Enemies is a truly impressive debut feature, rich with ideas and uncompromised in its willingness to explore and debate them. Since its release, however, the film has pretty much disappeared from view, despite its very high degree of quality. With a start like this, writer/director Jeff Kanew looked like a certainty for a future making equally serious films…but things didn’t exactly turn out that way.
Born in 1944, Jeff Kanew began his film career as an editor, cutting trailers for many movies throughout the 1970s. He has continued editing as a successful sideline to his directing career, even cutting Robert Redford’s meditative 1980 modern classic Ordinary People. Kanew’s rep in the editing room led to his first film as a director, the 1972 documentary Black Rodeo, a fascinating time capsule detailing the unlikely events surrounding the first ever performance of an all-black rodeo, which took place in New York. From this rollicking doco (which features Muhammad Ali, B.B King, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Little Richard, with narration by screen legend Woody Strode), Kanew then changed gears dramatically and went into 1979’s uncompromising Natural Enemies.
From there, Kanew shifted gears again, taking the helm of 1983’s action-drama Eddie Macon’s Run, an adaptation of James McLendon’s novel. Now largely forgotten, the film was a vehicle for Dukes Of Hazzard star John Schneider, who acquits himself quite nicely as the title character, a small-time crim who breaks out of prison and heads cross country to Mexico, where he plans to reunite with his wife and son. On his tail is a wily, determined penal system officer played by Kirk Douglas in a characteristically full-bodied performance. Eddie Macon’s Run is a rock-solid action drama, with director Jeff Kanew crafting both requisite tension and likeable characters through his cogent screenplay and well-paced direction. Like Natural Enemies, however, the film remains largely forgotten today, though it’s well worth a look, especially for Kirk Douglas completists.
If Eddie Macon’s Run disappeared from view, the high visibility and longevity of Kanew’s next film has certainly made up for it. Though his first director-for-hire work, 1984’s Revenge Of The Nerds is regardless the film with which Kanew is most associated. A big hit financially, this teen comedy (which can be seen as something of a precedent for the TV phenomenon The Big Bang Theory) flips the script and forefronts a group of college nerds as heroes. Led by Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards (and featuring Curtis Armstrong as the justifiably beloved Booger), these put upon misfits and outcasts who favour brains over brawn defeat bullies and college jerks, and even get the girl. Though dated and deeply problematic today (especially, like most 1980s flicks, with regards to its treatment of its female characters), this is the very definition of a film with its heart in the right place. It’s funny and relatively smart, and the characters are suitably loveable.
“[20th Century Fox studio head] Joe Wizan sent me several scripts,” Jeff Kanew has explained of his involvement with the film. “One was Bachelor Party, one was Gimme an ‘F’, about cheerleader camp, and the other was Revenge Of The Nerds. I said, ‘That sounds stupid.’ But I realized, ‘I relate to this.’” Jeff Kanew wasn’t the only one who could relate to the film’s put-upon nerds, and their ultimate payback on those that have made their lives hell. The film was a huge hit, and it went on to inspire three sequels (two of them for TV) of considerably diminished quality. Kanew opted not to return after the first film, leaving the Revenge Of The Nerds franchise in the hands of others.
Kanew did, however, reunite with his Revenge Of The Nerds star, Anthony Edwards, for his next film. A fun, enjoyable action comedy, 1985’s poorly titled Gotcha! showcased Kanew’s most obvious gift as a filmmaker, namely his ability to maintain a light, frothy, comedic vibe while occasionally veering into slightly more serious territory. Though ostensibly the story of a naïve college student caught up in international espionage courtesy of Linda Fiorentino’s mysterious femme fatale, there’s some nice character building in amongst the teen flick tropes (as in most 1980s youth movies, the main male character is obsessed with “losing it”) and action beats, and Gotcha! certainly makes for easy, solidly directed viewing.
Flexing his action comedy muscles once again, Kanew’s next film was even better. Kicking off with the delightful teaming of vintage Hollywood mainstays and frequent co-stars Kirk Douglas (who had, of course, starred for Kanew in Eddie Macon’s Run) and Burt Lancaster (the duo meshed wonderfully in superior flicks like Gunfight At The OK Corral and Seven Days In May), 1986’s Tough Guys is an endearingly nostalgic delight. Giving it everything they’ve got, Douglas and Lancaster are terrific as two ageing crooks who get out of prison after decades inside and then have trouble fitting into the modern world. Though some elements of the film haven’t aged well, it’s difficult not to smile as Lancaster and Douglas cook up a crazy scheme to rob a train as a means to get their respective criminal mojos back. And how could you not like a film which features Kirk Douglas slam dancing at a Red Hot Chili Peppers club show???!!
Kanew is yet to top the rollicking, sweet-natured Tough Guys, though he’s certainly made some entertaining flicks in the years since, nicely showcasing Shelley Long’s comic skills in 1989’s amusing fish-out-of-water flick Troop Bevery Hills, and Kathleen Turner’s breathy brand of sexy, funny self-assurance in the 1991 Sara Paretsky adaptation V.I Warshawski. Neither film did huge business at the box office, and neither did Kanew’s later broad, silly comedies Adam & Eve (2005) and The Legend Of Awesomest Maximus (2011). Kanew also briefly returned to the kind of seriousness that he waded into with his debut feature Natural Enemies in the grim form of 2003’s Babij Jar, a potent drama set against the Nazi slaughter of 33,000 Ukrainian Jews in 1941.
A quietly skilled director of briskly paced, unashamedly commercial action comedies, Jeff Kanew is also prone to intense moments of deep, meditative, which combine to make him a truly fascinating Unsung Auteur.
If you liked this story, check out our features on other unsung auteurs Robert Butler, Leigh Chapman, Joe Camp, John Patrick Shanley, William Peter Blatty, Peter Clifton, Peter R. Hunt, Shaun Grant, James B. Harris, Gerald Wilson, Patricia Birch, Buzz Kulik, Kris Kristofferson, Rick Rosenthal, Kirsten Smith & Karen McCullah, Jerrold Freeman, William Dear, Anthony Harvey, Douglas Hickox, Karen Arthur, Larry Peerce, Tony Goldwyn, Brian G. Hutton, Shelley Duvall, Robert Towne, David Giler, William D. Wittliff, Tom DeSimone, Ulu Grosbard, Denis Sanders, Daryl Duke, Jack McCoy, James William Guercio, James Goldstone, Daniel Nettheim, Goran Stolevski, Jared & Jerusha Hess, William Richert, Michael Jenkins, Robert M. Young, Robert Thom, Graeme Clifford, Frank Howson, Oliver Hermanus, Jennings Lang, Matthew Saville, Sophie Hyde, John Curran, Jesse Peretz, Anthony Hayes, Stuart Blumberg, Stewart Copeland, Harriet Frank Jr & Irving Ravetch, Angelo Pizzo, John & Joyce Corrington, Robert Dillon, Irene Kamp, Albert Maltz, Nancy Dowd, Barry Michael Cooper, Gladys Hill, Walon Green, Eleanor Bergstein, William W. Norton, Helen Childress, Bill Lancaster, Lucinda Coxon, Ernest Tidyman, Shauna Cross, Troy Kennedy Martin, Kelly Marcel, Alan Sharp, Leslie Dixon, Jeremy Podeswa, Ferd & Beverly Sebastian, Anthony Page, Julie Gavras, Ted Post, Sarah Jacobson, Anton Corbijn, Gillian Robespierre, Brandon Cronenberg, Laszlo Nemes, Ayelat Menahemi, Ivan Tors, Amanda King & Fabio Cavadini, Cathy Henkel, Colin Higgins, Paul McGuigan, Rose Bosch, Dan Gilroy, Tanya Wexler, Clio Barnard, Robert Aldrich, Maya Forbes, Steven Kastrissios, Talya Lavie, Michael Rowe, Rebecca Cremona, Stephen Hopkins, Tony Bill, Sarah Gavron, Martin Davidson, Fran Rubel Kuzui, Elliot Silverstein, Liz Garbus, Victor Fleming, Barbara Peeters, Robert Benton, Lynn Shelton, Tom Gries, Randa Haines, Leslie H. Martinson, Nancy Kelly, Paul Newman, Brett Haley, Lynne Ramsay, Vernon Zimmerman, Lisa Cholodenko, Robert Greenwald, Phyllida Lloyd, Milton Katselas, Karyn Kusama, Seijun Suzuki, Albert Pyun, Cherie Nowlan, Steve Binder, Jack Cardiff, Anne Fletcher ,Bobcat Goldthwait, Donna Deitch, Frank Pierson, Ann Turner, Jerry Schatzberg, Antonia Bird, Jack Smight, Marielle Heller, James Glickenhaus, Euzhan Palcy, Bill L. Norton, Larysa Kondracki, Mel Stuart, Nanette Burstein, George Armitage, Mary Lambert, James Foley, Lewis John Carlino, Debra Granik, Taylor Sheridan, Laurie Collyer, Jay Roach, Barbara Kopple, John D. Hancock, Sara Colangelo, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Joyce Chopra, Mike Newell, Gina Prince-Bythewood, John Lee Hancock, Allison Anders, Daniel Petrie Sr., Katt Shea, Frank Perry, Amy Holden Jones, Stuart Rosenberg, Penelope Spheeris, Charles B. Pierce, Tamra Davis, Norman Taurog, Jennifer Lee, Paul Wendkos, Marisa Silver, John Mackenzie, Ida Lupino, John V. Soto, Martha Coolidge, Peter Hyams, Tim Hunter, Stephanie Rothman, Betty Thomas, John Flynn, Lizzie Borden, Lionel Jeffries, Lexi Alexander, Alkinos Tsilimidos, Stewart Raffill, Lamont Johnson, Maggie Greenwald and Tamara Jenkins.
