By Erin Free
FilmInk salutes the work of creatives who have never truly received the credit they deserve. In this installment: director Rick Rosenthal, who helmed Halloween II, Bad Boys and Russkies.
When your first feature film is a sequel to one of the greatest and most original horror films in cinema history, you are pretty much beginning your career in a shadow. That does not mean for one hot second, however, that you cannot be a fine filmmaker in your own right. It just means that things are gonna be tough in terms of recognition, and it also means that you’re gonna be hamstrung right from the off, with the weight of expectation piling down on you like a ton of bricks. This is exactly where Unsung Auteur Rick Rosenthal found himself in 1981 when he took the reins on Halloween II. The original film’s director, the great John Carpenter, had opted out because he couldn’t balance helming the sequel along with The Fog, which he’d already committed to. With a script by Carpenter and regular producer Debra Hill already in place, and their fingerprints all over the project, Rosenthal was under no illusions as to his role on the film. “Conceptually, it’s not at all my film,” the director has said of his debut. “It’s a continuation of a John Carpenter and Debra Hill film. But in execution, it’s my vision.”
Considering the importance and impact of John Carpenter’s 1978 epochal slasher classic Halloween, Rosenthal’s sequel is incredibly good, though it rarely rates a mention when lists of “good sequels” are collated. And though it would have been near impossible for anyone to match the shock-of-the-new cut-and-thrust of the original Halloween, or to equal the directorial savvy of the ingenious John Carpenter, Rick Rosenthal did succeed in crafting a near-textbook example of how to arrange a sequel, namely by recapturing the mood and feel of the original film, while adding a few new wrinkles that keep the story moving and mobile.
Picking up immediately after the nail-grinding climax of Halloween and the disappearance of terrifying mass murderer Michael Myers, the action of Halloween II is restricted largely to an after-hours hospital, where Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode is being treated for the injuries inflicted upon her in the first film. Tense and thrilling, the film effectively mines the same minimalist horror as its predecessor, and also drops the huge mythology reveal that killer Michael Myers and prey Laurie Strode are actually brother and sister. Halloween II is an impressive, expertly modulated piece of horror, and despite its pedigree, it quietly announced Rick Rosenthal as a remarkably assured director unafraid to take on a major challenge.
Born in 1949 in New York City to parents outside the film industry, Rosenthal studied at The American Film Institute, which is how he eventually found his way onto the set of Halloween II. Though he’d directed an episode of the TV series The Secrets Of Midland Heights, it was Rosenthal’s AFI-produced short film The Toyer that really caught the eye of John Carpenter and Debra Hill. When the duo’s first choice to direct Halloween II – namely Halloween’s gifted art director and future director-in-his-own-right Tommy Lee Wallace – declined, they offered the job to Rosenthal. The eager first-timer accepted, and not only turned out a surprisingly good horror sequel (in tandem with Carpenter, who was very much involved in the post-production of the film), but also met his still-wife of many decades, Nancy Stephens.
While Halloween II is certainly good, Rick Rosenthal really showed his wares with his sophomore effort, 1982’s rather unfortunately titled (especially now) Bad Boys. A brutal, uncompromising, and often painfully sad prison movie, this tough, cruelly under-appreciated little gem stars the truly brilliant Sean Penn in a very early role, preceded just by his ingeniously comic turn in Fast Times At Ridgemont High, his crackling performance in TAPS, and some high-quality TV work, including the exemplary telemovie The Killing Of Randy Webster. Featuring terrific, frequently heart-rending performances from Sean Penn, Ally Sheedy and Esai Morales, and a tough, authentic feel, Bad Boys charts the violent, bloody feud that plays out between two tough teenagers in a grim juvenile detention facility. Just in casting the masterful Sean Penn, Rosenthal instantly proved himself to be a fine spotter of acting greatness. “He’s the most talented young actor in films today,” said Rosenthal to Rolling Stone at the time, with the director choosing Penn for the part despite calls from Matt Dillon’s agent “every day for a week.”
Singularly tough and gritty, the brilliantly performed Bad Boys should probably have set Rosenthal up as a reliable director of intense, thoughtful material, but he instead followed it with the easy-going piffle that was 1984’s American Dreamer, a sweet but inconsequential comedy built around a bout of amnesia and starring JoBeth Williams and Tom Conti. Though nowhere near as gritty as Bad Boys, Rosenthal’s next film was far more substantive than American Dreamer, and it again showcased the director’s skill at picking major talent.
Made in the depths of The Cold War, 1987’s Russkies now certainly feels a little dated, but it remains a warm, deeply felt plea for humanity and connection, as three twelve-year-old boys befriend a Russian solider (Whip Hubley) who has washed ashore in their sleepy hometown from a warship anchored off the coast. The group become unlikely friends, and the three boys eventually try and get their new pal to safety in Cuba. Russkies is surprisingly moving, and marked just the second big screen appearance of Joaquin (then Leaf) Phoenix, who excels as one of the youngsters.
Rosenthal’s film after Russkies was even better. 1987’s Distant Thunder features an excellent, against-type performance from John Lithgow as a Vietnam vet who attempts to reconnect with his estranged son (Ralph Macchio) when he returns to society after living off the grid for many years while emotionally crippled with PTSD. Another forgotten film, it’s a rich character piece, and a strong work from Rosenthal. A prolific director of episodic TV and telemovies, Rosenthal’s features eventually became less frequent, and it would be ten years until his next. 1998’s Just A Little Harmless Sex was disappointingly glib and frothy, though the director returned to the more emotional territory of Russkies and Distant Thunder with 2005’s Nearing Grace, a coming of age drama built on family dysfunction and the engaging confusion and uncertainty of its young hero. In between those two, Rosenthal returned to the horror franchise that began it all with 2002’s Halloween Resurrection…but the less said about that, the better. 2013’s little seen Drones (an interesting take on new, far less “personal” modes of warfare) was considerably better.
Still very much active at the age of 75, the highly underrated Rick Rosenthal recently executive produced (along with his wife Nancy Stephens) the film Invisible Beauty, about model and activist Bethann Hardison, which premiered at The 2023 Sundance Film Festival, and also directed the 2018 telemovie Halfway There with Matthew Lillard and Blythe Danner. A fine filmmaker, Rick Rosenthal is much more than just the man who took the reins from John Carpenter on Halloween II….
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