By Erin Free
“I love storytelling,” Robert M. Young once said. “And I thought, really, from the time I was very young, that storytelling was a very important thing.”
When writer, director and producer Robert M. Young passed away on February 6, 2024 at the age of 99, there were admirably eloquent and deservedly salutary obituaries splashed throughout the more thoughtful corners of the mainstream media, and solid space for reflection was offered over on all of the film websites and print publications. But despite the attention paid and the respect offered upon his passing, Robert M. Young still feels like something of an Unsung Auteur considering the breadth of what he achieved and the risks he took during his long career. A pioneering and frequently indie filmmaker (who occasionally shifted into studio work) who tackled social issues largely ignored by mainstream cinema, Robert M. Young (“I call myself Rob…I use the M on credits for identification because there are a whole bunch of Robert Youngs”) was not only a gifted director, but also an activist with a keen interest in politics and social justice.
Robert Milton Young was born in New York City in 1924. His father was a cameraman, and later owned a film laboratory, which put film on Young’s radar from a very early age. Young studied chemical engineering at MIT, but left after just two years when he answered the call of WW2, where he served in the US Navy in the Pacific in New Guinea and in the Philippines. Young returned to America after the war, and enrolled to study English literature at Harvard University, where his childhood interest in filmmaking was further piqued. After graduating from Harvard, Young formed a cooperative partnership with two friends making educational films, and eventually worked for NBC making public affairs programs for NBC White Paper, notably travelling to the American South to make the film Sit-In about the civil rights protests and sit-ins. With a solid grounding in the craft of filmmaking, Young eventually left NBC to make his mark in the world of narrative and documentary filmmaking.
After making a genuinely groundbreaking cultural artefact in the form of the 1970 documentary The Eskimo: Fight For Life (a rare look at the Innuit people of the Canadian Arctic), Robert M. Young made a lacerating feature debut with 1977’s Short Eyes (scripted by Puerto Rican-American Miguel Pinero from his stage play, the collaboration was the first of many Young enjoyed with artists from the Hispanic community), a tough-as-nails, deeply unsettling prison drama about a convicted child molester (Bruce Davison) who meets with a righteous form of justice at the hands of his fellow convicts. Daring in its subject matter, outsider-focused in nature, and told with profound sense of grittiness, authenticity and immediacy, Short Eyes would set the template for the rest of Robert M. Young’s career.
If Short Eyes was shocking, uncompromising and boldly contemporary, Young’s second feature was even more daring. 1977’s Alambrista! is a rare American film told from the Mexican perspective as Domingo Ambriz’ Roberto crosses the border into the US, and attempts to achieve a better life through hard work, but soon realises the deck is well and truly stacked against him. While a film such as this would now rightfully be made by a Mexican director, Young was an integral figure in making that a possibility by actually daring to put the story of Mexicans in America on screen in a time when that was a true rarity. Political and cultural importance aside, Alambrista! is also a moving personal portrait of a quietly heroic everyman.
After two excellent studio flicks (the 1979 comedy Rich Kids and the very curious 1980 Paul Simon vehicle One-Trick Pony), Young crafted one of his most seminal films with 1982’s fiery modern western The Ballad Of Gregorio Cortez. Gritty and poetic, this elegiac adventure based on Americo Paredes’ novel stars the great Edward James Olmos as the title character, a Mexican-American farmer pursued for weeks across an unforgiving landscape by a relentless posse after being accused of killing a lawman. Burning with anger, vividly characterised, and boasting a bravura turn from Edward James Olmos (with whom Young would collaborate with on seven more films), The Ballad Of Gregorio Cortez is a true high point in Young’s impressive oeuvre.
Despite a few lighter moments (1986’s Saving Grace, starring Tom Conti as an unconventional Pope; the barely seen 1984 comedy Human Error; 1991’s big-hearted Olmos-starring sports drama Talent For The Game), Young worked almost exclusively with tough, difficult material. He directed Farrah Fawcett to a stunning performance in the highly controversial 1986 rape-revenge drama Extremities; found real beauty in 1988’s incredibly moving Dominick And Eugene, with Tom Hulce and Ray Liotta as two very different brothers; told the shocking tale of a Greek boxer (Willem Dafoe) in Auschwitz in 1989’s unforgiving Triumph Of The Spirt; and got the best out of his frequent leading man Edward James Olmos (as he always did) in 1993’s rooster-breeding rural family drama Roosters and 1996’s artful infidelity piece Caught (co-starring the excellent Maria Conchita Alonso and Arie Verveen).
A fierce, individualistic, and highly committed filmmaker with a gift for finding the poetry in the pain of often fraught existence, Robert M. Young was a quiet, unassuming titan in the world of American independent cinema and socially conscious filmmaking.
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