George Clooney – The Last Of The Movie Stars
In the summer of 1998, Clooney teamed with director Steven Soderbergh for the first time in Out of Sight. The film was a big screen adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel and it co-starred Jennifer Lopez in a role that led to her joining the ranks of the A-List. Out of Sight was a huge critical hit, but it failed to connect with audiences, grossing less than $40 million. Again it looked that Clooney wouldn’t be able to make the jump to movie stardom as financial success continued to elude him. It was around this time that the actor starred in and produced a live television performance of Sidney Lumet’s Fail Safe. The production, directed by Stephen Frears, was a throwback to live action television of the 1950s – something that Clooney would also attempt with an episode of ER.
2000 was the year that saw Clooney break his stalemate on movie stardom and launch his career as an A-list personality. The Perfect Storm was seen as make or break, or more aptly sink or swim for Clooney. The big budget drama was a Warner Bros. tent pole summer film and it was set to open opposite Mel Gibson’s The Patriot. Both Clooney and Gibson shared a core fan base and the films would test their drawing power – although at the time Gibson was the more established star with unbreakable box office appeal. The Perfect Storm was the box office winner on its opening weekend and it went on to gross more than $180 million, finally providing Clooney with an elusive box office hit and proving to the press and Hollywood that Clooney was indeed a movie star.
A few months later, Clooney followed up this success with another commercial and critical hit, Three Kings. In many ways Three Kings proved to be the archetypal Clooney starring vehicle – daring, unflinching and owing a debt to 1970s cinema. The Gulf War drama led to some controversy when it was released with rumors that real cadavers were used for some sequences and with reports that Clooney and director David O. Russell came to blows over treatment of extras on the film. The $60 million gross of the film again proved that Clooney could carry a film, although Clint Eastwood and Nicholas Cage were originally the studio’s top choices to lead the film.
It was around this time that Clooney made a conscious decision to build a filmography of quality work, rather than box office hits. Stung from the failure of Batman & Robin, Clooney has stated that he met with his financial advisers and decided that he was wealthy enough to select work based on the script and not just the paycheck. He also said that he wanted to be proud of his films and not have to talk around their quality when doing the publicity rounds.
Throughout the 2000s, Clooney continued his relationship with Steven Soderbergh by starring in the successful Ocean’s trilogy as well as the Casablanca-esque The Good German and the James Cameron produced science fiction drama Solaris. The duo also formed the production company Section Eight, which led to films like Todd Hayne’s Far From Heaven and Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia. The box office success of the Ocean’s trilogy meant that Clooney and Soderbergh (with a little help from Brad Pitt and Matt Damon) were able to deliver a “one for me, and one for you” philosophy with studios, showing that they weren’t willing to lose sight of the financial aspect of movie making.
During this time Clooney also formed a close working relationship with the Coen brothers, starring in a trio of comedies: O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Intolerable Cruelty and Burn After Reading. Again, these films were a throwback to film history, with O Brother riffing on the work of director Preston Sturges, Cruelty being inspired by the screwball comedies of the 1930s and Burn owing a heavy debt to the paranoia political dramas of the 1970s – a period which appears to have inspired a cast amount of Clooney’s cinematic output. In fact, if there is one actor who Clooney could be compared to it’s Warren Beatty. Both stars have used their success in Hollywood to produce films that have more of a political bent, as well as pushing the boundaries of their commerciality to the extreme. At the height of his success, Beatty pushed the likes of The Parallax View, Shampoo and Reds through production, cementing his reputation as one as one of Hollywood’s leading politicos. Likewise, Clooney has used his weight in Hollywood to help films like Three Kings and the Oscar winning Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck reach screens.
