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How come he retired from directing in 1995?

posted 7 years ago by The_Baba
9 replies | jump to latest

How come he retired from directing in 1995?

http://www.imdb.com/list/_OaGg-zdQKo/

We can only guess. His last movie didn't do well. Also, he was turning 70. I guess directing a movie takes a lot of energy. He chose to focus on other things, like Broadway. Did a couple of shows there, The Producers musical being one of them.

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7401) 5 years ago

It's a shame cause Dracula Dead and Loving it is hilarious!

[–] Sandoz (2021) 5 years ago

Not imo; I think it's cringe-worthingly unfunny.

[–] Roguemail (1562) 5 years ago

Basically the world moved on and he didnt.

I loved the earlier movies, The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein etc...but the humour was very much of its time for the 70s. And I can still watch them now.

Problem is Mel stayed in the same vein in the 80s and 90s with stuff like Spaceballs and Robin Hood, which i thought were dire and still harking back to the scataological humour of his older movies.

After that the quality of his movies dropped rapidly, history of the world, Dracula and the truly awful life stinks.

I think he realised the world had changed and his style of humour just did not work any more.

Thankfully he argued into producing and some major success, so good luck to him.

[–] The_Baba 7 years ago

Hmmm.

Some directors make their best stuff past that age. And likewise some of their worst haha. Maybe departure from directing is the best thing sometimes. David Lynch is now at that age and he seems to be doing the same, different projects.

http://www.imdb.com/list/_OaGg-zdQKo/

[–] stevenackerman69 7 years ago

He didn't really retire. What happened was he had other ideas for films but couldn't get financing since his later films didn't do as well as his earlier ones. So he decided to work on Broadway adaptations of his films. I wish he would direct again.

[–] Sandoz (2021) 5 years ago

Because he peaked in the late '70's and every film he made after that period was either mediocrely funny or embarrassingly bad.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Yep... the truth is his sense of humor never evolved with the times it was just sort of stuck in the same gear.

[–] Sandoz (2021) 5 years ago

I'm reading the new biography that just came out about him...Funny Man. It's eye-opening that Mel is a Jekyll and Hyde personality who can be enormously warm and friendly some times, then turn into a selfish and vindictive asshole other times. And I really lost a lot of respect for him when I found out what a deadbeat he was toward his first wife and three kids from that marriage.