Second the emotion. I'm hard pressed to think of a director with better audience instincts than Sydney Pollack. Most all his films touch me in some way that reveal his mastery of the medium. Not a trailblazer, nor much of an original, but a great stylist and storyteller.
shareI agree . . . .
. . . . except that his last movie "The Interpreter" (2005) did not resonate with me. Maybe it was the film's (and therefore his?) advocacy of diplomacy (whereas I think diplomacy is ineffectual). Maybe it's the fact that the movie posits the notion that the world is outraged by a rogue dictator in an African country (Ho, Hum. Isn't that the case in 90% of African countries?), but I couldn't get concerned about anyone in the film.
I think "The Interpreter" was SD's version of Billy Wilder's "Buddy, Buddy" in terms of being out of touch with the culture's zeitgeist.