I tried to get into next week's free screening of the forgotten late 1970s Chicago film, "Stony Island," at the University of Chicago but it's completely full. Anybody out there old enough to remember this movie--and have seen it??
Before
making his directorial debut with 1978's "Stony Island," which he
co-wrote and produced, Davis acted as cameraman on 15 features and
television productions. "Stony" a locally shot street musical featuring
Davis' younger brother Richie, a musician who still lives in the city,
and, in a much smaller role, their father Nate, a part-time thespian
and World War II vet, marked the first of many times Davis would use
his native city as a cinematic backdrop. "It's funny," Davis
muses. "[Sun-Times film critic Roger] Ebert, in one of his earliest
reviews of my work, talked about how the city became a character in the
movies I make here. And that's how I feel about it. The environment
comments on the people and vice versa." After the death of
Mayor Richard J. Daley, who ran a notoriously tight ship when it came
to allowing his city (and it was his city) to appear in films as
anything but squeaky clean (i.e., no gangsters, no corruption), doors
opened. Little by little, movie production burgeoned. Eventually, Davis
took full advantage. Though nowadays he enjoys international
renown as an A-list crafter of action flicks (he prefers to call them
"political action" flicks) set in locales the country and world over,
Chicagoans most appreciate him for his unflagging hometown loyalty. If
he can shoot here, he does. Over the past quarter century, he has set
six films in Chicago, including "Stony," "Code of Silence," "Above the
Law," "The Package," "The Fugitive" and, most recently, "Chain
Reaction," starring Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman. Each of them, to
varying degrees, makes the place sparkle. Or at least subtly shimmer,
particularly if you live or walk or work amid the urban grit that Davis
so deftly manipulates onscreen. "[Davis] does Chicago
locations better than anyone alive," assesses Sun-Times film critic
Roger Ebert, citing "Code of Silence" as a prime example. In his most
glowing critique of Davis' work to date, Ebert hailed "The Fugitive" as
"pure filmmaking on a master scale," doling out four stars in print
and, on television, a presumably enthusiastic Thumbs-Up.
Peter Cottontail by Gene Autry
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