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Jon Voight talks about the director's cut of Lookin' To Get Out.

A hilariously uncomfortable account of a "discussion" between Haskell Wexler and David Carradine following a screening of Bound for Glory.

As mentioned here there is a biography of Ashby by Nick Dawson in which the author discusses in an interview with Elvis Mitchell.

For anyone interested, TCM is showing The Landlord this Friday 11/20 at 10:00PM.

I wish I had a DVR, I'd love to rip a copy to DVD.

Is the quality of the Lookin' to Get Out disc good?

knives wrote:Is the quality of the Lookin' to Get Out disc good?

Yes, it's fine - a very respectable DVD transfer of a film that is meant to have a grimy look. The "Director's Cut" is not a significant improvement over the theatrical version, but it is an improvement. Basically, the added footage and re-editing takes this late Ashby effort from "O.K." to "Pretty Decent" with Burt Young's performance benefiting the most. Similar vibe to Altman's CALIFORNIA SPLIT, the film suffers for not being like every Ashby film from the 70s, meaning not brilliant.

Thanks, I was never expecting '70s Ashby quality, but I'm curious all that same.

How about Second Sight's recently released 8 Million Ways to Die DVD? Has anyone seen it? Very curious about the movie. Hal Ashby directing an Oliver Stone script, based on a Matt Scudder novel by Lawrence Block, starring Jeff Bridges. Why have I not seen this?

RobertAltman wrote:How about Second Sight's recently released 8 Million Ways to Die DVD? Has anyone seen it? Very curious about the movie. Hal Ashby directing an Oliver Stone script, based on a Matt Scudder novel by Lawrence Block, starring Jeff Bridges. Why have I not seen this?

I've not seen it either, but I've never heard a good word about it. Everyone seems to think it's an awful film and, like LOOKIN' TO GET OUT, it was taken away from Ashby during the editing stage. All the same, I'd like to see it for myself.

The Last Detail is hands down Ashby's best. Jack Nicholson's performance is of the same calibre to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and he himself claims it to be his best role. It's surprisingly rare, but if you can get a hold of it you won't be let down.

8 MILLION WAYS TO DIE isn't a bad film at all. Jeff Bridges delivers a pretty damn great performance and there are some excellent action scenes (including a very unique shootout on a motorized tram leading up to a Malibu estate). Plus, this film has the immortal line "The street light makes my pussy hair glow in the dark".

Lawrence Block comments a bit about the film here

RobertAltman wrote:How about Second Sight's recently released 8 Million Ways to Die DVD?

Thumbs up from The Digital Fix.

Is it generally believed that Ashby's decline was related to studio meddling in his films? I ask because I've re-watched Being There recently, and it seems to me that following that film he should if anything have enjoyed added prestige in Hollywood. If he was so completely in command of his form as of 1979, I have trouble imagining what happened to change that. And if taking films away during late stages was to blame, I wonder why the success of Coming Home and Being There didn't allow him more comfort room in the studio system...

Ashby's '80s output just seems like one of the strangest and sharpest downhill turns I can think of from an American director.

I was under the impression the decline was generally attributed to Ashby's drinking problem

Drinking and drugs certainly had an impact, but Ashby's form of cinema was already losing support during the late-70s when the conglomerates starting taking over the studios and executives expected more product like JAWS and STAR WARS (or, at least, ROCKY) and less quirky character-driven pieces. The same career trajectory seems have happened to folks like Bob Rafelson and Peter Bogdanovich. Ultimately, I think that Ashby lacked enthusiasm for projects like THE SLUGGER'S WIFE and 8 MILLION WAYS TO DIE, and allowed the substance abuse to make it easy for the studios to take over control. I also suspect that had he not died of cancer, he might have been able to stage a comeback in the more indie-favored 90s.

I find that the narrative of great 70s/weak 80s is often overstated- I mean, among the classic examples there are Scorsese and Altman, and the 80s hold some of my favorites among their work- and to me, one of the most disappointing Ashby releases of the 80s was his Rolling Stones doc, which didn't really have much to do with the studios at all. Possibly, his substance abuse problems meant that when the system as it had been fell apart, he couldn't find it in himself to make great movies on the fringes of the system the way that a lot of the other major auteurs of the 70s did.

It was insanely difficult for both men to get work done during that period though. Nearly all of Scorsese's pictures of the period were as director for hire and he just knew how to make the best of them. Altman I think is actually the best example to put Ashby in. Had he lived longer I suspect his career would have gone identically. You're also undervaluing the begging from European financiers many directors of the period had to go through. I don't think Woody Allen for example had a film that wasn't at least half European financed (and I'm being conservative with that) for a couple of decades after the fall of UA.

Yeah, I'm not denying that the system changed and put enormous pressure on moviemakers- but to me at least, it seems like Ashby also didn't have the drive to keep making movies the way Scorsese and Altman did, which I attribute largely to his problems. I'd like to believe he'd have made a comeback if he had the chance, but his arc strikes me as being more like Peckinpah's- he saw where his career was going and was too far gone to fight his way out of it.

If you're interested in this, read Nick Dawson's Hal Ashby biography. Dawson makes the case that Ashby's substance abuse problems were exaggerated, and that he was screwed over by spectacularly mendacious and sleazy producers or executives, who wanted to trade on his reputation without really making a Hal Ashby film, on each of the compromised films (including The Slugger's Wife).

It was also a personality issue: unlike the more egomaniacal (Friedkin) or shrewd (DePalma) members of the "Easy Riders" generation, Ashby was a gentle soul who hated confrontations and had a reclusive streak.

Mark Romanek got to observe on the set of Being There when he was 19. Here is page one of the journal he just found and tweeted. Would love to read the whole thing.

Trailer for Hal, an Indiegogo-funded documentary about Ashby.

Some questionable sound mixing in the trailer aside, this looks pretty great. By my count it'll be the third doc in as many years with a New Hollywood director as its subject (De Palma and last year's HBO Spielberg documentary), and it's so nice to see a reappraisal happening for one of that era's most empathetic filmmakers. Beatty's words at the end of the trailer are such a great encapsulation of Ashby's personality as a director, anyone know where the footage is from? I know there was some talk in the Shampoo thread about Beatty's desire for ownership over the film, but from this it truly does seem like he had a tremendous amount of respect for Ashby at the very least.

Can't wait for the Hal Ashby documentary.

diamonds wrote: Sat Aug 18, 2018 4:54 pm By my count it'll be the third doc in as many years with a New Hollywood director as its subject (De Palma and last year's HBO Spielberg documentary)

Don't forget Altman in 2015, making it four years running!

8 Million Ways to Die is a weird and frustrating movie. It's trying to be several things at once: a neo-noir, a romance, a film about addiction.. and it doesn't apply focus to any of these areas for long enough, nor deeply, to provide satisfaction. I will say, the final showdown in the warehouse is an interesting set piece, because Ashby lingers on everyone freaking out for a long, long time before losing their cool. And then the action unfolds primarily from a distance - I was reminded of the wonderful long shot at the end of The Last Detail when they're tumbling in the snow. Anyways, that's the clear highlight of the movie. But wasting Rosanna Arquette's talents in a weak part is criminal.

therewillbeblus wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2026 7:36 pm 8 Million Ways to Die is a weird and frustrating movie. It's trying to be several things at once: a neo-noir, a romance, a film about addiction.. and it doesn't apply focus to any of these areas for long enough, nor deeply, to provide satisfaction. I will say, the final showdown in the warehouse is an interesting set piece, because Ashby lingers on everyone freaking out for a long, long time before losing their cool. And then the action unfolds primarily from a distance - I was reminded of the wonderful long shot at the end of The Last Detail when they're tumbling in the snow. Anyways, that's the clear highlight of the movie. But wasting Rosanna Arquette's talents in a weak part is criminal.

I understand why 8 Million Ways got such a negative reception, but I’m absolutely in love with how hard it leans into sleaziness. There are some incredible sequences mixed in with moments of very bad, very LOUD improvisation. Oliver Stone flatly says it “sucks”, but I can’t dismiss it