Comments on: The Great Movies/TV Divide

By: rheldenfels

rheldenfels — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:03:47 +0000

I'm very interested in "Valley of Elah," but haven't seen it yet. Will probably have to catch up once it's in theaters. And yes, Haggis has some TV credits on bad shows. But he also has some notably good ones, and EW opted for one of the bad ones. Sort of like saying "Al Pacino, whose films include 'Author! Author!' …"

By: Gus

Gus — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:37:07 +0000

When Due South was still on the air (or at least fresh in my memory, circa 1996 or so), I remember seeing his name attached to an episode of one of the un-funniest sitcoms of all time (mostly because of it's "very special episode" quotient, but also because it just wasn't very funny), One Day at a Time. It was from the final season, and after Mackenzie Phillips had been fired yet again. All I could think was "He wrote THAT?" and then also that everyone has to start somewhere, and by that point he probably hadn't been given that much to work with.

By: Ann V.

Ann V. — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:42:27 +0000

I read that as well and quickly looked up his career on IMDB. For me, the fact that he worked so long in tv doing basic script work and now has a serious string of critical film successes is a great thing to be admired. Every day, I write copy. It's not exciting but it pays the bills. It takes a lot to push yourself to the next level, and Haggis did it (he also was writer and Exec. Producer for Due South, which more people saw, but is still Canadian). Now, after winning Oscars for writing, he's almost forced to direct to protect the integrity of his work (this is how I see it breaking out: stage is about the writer, tv is about the actor, film is about the director). And, even if it's gotten mixed reviews, I'm going to see In the Valley of Elah because it looks like fun.