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j. handsome...
Wow, can't believe someone else views AT CLOSE RANGE as THE most underrated film of its era. I think it tops even GLENGARRY, and that it's Penn's and maybe even Walken's all-time best. Great mood, great atmosphere, music, and cinematography -- I actually rank this among my 20 or 30 favorite films of all time, and it's a shame it continues to toil in obscurity.
For that reason alone, I give James Foley a pass and treat him with kid gloves. GLENGARRY and AFTER DARK... are also very, very good, and even the more popcorn-y recent CONFIDENCE shows signs of the Foley spark. Like you say, hardly an "auteur," though I DO see a recurring visual palette in his films, even the poppier CORRUPTOR and FEAR.
In fact, I always compare him favorably to Steven Soderberg, who has this reputation as a genius auteur, yet who almost NEVER has any recurring thematic elements, and I'd be hardpressed to say what goes on in Soderberg's tortured psyche. He's not like a Scorsese, Ferrara, Schrader, Lee, or Stone, where every blood, sweat, and tear is captured on film. The only thing common to Soderberg's films is a recurring look and his playing with time, but emotionally the films are always a tad remote. In that regard, I don't think he's any more an "auteur" than someone like Foley.
Monterey Jack...
Peter Hyams I ALMOST consider an auteur, if only because his look is so patented, and because he often writes and shoots his own films, most of which fall squarely in the B-level conspiracy/potboiler genre. Granted, his thematic obsessions aren't as obvious as his contemporaries like Walter Hill or John Carpenter or John Milius, but he's a strong stylist who cranks out workmanlike Bs with a decent amount of panache.
To Roger Donaldson, I'd also add his nearly indistinguishable fellow Roger -- Roger Spottiswoode, who's done everything from BEST OF TIMES to TERROR TRAIN to SIXTH DAY to STOP OR MY MOM WILL SHOOT to TOMORROW NEVER DIES.
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