Word: wolper
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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According to Imagine producer David Wolper, camera-wielding fans and interviewers made John Lennon the most filmed personage in history. His records and interviews revealed his most personal thoughts and feelings to a public that came to think it was on a first-name basis with him. How, then, do you make a documentary on a man's life whose most obscure details are universally known, especially when you have thousands of hours of footage from which to choose...
Sadly, the answers Imagine offers are not satisfying. Considering that Yoko Ono not only gave Wolper and director Andrew Solt access to countless hours of previously unseen footage but also gave them creative control over the final product, Imagine could well have been the definitive film about John. Unfortunately much of the footage is ill-chosen, and at an hour and a half, the film is much too short. Still, while Imagine fails as a comprehensive biography, it may help neophytes understand Lennon's appeal, and fans may find Imagine a poignant and occasionally amusing exercise in nostalgia...
...gallery the Nautilus center of the soul. But in Movieland, the heat of egotism creates a desire for equal screen credit. Where else would a museum herald a show of Picasso sculptures, as LACMA did a couple of years ago, with a crimson banner on its facade: THE WOLPER PICASSOS, as though the schlockmeister of the Statue of Liberty had helped make them by buying them...
Fervor--the very word is anathema to mainstream politicians. But, yes, Americans dig it. Pat Robertson knows that because his job is to get the holy to roll in the aisles. Tommy Walker and David Wolper know that, and all they did was create a gigantic celebration honoring an iron lady...
...Wolper insists that "not one cent" of the statue's restoration funds is paying for Liberty Weekend. "All of the costs are being covered by the sale of television rights and tickets," he says. But many of the tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies are unsold. Of the total of 58,000 tickets, 9,000 remain, most of them in the $100 and $200 category. ABC, however, is not worried; the network bought the broadcast rights for $10 million, and has already sold $30 million worth of commercials...