James Foley, Director of ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ and ‘Fear,’ Dies After Battle with Brain Cancer
James Foley, the award-winning director who made his reputation for helming gritty, hard-edged dramas such as Glengarry Glen Ross, At Close Range, and the suspense thriller Fear, died at 71 earlier this week at his Los Angeles residence after a one-year battle with brain cancer. His death closed the book on the era of the director whose dark, noir-tinged visual style had such a lasting impact on American film.
Foley’s name might never appear under the bright lights of Hollywood headlines, but that of his work would. Annual collaborations with a few of Hollywood’s biggest names – Sean Penn, Al Pacino, Madonna, Halle Berry, and Bruce Willis, to name but a few – he made films about which would journey into the most darkest recesses of human brains.
A Debut in Movies Born from Spontaneous Meetings
James Foley began directing films in Brooklyn where he was born. Things improved after a serendipitous encounter when a film graduate student at the University of Southern California. Foley had been allowed to screen one of his student films for Harold and Maude director Hal Ashby. Ashby impressed with the promise of the young director, asked him to write and direct a feature. Though the intended film company never materialized, that single moment of encouragement had opened doors for Foley. His first feature directorial effort was on the 1984 romantic musical drama Reckless with Daryl Hannah and Aidan Quinn. A box office disaster, the movie showed Foley’s ongoing command of emotional storytelling and visual mood. He followed that in short order with At Close Range, a tough-talking neo-noir thriller starring then-married couple Madonna and Sean Penn, and Christopher Walken. The film had Madonna’s hit “Live to Tell,” written by Prince, so it was that much more mainstream.
The Hits and the Misses
Foley’s reputation was established in the early 1990s and late 1980s with his ability to balance style and substance. His biggest success, Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), was a blazing re-creation of David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama. Featuring an all-star cast that included Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Alec Baldwin, and Alan Arkin, the film dramatized the hard-boiled world of real estate salesmen. Pacino earned an Oscar nod and a Golden Globe of his own for his work, and the film set a new standard for narrative in ensemble pieces. Not all of Foley’s attempts succeeded, however. His bid to team Madonna for 1987 screwball Who’s That Girl was a box office and critical disaster. But Foley did manage to reap some reward. Later interviews had him calling the movie a “major life experience,” assigning equal worth to early failure in a career in building a career otherwise reserved for success.
Even that equipment malfunction, Foley continued. He wrote and directed After Dark, My Sweet (1990), the cult classic screen adaptation of a Jim Thompson novel and California noir standard. Variety described the film as emotionally realistic and “as potent as a snakebite.”
Some of Foley’s other gems from his body of work include Fear (1996), which had a spine-chilling cameo from teen heartthrob Mark Wahlberg; Confidence (2003), a dark heist film featuring Edward Burns and Dustin Hoffman; and Perfect Stranger (2007), a techno-thriller featuring Bruce Willis and Halle Berry. Although his films never quite took off with the mainstream, they did possess an atmosphere and unease that could be found in Foley’s body of work.
From Big Screen to Small Screen
Foley’s skills were not limited to in front of the camera. He worked for television, too, directing most famously an episode of cult favorite Twin Peaks. More recently, he hooked a new generation with streaming-era hits like House of Cards, which he directed 12 episodes of. His efforts on the show shaped the show’s offbeat tone – dark, snarky, hip. He also wrote and directed the episode Billions, Hannibal, and Wayward Pines, demonstrating that he is capable of doing work in any platform. He also directed Fifty Shades sequels Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed. Although received with negative reviews from the critics, those films themselves were big-budgeted releases demonstrating how Foley loved pushing and experimenting at a broad canvas of genres. Looking Back at the Man Behind the Camera
Even one of Hollywood’s largest stars, Foley never did anything but his best to take over center stage. He spent most of his time rehearsing offstage, incognito on some tightly coiled suspense psychodrama or some darkened-down film noir. His peers speak of an actor so completely absorbed in atmosphere, in character, in emotional reality.
In remembering James Foley, we don’t merely pay tribute to the movies that he made, but the kind of legacy as a storyteller. He built worlds that were relentless and stubborn and deeply emotional – worlds that leave individuals bare and standing in their underwear long after the credits had ceased rolling.
Surviving are brother Kevin (and wife Mary Anne Myers); sisters Eileen and Jo Ann; and nephew Quinn (and fiancée Antea Kalinic). Foley also was predeceased by brother Gerald (Ann Marie Quinn Foley).
As the film industry says goodbye to one of its understated giants, it can state with absolute certainty that the movies of James Foley will be a source of inspiration for filmmakers to take the plunge of faith to go out in search of captivated by suspenseful, character-driven studies set in rich worlds.
