Hollywood's dominance over us has been so strong these several years it is now taken for granted and few will bother to think of the people who started this dream factory decades ago. Compared to the thrillers, westerns, dramas, and comedies we watch almost every night, this story would be dull. Or maybe we just do not want another lesson, especially from one Hollywood noted director, our fellow countryman Edward Dmytryk.
He has made 52 feature films, the last in 1976 called He is My Brother. He was among the creators of the great US filmmaking industry which we often criticize and of which we know so little, because across the ocean people were never made to go to movie theaters to watch certain films (as was often the case in the Soviet Union when school and college students and employees were told that on a particular day they would be taken to a movie theater to watch such-and-such film, in lieu of classes/lectures/work shifts, since it was extremely important for their political education as builders of a happy communist future). That very industry helped create the American nation and sustained its cultural level after D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation.
It may sound trite but Dmytryk simply made solid movies which were always popular, on more than one occasion nominated for and winning the Academy Award (e.g., The Broken Spear, 1954). He is also considered among the classics of film noir (Murder, My Sweet, 1945; Crossfire, 1947). He made thrillers, social dramas, westerns, and Alpine films. His casts starred Kirk Douglas, Marlon Brando, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Spencer Tracy, Brigitte Bardot, Sean Connery, Robert Wagner and Elizabeth Taylor, to mention but a few. Yet none of his productions was ever selected by the Soviets in their mass output of postwar "ideologically sound" films. The thing is that in 1947 Edward Dmytryk was subpoenaed to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) on charges of involvement with the American Communist Party. He was sentenced to six months. After that he had to leave for England where he made another two pictures. He returned to the US in 1951 and gave "exculpatory" testimony in a second round of public hearings. Perhaps because he wanted to continue making films too much.
The management of Kyiv's Molodist (Youth) international film festival corresponded with Dmytryk for several years, arranging for a retro-show of his production. Because of age, the Ukrainian-American film director could not visit Kyiv last fall, but recommended what he thought were his best seven pictures and sent a touching video message to the festival participants and guests, referring to himself as "the only Ukrainian in Hollywood," adding that he wholeheartedly wanted to maintain contacts with his fellow countrymen.
Amazingly, every time his film was shown the audience was practically empty: a couple of dozen people at best. Why? Where was professional interest? The US Ambassador to Ukraine said earlier that Dmytryk's The Young Lions (1958), based on Irwin Shaw's title novel was an epic (starring young Marlon Brando as a German officer) which had made a strong impact on an entire generation, his generation. Some said that the reason was the festival's rich assortment of spectacular modern productions.
It is true that we have a problem with priorities these days. Molodist instituted an honor trophy for outstanding contribution to world cinematography. It was conferred on Edward Dmytryk in the form of a diploma and an Eastern Orthodox icon. On January 28, 1998, the old director faxed an excited letter to Kyiv with these words: "Without doubt this is the apex of my professional career. Naturally, I am extremely grateful and if my heart were in a better shape, which is unlikely, because I am too old for a transplant, Kyiv would be the first place I would go."








