AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Robert Wise (1998) DVD-R

Starring Julie Andrews, Ernest Borgnine, Peter Fonda, Merv Griffin, Jack Lemmon
Directed by Louis J. Horvitz
Print: Color
Runtime: 60 min
Genre: Documentary

Robert Wise has been a powerful force in American movies for over six decades, first as editor of several of the cinema’s most enduring classics, then as producer and director of some of the best and most memorable films of all time. Wise has characterized himself as a journeyman filmmaker, the consummate professional, but his career has been marked with enormous critical and commercial success. Films as disparate as THE BODY SNATCHER (1945), BLOOD ON THE MOON (1948), THE SET-UP (1949), THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951), I WANT TO LIVE! (1958) and THE HAUNTING (1963) have taken their places as some of the seminal films in their respective genres. And in an industry which sometimes tends to put art and commerce in very different categories, Wise’s blockbuster classics like WEST SIDE STORY (1961) and THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) attracted millions of ticket buyers, garnered ecstatic reviews and were showered with awards, Academy and otherwise.