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Robert M. Young, the adventurous director who called the shots for Edward James Olmos in The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, Farrah Fawcett in Extremities and Tom Hulce and Ray Liotta in Dominick and Eugene, died Feb. 6, his son Andrew announced. He was 99.

After getting his start in educational and documentary films, Young also directed the 1969 Peabody-winning CBS telefilm J.T., written by Jane Wagner. Revolving around a Harlem youngster (Kevin Hooks) and an alley cat, it bowed on a Saturday afternoon and was repeated in primetime as the network preempted its most popular show, Gunsmoke.

Young also served as cinematographer, producer and co-writer with director Michael Roemer on the critically acclaimed drama Nothing But a Man (1964), featuring Ivan Dixon and jazz vocalist Abbey Lincoln as a struggling young Black couple in Alabama.

Young made his feature directorial debut with Short Eyes (1977), which starred Bruce Davison, José Pérez and several real-life prisoners...

Robert M. Young, whose 70-year career included independent and studio documentaries, narrative features, and episodes of Battlestar: Galactica, died Tuesday in Los Angeles at 99. His death was confirmed in a Facebook post by his son.

Two of his films have recently been added to the Library of Congress Film Registry. They include ¡Alambrista! (1977), a film about the life of an undocumented Mexican immigrant, which won the Camera d’Or for best first film at Cannes, and The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, (1982), one of Young’s eight films with actor Edward James Olmos. Based on a true story that inspired a corrido, it tells of a man on the run after a confrontation with police.

Both films are also part of the Criterion Collection.

Those films represented a recurring theme of Young’s career, one which showed his interest in bringing social issues to wider attention.

“We lose important people all the time,...

Robert M. Young, one of the pioneers of American independent cinema whose work began nearly 70 years ago, died Tuesday in Los Angeles. The news was announced via a Facebook post from his son Andy.

In a career that lasted from 1956 to 2011 he directed documentaries, narrative features, both independent and studio releases, and even episodes of “Battlestar: Gallactica.” Two of his films have recently been added to the Library of Congress Film Registry. “¡Alambrista!” (1977), as timely today as when it was made, about the life of undocumented Mexican immigrant won the Camera d’or for best first film at Cannes. “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” (1982), one of Young’s eight films with actor Edward James Olmos, produced by American Playhouse but released theatrically, has also been included. Both films are also part of the Criterion Collection.

Though perhaps not as well known as some pre-Sundance independent American directors like John Cassavetes,...

Veteran actor and frequent scene stealer Bruce Davison joins Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss a few of his favorite films.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Extra School (2017)

Gone With The Wind (1939)

Willard (1971) – Joe Dante’s review, Lee Broughton’s Blu-ray review

Fortune And Men’s Eyes (1971)

Short Cuts (1993) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Longtime Companion (1989)

Last Summer (1969) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Short Eyes (1977)

The Manor (2021)

Ulzana’s Raid (1972) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review and All-Region Blu-ray review

King Solomon’s Mines (1950) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937)

Them! (1954) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary

Tarantula (1955) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Spartacus (1960) – Larry Cohen’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Ben-Hur (1959) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Psycho (1960) – John Landis’s trailer commentary,...

Milan Peter Sova, who was the cinematographer on such revered films as Diner and Donnie Brasco during his long career, has died. He passed Aug. 27 at his home in South Kortight, New York. No cause of death was given. Born in Czechoslovakia, Sova emigrated to the US in the mid-1960s. Early in his career, he shot the award-winning Short Eyes,” a 1977 film directed by Robert M. Young and starring Bruce Davison. The film was shot in a Manhattan prison and featured real inmates in the cast.

From there, Sova went on to shoot many of Barry Levinson’s early films, including Diner, Good Morning Vietnam, and Tin Man. He also was the director of photography on Mike Newell’s Donnie Brasco and worked with director Paul McGuigan on the films Gangster #1, The Reckoning, and Lucky Number Slevin.

His most recent work was on the documentary Driven to Abstraction.

He is survived by his son,...

In the newest issue of Film Comment magazine I write about the designer Alan Peckolick, a master of lettering who was responsible for one of the great American movie posters of the ’70s, for Short Eyes. Peckolick was a student of—and eventually a business partner of—the great Herb Lubalin, and the poster above comes from a book Peckolick wrote about his mentor in 1985. Both Lubalin and Peckolick worked together on the branding for the films of the American Film Theatre, a project initiated in 1973 by producer Ely Landau to bring great theatre to movie-going audiences with low-budget, star-studded, text-faithful adaptations of a number of contemporary classics. The Quad Cinema in New York is currently playing 12 of these films through November 21.To promote the first series of films Lubalin and Peckolick gave each play its own very distinctive title treatment while also commissioning equally striking illustrations for each film.

Most actors can point to a particular role they'd love to play, or a play they've always dreamed of acting in. For Matias Ponce, that play was "Short Eyes," the 1975 Tony Award winner written by Miguel Piñero during his incarceration for armed robbery. "When I was 16, I saw the film 'Piñero' about the playwright [Miguel Piñero]," Ponce remembers. "It's all about his life and what he went through when he was locked up, and how he started writing his plays. I got really hooked on the playwright and read 'Short Eyes' and realized there was a character I'd love the opportunity to play." Director Julian Acosta feels similarly excited about the play. "It's a kind of a seminal play in theater history," Acosta explains. "It's the first play by a Latino playwright ever to be produced on Broadway, and it's very rarely produced. It's one of those shows...

Abel Ferrara is set to make his Broadway debut, directing the revival of Miguel Pinero's Short Eyes.

The King of New York director is reviving the original 1974 production, which follows the lives of a racially-mixed group of inmates at a New York prison who are joined by a white middle-class man accused of raping a girl.

Carl Rumbaugh and Susan Batson - who worked on the 2004 Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun, starring Sean 'Diddy' Combs - will produce, along with Antone Pagan and Charles Rosen.

Casting has not yet begun on the show, which is expected to debut during the 2010-2011 season.