Jack Valenti has passed away

[Michael Ryan]

Hello All,

 

Not especially a well-known name to the public, Jack Valenti was a giant in the motion picture industry.

 

For 38 years he was President of the Motion Picture Association of America, and over those years he had a major influence on almost all aspects of movie making.

 

Valenti was an extremely rare combination of Washington politics and had the ear of all the important players in Hollywood for a very long time (including all the big name directors). He was an aide to President Johnson in the '60s.

 

With interest, I have been following his career for many years. He was a passionate speaker, interesting, knew what he was talking about, and could bring two opposite points of view together faster than you could say, "diplomacy." He had such a passion for the movie industry and he had a deep love for his country (and the right kind of love, not the, you are either with me or against me kind.

 

He will be greatly missed and sadly, we will not see the likes of him ever again.

 

 

Mike

[Matthew Buick]

This is very sad. :(

[Martin Hawkes]

Hi,

 

You should really watch the documentary "This Film Is Not Yer Rated". It gives great insight into the inner workings of the very secretive MPAA and just how frustrating the ratings process is for independent film makers.

 

Regards,

 

Martin

[Francesco Bonomo]

He will be greatly missed and sadly, we will not see the likes of him ever again.

 

It's pretty difficult to comment on a death of such a controversial figure. While I do have the greatests respect for the grief of his family and friends, I cannot help but think about how many bad things the MPAA and its rating board did to american indipendent and european filmmakers. Since this is a cinematography forum I felt like I had to say that, although I understand this topic is probably not the right place to start any discussion about the MPAA. He was indeed a very powerful person and had a huge influence in the recent history of the film industry, although I don't think that influence and power was for the best of filmmaking.

[Michael Ryan]

Hello Francesco and others,

 

Jack Valenti had many great qualities, and perhaps his finest quality was, it's OK for two parties to disagree on a subject and still be great friends. I don't know how this has happened, but it seems that in today's world if you disagree with someone's point of view, they are the enemy.

 

I didn't agree with everything that Jack Valenti did, but when you look at his body of work and the Hollywood issues that he fought for, it's truly amazing.

 

It's OK to disagree with Jack Valenti. He was totally good with that. However, I would be careful not to dismiss a man's life based on one or two issues that you didn't agree with. The names of the filmmakers who respected Jack Valenti would read like a who's who of Hollywood for the last 40 years. He not only was a giant in the movie business, he was a great man who had real passion for people and filmmaking.

 

 

Mike