{"id":14704,"date":"2010-11-29T13:47:33","date_gmt":"2010-11-29T19:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/?p=14704"},"modified":"2011-10-12T17:19:28","modified_gmt":"2011-10-12T23:19:28","slug":"director-irvin-kershner-1923-2010-a-sad-day-in-star-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/2010\/11\/director-irvin-kershner-1923-2010-a-sad-day-in-star-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"Director Irvin Kershner (1923 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 2010), A Sad Day in Star Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just as we <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/groonk\/status\/9309091226718208\" class=\"external external_icon\">tweeted earlier<\/a>: &#8216;Director Irvin Kershner, maestro of The best Star Wars(EMPIRE STRIKES BACK) has passed. &#8216;<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/news\/story.asp?NID=29588\" class=\"external\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/RIPirvinkershner.png\" alt=\"\" title=\"RIP Irvin Kershner\" width=\"600\" height=\"237\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14708\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/RIPirvinkershner.png 600w, https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/RIPirvinkershner-300x118.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a> <\/div>\n<blockquote><p>Having fought in World War II, Kershner began his career by teaching film at the University of Southern California, but quickly made the move behind the camera via a detour as a stills photographer and TV director, calling the shots on Stakeout On Dope Street in 1958.<\/p>\n<p>A decent career followed, in which he directed the likes of Sean Connery in A Fine Madness, Richard Harris in The Return Of A Man Called Horse, and Faye Dunaway in 1978&#8217;s Eyes Of Laura Mars (based on John Carpenter&#8217;s screenplay). <\/p>\n<p>It was this movie that persuaded George Lucas, looking for someone to take the reins on his Star Wars sequel, to approach Kershner to direct The Empire Strikes Back. The rest is movie history: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/news\/story.asp?NID=29588\" class=\"external external_icon\">Kershner&#8217;s no-frills storytelling style, coupled with a strong script and an imaginative visual pallet, gave Empire a gravitas that marked it out as an instant classic.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>An interview with him at the Colorado Film School lay below.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><object width=\"480\" height=\"385\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/p\/A30A5807643DC569?hl=en_US&#038;fs=1\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/p\/A30A5807643DC569?hl=en_US&#038;fs=1\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"480\" height=\"385\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object> <\/div>\n<p>&#8220;If you can&#8217;t make it work one way, you make it work another way.&#8221; Hell. That goes for life, too.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/culture\/film\/3600116\/Film-makers-on-film-Irvin-Kershner.html\" class=\"external external_icon\">Film-makers on film: Irvin Kershner<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/news\/story.asp?NID=29588\" class=\"external external_icon\">Irvin Kershner Has Died<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Irvin_Kershner\" class=\"external external_icon\">Irvin Kershner wiki<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenervousbreakdown.com\/wentrekin\/2010\/12\/kersh\/\" class=\"external external_icon\">Kersh by Will Entrekin<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just as we tweeted earlier: &#8216;Director Irvin Kershner, maestro of The best Star Wars(EMPIRE STRIKES BACK) has passed. &#8216; Having fought in World War II, Kershner began his career by teaching film at the University of Southern California, but quickly made the move behind the camera via a detour as a stills photographer and TV [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,56,29],"tags":[1151,2579,3630,36,259,2249],"class_list":["post-14704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-movies","category-people-who-died","tag-director","tag-empire-strikes-back","tag-irvin-kershner","tag-quotables","tag-sad-now","tag-today-in-star-wars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14704"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17200,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14704\/revisions\/17200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.groonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}