John Boorman was fascinating to go through. Starting in the mid-60s by making his transition from British television to British film by using the Dave Clark Five as his vehicle in Catch Us If You Can, he got full creative control on Point Blank through Lee Marvin, his star, and he never let go. He made his mark early, providing the world interesting films, at the very least, for nearly fifty years.
Not everything worked, and he really did need solid writing partners to make the most of his ambitious ideas, but when everything clicked, which happened more than once, it all came together really impressively. I suppose one aspect of his body of work that intrigues me so much is the number of films that are just on that cusp of being good. Those films chock full of great ideas, great performances, and great visuals that simply didn’t have the script underneath them to hold them up, but they nearly hold up anyway.
So, no, Boorman is not one of the great film directors of all time. He was too undisciplined narratively which combined poorly with his extreme cinematic ambitions when not properly guided, but he was always interesting in his highs and even in his lows. I mean, Exorcist II is a terrible, terrible film, but it’s also just so darn fascinating at the same time.
So, here are his films, ranked definitively because I don’t know any other way. And do check out the rest of my definitive rankings here.
“Welcome to 1977, David. Everyone else has known that this movie was insane nonsense for more than 40 years, and you just found out. Time to tell the world!”
“Boorman was a much better director than writer, and he needed to be placed in a box in order to work most effectively. Giving him nine million (which ballooned to fourteen million) dollars and saying, “Just go with it,” was a mistake on any project. He needed to be reigned in and have structure imposed upon him, but he might have simply been beyond control at this point, which makes his hiring an even worse decision.”
16. Beyond Rangoon
“However, as a whole, the film falls flat on its face consistently. It has the wrong focus to tell its story, and that incorrect focus undermines the whole thing around it.”
15. Leo the Last
“Essentially, Leo the Last feels like a series of miscalculations from its inception.”
“So, the film is something of a mishmash. Boorman brings his normal filmmaking skills to the affair, but his inability to settle on ideas bites him once again. He can’t decide on the nature of the Invisible People, and he does not dedicate enough time to the macro conflict between the natural and modern world to satisfy the film’s finale. He’s made much better, but he’s also made much worse.”
13. In My Country
“In My Country isn’t without worth, but it really needed someone with a stronger screenwriting sense to cull excesses and bring more in alignment with the overall film’s objectives.”
12. The Tiger’s Tail
“I admire this film a surprising amount, but I just wish, really wish, that Boorman had brought in another writer to clean things up. It really did need it, and the film was one solid script rewrite away from bringing it all together.”
“Boorman has definitely made worse, and he’s too in command here for the film to descend into badness. There’s good stuff here, but it just doesn’t really come together.”
10. Zardoz
“However, I’m kind of surprised it works as well as it does, but it can’t quite come together completely. Maybe if Boorman had set aside the cocaine for a few days during scripting, he could have ironed this stuff out.”
“The silly antic stuff is fine, but it feels a bit lazy and not all that well thought out, like Boorman and Clark just set up the cameras and waited for magic to happen. The lack of clarity around the opening as well is something of a frustration, but once this film settles down, it becomes quite compelling.”
“It’s one of those situations where I can’t figure out where the disconnect is. Is it me? Or was it the initial negative reception of the film, perhaps in no small part because it flies in the face of some of the conventions of this tiny subgenre, more accurate? I don’t know. I just know that I liked it, I liked it more as it went, and I’m happy that I saw it.”
“The emotional journey that Bill takes through his burgeoning adulthood, seeing first romances rise and fall, friendships strained and strengthened, and the country around him changing, ends up being a nice testament not only to Boorman’s youth but also to his entire career. It’s definitely not his best work, but it’s also definitely not his worst. It’s nice.”
6. The General
“This isn’t one of Boorman’s great films. I think it needed to make the rise of Cahill more infectiously entertaining to help make the downfall more impactful, but it’s a well-managed, well-acted, and well-put together production that makes its point well. It’s a nice return to form after the misdirected Beyond Rangoon.”
5. Point Blank
“Overall, the film is an entertaining and strange trip into the underworld of California. It’s the strangeness that attracts me most with the humor a close second. I wish there was more of both, but the complete package is not quite was I was hoping for. I like it, a good bit, but I wonder if Boorman could have taken the story further in his direction to make it even more his own thing. Marvin did give him the ability to do it.”
4. Excalibur
“Divorced from reality and existing in its own fantasy realm, it creates its own rules of behavior and sticks to them. It’s really pretty from beginning to end, well using the Irish countryside (around John Boorman’s house) with mise-en-scene that really evokes Romantic paintings. The performances, especially Nicol Williamson’s as Merlin, fit well with the material, and it’s an entertaining look into another reality that follows different rules from our own.”
“So, this is something like my fourth or fifth viewing of the film, and I still come away with the same impression. I really, really wish the Grail quest was better integrated into the rest of the film. It really does seem like it comes out of nowhere. I would have also liked a greater focus on Perceval from before the quest since he is so key to how it all plays out.”
“It’s also a testament to how a distinct storyteller can make any story his own, bending it to his thematic obsessions. That it’s entertaining is all the better.”
2. Deliverance
“If you’ve ever wanted to make a movie where a handful of guys wander around the woods for most of the runtime, I’m not sure you could find a better model than John Boorman’s Deliverance, based on the book and script by James Dickey.”
“That being said, I really love Hell in the Pacific. The sparseness of the narrative allows great focus on the characters while providing a large space for implication and even subtlety in this tale of the loss of civilization, the rise of cooperation and friendship, and it all coming crashing down again.”
David Vining, Author 
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