SOMETHING'S GONNA LIVE had to be made, to document the story of some of the most creative and talented unknown icons of the film industry. "Unknown" because who but the most ardent film buff knows the names of cinema's art directors, production designers, cinematographers, or storyboard illustrators?
The artists celebrated in SOMETHING'S GONNA LIVE are colossal in their own right: Production designer Robert Boyle gave Hitchcock's films the exacting look the Master required. Production designer Henry Bumstead worked for decades alongside A-list directors from George Roy Hill to Clint Eastwood. Cinematographer Conrad Hall's lens captured both the sublime and the ridiculous (his telling of the set-up for a scene from IN COLD BLOOD is one of this documentary's many awe-inspiring moments). Illustrator Harold Michelson's storyboards have been displayed in art museums, they're so damn good. Production designer Albert Nozaki was the genius behind those terrifying spaceships that invaded America in the original WAR OF THE WORLDS. Cinematographer Haskell Wexler's precise eye never blinked in depicting the simple beauty of film reality. Sadly, the years have taken their toll: only Boyle, who is 100, and Wexler, who is 87, are still alive. But all of these artists' work survives, to be enjoyed by countless film-goers for generations to come.
SOMETHING'S GONNA LIVE celebrates the visual art of these extraordinary men, all masters of their craft, all talented artists who worked within the studio system, yet still managed to create some of the most compelling and exciting cinematic art and imagery ever produced. These guys were good.
Writer/Producer/Director Daniel Raim has done a yeoman's job of effectively combining archival stills and near-present-day interviews with teasing bits of footage from many of the most important films of a bygone era. This documentary honors the visual artists behind some of the most incredible cinema ever created, back in the day before computer imagery had even been imagined.
The best thing about SOMETHING'S GONNA LIVE? That is exists, so as to be enjoyed by future generations of film lovers, writers, directors, artists and anyone else who is interested in how to make something cinematically beautiful without hitting a single key on a computer keyboard.
The art and artistry offered up in SOMETHING'S GONNA LIVE is pure and inspiring, and unfortunately something we'll likely never see again.
SOMETHING'S GONNA LIVE is a documentary you gotta see.
