Eulogizing the indie-film studio that launched Tarantino and changed Hollywood.
With Thursday’s news that Miramax would be shutting down its N.Y. and L.A. offices and likely shelving the few projects it had in development, a significant chapter in film history has closed. Since the 2005 departure of Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Miramax has slowly wound down its output, but for fifteen years it was the most influential tastemaker in Hollywood, and its approach reshaped the way movies are made. These ten moments highlight the ways that Miramax changed film forever.
1. sex, lies, and videotape
Miramax broke out in 1989 by producing then-unknown, now-Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh’s sex, lies, and videotape. Tackling sexual repression, desire, and infidelity, the film won both the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It became an international success and proved to Hollywood producers that independent film could be profitable. Soon every studio was scooping up any self-financed film they could find, Sundance became the hip destination, and “indie” became the hottest adjective around. This was the movie that lit the fuse, and it happened because of Miramax.
2. International fame for a new generation of directors
The other momentous impact of 1989 came with Miramax’s American distribution of Jim Sheridan’s My Left Foot. The Weinsteins’ American push for the U.K.-made film made it a massive success and gave Daniel Day-Lewis his first Oscar win. As vanguards of the world film market, Miramax brought international acclaim and fortune to directors like Danny Boyle, Jane Campion, Anthony Minghella, and Pedro Almodovar, introducing American audiences to projects as eclectic as Trainspotting, The Piano, and The English Patient.
3. The Crying Game
After bombing twice in Hollywood, Irish-born Neil Jordan returned home to make the type of film that brought him attention in the first place. The result, 1992’s The Crying Game, failed at the U.K. box office, and would have disappeared forever, if not for the Weinsteins. Miramax brought the film to the U.S. and turned it into a hit by playing up its controversial aspects: its sympathetic portrayal of Stephen Rea’s IRA terrorist and the sexual politics of his relationship with the androgynous “Dil.” Never before had transgender relationships been so openly discussed in pop culture; for the first time, the general public was giving the thought-provoking subject a lot of dialogue.
4. The rise of Dimension Films
In 1992, Miramax created Dimension Films, an imprint aimed at releasing horror, action, and other genre pictures. Dimension’s resume includes the resurrection of the Halloween franchise, Guillermo Del Toro’s first American work, and giving Robert Rodriguez the success to found the digital production house Troublemaker Studios. But its biggest fortune was the Scream franchise. The post-modern horror film became the most successful slasher of all time, revitalizing horror films in the process. It sparked the rebirth of teen-oriented entertainment, a massive industry focus that has affected film, television, music, fashion, and just about everything else we see, hear, or do.
5. Tidal Wave of Film-Makers Changes Hollywood
Miramax launched dozens of careers, producing debut films by directors like Kevin Smith (Clerks), Larry Clark (Kids), and Julian Schnabel (Basquiat) among others. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were able to break out of their struggling character-actor careers and write the Oscar-winning phenomenon Good Will Hunting, which catapulted them into the mainstream. The same went for future Iron Man-director Jon Favreau and his screenplay for Swingers, which also co-starred Vince Vaughn in his breakout role.
6. The cult of Tarantino
Perhaps the most important aspect of Miramax’s legacy: out of all the young voices the company helped develop, no one had as immediate or wide-spread an impact as Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino inspired a new generation of genre mash-up, nostalgia preservation, and boundary-pushing violence. Pulp Fiction defined the ’90s with its chic cynicism, coloring every piece of entertainment in its wake. With Miramax’s backing, Tarantino turned the “film director” into a rock star. The film geek became cool. Every video-store clerk decided it was possible to achieve the dream. Film culture was radically changed.
7. Controversial treatment of Asian films
Miramax was notorious for its handling of Asian cinema. The re-edited Farewell, My Concubine earned the ire of the Cannes Jury that had awarded the original the Palm d’Or. The studio altered subtitles, removing the political context from Iron Monkey, and changing the message of Jet Li’s Fist of Legend. After Japanese producers halted an attempt to re-edit Princess Mononoke for a PG rating, Miramax abandoned its promotional efforts for the film. In a 2002 New Yorker interview, Harvey Weinstein claimed these changes made the movies more accessible. In the end, distribution of Asian cinema may have benefited, as an audience of fans rallied to protect the original visions of these movies.
8. Shakespeare in Love dominates the Oscars — for a hefty price
When Shakespeare in Love beat out Saving Private Ryan for 1999’s Best Picture Oscar, public opinion of the Weinsteins — and Miramax — began to change. Rumor suggested the studio had spent five million dollars advertising the film, employing around-the-clock publicists and hosting rule-breaking promotional dinners. The romantic comedy’s big win proved definitively that the Academy Awards were a political game, and award-hungry studios responded accordingly. Every December, theaters became over-crowded with movies trying soak up all the critical acclaim, with Miramax the most notorious practitioners of “Oscar baiting”; critics and viewers have turned a more skeptical eye to prestige films ever since.
9. Chicago
The 2002 adaptation of the Broadway musical became Miramax’s biggest hit ever, earning a worldwide box-office take of over 300-million dollars. In addition to being a massive success, it pushed the Weinsteins to aim bigger and bigger. Films like The Aviator, Finding Neverland, and the 80-million-dollar-budgeted Cold Mountain attempted to recreate the prestige blockbuster model, but only provided modest returns. Miramax was forced to take fewer risks in its final years, losing some of its radical identity along the way.
10. The Disney buyout
Current Disney President and CEO Robert A. Iger and Walt Disney Studios Chairman Rich Ross
The Walt Disney Company purchased Miramax in 1993, turning the company into an “indie division” for the mouse-eared behemoth. The Disney money gave the Weinsteins the financial cushion they needed to aim high. Many films were bank-rolled with a surprising amount of creative freedom. Other studios followed suit, developing their own “specialty divisions,” fostering not-quite-independent films. Hollywood actors looking to “go indie” with vanity projects dominated the festival circuits, edging out untested low-budget films. Over time, the relationship between Miramax and Disney deteriorated as Disney CEO Michael Eisner interfered in the creative direction, even blocking the release of Fahrenheit 9/11 and Dogma. As profits began to decrease in the mid-2000s, the increased conflict drove the Weinsteins away from Miramax. In 2005 they created a new boutique start-up: the Weinstein Company, which has suffered from financial difficulties since its debut, forcing the brothers to mainly work with the same talent pool they developed in the ’90s. Eventually, the bubble burst all over Hollywood as studio indie divisions Warner Independent Pictures, Picturehouse, New Line Cinema, and Paramount Vantage all permanently shut down. At the moment, the independent film world has returned to a pre-sex, lies, and videotape state; there’s not much room on a national level for serious new voices in alternative cinema.