American Cinematographer - February 1994 - 44

A Lifetime of Achievement:

Conrad Hall, ASC
by Bob Fisher and Stephen Pizzeilo
Barbara.

recognize cinematographers who
have compiled significant bodies of
work which have made a lasting im¬
pression. Previous winners were
George Folsey, Joe Biroc, Stanley
Cortez, Charles Lang, Philip Lathrop,

of him, he has already accumu¬
lated an impressive and influen¬
tial body of work. He won an
Oscar in 1969 for Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid, and earned
other nominations for Morituri,
The Professionals, In Cold Blood,
The Day of the Locust and Tequila

and Haskell Wexler. The 1994 win¬
ner is Conrad Hall, ASC.

Sunrise. The latter film also gar¬
nered Hall the 1988 ASC Out¬

nalism program, but
short-lived experience.

The ASC

Lifetime Achieve¬

ment Award was initiated in 1988 to

Conrad Hall, ASC was
stunned when he learned that he
had been chosen to receive the
1994 ASC Lifetime Achievement

Award. To cinema aficionados,

however, the choice is perfectly
logical. Hall has spent his entire

Man and Black Widow.

doggedly pursuing what
happy accident, the
magic moment," and his cin¬
ematic divining rod has pro¬
duced some of film history's
most memorable images. Along
the way, Hall's uncompromising
commitment to artistry - and
willingness to take risks in pur¬
suit of that artistry - has earned
him the respect and admiration
of his peers, who occupy film¬
making's penthouse echelon.

of

career

he terms "the

"It took

a

while for

me

to

grasp that my colleagues
I have made an impact on

believe
the his¬
tory of cinema," he says of his
Lifetime Achievement honor.
"Billions of people have seen and
been influenced by movies in the
short history of this industry. My

peers say I
ence. That
than

a

differ¬

means more

to me

have made

Oscar."
Still, he says, the honor
somehow feels premature. How
winning

an

could he receive the ultimate

rec¬

ognition when his body of work
is still evolving? "I'm too young,"
the 67-year-old cinematographer
insists. "I hope I'm still shooting
when I'm 80."

While Hall maintains
that his best

42

standing Achievement Award
for Cinematography. The cinemato¬
grapher's other credits include
such highly regarded pictures as
Cool Hand Luke, Harper, Electra
Glide in Blue, Fat City, Marathon

American

days

are

Cinematographer

still ahead

Hall

was

in the first

wave

generation of cinema¬
tographers who broke into the
industry during the 1950s and
'60s. Given his background, how¬
ever, cinematography was an
unlikely vocation.
a new

His father
Norman

Hall,

was

James

pilot and
captain in the Lafayette Escadrille, which fought for France
during World War I. After the
war,

an ace

the elder Hall and fellow

volunteer Charles Nordhoff were
asked to write a history of the

Afterwards, he enrolled

at USC with instructions

from his
father to find a career. But how
do you measure up to a father
who fought aerial duels with the

legendary Red Baron and went
on

to write

a

classic novel?

Hall enrolled in the

jour¬
it was a
"My first
semester, I got a D in creative
writing," he recalls. He decided
to choose another

field, leafing
through the As and Bs in the cur¬
riculum catalog before settling on

cinema. His decision to enroll in

the cinema program wasn't a
frivolous one, however; movies

relatively new art form,
thought it could be in¬
teresting to get in on the ground

were a

and Hall

floor.
His timing couldn't have
been better. USC's cinema school
was headed
by Slavko Vorkapitch,

Yugoslavian writer who had
migrated to Hollywood in 1922.
Vorkapitch had done some
screenwriting, but mostly was
known for the power of his visual
montages. He lent his talents to
several features, including I Take
a

unit.

This Woman, Crime Without Pas¬

where

sion and

Searching for a quiet place
they could concentrate, the
pair found solitude - and a new

world

-

in Tahiti. Instead of

Shopworn Angel.
Vorkapitch had an unfor¬
giving disdain for "photoplays,"

writing about the Lafayette Esca-

which

drille, Hall and Nordhoff

most

pleted

com¬

a novel they called Mutiny
Bounty.

on

the

in

James Norman Hall settled
Tahiti, where he wed the de¬

scendant of a marriage between a
Tahitian lady and an American-

English sea captain. The couple's
son, Conrad, grew up on the is¬
land in a cloistered literary envi¬
ronment. He

took

never

had

a camera

picture, and going to see
movies was an exotic concept.
During his teens, Hall was sent to
or

an

a

exclusive prep

February 1994

school in Santa

was

how he characterized

Hollywood films. "He was
like a surrogate father," says Hall.
"He had the spirit and soul of an
artist. He taught me that filmmaking was a new visual lan¬
guage. He taught the principles,
and left the rest up to us."
The professor found a
disciple in Hall. "I can still recall
the thrill of shooting my first
film," Hall recalls. "It was a scene
of a car coming to a stop sign and
then

driving off. Our allotment
was
only 100 feet

for the semester

of 16mm black & white film. I
American Cinematographer - February 1994

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