For many people, Richard Attenborough will always be associated with war films – perhaps as a dapper British officer, a grumbling naval engineer, or a determined sergeant major. He made a name for himself as a character actor early in his long career and famously played Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett in The Great Escape and General Outram in Satjajit Ray’s classic The Chess Players.
In fact his first film role, during the war itself, was as a midshipman in David Lean’s 1942 film In Which We Serve. It’s easy to forget that in the 60 years that he’s been on stage and screen since, he’s done just about everything – from comedy and musicals to thrillers and film noir. He was even in the original cast of The Mousetrap – the world’s longest-running theatre production – still showing in London’s West End after more than 50 years. He has worked with a who’s who of the cinema – Noel Coward, James Stewart, Rex Harrison, John Wayne, Peter Sellers, Mia Farrow, Robert Redford, Gene Hackman and many others in American and British cinema. At age 84 and now Lord Attenborough, his closest friends include Steven Spielberg.
But if you don’t remember Attenborough as a cherub-faced actor, then you’ll almost certainly have seen some his work as a director. Among the 12 films he’s made since 1969 are Gandhi, Cry Freedom, Chaplin, Young Winston and Shadowlands, all stories about well-known and influential individuals.
“I am interested in those who tend to guide us and point us in certain directions,” he says with an energy that belies his age. “I am interested in people who set examples, who overcome shortcomings and demonstrate convictions in relation to human dignity. So the people who I have chosen to make films about are all people who – despite their own shortcomings – have formed and shaped part of human behaviour.”
But the heroes he talks about – including C.S. Lewis, the subject of Shadowlands and Steve Biko from Cry Freedom – are not all of the action variety. “Although I do believe in heroes, I don’t mean people known for acts of valour and bravery, but people who have faced circumstances and rivalries and confrontations where they had to demonstrate more often mental and emotional bravery.” Attenborough the actor pauses for a moment, reflecting on his comment, working out the careful delivery of the next line. “And I believe that there are not all that many one can point to in normal life – not because they don’t exist, but because they haven’t been singled out. ”
One man Attenborough can single out is Nelson Mandela, and he has been pressured to make a film about him for a number of years. “I will not do it,” he says adamantly. “Firstly because the South Africans should make that film, and secondly because we need to let more years pass before we tackle him: be still has a lot to contribute to his country.”
The other of Attenborough’s heroes, and a film project that he has been working on for many years, is Thomas Paine. “Before I die I want to make a film about him. He has influenced the way we exist more than any other person I can think of. All the things that we say are important today – human dignity, the role of women, education they were all pleaded for in the 1780s by Paine.”
Again there is a pause as Attenborough draws breath. “Perhaps I don’t really have time any more, though.” He sighs. It took him nearly 20 years to get Gandhi made, a film that won a staggering eight Academy awards, including two for Attenborough – as both producer and director. Much of the reason for Attenborough’s long lead times between films is his need to keep artistic control. “Movies cost so bloody much and I don’t see any point in making movies for two men and a dog in a bar. Cinema is the artistic expression of our time but it has to be made for a mass of people. So getting the balance right between telling the truth that you want to tell and reaching a wider audience is a great problem. And I do not want to give away the rights to the final versions of my films to someone else. I don’t want to find myself compromised, but it’s very difficult to raise money when you want to maintain your own autonomy.”
It’s taken eight years for Attenborough to bring his latest film, Closing The Ring, to the screen. It’s a story about a woman dealing with tragedy and loss, and stars Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer. Attenborough was at work on preproduction when his daughter Jane and granddaughter Lucy were killed in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand. “How do you deal with it? You don’t really. There were many things in the film that reminded me of our own situation. Does it get better with time? No, you just get a little better at dealing with it. You have to get on with life. And somehow you can cope with the pain if you also remember the joy.”
In Closing The Ring, MacLaine’s character Ethel Ann tries stoically to forget. It’s a strategy that Attenborough knows doesn’t help. “We have ecstatic life memories with Jane, and you have to recall those to help deal with the terrible loss.”
The conversation drifts back to film again, and Attenborough says, “I am fascinated by people under strain, under difficulties, under exigencies which they perhaps regret having to face – but which reveal human conduct and the things that really matter. Does human dignity matter? I think it does. Gandhi once said that he was always amazed that men should feel themselves honoured by the pain inflicted by their fellow human beings, and I buy that – I think its true. It’s amazing that we are prepared to allow brutalities and intolerances to totally determine our lives.”
