E-mail a friendBarry Levinson
airdate February 16, 2007
Barry Levinson is an award-winning director, writer and producer. He began in the business as a writer and stand-up performer. After Emmy-winning stints writing for variety shows, he segued to a successful career in feature films, with credits that include Man of the Year, Bugsy and Rain Man, for which he won a Best Director Oscar. Levinson also won an Emmy for directing the pilot episode of the TV series, Homicide: Life in the Streets, which he produced and shot in his Baltimore hometown.
Barry Levinson
Tavis: I'm pleased to welcome Barry Levinson to this program. The Oscar-winning director's film resume includes classics like "Diner," Rain Man" and "Bugsy." His most recent project, "Man of the Year," stars Robin Williams and is out on DVD next Tuesday. Here now a scene from "Man of the Year."
[Film Clip]
Tavis: (Laughter) Barry Levinson, nice to meet you.
Barry Levinson: Pleasure.
Tavis: Nice to have you here. I've seen this thing like five times. You know, they're playing this on airplanes now.
Levinson: Are they? I haven't seen that.
Tavis: Yeah, I've seen it like five times in the last month flying back and forth across the country. Although Robin Williams is terribly funny, there are so many lessons and empowerment pieces that I picked up out of watching this. Did you intend for that to be?
Levinson: Well, what you try to do is create a character that you think is engaging to an audience. In it, he says a number of things. You know, a lot of things happen extremely fast. Things can go by and, if you see it a couple of times, you pick up on other things he's talking about.
But he's talking about the fact that we sense that there's no representation, that there isn't someone there in the government, in Congress, that is really connected to what the people need. He says it in a way that's humorous at times, more often than not, but in a way that sounds so natural that you pay more attention than the kind of political speak that goes on.
Tavis: Were the messages that we're trying to get across here for the folks inside the Beltway in Washington or for everyday Americans?
Levinson: I think it's basically everyday Americans. I mean, you can't work any one special group. My feeling is when you write, you write because you begin to hear things. You hear people talking, people disenchanted, people don't pay attention, people that don't bother to vote because they think their vote doesn't count, the frustration level. So here comes a candidate who then all of a sudden is speaking more towards, you know, a basic way that you pay attention and get involved.
Tavis: I should probably back up and ask you to share in your own words what the story line here is. We've talked around it, but not exactly at it.
Levinson: I mean, the story line is simply that we take a late-night political talk show host like a Jon Stewart or one of those guys who, because of circumstances, someone said, "Well, you should run for president." You know, you hear those things out there. After a while from all of this internet activity, he decides during the hiatus, you know, "I'm going to actually go out there and make a little noise."
He begins to get more involved in it and gets into a debate. He's allowed in a debate because he's a credible character. That debate becomes so frustrating to him that he basically breaks out of it and starts talking as he does, his personality, and begins to get more and more attention. At the same time, it is the nationalization of computer voting and the computer voting system is out of whack. So those two elements are really what is driving the movie.
Tavis: I wonder what you think the most serious issue in this film is that he raises for these everyday people who talk about it. What's the message for everyday people?
Levinson: For everyday people, I think that there's too much - I think because it costs so much to run that the people who do run are beholding to too many special interest groups, so they can't just talk about what they want to talk about. They have all these people. They got two hundred fifty million dollars to run for president and, because of that, you don't get the person that can say it is the people first and these are the issues we have to deal with, not the pharmaceuticals, etc.
I think that's what he's really saying. And he's also just talking rather than just doing political speak. I think, because he has a sense of humor all the time, we pay more attention to him.
Tavis: We're in a campaign season now. Of course, Barack Obama just announced the other day that he's in it, as if we didn't know already. So the field is growing on both the left side and the right side, Republicans and Democrats. What's your sense of the mood of the country right now, beyond this film, and whether or not a populace candidate could get some traction these days?
Levinson: I think so. I think if they speak, you know, to the audience in a way that is credible and we begin to connect to that person, you know, it'll be interesting how he does, you know, Barack, how he's going to handle himself in terms of engaging an audience out there. My feeling is that there's a massive amount of frustration that Congress is not doing anything.
Things aren't moving ahead in the way they should. Too many problems in the country that we look at and ask how can these things not get worked out? How can New Orleans be in that much of a disaster in a year and a half after the fact, no matter what they say? How can it be that bad? Are we that incompetent or, you know, we just don't care? I think the people in general are saying, "I don't know." Something is radically wrong.
Tavis: Let me just ask you a personal question, which you're not obliged to answer, but I'm just curious in case you would indulge me. Who in your lifetime, in this campaign or any other, has most turned you on because of their populace, because of their being frank and straightforward and candid and being a truth-teller kind of like "Man of the Year" here?
Levinson: Well, in my lifetime, I think there was that period in the early summer when Bobby Kennedy was running that I think we saw a break from the traditional politics. We saw him speak to an audience after the death of Martin Luther King. That was a speech that seemed, you know, from the heart and there was a connection. Not just some politician talking to the people, but someone who was saying, you know, here's where we are and this is where we have to go from this point on. That seemed honest and credible to me at that time way back then.
Tavis: You mentioned earlier something that I find terribly important and I think a lot of people perhaps overlook it or don't. You rate it as high as I do in terms of an effective strategy or tool for getting elected. But you mentioned humor a moment ago. Clearly, in "Man of the Year," Robin Williams' character that he plays uses humor to get his point across.
I'm part of a radio program every day and, with regard to the program, I do the empowerment stuff and my friend, Tom Joyner, does the entertainment stuff. We have a mantra. It's pretty simple. If Tom can make them laugh, then I can get them to listen.
If you make people laugh, you can make people listen. That's true, I think, of just about anything if you get your message across in the right way. How much do you think humor really can make a difference if politicians or those running for office know how to use it just right?
Levinson: I think a lot. I think that we sense that there's more credibility because, with humor, you have to basically point out things and go after things. In a sense, that brings us into focus. Is that the only way? No, but it certainly is disarming and it does make us sit forward and want to hear more and enjoy it and, at the same time, understand what the person is really saying if someone knows how to use humor correctly.
Tavis: I wonder if I can just throw out some of the names of some of your other films. I'm not sure I want to ask you a particular question, but just tell me anything about these films. We've all seen them and they are part of the pantheon now of American classics. When I think of "Rain Man," I know what I think. What do you think these years later when you think of "Rain Man?"
Levinson: I'm always sort of fascinated. You make a movie because you believe in the idea. You make a movie because you think other people might want to see it. You'd say here's a character that has autism. At that time, no one had ever heard of autism and didn't know anything about it. It seemed an un-commercial a thing as you could make.
For that movie to connect, you know, not just in the United States, but all over the world like in Japan or whatever. For all these people to somehow find something to take away from the movie is always really gratifying because you never can really think in those terms. You say I'd love to explore this subject matter and where is this going to go?
Tavis: I could be wrong about this, but I assume that you had to have some sense of the kind of impact of that film since Hollywood overarches and just hovers over issues that it raises. You had to know that you were doing some good work in putting Hoffman and Cruise together around that subject matter.
Levinson: Well, you thought that it was a good subject, that it was worthwhile. You thought the performances were good, but there was no indication that it would catch on. Here's a difference. You know, we always talk about opening weekend. That movie's opening weekend only did six million dollars.
Tavis: "Rain Man."
Levinson: "Rain Man," six million dollars. Now it ended up doing almost two hundred million domestic, but it just kept growing. It was six. The next week, it was seven. The next week, it was ten. The next week, it was twelve.
Tavis: And that's a rarity in Hollywood. It usually goes the other way.
Levinson: Right. So it was one of those things that just sort of, you know, this thing that happened.
Tavis: So, "Bugsy."
Levinson: You know, it just came out. There's a new DVD of it that came out just recently.
Tavis: I have it.
Levinson: Oh, do you?
Tavis: Yeah (laughter).
Levinson: It's interesting. We put a scene in there that was never seen. It's a very, very strong sequence, six minute scene almost. Very big. It's a movie I'm very pleased with, very proud of. You know, you always here all the stories of Warren and whatever. He's really a terrific person and a great person to work with.
Tavis: I can't go to Vegas now without thinking of Bugsy and, every time I land in that city, I think that Bugsy did all of this.
Levinson: One crazy man.
Tavis: One crazy guy (laughter), and could never have imagined that it would grow to this massive -
Levinson: - isn't that bizarre?
Tavis: Thanks to Barry Levinson, I think of Bugsy every time I land there. The latest film from Barry Levinson is "Man of the Year" starring Robin Williams. It is out Tuesday on DVD. Mr. Levinson, an honor to have you on the program.
Levinson: Pleasure.
Tavis: Nice to meet you, sir.
Levinson: Great to talk with you.
Tavis: My pleasure.
Back to February 16, 2007