A challenging early family life pushed him to grow up too fast, and with 5 marriages balanced by 5 divorces, it's likely that Ashby was never destined to be a settled down family man. Director Scott works diligently to paint a full portrait of Ashby the man, so that we might better understand the odd career arc. All of these folks contributed to the edge in independent filmmaking that arose in the 70's. HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971), THE LAST DETAIL (1973), SHAMPOO (1975), BOUND FOR GLORY (1976), COMING HOME (Best director nomination, 1978), and BEING THERE (1979) are the films that comprise the aforementioned 'streak', and are also the projects that afforded Ashby the opportunity to work with such industry talents as writers Robert Towne, Jerzy Kosinski, and Waldo Salt cinematographers Haskell Wexler, Michael Chapman, and Caleb Deschanel and actors such as Ruth Gordon, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Lee Grant, Jon Voight, Jane Fonda, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, and Peter Sellers. Amy Scott (fittingly trained as a film editor) chose to make Ashby the subject of her directorial debut, and we can only assume her admiration for his work and curiosity about his later career was her inspiration. Ashby was a maverick filmmaker during an era when filmmaking style and tone shifted, and he was at least partially responsible for some of that change. At least 4 of those films would be included on a list of my all-time favorites.

There may never have been a director with a comparable streak of 6 films in terms of quality and variety as Hal Ashby delivered between 19.

Hal by Jean MacGibbon