Joseph Ezekiel Strick (July 6, 1923 – June 1, 2010) was an American director, producer and screenwriter.

Life and career

Born in the

Greater Pittsburgh Greater Pittsburgh is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania, United States. The region includes Allegheny County, Pittsburgh's urban core county and economic hub, and seven adjacent Pennsylvania cou ...

town of

Braddock, Pennsylvania Braddock is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough located in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, upstream from the mouth of the Monongahela River. The population was 1,721 as of the 2020 United States ...

, Strick briefly attended UCLA, then enrolled in the U.S. Army during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In the Army, he served as a cameraman in the Army Air Forces.Dennis McLella
"Joseph Strick dies at 86; independent filmmaker brought 'Ulysses' to big screen"
''Los Angeles Times'', 4 June 2010 In 1948, he and Irving Lerner produced '' Muscle Beach''. For several years in the 1950s, Lerner, Strick, Ben Maddow, and Sidney Meyers worked part-time on the experimental documentary '' The Savage Eye'' (1959).Benjamin T Jackson "The Savage Eye", ''Film Quarterly'', 13:4, Summer 1960, pp. 53-57 Strick was also a successful businessman, founding Electrosolids Corp (1956), Computron Corp. (1958), Physical Sciences Corp (1958), and Holosonics Corp. (1960). In 1977 he invented the usage of six-axis motion simulators as entertainment systems and applied it to new machines used now in Disney theme parks as "Star Tours." In the 1960s, during his first marriage, Strick commissioned what was the only house designed by

Oscar Niemeyer Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was b ...

in North America. The marriage ended in divorce before construction was completed, and Strick never occupied the house, located on the edge of Santa Monica Canyon. ''The Savage Eye'' won the BAFTA Flaherty Documentary Award and was hailed as part of an "American New Wave" alongside the work of Shirley Clarke and

John Cassavetes John Nicholas Cassavetes (December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an American filmmaker and actor. He began as an actor in film and television before helping to pioneer modern American independent cinema as a writer and director, often self- ...

. In 1970, he won an Academy Award for Best Documentary for his movie '' Interviews with My Lai Veterans''. His better known ventures include a

film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

's '' Ulysses'' and ''

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' is the second book and first novel of Irish writer James Joyce, published in 1916. A ''Künstlerroman'' written in a modernist style, it traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Ste ...

'' as well as '' Never Cry Wolf'' (1983). He also directed ''

Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, also known as the Northern Tropic, is the Earth's northernmost circle of latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun ...

'', based on the novel by Henry Miller. In Britain, he directed at the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...

(1964) and the National Theatre (2003). Joseph Strick's career led him to share his time in Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris. He died in a Paris hospital of congestive heart failure. The moving image collection of Joseph Strick is held at the Academy Film Archive. The collection consists of over one hundred items, including negative and print materials. The Academy Film Archive has preserved several of Strick's films, including ''The Savage Eye'' and ''Muscle Beach''.

References

*Margot Norris, ''Ulysses'' (University of Cork Press, 2004) *Bosley Crowther, ''The Great Films'' (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1967), pages 247-250 *William Wulf, ''Landmark Films'' (Paddington Press, 1979) pages 278-290 *Michael Webb, ''A Modernist Paradise'' (Rizzoli, 2004)

External links

*
'Portrait of Joe as a Young Director'
documentary of Joe talking about 'Ulysses' and 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'
The Hecklers
1966, BBC Documentary on British elections and 'heckling' with introduction by Strick. {{DEFAULTSORT:Strick, Joseph 1923 births 2010 deaths American documentary filmmakers American male screenwriters Deaths from congestive heart failure in the United States Film directors from Pennsylvania Military personnel from Pennsylvania Military personnel from Pittsburgh People from Braddock, Pennsylvania Screenwriters from Pennsylvania United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II United States Air Force airmen