Elmore Leonard dead at 87

[Rod]

One of the great ones has passed on. Elmore Leonard, RIP

[Aesop]

Meh.

Of his collected works, I've seen perhaps three, and favor only one.
I'm a big fan of Westerns, but not particularly his, and his other works seem a towering pile of mediocrity buried under loads of anti-hero worship.
Clearly, my disdain aside, he had a great run, and made a pile off of Hollywood, but looking at the product, that seems to be exactly the problem.
He, with the help of Steven Soderbergh, has the distinction of churning out the only watching JLo performance on film that doesn't require choreography to justify your interest: Out Of Sight*. Of all people, she should send flowers at least, though she'll probably respond "Elmore Who?"
Can't argue with his work ethic though. Anyone who can sit down and churn out 3-5 pages longhand daily, then type it up, at least knows how to do what he's set out to accomplish.




*(And hey, it featured recently-departed Dennis Farina. So if these things really do go in threes, the rest of the cast should be staying home for awhile, or we'll be seeing another obit.)

[Rod]

Meh.

Of his collected works, I've seen perhaps three, and favor only one.
I'm a big fan of Westerns, but not particularly his, and his other works seem a towering pile of mediocrity buried under loads of anti-hero worship.
Clearly, my disdain aside, he had a great run, and made a pile off of Hollywood, but looking at the product, that seems to be exactly the problem.
He, with the help of Steven Soderbergh, has the distinction of churning out the only watching JLo performance on film that doesn't require choreography to justify your interest: Out Of Sight*. Of all people, she should send flowers at least, though she'll probably respond "Elmore Who?"
Can't argue with his work ethic though. Anyone who can sit down and churn out 3-5 pages longhand daily, then type it up, at least knows how to do what he's set out to accomplish.




*(And hey, it featured recently-departed Dennis Farina. So if these things really do go in threes, the rest of the cast should be staying home for awhile, or we'll be seeing another obit.)

He wrote 3:10 to Yuma, Hombre, Valdez is Coming, and many other great westerns. His crime novels are terrific and easy reading. Nothing is wasted.

[Rod]

I forgot he wrote the script for Joe Kidd and Mr. Majestyk, the novel Last Stand at Saber River (one of Selleck's best performances).

[Aesop]

Meh.

Of his collected works, I've seen perhaps three, and favor only one.

That is almost certainly not true, as he's done a lot more than most know about.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001465/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmore_Leonard

I looked up his output before I posted, but I didn't see that he'd written Joe Kidd.
Which makes my numbers four and one.
But I did some work on Jackie Brown, so he helped pay my rent one month, indirectly.

[Old Grafton]

Cuba Libre. Detailed and engrossing.