He took part in the opposing wing of the central cinema: Who is Hal Ashby?

Hal Ashby is a Director and Producer known for Being There, Harold and Maude, and The Polite Robber.

The value of the works left behind by Hal Ashby, who lived in the most turbulent periods of the 20th century and struggled with a private life that was at least as turbulent as the time he lived in, is better understood these days. The director's awareness is increasing again, especially as younger generations discover him.

He started his career as an editor. He won an Oscar for In the Heat of the Night (1967), which has gained a special place among anti-racist films since it was shot. Then he stepped into directing. He became one of the triggers of the Hollywood revolution by taking part in the opposition wing of mainstream cinema with the valuable films he shot one after the other in the 70s.

It is possible to summarize Ashby's understanding of cinema, which has used the Hippie culture and the worldview of the 68 generation, which he adhered to throughout his life, apart from the changes he experienced in the last few years of his life, as the basis for each of his films, in two words: Oppositional and naive.

William Hal Ashby (September 2, 1929 – December 27, 1988) was an American film director and editor. His work exemplified the countercultural attitude of the era. He directed wide ranging films featuring iconic performances. He is associated with the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking with filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Mike Nichols, and Sidney Lumet.

Although Ashby was an opposition filmmaker to the end, he stood up against America's alienating, discriminatory, pro-war policies at home and abroad, without opening banners, chanting slogans, or shouting.

Although it is a reflection of his own life, it is Shampoo (1975), which can also be read as a manifestation of America's complicated domestic politics, and his best film by far is Being There (1979). He directly incorporated politics into his films with Being There (1979), one of the peaks of his genre. He revealed the inner face of America's decision-making mechanisms through the corruption of the aristocracy that feeds on power and power. While doing this, the director stayed away from judgment, labeling, and humiliation. He not only pointed out the problems but also presented ways of thinking that would eliminate the problems as solutions. The fact that Ashby did this without assuming the tone of a finger-wagging tutorial made what he said even more valuable and timeless.

In Coming Home (1978), which is the embodiment of the Vietnam syndrome, war veterans are asked: "If we admit that we made a mistake in Vietnam, how can we cope with this fact for the rest of our lives?" He created the sentence. Ashby's embracing and tolerant approach is at a point so sublime that today's world, where everyone is stereotyped, from powerful governments to minorities resisting all kinds of difficulties, cannot easily be understood.

Another feature of Hal Ashby is that he has a naive understanding of cinema that touches the soul. In the world of the director, who is a complete narrator of relationships, extending from existence to extinction, there is enough love, happiness, strife, competition, and sadness for everyone and every segment of society, and all of these emotions are fed from the same natural source, humans.

Focusing on relationships and underlining that all approaches are "humane", Ashby embodies this understanding by portraying the helplessness of characters who tend to judge and label, which he strongly opposes.

George Roundy (Warren Beatty), who is thought to be gay by men because he is a women's hairdresser in Shampoo, has a sexual life so colorful that it cannot even fit into the imagination of heterosexual men.

In Being There, Chance (Peter Sellers) rises to the highest position in politics with the mystery of being a mysterious unknown.

In Harold and Maude (1971), the happiness of two unconventional characters, one young and the other old, who are seen as a burden to others, is presented as real rewards that people with an alienating and judgmental mentality can never attain.

This situation is a naive indicator of the rebellion initiated by Hal Ashby against the order in which what is clean is deemed less valuable than what looks clean.

Hal Ashby left behind a golden filmography in which, in addition to the films we mentioned in the article, you will find only beauties no matter what movie you try, including The Last Detail (1973) with Jack Nicholson and the musical recital Bound for Glory (1979) with David Carradine, which we did not have the opportunity to mention.