By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer
Filmmaker Hill of “48 Hrs.” talks about the movie biz

WATERVILLE – Walter Hill tries hard not to sound like a Hollywood curmudgeon. Sometimes he can’t help it, though.

“The tiredest thing in show business is to say that things were better when I was young,” said the 64-year-old director, honored this week with a lifetime achievement award from the Maine International Film Festival.

Too many movies are being made as if they were SUVs on an assembly line, rather than crafted as fine furniture, Hill said.

“We are now grinding out a more homogenized product than we did in 1975, 1965 or 1955,” Hill said. “I think that a lot of the uniqueness and personality that was possible within the Hollywood system is being lost, driven out by modern marketing techniques and by the blockbuster mentality.”

That’s why he attended the Maine festival, featuring mostly low-budget, non-studio movies.

On Monday, he sat in the restored Waterville Opera House, swept back his gray hair and beamed at the austere lights and the old-fashioned stage.

“I do think it’s important that somebody from my background says, This is important. This is good. Do what you’re doing,'” Hill said.

Hill’s background is steeped in Hollywood. And he’s showing few signs of slowing.

He helped set the look and tone for HBO’s “Deadwood” by directing the pilot episode. And he had success in June with “Broken Trail” on cable’s American Movie Classics. In that one, he directed Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church to some of the best reviews of his career.

“I’m sitting here flush with victory,” he said. “Having a hit doesn’t hurt. This is not a business built on honorable failure.”

A California native, he began as a screenwriter, most notably writing the script for Sam Peckinpah’s “The Getaway.”

He began directing in 1975 with a Charles Bronson fight movie, “Hard Times.” He quickly became known for a gruff exterior and macho movies.

The movies that followed included the New York gang fantasy “The Warriors,” the Jesse James tale “The Long Riders,” and the classic “48 Hrs.”

The movie made Eddie Murphy a star.

Yet, before the production began, Hill worried that Murphy, who had never made a movie, couldn’t act.

The director even warned co-star Nick Nolte that he’d better be good every time the camera rolled, because Murphy might not be.

“I said to Nick, It’s going to be like you’re doing a movie with a dog or a kid. You got to be good every take. The one take he’s good, we’re printing it.'”

Murphy proved him wrong.

“Eddie, by the end of the film was a very good actor,” Hill said. “He was a little nervous for a couple of weeks. It wasn’t like it was a kid or a dog.”

During the famous bar scene – where Murphy rousts a bunch of cops – Hill knew he was watching something special.

“I turned to Larry Gross, the screenwriter, and said, We’re rich.'” Hill said. “What I should have said was Paramount is rich or Eddie’s rich.”

It was a moment of clarity for the director, who said he’s not good at knowing whether audiences will accept his work.

He rarely looks at his movies once they’re finished.

His work as a director is all about the process, he said. He has written or co-written most of his movies.

“When it comes to intentions, they all sound so grandiose,” he said. “You dare not tell anybody. Then, you get in there, exercise your taste.”

Like a mosaic, the movie comes together piece by piece, he said.

“What’s the old saying?” he asked. “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

He’s still doing it.

On the good notices of “Broken Trail,” Hill is working on three more projects: a western, a sci-fi story and a gangster movie.

“Most directors my age don’t work anymore,” he said. “The race has been run. But I feel good.”

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