Tribute: Nick Ray

      Nicholas Ray was more than a film director and he knew that his films were more than just genre films. Working within the RKO studio system in the 40s and 50s couldn't have been easy for someone with such a foreign take on what films are and should be. This blog will chronicle his filmography in comparison to other modern (and maybe sometimes not so modern) filmmakers. 
       Nick Ray is someone I have always looked to up to, he has shaped my opinions of how to make films, and more importantly why to make make films. More than ever his work is relevant to the youth culture of today. 
       At a screening of his film, In a Lonely Place, I heard a Ray fan gushing about how beautiful his film was. In a whirr of excitement I rambled on about how I just experienced one of the most epic moments in film. How his films, "made me feel something, and it was weird."  The crowd fell silent as we all thought about what it meant to our generation to be able to identify with such lusty devotion all these years later. Another guy in the crowd said, " That's how all Nick Ray films for me, they make me feel something, and yes it is weird." We all started clapping... because I think we all came together for one reason: a tribute. In our own inarticulate ways we did what we could to express out speechlessness. Something so profound is often so hard to explain. In this blog I will do my best to give it a shot.