John Irvin, 1940 - 2026

British movie and TV director John Irvin, 86, died on Aug. 11. Irvin started his career with British Movietone News, making documentaries during the Vietnam War (which led to his 1987 film Hamburger Hill). He directed many TV projects (notably Hard Times and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) before moving into films in the 1980s. Besides Hamburger Hill, Irvin helmed The Dogs of War, Ghost Story, Champions, Turtle Diary, Robin Hood, Widows’ Peak, Freefall, and, most recently, Mandela’s Gun. “When I went to the London School of Film Technique, I was very committed to social realism,” Irvin said. “We were all very engagé. The manifesto of Free Cinema, which was Karel Reisz and Lindsay Anderson and that crowd, was my primary influence. The Free Cinema movement was good stuff. I subscribed to their belief that British filmmakers were mostly pre-occupied with middle class stereotypes, for the middle class by the middle class.”