We value Peter Medak most for the psychological tension of The Changeling and his work with strong leading actors. The Krays exposes the risk: carefully composed violence and characters who need more attention.
Fi1m perspective
Peter Medak can make a film unsettling without relying on cheap shocks. The Changeling (1980), with George C. Scott, is the clearest reason to value that patience. The earlier The Ruling Class (1972), with Peter O'Toole, finds its discomfort in black comedy about British class and institutions. Both make a strong leading actor central to the experience, and we would begin with those performances when making the case for Medak.
His 1990s crime films include The Krays (1990), Let Him Have It (1991) and Romeo Is Bleeding (1993), the last with Gary Oldman and Lena Olin. The Krays supplies the caveat to our enthusiasm: the violence is too attractively arranged, and the characters need more depth. From the 1990s onwards, episodic television becomes his principal work, including The Wire (2002) and Breaking Bad (2008).
In The Wire, departmental politics gets the weight that other programmes reserve for gunfire. The attention to institutions recalls the concerns of The Ruling Class, though the tone is plainly different. We recommend the series even to people who usually avoid police dramas, because its Baltimore drug war makes room for humanity as well as conflict. It can be exhausting, and we would not pretend that the demands it makes will suit every evening.
Breaking Bad gives us a different reason to follow the television work: Bryan Cranston's frightening, funny account of Walter White and the close scrutiny of his excuses. We found Cranston frightening because those excuses remain recognisable; the programme makes us keep considering them when we would prefer to dismiss the man. Its cleverness can become a nuisance, but we recommend it well beyond the crime-drama audience. These are judgements on collaborative programmes, and Medak's credit cannot tell us which of their strengths to assign to him. For the clearest introduction to his feature work, start with The Changeling.
Biography
Peter Medak is a Hungarian-born British film and television director. Born on 23 December 1937 in Budapest, he fled Hungary following the 1956 uprising and began working in the British film industry as a trainee and assistant director before moving to Hollywood.
He made his feature debut with Negatives (1968) and went on to direct The Ruling Class (1972), The Changeling (1980), The Krays (1990) and Let Him Have It (1991). Medak has also directed numerous television episodes, including instalments of The Wire (2002), Carnivàle (2003), House (2004), Breaking Bad (2009) and Hannibal (2013).
