Oscar Profile #144: Danny Boyle

Born October 20, 1956 in Lancashire, England to Irish parents, the writer/director Daniel “Danny” Boyle began his show business career in the theatre, moving to television in 1982. Among his TV credits were two episodes of Inspector Morse which he directed in 1990 and 1992. According to both IMDB and Wikipedia, the “Daniel Boyle” who wrote five episodes of Morse as well as episodes of the similarly themed Midsomer Murders is not the same person. However, biographical informational of the “other” Daniel Boyle is non-existent leading me to strongly believe that they are one and the same person.

Boyle’s screen career began with the crime thriller Shallow Grave which became the commercially most successful British film of 1995. His follow-up film, 1996’s Trainspotting was even more successful, causing British critics to proclaim that Boyle had changed the face of British cinema. His third film, 1997’s A Life Less Ordinary, his first made in the U.S., was like his first two films, a crime thriller, but this one was more in a comic mode.

The star of Boye’s first three films was Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, but Boyle’s casting of Leonardo DiCaprio as the lead in his fourth, the 2000 filmed in Thailand adventure film, The Beach, caused a rift in the Boyle/McGregor relationship that has never healed.

Boyle’s fifth film, the sci-fi horror film, 128 Days Later made a star of Irish actor Cillian Murphy. His seventh, the 2004 comedy won prizes for child actor Alex Etel.

The director’s eighth film, the sci-fi thriller, 2007’s Sunshine, was not the megahit it promised to be, but his next film, 2008’s filmed in India Slumdog Millionaire was a worldwide phenomenon and the year’s Best Picture and Director Oscar winner.

Boyle’s next film, his tenth, 2010’s eagerly awaited 127 Hours was his first based on a real life incident, that of the Utah mountain climber who survives a freak accident by cutting off his lower arm, went on to earn more honors including Oscar nominations for Boyle as both one of the film’s screenwriters and producers.

In 2012 Boyle was the artistic director for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He reportedly turned down a knighthood in the 2013 New Years honors because he was afraid it would tarnish his common man image.

Boyles’s latest film is 2013’s Trance, a stylish if implausible thriller. Next on his agenda is Porno, based on Trainspotting author Irvine Walsh’s follow-up to that novel in which the same characters become involved in the pornographic film business.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

SHALLOW GRAVE (1995)

Boyle’s first film was an immediate success, having had its first showing at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. Having opened in Australia in December of that year, the film took off with its 1995 release in Great Britain, and later the U.S.

Three flat mates, played by Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston and Ewan McGregor cover up the death of a fourth by dismembering him and burying him in a shallow grave. That’s just the beginning of this Hitchcockian thriller which played a major role in the careers of all connected with it including McGregor, whose first major role this was.

TRAINSPOTTING (1996)

Ewan McGregor, once again under Boyle’s direction, is the star/narrator of this black comedy masquerading as a crime thriller. The film co-stars a number of later well-known British performers including Ewen Bremmer, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, Kelly Macdonald and Peter Mullan. Oscar nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay by John Hodge, Boyle himself received a BAFTA nomination for Best British Film.

The film’s most notorious scene has McGregor diving down “the worst toilet in Scotland”. If you’ve ever seen it, you know you can’t forget it no matter how hard you try.

MILLIONS (2004)

One of the sweetest films ever made and a far cry from Boyle’s other work, before or after.

Just before the changeover in British currency from Pounds to Euros, a gang of thieves steals the old currency on its way to incineration. A bagful falls on seven year-old Damian Cunningham’s playhouse. No ordinary kid, Damian walks and talks with saints. Philanthropy plays a big part in his life.

A wonderful natural actor, Alex Atel who plays Damien, has since scored in the TV mini-series Cranford and on screen in The Water Horse and Ways to Live Forever.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (2008)

Dev Patel became a star playing the Mumbai teen wh ois interrogated by Indian authorities after he unexpectedly wins the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? .

Winner of 114 international awards and 62 additional nominations, the film was nominated for ten Oscars and won eight including Best Picture and Director. As a point trivia, this was not Boyle’s first on-screen fascination with the internationally successful TV series. The family in Millions is seen viewing the British version.

127 HOURS (2010)

Boyle received additional Oscar nods for Best Picture and Screenplay and James Franco his only nomination for Best Actor to date as real life mountain climber Aron Ralston who spends six days with his arm stuck under a boulder until he resorts to desperate measures to save his life.

Filmed mainly on a giant set used to emulate the actual boulder where Ralston was trapped, Franco gives a strong performance especially in the latter part of the film as he goes through his hallucinations. Amber Tamlyn and Kate Mara play fellow hikers, the last people Ralston meets before his accident.