Name/Title
Interview, John Burke, AMC Matinee Classic, 2000Description
John Burke Interview from the AMC Matinee Classics October 17, 2000
AMC brings you the best of Hollywood all week long!
Join hosts Bob Dorian and John Burke for your favorite classic films.
by Douglas Eby
"It's almost impossible not be influenced by greatness," host John Burke says about the quality of classic films. An accomplished actor, he has appeared in a wide range of television shows and feature films. "But I have friends who've never acted a day in their lives, doctors and others, and they love old movies as much as I do," he points out. "When you talk about appreciation of classic movies, you're talking about people who love great performances and artistic cinematography, and you're really talking about a time when quality meant that you did it the hard way. I think anybody can appreciate that."
John gives a recent personal example: "I just watched the original 'Frankenstein' for the first time," he says. "It scared the heck out of me. It really did. When he walks in backwards, and then turns around ? it really scared me. There was a certain amount of art to the way they shot that." He thinks you can find the black and white aspect of classics as part of their appeal and creativity, as "adding to it, instead of taking away." John adds, "I think a film like that is an example of why film is art. And art is history, and history is who we are."
John thinks the mission of AMC to showcase and preserve the world of classic films is very meaningful. "Just about the same time I rented 'Frankenstein' I rented a couple of others too," he recalls. "I had never seen 'Double Indemnity' and I didn't really understand film noir until I saw that. And to think that a film like that would not be available just because someone didn't care is devastating. The fact that AMC cares about preserving this means that they are literally curators of art. They're passing this art down to future generations, to our kids."
John thinks classics will always be appealing to people of a wide range of ages, citing his family as an example. "I've got a lot of nieces and nephews," he notes, "and the youngest ones can't stop watching 'The Wizard of Oz.' They just love that. The ones in the middle, the teenagers, are identifying with Katharine Hepburn. They can't get enough of her. I'm a little older, and a movie fan, and my parents remember this stuff. So I think that's sort of proof in the pudding, that just within my own family, three or four generations love classic movies. I think that's something that's just going to continue on, and that's why preservation is so important."
Regarding his personal life away from AMC, John says his "biggest hobby" is travel. "I've been
into almost every state in the country," he notes. "I've been to Alaska, to Hawaii. I still have to get to North and South Dakota, but I've been everywhere else. I just got back from the Cayman Islands, where I did some scuba diving. And I went to Africa for six weeks, camping. So traveling at this point is really a big love of mine. I'm trying to learn how to play the guitar, too. I've got like three chords down."
He agrees classic films do have influences on contemporary film and filmmakers. "There are the obvious ones," he says. "You've got like 'A Night to Remember' and you can see the influence that had on 'Titanic.' Sometimes you don't even know what the influence is, until you look back and go, 'You know, that really had a Hitchcockian feel to it; I must have been going through my Hitchcock phase' or whatever. I think when you're talking about greatness, and about great movies on AMC, it's almost impossible not to build on that, not to be influenced by that, whether you know it or not. I think Gwyneth Paltrow probably knows she has a Katharine Hepburn thing going. But then again, Winona Ryder kind of does, because Katharine Hepburn was sort of on the outside, a little bit quirky."
John continues, "The word 'classic' is in the title American Movie Classics, and when people think of AMC, they think of class and they think of prestige, of dignity. And I do my best to walk the line between upholding that, and being sort of a 'common man' when I'm on air. These are very classic movies, and there's a responsibility there, but I also want to talk to people like me and go, 'Listen, you've got to check this out.' The one thing I always hear in conjunction with AMC is the word 'love.' I either hear, 'I love that movie' or 'I love that channel.' Even Winona Ryder said it the other day in one of her articles, she said, 'I love that channel.' And when you hear that, it's kind of an honor to work here, and to be a part of this."Acquisition
Accession
2011.0002Source or Donor
Laird, James CharlesAcquisition Method
Bequest,Collected by
