In defense of middlebrow Sam Mendes

1917 continues the director's legacy of balancing art with commercial success

Sam Mendes.
(Image credit: Illustrated | FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images, Francois Duhamel / Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures)

Just about 20 years after he won his first Golden Globe, Sam Mendes is back in the spotlight this week, after winning an unexpected Best Director Globe for his new World War I thriller 1917 (which opens in wide release this weekend) over favored heavyweights like Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese. The last time Mendes won this award, he went on to Oscars glory with American Beauty. That film was also a big hit at the box office, seeming to signal the start of a major career for Mendes, who emerged during a year that also saw major work from relative upstarts like Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich), Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia), and Alexander Payne (Election), among others.

In some ways, that big career did indeed come to pass for Mendes. His follow-up film, 2002's Road to Perdition, made big money when it was still possible for an adult-targeted drama about a hitman to do so. (Tom Hanks playing the hitman helped.) 2005's Gulf War drama Jarhead was one of the more financially successful movies about war in the Middle East; Mendes continued to work with big stars in movies like Revolutionary Road (2008) and Away We Go (2009); and he directed one of the most successful James Bond pictures of all time with Skyfall (2012).

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Jesse Hassenger

Jesse Hassenger's film and culture criticism has appeared in The Onion's A.V. Club, Brooklyn Magazine, and Men's Journal online, among others. He lives in Brooklyn, where he also writes fiction, edits textbooks, and helps run SportsAlcohol.com, a pop culture blog and podcast.