Robert Richardson

The great talent of American cinematographer Robert Richardson is in his ability to dramatically harness the photographic styles and techniques of days gone by. This is particularly well exemplified by his work in John Sayles' Eight Men Out, where, through the use of tinted filters and soft-edged frames, Richardson recreated the ambience of 1919 by coming up with images reminiscent of a hand-colored postcard. Undoubtedly, some of Richardson's best work has been in the films of director Oliver Stone. In Born on the Fourth of July (1989) (for which he earned an Oscar nomination), JFK (1991) (for which he won the award) and Natural Born Killers (1994), Richardson used a vast array of film stock and lenses to recreate the "look" of such evocative cinematic tangibles as 8-millimeter home movies, grainy 1960s newsfilm, and cheap 1970s color videotape. Richardson has done beautiful work for a number of other prominent directors, including Martin Scorsese (Casino, 1995, Bringing out the Dead, 1999), Robert Redford (The Horse Whisperer, 1998), and Barry Levinson (Wag the Dog, 1997), as well as famed documentarian Errol Morris (Fast, Cheap, & out of Control, 1997, and Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr., 1999).

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide