A primary figure of the British new wave, Tony Richardson became engaged
in films via Free Cinema and the Royal Court Theatre. Where his cinema
is concerned there is a conscious striving for effect which has sometimes
dissipated the strength of his work. His subjects have always been interesting,
if often based on tried stage plays such as Look
Back in Anger (1959) and A
Taste of Honey (1961), but occasionally a literary classic has been
filmed, sometimes successfully; Tom
Jones (1963), sometimes disastrously; The Loved One (1965). His
near-epic The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) was a vivid, glorious
mess, no less so than the event it commemorated. Most of his subsequent
films were forgettable and he eventually moved into Tv film territory.
