Spring Break
From Brandeis to the Big Screen
Marshall Herskovitz '73 reveals the humanist inspiration behind his work
by Sarah Bayer
Assistant Arts Editor
Features | 4/1/08
Posted online at 11:22 PM EST on 3/31/08
/ Last updated at 2:24 AM EST on 3/31/08
The Justice interviewed Marshall Herskovitz '73, producer of The Last Samurai, about his Hollywood career.
Sarah Bayer: Would you say that Brandeis has influenced your career since [you graduated], or have you left it behind?
Marshall Herskovitz: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I was majoring in English, but I was studying Old English and Middle English. And I somehow decided that I wanted to make movies out of medieval epics. So I guess that influenced my career. I've never made a movie out of a medieval epic, but it drove me to want to go to Hollywood.
SB: How did you make that connection between what you were learning in the classroom and then deciding to apply it to movies?
MH: That's a good question. I'm not sure I have an answer to it. But I think that I was interested in film. In those days, there was an absolute obsession with old movies. There were two different revival theaters in Cambridge and they showed at least one old movie every week on campus. And I would literally see three old movies a week, on big screens, from the '30s and '40s usually, sometimes from the '50s. And we were obsessed with them. It was a form of unofficial film education. I didn't really take that seriously until my senior year, but it was just a poetic thing. When I read these epics I just realized I was making movies of them in my head.
SB: Is Quarterlife at all based on your life as a recent college grad? I know Thirtysomething was based on your life as a thirtysomething.
MH: Quarterlife is certainly informed by a lot of what I went through in my '20s. And I think it had more to do with being struck by the different issues that people face in their '20s and how important that decade is, that you end up making all these decisions that literally end up determining the rest of your life. You choose a career. It's either a mistake or not a mistake. There's so many things you do in your '20s that set you on a path, and the more time that goes by the harder it is to change that path. So it's quite important.
Sarah Bayer: Would you say that Brandeis has influenced your career since [you graduated], or have you left it behind?
Marshall Herskovitz: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I was majoring in English, but I was studying Old English and Middle English. And I somehow decided that I wanted to make movies out of medieval epics. So I guess that influenced my career. I've never made a movie out of a medieval epic, but it drove me to want to go to Hollywood.
SB: How did you make that connection between what you were learning in the classroom and then deciding to apply it to movies?
MH: That's a good question. I'm not sure I have an answer to it. But I think that I was interested in film. In those days, there was an absolute obsession with old movies. There were two different revival theaters in Cambridge and they showed at least one old movie every week on campus. And I would literally see three old movies a week, on big screens, from the '30s and '40s usually, sometimes from the '50s. And we were obsessed with them. It was a form of unofficial film education. I didn't really take that seriously until my senior year, but it was just a poetic thing. When I read these epics I just realized I was making movies of them in my head.
SB: Is Quarterlife at all based on your life as a recent college grad? I know Thirtysomething was based on your life as a thirtysomething.
MH: Quarterlife is certainly informed by a lot of what I went through in my '20s. And I think it had more to do with being struck by the different issues that people face in their '20s and how important that decade is, that you end up making all these decisions that literally end up determining the rest of your life. You choose a career. It's either a mistake or not a mistake. There's so many things you do in your '20s that set you on a path, and the more time that goes by the harder it is to change that path. So it's quite important.
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