Alan Parker

Who is Alan Parker?

Sir Alan William Parker, CBE is an English film director, producer and screenwriter. The early part of his career, beginning in his late teens, was spent as a copywriter and director of television commercials. After about 10 years doing commercials, many of which won awards for creativity, he began screenwriting and directing films.

Parker was notable early on for making films in a wide range of genres, often intentionally doing a film very different from his previous one in order to remain "creatively fresher." Actor Colm Meaney says that "it's the variety of his work that sort of staggers me." Among the different genres Parker has directed have been musicals, including Bugsy Malone, Fame, Pink Floyd – The Wall, The Commitments, and Evita; true-story dramas, including Midnight Express, Mississippi Burning, Come See the Paradise, and Angela's Ashes; and melodramas, including Shoot the Moon, Angel Heart, and The Life of David Gale.

"It is important for movies to have a message, without which there is little point in making a film," Parker states. British film critic Geoff Andrew states that Parker "is a natural storyteller adept at getting messages across by forthright methods: dramatic lighting, vivid characterisation, scenes of violent conflict regularly interrupting sequences of expository dialogue, and an abiding sympathy for the underdog."