Editing Howard Hawks (section)

== Style ==
[[File:Bacall&Hawks.jpg|thumb|right|Hawks and [[Lauren Bacall]], 1943]]
Hawks was a versatile director whose career includes comedies, dramas, gangster films, science fiction, film noir, and Westerns. Hawks's own functional definition of what constitutes a good film is characteristic of his no-nonsense style: "three good scenes, and no bad ones."<ref>{{harvnb|Breivold|2006|p=63}}; {{harvnb|Dixon|Foster|2008|pp=99–101, 289}}</ref> Hawks also defined a good director as "someone who doesn't annoy you".<ref name="Huffington Post">{{cite news|last1=Farr|first1=John|title=Genius Uncovered: The Film Legacy of Howard Hawk|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-farr/genius-uncovered-the-time_b_1533671.html|access-date=26 July 2016|work=[[Huffington Post]]|date=5 Apr 2013}}</ref> He described his style: "I try to tell my story as simply as possible, with the camera at eye level. I just imagine the way the story should be told, and I do it."<ref name=McBride/>{{Rp| 82}} His style was very actor-focused, and he made it a point to take as few shots as possible, thereby preserving an inherent and natural humor for his comedic pieces.<ref name=McBride/>{{Rp| 4}}

While Hawks was not sympathetic to [[feminism]], he popularized the [[Hawksian woman]] [[archetype]], a portrayal of women in stronger, less effeminate roles.{{sfn|Dixon|Foster|2008|p=101}} Such an emphasis had never been done in the 1920s and therefore was seen to be a rarity and, according to Naomi Wise, has been cited as a prototype of the [[Post-feminism|post-feminist]] movement.<ref>{{harvnb|Hillier|Wollen|1997|pp=111–119}}</ref><ref name=McBride/>{{Rp| 70}} Another notable theme carried throughout his work included the relationship of morality and human interaction. In this sense, he tended to portray more dramatic elements of a concept or a plot in a humorous way.<ref name=McBride/>{{Rp| 2}}

[[Orson Welles]], in conversation with [[Peter Bogdanovich]], compared Hawks with [[John Ford]]: "Hawks is great prose; Ford is poetry."<ref>Bogdanovich, Peter. [http://blogs.indiewire.com/peterbogdanovich/the_southerner "The Southerner."] ''Indiewire.com'', January 18, 2011. Retrieved: July 1, 2016.</ref> Hawks cited Ford as an influence: "He was a good director when I started, and I copied him every time I could. It's just as if you were a writer, you would read [[Hemingway]] and [[Faulkner]] and [[John Dos Passos]] and [[Willa Cather]]."<ref name=McBride/>{{Rp| 109}} Despite Hawks's work in a variety of Hollywood genres, he still retained an independent sensibility. Film critic [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]] wrote of Hawks: "Far from the meek purveyor of Hollywood forms, he always chose to turn them upside down. [[To Have and Have Not (film)|''To Have and Have Not'']] and [[The Big Sleep (1946 film)|''The Big Sleep'']], ostensibly an adventure and a thriller, are really love stories. [[Rio Bravo (film)|''Rio Bravo'']], apparently a Western – everyone wears a cowboy hat – is a comedy conversation piece. The ostensible comedies are shot through with exposed emotions, with the subtlest views of the sex war, and with a wry acknowledgment of the incompatibility of men and women."<ref name=:"Thomson"/> David Boxwell argues that the filmmaker's body of work "has been accused of a historical and adolescent escapism, but Hawks's fans rejoice in his oeuvre's remarkable avoidance of Hollywood's religiosity, bathos, flag-waving, and sentimentality.<ref>Boxwell, David. [http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/hawks/ "Howard Hawks."] ''Senses of Cinema'', May 2002. Retrieved: July 1, 2016.</ref>