The Patriot

Dean Semler first saw the light of day in South Australia in 1943 and gained his first film-making experience as a camera man at the TV station Channel 9 in Adelaide. He later worked as a cameraman for documentaries at Film Australia, before he gained a reputation for his highly acclaimed work on “Hoodwink” (1981) and became chief cameraman on “Mad Max II” (also 1981). This brought him international fame and after his work on “Razorback“, “Undercover” and the Australian hit series “Bodyline” he shot “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” together with Mel Gibson and George Miller four years later.

By the end of the 1980s Dean Semler‘s films were followed by cinema successes such as “Cocktail“, “Young Guns” and “K-9“. The 1990s began with the sequel “Young Guns II” and the collaboration with Kevin Costner on “Dances with Wolves“, which earned Semler an Oscar® and an ASC Award. Dean Semler and Kevin Costner were to work together again on “Waterworld“, produced in 1995, but first the successful comedies “City Slickers” and “Last Action Hero” followed. In the meantime Dean Semler had made his directorial debut, albeit unmentioned, with “Super Mario Bros” (1993). With “Firestorm” and “The Patriot” he returned to the director’s chair and for the last time so far in 1998.

With action movies like “xXx” or the comedy “Bruce Almighty” the 2000s also began extremely successful for Dean Semler and in 2006 he and Mel Gibson met again for his Mayan epic “Apocalypto“. This was followed by two comedies with Adam Sandler and Roland Emmerich‘s “2012” (2009). In 2014 Angelina Jolie stood in front of his camera in “Maleficent“. His last work so far was for director Caroline Zelder in “Summer Gold“.

Steven Frederic Seagal was born on 10 April 1952 and, inspired by a Japanese dojo owner, moved to Japan in the early 1970s. When he returned to his native California in 1974, he met Miyako Fujitani, the daughter of an Aikido master from Okinawa. When Miyako returned to Okinawa, Steven Seagal followed her and both got married. First Seagal worked as a teacher in the family’s dojo before he went to Mexico, where he opened his own dojo with his student and later stuntman Craig Dunn. 

However, “On Deadly Ground” (1994), in which Michael Caine was his screen partner, proved to be the first flop. The environmental thriller, produced in collaboration with Julius R. Nasso, met with little response from the public or critics, partly because messages about spirituality and environmental protection played a central role. In addition, his first and only directorial work earned him the Golden Raspberry Award for “Worst Director“. This resulted in revenues that were about 12 million US dollars below the production budget. Even with the sequel to his commercially most successful film “Under Siege 2: Dark Territory“, Seagal could hardly make any more profit, and as quickly as his star had risen, it fell again at the end of the 1990s.

Cinema roles became increasingly rare and with Dean Semler‘s “The Patriot” (1999) Seagal shifted more and more to direct-to-video productions. One of his last notable cinema roles was in 2010 as Danny Trejo‘s opponent in “Machete“.

In all the decades of his career, Steven Seagal has repeatedly attracted attention through negative headlines, with sexual harassment in particular bringing him into the press time and again. His proximity to the Russian ruler Vladimir Putin and his support for the Russian annexation of the Crimea also led to some criticism and finally to his being banned from the Ukraine. In the course of his career he was awarded a Golden Raspberry eight more times, including several times as “Worst Actor” and for “Worst Film“.