Background
Zwick was born into a Jewish family in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Ruth Ellen (née Reich) and Allen Zwick.
director producer screenwriter
Zwick was born into a Jewish family in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Ruth Ellen (née Reich) and Allen Zwick.
He attended New Trier High School, received an A.B. at Harvard in 1974, and attended the AFI Conservatory, graduating with a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1975.
Edward Zwick makes solid, dramatic films that seem to be taken from the new's magazines. He has also tried his hand at adapting such disparate authors as David Mamet (About Last Night. . . came from Sexual Perversity in Chicago) and Jim Harrison (Legends of the Fall). He is a waiter-director, a former journalist, a regular figure behind the camera on the TV series Family, and the creator of another, thirty something. That may be the best work he has done, despite the obvious historical significance of Glory and the careful handling of its male cast. Legends of the Fall is his most ambitious film, and the most uncertain, despite a true sense of legend and icon in the handling of Brad Pitt. He has not yet made a movie that reveals Edwrard Zwick or stands out above the crowd, but Courage Under Fire is the most intriguing because of its pursuit of a rare subject (women in combat), its fine casting, and its overall sense of doubt over what actually happened versus what the state wants to say happened. Zwick is fond of the military, he has w'orked verv steadilv with Denzel Washington, and he directs in a straightforward, if anonymous, manner. But we may not yet have seen his best, or most relaxed, work.