Folks, Harry here... Everything about Kevin Jarre was tragic, save for his talent as a screenwriter. There's only 5 feature film scripts credited to Kevin - Including RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II, GLORY, TOMBSTONE, THE DEVIL'S OWN & THE MUMMY... But none of those films quite lives up to Jarre's words. The closest being TOMBSTONE...
Kevin Jarre was a man that wrote fantastic scripts, you'd read them and then watch as something went wrong. Like on THE DEVIL'S OWN, when the producers decided to completely rework the script solely to get Harrison Ford's part on equal footing with Brad Pitt's character - when originally, it was a brilliantly focused, perfectly balanced story about a young man choosing a very dark path. It was perhaps Kevin's best script - he received two credits on the film, one for story and one for screenplay. Sadly, the screenplay barely resembled the end product. Fantastic scenes were nixed along the way on GLORY. THE MUMMY became an entirely different film being an out and out period horror film.
Kevin was a passionate writer - something that Hollywood can kill. He believed in his work, and watching what it became, even when it was as successful and wonderful as GLORY or TOMBSTONE, he was haunted by what those films could've and to him & others... should've been. Like too many he sought a degree of comfort in the easy vices. Which led to a career incomplete.
The son of the brilliant composer Maurice Jarre and Laura Devon of RED LINE 7000. They have both passed on now. He's survived by a brother and a sister, both of whom work in the industry. His particular genius is only really recognized by those that have read Kevin's scripts and was let down by an industry of compromise. A world that is particularly hard on writers, especially the best.
I've always hoped that Brad Pitt would one day produce a remake of THE DEVIL'S OWN, finding a new young actor to play that brilliant character - and him play the cop, in its original smaller role, oh how I miss that crackhouse scene... Don't even get me started on Jarre's JUDGEMENT NIGHT draft - that film bears not a single bit of Kevin's words. So fucking aggravating.
A great one got away from us, he grew up with David Lean, due to his father. Lean mentored Kevin. Same he never managed to cut that perfect break. Farewell Kevin, you were greatly appreciated.
