Bruce Surtees

Birth : 1937-08-03, Los Angeles, California, USA

Death : 2012-02-23

Movies

Joshua
Director of Photography
When Joshua moves to the outskirts of Auburn, he awakens the curiosity of the sleepy town. They don’t know who he is or where he came from, but no one can shake the feeling they’ve known him for years. Despite his benevolence and selfless work in the community, some remain suspicious. Just what exactly is Joshua up to?
American Tragedy
Director of Photography
Johnnie Cochran defends O.J. Simpson who is on trial for his wife's murder.
Thin Air
Director of Photography
Frank Belson didn't ask too many questions about the past of his new wife Lisa St. Claire, even after she suddenly and mysteriously disappeared one night. He brings in Spenser to help locate her, who begins to piece together her complete life story while submerged in the Latino shadow world of the town of Proctor.
Just a Little Harmless Sex
Director of Photography
A young married couple faces a serious break-up when the husband is caught committing adultery with a prostitute.
That Championship Season
Director of Photography
Four best friends and their basketball coach celebrate their championship twenty years ago. But their reunion turns violent when a dark secret comes to light.
Dash and Lilly
Director of Photography
Biographical look at the bombastic love affair that writers Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman shared in 1940 and 50's Hollywood. Refusing to marry, but deeply in love, the two engaged in many affairs and battled alcoholism.
The Substitute
Director of Photography
When an inner-city Miami schoolteacher gets her knee broken after standing up to the school's gang leader, her mercenary combat specialist boyfriend goes undercover as a substitute teacher to take down the punk. Soon he discovers a conspiracy of criminals at work, and must reassemble his team from his last jungle raid to stop them.
Corrina, Corrina
Director of Photography
When Manny Singer's wife dies, his young daughter Molly becomes mute and withdrawn. To help cope with looking after Molly, he hires sassy housekeeper Corrina Washington, who coaxes Molly out of her shell and shows father and daughter a whole new way of life. Manny and Corrina's friendship delights Molly and enrages the other townspeople.
The Birds II: Land's End
Director of Photography
Still haunted by the memory of the son they lost to an accident years ago, Ted and Mary Hocken take up residence with their two young daughters on the remote, windswept reaches of a tiny East Coast island. The Hockens are determined to forget their painful past and spend a quiet, uneventful summer. But as immense flocks of birds begin massing around the island, it becomes clear that something is very wrong in this isolated, deceptively calm oasis. Before long, the sky is darkened by a hideous onslaught of the screeching, winged creatures. It's an assault unlike anything in the history of man or beast – or is it? For one old timer recalls a similar, horrific outbreak that gripped the West Coast decades ago...
The Crush
Director of Photography
A precocious and obsessive teenager develops a crush on a naive writer with harrowing consequences.
That Night
Director of Photography
A coming-of-age story about an eleven-year-old girl who idolizes her troubled sixteen-year-old neighbor.
The Super
Director of Photography
Louie Kritski is a heartless landlord who has been so negligent in keeping up his ghetto apartment that he is threatened with jail time. The judge gives him another option -- he must live in his rat-infested hell hole until he brings it up to liveable standards.
Chains of Gold
Director of Photography
Scott Barnes is an alcoholic turned social worker hellbent on saving a young boy named Tommy from self-destructing when he finds out he has begun selling crack in an organization called YIP, run by Carlos.
Run
Director of Photography
While conveying a Porsche from Boston to Atlantic City, student Charlie has to make a stop due to engine trouble. Mistaken as rich, he's invited to a big poker game -- and wins big time. However Denny Halloran, son of a mighty mobster, is a bad loser and starts a fight. But he's also a bad fighter: he falls on his head and is dead. Now Charlie's in trouble; after he flees Halloran's father puts a reward on his head. Even the police won't help him against the mighty man... so Charlie has to run for his life.
Men Don't Leave
Director of Photography
After her husband John dies unexpectedly, Beth Macauley is unprepared for life without him. She is unemployed with no job skills and $60,000 in debt from on-going renovations to their house located in suburban Bingham. She doesn't know what to do but sell what material possessions she has, such as the family pick-up truck and the house, and move into an apartment in the city, namely Baltimore. Beth just wants to survive by finding a job she doesn't dislike, and keep her family together while trying to maintain her sanity and sense of self-worth
License to Drive
Director of Photography
Teenager Les Anderson thinks his life can't get any worse after he flunks his driver's exam, but he's wrong. Even though he didn't receive his license, Les refuses to break his date with the cool Mercedes Lane, and he decides to lift his family's prize luxury car for the occasion. Unfortunately, Mercedes sneaks some booze along and passes out drunk, and a confused Les makes the bad decision of enlisting his rebellious friend, Dean, to help.
Back to the Beach
Director of Photography
Cowabunga! The surfing '60s ride into the new wave as Frankie and Annette star in this hip update of their old-time, good-time beach movies. With special appearances by Bob Denver, Tony Dow, Pee-Wee Herman, Jerry Mathers and other familiar faces. Frankie and Annette grow up and have kids in the midwest. They return to LA to visit their daughter who is shacked up with her boyfriend and tries to hide the fact. They begin to have marriage problems when Frankie runs into Connie, who has erected a shrine to him in her night club. Their punk son has joined up with the local surf toughs, and things all come to a head when the toughs challenge the good guys to a surfing duel
Ratboy
Director of Photography
A failed window dresser exploits a being with rat-like features in an effort to make money.
Out of Bounds
Director of Photography
Farm boy Daryl Cage's parents ship him off to the big city to live with his brother, hoping he will have a better life there. After a baggage mixup at the airport, Daryl finds himself in possession of a drug cache, which a ruthless drug dealer wants back. The dealer murders Daryl's brother and the small town boy ends up all alone in the big city, being pursued by both the drug dealer and the police, who suspect him of the murder.
Psycho III
Director of Photography
Norman Bates is still running his little motel, and he has kept the dressed skeleton he calls 'mother'. One day a nosey journalist comes to see him to ask questions about his past.
Pale Rider
Director of Photography
A mysterious preacher protects a humble prospector village from a greedy mining company trying to encroach on their land.
Beverly Hills Cop
Director of Photography
A freewheeling Detroit cop pursuing a murder investigation finds himself dealing with the very different culture of Beverly Hills.
Tightrope
Director of Photography
Wes Block is a detective who's put on the case of a serial killer. His victims are young and pretty women, which he rapes and murders. The murders are getting personal when the killer chooses victims who are acquaintances of Block. Even his daughters are threatened.
Sudden Impact
Director of Photography
When a young rape victim takes justice into her own hands and becomes a serial killer, it's up to Dirty Harry Callahan, on suspension from the SFPD, to bring her to justice.
Risky Business
Director of Photography
Meet Joel Goodson, an industrious, college-bound 17-year-old and a responsible, trustworthy son. However, when his parents go away and leave him home alone in the wealthy Chicago suburbs with the Porsche at his disposal he quickly decides he has been good for too long and it is time to enjoy himself. After an unfortunate incident with the Porsche Joel must raise some cash, in a risky way.
Bad Boys
Director of Photography
Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug dealer goes tragically wrong Mick is sentenced to a brutal juvenile prison where violence is a rite of passage and respect is measured in vengeance.
Honkytonk Man
Director of Photography
During the Great Depression, a young boy leaves his family's Oklahoma farm to travel with his country musician uncle who is trying out for the Grand Ole Opry.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains
Director of Photography
Corrine Burns retreats far into plans for her band, The Fabulous Stains, after her mother's death.
White Dog
Director of Photography
A trainer attempts to retrain a vicious dog that’s been raised to kill black people.
Firefox
Director of Photography
The Soviets have developed a revolutionary new jet fighter, called 'Firefox'. Worried that the jet will be used as a first-strike weapon—as there are rumours that it is undetectable by radar—the British send ex-Vietnam War pilot, Mitchell Gant on a covert mission into the Soviet Union to steal the Firefox.
Inchon
Director of Photography
A noisy and absurd re-telling of the great 1950 invasion of Inchon during the Korean War which was masterminded by General Douglas MacArthur.
Escape from Alcatraz
Director of Photography
San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates begin to carefully prepare an escape plan.
Dreamer
Director of Photography
The dream began 20 years ago, when a young pinsetter watched a star bowler win a championship. Now, Harold (Dreamer) Nuttingham has a chance to attain his dream — to win the Tournament of Champions and buy his own lanes. But what price will he pay? The woman he loves sees only that his dream re-locates her to second place in his life; Harry White, his friend and mentor pushes him to become the champion Harry wanted to be — and never was. Torn between ambition and love, Dreamer fights to have both.
Movie Movie
Director of Photography
Three movie genres of the 1930s, boxing films, WWI aviation dramas, and backstage Broadway musicals, are satirized using the same cast.
Big Wednesday
Director of Photography
Three 1960s California surfers fool around, drift apart and reunite years later to ride epic waves.
Three Warriors
Director of Photography
Young troublemaker Michael learns about his native American roots from his grandfather who lives at a reservation. The boy starts to bond with a horse his grandfather buys him, whom he decides to call 'Three Warriors'. When a trio of horse rustlers get hold of the horse, Michael gets to put his newfound appreciation for his grandfather's ways into effect.
The Shootist
Director of Photography
Afflicted with a terminal illness John Bernard Brooks, the last of the legendary gunfighters, quietly returns to Carson City for medical attention from his old friend Dr. Hostetler. Aware that his days are numbered, the troubled man seeks solace and peace in a boarding house run by a widow and her son. However, it is not Brooks' fate to die in peace, as he becomes embroiled in one last valiant battle.
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Director of Photography
After avenging his family's brutal murder, Wales is pursued by a pack of soldiers. He prefers to travel alone, but ragtag outcasts are drawn to him - and Wales can't bring himself to leave them unprotected.
Leadbelly
Director of Photography
The life of Blues and folk singer Huddie Leadbetter, nicknamed Leadbelly is recounted. Covering the good times and bad from his 20s to 40s. Much of that time was spent on chain gangs in the south. Even in prison he became well known for the songs he had composed and sung during and before the time he spent there.
Sparkle
Director of Photography
Three sisters start out singing in their church choir in Harlem in the late 1950s and become a successful girl group in the 1960s.
Night Moves
Director of Photography
Private detective and former football player Harry Moseby gets hired on to what seems a standard missing person case, as a former Hollywood actress whose only major roles came thanks to being married to a studio mogul wants Moseby to find and return her daughter. Harry travels to Florida to find her, but he begins to see a connection between the runaway girl, the world of Hollywood stuntmen, and a suspicious mechanic when an unsolved murder comes to light.
Lenny
Director of Photography
The story of acerbic 1960s comic Lenny Bruce, whose groundbreaking, no-holds-barred style and social commentary was often deemed by the establishment as too obscene for the public.
The Outfit
Director of Photography
A two-bit criminal takes on the Mafia to avenge his brother's death. Earl Macklin is a small time criminal who is released from prison after an unsuccessful bank robbery only to discover that a pair of gunmen killed his brother.
Blume in Love
Director of Photography
Lawyer Stephen Blume, specialized in divorces, lives a paradoxical situation when, having his own marriage break up, is still in love with his ex-wife.
High Plains Drifter
Director of Photography
A gunfighting stranger comes to the small settlement of Lago. After gunning down three gunmen who tried to kill him, the townsfolk decide to hire the Stranger to hold off three outlaws who are on their way.
Joe Kidd
Director of Photography
A band of Mexicans find their U. S. land claims denied and all the records destroyed in a courthouse fire. Their leader, Louis Chama, encourages them to use force to regain their land. A wealthy landowner wanting the same decides to hire a gang of killers with Joe Kidd to track Chama.
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
Director of Photography
In a futuristic world that has embraced ape slavery, a chimpanzee named Caesar resurfaces after almost twenty years of hiding from the authorities, and prepares for a revolt against humanity.
The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid
Director of Photography
The gangs of Jesse James and Cole Younger join forces to rob the First National Bank in Northfield, Minnesota, but things do not go as planned.
Dirty Harry
Director of Photography
When a madman dubbed 'Scorpio' terrorizes San Francisco, hard-nosed cop, Harry Callahan – famous for his take-no-prisoners approach to law enforcement – is tasked with hunting down the psychopath. Harry eventually collars Scorpio in the process of rescuing a kidnap victim, only to see him walk on technicalities. Now, the maverick detective is determined to nail the maniac himself.
Play Misty for Me
Director of Photography
A brief fling between a male disc jockey and an obsessed female fan takes a frightening, and perhaps even deadly turn when another woman enters the picture.
The Beguiled
Director of Photography
Offbeat Civil War drama in which a wounded Yankee soldier, after finding refuge in an isolated girls' school in the South towards the end of the war, becomes the object of the young women's sexual fantasies. The soldier manipulates the situation for his own gratification, but when he refuses to completely comply with the girls' wishes, they make it very difficult for him to leave.
Lost Command
Camera Operator
After being freed from a Vietnamese war prison, French Lt. Col. Pierre Raspeguy is sent to help quell resistance forces in Algeria. With the help of the Capt. Esclavier, who has grown weary of war, and Capt. Boisfeuras, who lives for it, Raspeguy attempts to convert a rugged band of soldiers into a formidable fighting unit, with the promise of marrying a beautiful countess if he's made a general.