A Paradox Called Hawks

Howard Hawks was probably the best American director of genre films and a man of many contradictions. A filmmaker who refused to examine personal traumas, yet used his authorial voice on many levels. An artist who denied flamboyance and sentiment, and was almost invisible as a director, yet inspired a wide array of his younger colleagues and was loved by the whole French New Wave. A man who spent his whole career in a rigid and limiting environment of film studios, yet still remained independent. Who exactly was Howard Hawks?