Frankenheimer suffered an artistic dead period in the early 1970s. (Like Bobby Darrin and many other people in Hollywood, Frankenheimer was traumatized by the RFK assassination. He didn't recover for years.) But he recovered and ended up making  wonderful movies later in life than just about anyone – he was about a million years old when he directed RONIN, and even THE PATH TO WAR (his final project for HBO) is pretty damn good.