The best male performaces of the decade (acting 2 of 2)
primer
Jack Black in School of Rock-
Part of this comes from his perfect role. He gets to be Jack Black the persona more than he is Dewey, which would almost always make it seem like he is just playing to the audience. This discounts that we love actors for doing this (like everything Bogart was)… so what. Dewey’s maturity was bound to grow, it’s part of the plot. What Black does in this film is instill a confidence in those around them, allowing the other characters to progress along with him. It’s not just about the character turning the kids on to music, as Black’s public persona makes it all the easier to believe Dewey’s amore; it’s how far Black actually responds.
On one level it’s a guy playing a part tailor made for him, but on the lower, behind the scenes presence, you get the feeling that Black actually got the people around him to understand what he is thinking. Watching the kids, you get the sense that they are trying to play cool to an older brother who believes in them, and most effectively, you see Dewey (and Black) listening, and responding to their joy of being brought into his and their new love of Rock and Roll.
But it’s Jack Black who fuels everything, in the end he doesn’t do anything great…other than inspire everyone around him to believe. It’s his reflection in the others and vice versa that makes it all the more…wonderful.
Denzel Washington in Training Day – On some levels, it’s a lousy movie about a bad cop. On another, it’s a fictional verite about the corruption of LAPD. On another, it’s a buddy movie in a trip through crime. On all of them, Denzel rules this movie. There is such gravitas in his command of the role it’s hard to care about anything else. He is a terrific villain, and like all villains of the post –modern era, he is given meat to chew on dramatically. Faced with a death sentence if he doesn’t raise the money, Denzel doesn’t play this character as a guy with a means to end-- many would play the role with a tilt of fear--but as a guy who is cool enough to get what he wants because he needs it. All swagger, all style, pure bravado. Even when he’s beat, he’s still charming enough to hold the power and the attention.
Tom Hanks in Cast Away. I don’t give much to weight loss and or gain, for the same reason I don’t care about actors playing the mentally handicapped. Hanks goes a full hour with nothing but a volleyball to play off of. The easy testimony is that he makes you care about that object, even to the point of tears when the ball floats off. But what gets me is when Hanks is back on the land and he is talking about ice in his glass, there is a sad subtext that he relied on something, then was forced to live without it, and now that he’s back, all he can feel is abruptness, as if all he did…was for nothing.
Hugh Jackman – X-Men 1 and 2. Sure he’s given the part via the comic books. But he makes the character feel like his. On an adaptation level, he wins out the fan in me because he not only looks the part, but because he sounds like it. He also has a small subtext underneath that’s endearing allowing a tip of the general cockiness to come out as the dominant trait, not the killer instinct or memory lapse. Many people could play Logan as haunted and angry, Jackman plays him as a man with as a lost past, who might as well have fun with what he’s given. It’s one thing to actually bring genuine emotion when it comes to the death of Jean in X-2, but it’s little bits, like his scene with Iceman (Bobby Drake) in the mansion, when he points the bottle to him to chill. His eyes are filled with a swagger and cockiness that is perfect for the scene and the character. Tis’ not a great bit of acting, but a consummate act of stepping into a preordained role. The best acting job in any comic book movie this decade; Hugh isn’t playing the part, he’s redefining it. (for all of the brilliance of the movie and the role, Christian Bale does a wonderful job, but it’s not him that makes the film he is in believable and great).
Rudy… I mean Sean Astin in Lord of the Rings parts 2 and 3 – He’s simply the most decent character of this decade, and maybe of all time. That’s one hell of a blanket statement, but mind you, all of what he is doing is selfless. And it’s in his final speech in King, when he talks about Rosie cotton and her ribbons one gets his character, it’s that he’s almost content with letting it go for the greater good, but he really wishes, for one moment, that he could be something a little bit more loved.
Craig Nelson – The Incredibles. It’s one of my favorite films of the decade. And it’s easy to know why, but for all of that is done by computers for the look of the character, it’s Nelson that takes this role to another level.
Rather than rant, just watch the climatic battle. Right before they start Mr. Incredible tries to tell Elastigirl to stay:
Mr. I: I need to do this alone.
Mrs. I: So you can prove to yourself that you still have powers for good.
Mr: I: No. No.
Mrs. I interjects and makes Mr. I go to babble.
Mr. I: I’m not strong enough.
Mrs. I: And this will make you feel strong.
Mr. I: No. NO.
Mrs. I: What. What is so important?
Mr. I: I CAN’T LOSE YOU AGAIN. I’m not, I’m not strong enough.
It’s an easy line to win favor, but it’s the coronation for a true hero. He knows what he cares about. All of the pure love for others in that shouted line… the quivering, the hamming and then the final line with finality in place of reluctance, that’s one hell of a performance without using your hands or body.
Bill Murray – Lost in Translation and Hugh Grant – Notting Hill/ About a Boy. All three roles are about lost men. One is a bookseller, another an actor, the last a do nothing. In all three of these roles, the two actors make isolation easy. But watching the characters redeem themselves via the vessels, you see men who flow through life only to find a point worth joining to in form of a woman. I could go on with all three roles, but I’d sya the same things.
Just watch Grant in Notting Hill reject Julia and then realize that it’s not a game.
Watch Grant in Boy as he finally grows to care about the boy and then, someone who is more than a friend.
Watch Murray in Translation see a reflection in a soul, and stammer through scenarios where he doesn’t belong just to follow someone who makes him feel like he does.
Now for my favorite five of the decade thus:
Ryan Gosling—The Notebook. It’s a terrible movie. Well it’s not terrible, nor is anything bad, it’s actually pretty good. But I call it terrible because it has a needless war scene where E from Entourage dies, and that whole bit with James Garner and Queen I have no memory. If the director has any balls he would have thrown away the bookend/ framing device.
Rachel McAdams may wind up being the next Julia Roberts, but this movie is worth watching if only for Gosling. He did a wonderful piece of “dangerous acting” as a Neo-Nazi in the film “The Believer” and it allowed him some buzz, because he’s amazing on a Russell Crowe in “Romper Stomper” mode of acting.
Gosling is the great everyman in this role. Talking with Kris last week about men vs. women, we both agreed women fall in love more easily, men longer. This is a perfect portrayal of a man who never lets go: because he never plays the role pouty or heartbroken in a look at me performance, he exists as a man who let the outside in once, and doesn’t want to do it again. He knows he only has so much to give with who he is, and that’s the role and his performance’s strength: solidarity. Willing to wait, but willing to fight for it, he is one of the few more roles in this decade who actually challenges the woman.
Maybe it’s the fact he is a 40’s man and not a 90’s or 2000’s man who has to be sensitive and tough, who has to chase the girl and let her woo him, he looks as the guy who knows what will make him happy, it’s her, and he’ll be damned if he lets her muck it up or walk away.
I look at Gosling and see Gable. That’s as high of a compliment I can give.
Johnny Depp – Pirates of the Caribbean. This is actually a good movie, all things being equal. It’s a little long, it has two too many climaxes and battles. But there isn’t a moment when Depp is onscreen when the film drags. This (along with Denzel in Training Day) is my stock reply to anyone who talks about actors who get the most out of a role like Cap-o-te or Ray. It’s easy for a competent actor to make the most out of a golden opportunity. It’s legendary for an actor to go for a paycheck type of role like that of a pirate in a film based on a Disney ride and make it legendary. Depp is beguiling, idiotic, and as far from normal as possible when he plays Jack Sparrow. He’s likeable, yet he’s a selfish moron, and Depp is so commanding in presence one forgets about the latter trait. It’s one thing to craft an antihero, it’s another to take a role and play it as a sleazy weirdo so well that people actually want to talk about an acting performance in an action movie.
That, is creating a character.
Heath Ledger – Brokeback Mountain. Sure Phillip Seymour won the Oscar, but is there any doubt about which people will and did remember more? Cap-o-te was as bland as an interesting movie can be. Hoffman was able find the essence of a tortured artistic soul and did so in chameleon fashion, but even for his skill, (think this is merely an impression? Just watch how he commands his first moment on screen) he is merely doing a Jamie Foxx like the year before him. This is something that pisses me off about the AMPAS awards. They find it easier to vote for the familiar or showy, not to the truly great. Stallone in 76 lost for Rocky, as did DeNiro in Taxi Driver, and Bill Holden in Network to a posthumous Peter Finch. It’s tremendously right in a sentimental way to vote for the dead guy, but really, anyone of those three should have won the award.
Alright, I’m digressing. What Ledger does here is to play the strong silent type to perfection, and he does so with a heartbreaking secret beneath. I don’t think Ennis was gay. Jack Twist was, but not Ennis. And that’s the hard sell that Ledger deals with, and why I hate people who see this as a “gay film.” Jack knew who he loved, but Ennis was the Amy from “Chasing Amy” who was waiting for his true connection, it just happened to be same sex.
The performance is one of the best on film ever made, it’s darkly angry because he is pissed from within, knowing that what he wants is impossible. Ledger manifests this emotion in his tattered vocals (when he talks) and in his quiet non-committal, he doesn’t want to let go of the one thing he had in a shitty life, and with his ever unsteady bottom lip, he wavers when others would go for showy, and that’s the essence of the role and his performance. It’s not about Ennis being unhappy and explaining it, it’s that he can’t and the power of his lack to emote that makes the character. It breaks the heart not because Ennis says what he lost, but because you see the escape of joy in his face.
In the final scene, he hears of his daughter marriage, and he pretends to be busy. Then he finally gives in. Shortly after she leaves, he goes over to the coat of Jack, and puts it in order, slowly touching the memory of what was and why he’s never happy. To see homosexuality in place of love here is not simply bigoted, but blind.
Ewan Mcgregor – The Revenge of the Sith
As I go to write this, my Itunes cues up Bluto’s speech from Animal House.
“What the fuck happened to the Delta I used to know. Where’s the spirit, where’s the guts, huh. This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you’re going to let it be the worst! Oh, we’re afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get in trouble. WELL JUST ME, I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS.”
A quote about college rebellion against the tyranny of a system which makes you fall in line to a system which strips identity.
Yeah, that works.
Star Wars stands as now, and will stand forever, as the text of those who hope for something better. And when I say Star Wars, I mean the first two movies, A New Hope, and the best film of all time (this is of course Dave’s opinion) The Empire Strikes Back. In those four and a half hours, something was created from them. Lady Portland warned me about lumping generations as a whole. I know that it’s a blanket statement. But in the end, what a whole is remembered for is the end impact.
And in the great problems of the best of the people alike me in a time born, I think that Star Wars has got a hold on many of the things we will ever do.
What happened in Return of the Jedi was an act that we accepted because we were young. The older crowd hated the Ewoks because they were too cutesy. We went along with it because we were too young to discern what was ok and what was a shill for money.
And maybe, this is a connection of the two. The worst and the best.
What Lucas did with The Phantom Menace will never be undone. It’s a Waterloo; he took the collective love and goodwill of a generation and failed.
He fell so flat and so badly, and did so with an iron fist, there is Lucas to blame for it. He ruined the first movie by suggesting that Anakin was a Christ Figure. He cast a kid on looks instead of talent. And the movie did nothing. No great battles, no great action scenes, no heroes. And we forgave it in lieu that this was the genesis, we let pass a false step in hopes of something more.
Then he never delivered. The second film, Attack of the Clones is one of the worst films of all times. It fails on every level. Nothing is progressed, nothing is introduced, and nothing is resolved. If you want to know why I hold Empire so high, I would like you to watch Alexander or Any Given Sunday as failures from a once great director who failed as example. While Alexander may be the worst film ever made, it isn’t as disappointing as Attack of the Clones. We as an audience bought into the idea that maybe Lucas was doing something for the bigger scheme, and all he did was to give Yoda a lightsaber and let the bad guy escape.
We wanted something. And Lucas gave us nothing.
Then it comes to Episode III.
It’s by far the best of the “prequels.” And it’s good enough that one wishes that maybe they were more like this one instead of realizing that these three movies should have never been made.
But caught in the middle is Ewan McGregor.
In all of which is bad, he is great. His performance in Attack of the Clones is enough to carry the scenes he is in.
Yet in Revenge, he is able to pull something off that few actors can ever lay claim to: he not only saves a needless sequel, he makes you care about everything you loved about the first movie in the first place.
First off is his delivery of bad lines. With the exception of 10 or so lines, Obi-wan is nothing more than a rank in the file of the movie. For all of his importance to the saga, he always seems to be a means to the end.
That is until his ultimate speech.
Obi-Wan: You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!
Anakin Skywalker: I HATE YOU!
Obi-Wan: You were my brother Anakin. I loved you.
I decided to include the Animal House speech because it’s the ultimate speech about sticking up for what you believe in.
The Revenge speech is the opposite, where they chose to take the easy way or to do nothing.
Watching it, I always fall apart, it’s the sight of a man who has to live with doing the worst to their beloved. Sure it’s part of the saga, and I love that moment for what it means to Star Wars, but it’s more than that:
It’s a performance which transcends the mediocrity of a bad idea to bring one home to the ideal love of hope:
To try to become a hero is a long stretch for an actor who is in it for the moment. But with that speech, Ewan is not doing for him and he isn’t doing it for the paycheck. He just simply sees what we all didn’t want for a guy we loved like Anakin. He betrayed us, much like Lucas, and we shout with him, we loved the old, and that we are angry for the man for making it simpler.
And now for my vote for the best performance of the decade so far.
Kevin Heffernan—Super Troopers
Farva is one of the least likeable characters to ever come across the screen. He’s a loser with an authority complex, and totally clueless to specify.
This role is written for a schlub, but what Heffernan does is to create a douchebag so annoying and unaware that he ruins any flow of the other people in the scene. He’s the guy you want to avoid inviting to parties. He ruins everything because he’s so desperate for attention yet so self-involved he can’t help but try to top any act. You shotgun a beer, he tries to be cool by shotgunning three.
Farva is a man who never gets it, and Heffernan plays him like he’s not even reaching for motivation, like he’s channeling the most idiotic impulse that comes to him in the moments before his line. Why not spit into the mirror of the car during a still establishing shot? Why not add an extra eyebrow raise when lighting a mix tape? Why not shake up beers and yell Farva’s #1 during a classy event?
Why order a soda when you can ask for a liter of cola?
The line may have been written, but Heffernan makes them as uncomfortable as possible, making the viewer think “I know that guy” and to revel in the joy of the awkward.
Oscars go to actors playing retarded people or villains, only once in the last 30 years did they go to a guy playing a loser, and that was to Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda. For them it was easy to see a respected actor playing dumb. But here, Heffernan does Kline one better, creating a character who is so appalling on the first viewing he sucks the air out of the scene the first viewing, but on the later reviews, you can’t wait for him to appear, because he does every scene in the most painfully obtuse way possible. And it's fucking hilarious.
Jack Black in School of Rock-
Part of this comes from his perfect role. He gets to be Jack Black the persona more than he is Dewey, which would almost always make it seem like he is just playing to the audience. This discounts that we love actors for doing this (like everything Bogart was)… so what. Dewey’s maturity was bound to grow, it’s part of the plot. What Black does in this film is instill a confidence in those around them, allowing the other characters to progress along with him. It’s not just about the character turning the kids on to music, as Black’s public persona makes it all the easier to believe Dewey’s amore; it’s how far Black actually responds.
On one level it’s a guy playing a part tailor made for him, but on the lower, behind the scenes presence, you get the feeling that Black actually got the people around him to understand what he is thinking. Watching the kids, you get the sense that they are trying to play cool to an older brother who believes in them, and most effectively, you see Dewey (and Black) listening, and responding to their joy of being brought into his and their new love of Rock and Roll.
But it’s Jack Black who fuels everything, in the end he doesn’t do anything great…other than inspire everyone around him to believe. It’s his reflection in the others and vice versa that makes it all the more…wonderful.
Denzel Washington in Training Day – On some levels, it’s a lousy movie about a bad cop. On another, it’s a fictional verite about the corruption of LAPD. On another, it’s a buddy movie in a trip through crime. On all of them, Denzel rules this movie. There is such gravitas in his command of the role it’s hard to care about anything else. He is a terrific villain, and like all villains of the post –modern era, he is given meat to chew on dramatically. Faced with a death sentence if he doesn’t raise the money, Denzel doesn’t play this character as a guy with a means to end-- many would play the role with a tilt of fear--but as a guy who is cool enough to get what he wants because he needs it. All swagger, all style, pure bravado. Even when he’s beat, he’s still charming enough to hold the power and the attention.
Tom Hanks in Cast Away. I don’t give much to weight loss and or gain, for the same reason I don’t care about actors playing the mentally handicapped. Hanks goes a full hour with nothing but a volleyball to play off of. The easy testimony is that he makes you care about that object, even to the point of tears when the ball floats off. But what gets me is when Hanks is back on the land and he is talking about ice in his glass, there is a sad subtext that he relied on something, then was forced to live without it, and now that he’s back, all he can feel is abruptness, as if all he did…was for nothing.
Hugh Jackman – X-Men 1 and 2. Sure he’s given the part via the comic books. But he makes the character feel like his. On an adaptation level, he wins out the fan in me because he not only looks the part, but because he sounds like it. He also has a small subtext underneath that’s endearing allowing a tip of the general cockiness to come out as the dominant trait, not the killer instinct or memory lapse. Many people could play Logan as haunted and angry, Jackman plays him as a man with as a lost past, who might as well have fun with what he’s given. It’s one thing to actually bring genuine emotion when it comes to the death of Jean in X-2, but it’s little bits, like his scene with Iceman (Bobby Drake) in the mansion, when he points the bottle to him to chill. His eyes are filled with a swagger and cockiness that is perfect for the scene and the character. Tis’ not a great bit of acting, but a consummate act of stepping into a preordained role. The best acting job in any comic book movie this decade; Hugh isn’t playing the part, he’s redefining it. (for all of the brilliance of the movie and the role, Christian Bale does a wonderful job, but it’s not him that makes the film he is in believable and great).
Rudy… I mean Sean Astin in Lord of the Rings parts 2 and 3 – He’s simply the most decent character of this decade, and maybe of all time. That’s one hell of a blanket statement, but mind you, all of what he is doing is selfless. And it’s in his final speech in King, when he talks about Rosie cotton and her ribbons one gets his character, it’s that he’s almost content with letting it go for the greater good, but he really wishes, for one moment, that he could be something a little bit more loved.
Craig Nelson – The Incredibles. It’s one of my favorite films of the decade. And it’s easy to know why, but for all of that is done by computers for the look of the character, it’s Nelson that takes this role to another level.
Rather than rant, just watch the climatic battle. Right before they start Mr. Incredible tries to tell Elastigirl to stay:
Mr. I: I need to do this alone.
Mrs. I: So you can prove to yourself that you still have powers for good.
Mr: I: No. No.
Mrs. I interjects and makes Mr. I go to babble.
Mr. I: I’m not strong enough.
Mrs. I: And this will make you feel strong.
Mr. I: No. NO.
Mrs. I: What. What is so important?
Mr. I: I CAN’T LOSE YOU AGAIN. I’m not, I’m not strong enough.
It’s an easy line to win favor, but it’s the coronation for a true hero. He knows what he cares about. All of the pure love for others in that shouted line… the quivering, the hamming and then the final line with finality in place of reluctance, that’s one hell of a performance without using your hands or body.
Bill Murray – Lost in Translation and Hugh Grant – Notting Hill/ About a Boy. All three roles are about lost men. One is a bookseller, another an actor, the last a do nothing. In all three of these roles, the two actors make isolation easy. But watching the characters redeem themselves via the vessels, you see men who flow through life only to find a point worth joining to in form of a woman. I could go on with all three roles, but I’d sya the same things.
Just watch Grant in Notting Hill reject Julia and then realize that it’s not a game.
Watch Grant in Boy as he finally grows to care about the boy and then, someone who is more than a friend.
Watch Murray in Translation see a reflection in a soul, and stammer through scenarios where he doesn’t belong just to follow someone who makes him feel like he does.
Now for my favorite five of the decade thus:
Ryan Gosling—The Notebook. It’s a terrible movie. Well it’s not terrible, nor is anything bad, it’s actually pretty good. But I call it terrible because it has a needless war scene where E from Entourage dies, and that whole bit with James Garner and Queen I have no memory. If the director has any balls he would have thrown away the bookend/ framing device.
Rachel McAdams may wind up being the next Julia Roberts, but this movie is worth watching if only for Gosling. He did a wonderful piece of “dangerous acting” as a Neo-Nazi in the film “The Believer” and it allowed him some buzz, because he’s amazing on a Russell Crowe in “Romper Stomper” mode of acting.
Gosling is the great everyman in this role. Talking with Kris last week about men vs. women, we both agreed women fall in love more easily, men longer. This is a perfect portrayal of a man who never lets go: because he never plays the role pouty or heartbroken in a look at me performance, he exists as a man who let the outside in once, and doesn’t want to do it again. He knows he only has so much to give with who he is, and that’s the role and his performance’s strength: solidarity. Willing to wait, but willing to fight for it, he is one of the few more roles in this decade who actually challenges the woman.
Maybe it’s the fact he is a 40’s man and not a 90’s or 2000’s man who has to be sensitive and tough, who has to chase the girl and let her woo him, he looks as the guy who knows what will make him happy, it’s her, and he’ll be damned if he lets her muck it up or walk away.
I look at Gosling and see Gable. That’s as high of a compliment I can give.
Johnny Depp – Pirates of the Caribbean. This is actually a good movie, all things being equal. It’s a little long, it has two too many climaxes and battles. But there isn’t a moment when Depp is onscreen when the film drags. This (along with Denzel in Training Day) is my stock reply to anyone who talks about actors who get the most out of a role like Cap-o-te or Ray. It’s easy for a competent actor to make the most out of a golden opportunity. It’s legendary for an actor to go for a paycheck type of role like that of a pirate in a film based on a Disney ride and make it legendary. Depp is beguiling, idiotic, and as far from normal as possible when he plays Jack Sparrow. He’s likeable, yet he’s a selfish moron, and Depp is so commanding in presence one forgets about the latter trait. It’s one thing to craft an antihero, it’s another to take a role and play it as a sleazy weirdo so well that people actually want to talk about an acting performance in an action movie.
That, is creating a character.
Heath Ledger – Brokeback Mountain. Sure Phillip Seymour won the Oscar, but is there any doubt about which people will and did remember more? Cap-o-te was as bland as an interesting movie can be. Hoffman was able find the essence of a tortured artistic soul and did so in chameleon fashion, but even for his skill, (think this is merely an impression? Just watch how he commands his first moment on screen) he is merely doing a Jamie Foxx like the year before him. This is something that pisses me off about the AMPAS awards. They find it easier to vote for the familiar or showy, not to the truly great. Stallone in 76 lost for Rocky, as did DeNiro in Taxi Driver, and Bill Holden in Network to a posthumous Peter Finch. It’s tremendously right in a sentimental way to vote for the dead guy, but really, anyone of those three should have won the award.
Alright, I’m digressing. What Ledger does here is to play the strong silent type to perfection, and he does so with a heartbreaking secret beneath. I don’t think Ennis was gay. Jack Twist was, but not Ennis. And that’s the hard sell that Ledger deals with, and why I hate people who see this as a “gay film.” Jack knew who he loved, but Ennis was the Amy from “Chasing Amy” who was waiting for his true connection, it just happened to be same sex.
The performance is one of the best on film ever made, it’s darkly angry because he is pissed from within, knowing that what he wants is impossible. Ledger manifests this emotion in his tattered vocals (when he talks) and in his quiet non-committal, he doesn’t want to let go of the one thing he had in a shitty life, and with his ever unsteady bottom lip, he wavers when others would go for showy, and that’s the essence of the role and his performance. It’s not about Ennis being unhappy and explaining it, it’s that he can’t and the power of his lack to emote that makes the character. It breaks the heart not because Ennis says what he lost, but because you see the escape of joy in his face.
In the final scene, he hears of his daughter marriage, and he pretends to be busy. Then he finally gives in. Shortly after she leaves, he goes over to the coat of Jack, and puts it in order, slowly touching the memory of what was and why he’s never happy. To see homosexuality in place of love here is not simply bigoted, but blind.
Ewan Mcgregor – The Revenge of the Sith
As I go to write this, my Itunes cues up Bluto’s speech from Animal House.
“What the fuck happened to the Delta I used to know. Where’s the spirit, where’s the guts, huh. This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you’re going to let it be the worst! Oh, we’re afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get in trouble. WELL JUST ME, I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS.”
A quote about college rebellion against the tyranny of a system which makes you fall in line to a system which strips identity.
Yeah, that works.
Star Wars stands as now, and will stand forever, as the text of those who hope for something better. And when I say Star Wars, I mean the first two movies, A New Hope, and the best film of all time (this is of course Dave’s opinion) The Empire Strikes Back. In those four and a half hours, something was created from them. Lady Portland warned me about lumping generations as a whole. I know that it’s a blanket statement. But in the end, what a whole is remembered for is the end impact.
And in the great problems of the best of the people alike me in a time born, I think that Star Wars has got a hold on many of the things we will ever do.
What happened in Return of the Jedi was an act that we accepted because we were young. The older crowd hated the Ewoks because they were too cutesy. We went along with it because we were too young to discern what was ok and what was a shill for money.
And maybe, this is a connection of the two. The worst and the best.
What Lucas did with The Phantom Menace will never be undone. It’s a Waterloo; he took the collective love and goodwill of a generation and failed.
He fell so flat and so badly, and did so with an iron fist, there is Lucas to blame for it. He ruined the first movie by suggesting that Anakin was a Christ Figure. He cast a kid on looks instead of talent. And the movie did nothing. No great battles, no great action scenes, no heroes. And we forgave it in lieu that this was the genesis, we let pass a false step in hopes of something more.
Then he never delivered. The second film, Attack of the Clones is one of the worst films of all times. It fails on every level. Nothing is progressed, nothing is introduced, and nothing is resolved. If you want to know why I hold Empire so high, I would like you to watch Alexander or Any Given Sunday as failures from a once great director who failed as example. While Alexander may be the worst film ever made, it isn’t as disappointing as Attack of the Clones. We as an audience bought into the idea that maybe Lucas was doing something for the bigger scheme, and all he did was to give Yoda a lightsaber and let the bad guy escape.
We wanted something. And Lucas gave us nothing.
Then it comes to Episode III.
It’s by far the best of the “prequels.” And it’s good enough that one wishes that maybe they were more like this one instead of realizing that these three movies should have never been made.
But caught in the middle is Ewan McGregor.
In all of which is bad, he is great. His performance in Attack of the Clones is enough to carry the scenes he is in.
Yet in Revenge, he is able to pull something off that few actors can ever lay claim to: he not only saves a needless sequel, he makes you care about everything you loved about the first movie in the first place.
First off is his delivery of bad lines. With the exception of 10 or so lines, Obi-wan is nothing more than a rank in the file of the movie. For all of his importance to the saga, he always seems to be a means to the end.
That is until his ultimate speech.
Obi-Wan: You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!
Anakin Skywalker: I HATE YOU!
Obi-Wan: You were my brother Anakin. I loved you.
I decided to include the Animal House speech because it’s the ultimate speech about sticking up for what you believe in.
The Revenge speech is the opposite, where they chose to take the easy way or to do nothing.
Watching it, I always fall apart, it’s the sight of a man who has to live with doing the worst to their beloved. Sure it’s part of the saga, and I love that moment for what it means to Star Wars, but it’s more than that:
It’s a performance which transcends the mediocrity of a bad idea to bring one home to the ideal love of hope:
To try to become a hero is a long stretch for an actor who is in it for the moment. But with that speech, Ewan is not doing for him and he isn’t doing it for the paycheck. He just simply sees what we all didn’t want for a guy we loved like Anakin. He betrayed us, much like Lucas, and we shout with him, we loved the old, and that we are angry for the man for making it simpler.
And now for my vote for the best performance of the decade so far.
Kevin Heffernan—Super Troopers
Farva is one of the least likeable characters to ever come across the screen. He’s a loser with an authority complex, and totally clueless to specify.
This role is written for a schlub, but what Heffernan does is to create a douchebag so annoying and unaware that he ruins any flow of the other people in the scene. He’s the guy you want to avoid inviting to parties. He ruins everything because he’s so desperate for attention yet so self-involved he can’t help but try to top any act. You shotgun a beer, he tries to be cool by shotgunning three.
Farva is a man who never gets it, and Heffernan plays him like he’s not even reaching for motivation, like he’s channeling the most idiotic impulse that comes to him in the moments before his line. Why not spit into the mirror of the car during a still establishing shot? Why not add an extra eyebrow raise when lighting a mix tape? Why not shake up beers and yell Farva’s #1 during a classy event?
Why order a soda when you can ask for a liter of cola?
The line may have been written, but Heffernan makes them as uncomfortable as possible, making the viewer think “I know that guy” and to revel in the joy of the awkward.
Oscars go to actors playing retarded people or villains, only once in the last 30 years did they go to a guy playing a loser, and that was to Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda. For them it was easy to see a respected actor playing dumb. But here, Heffernan does Kline one better, creating a character who is so appalling on the first viewing he sucks the air out of the scene the first viewing, but on the later reviews, you can’t wait for him to appear, because he does every scene in the most painfully obtuse way possible. And it's fucking hilarious.
posted by Indiana at
10:33 AM
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