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Caught two films on cable last night.The first one was North to Alaska. A pleasant and incredibly silly story featuring John Wayne (that would be hardly sufficient to make me stick with it...) AND... Capucine.
The 29 years old super-bombshell lady shines in this one, showing reasonable amount ot acting talent and, of course!!!!, tons of her usual beauty.
Without her the movie would be just the normal light Hollywood trashy fare, but she brings in enough spark to make it worthwhile.
Greatest disappointment - John's inept wooden acting. He is usually OK as long as the rifle is in his hand, doing the usual tough man duties, but here he was asked to play some feelings, I mean - with no hands, just face... and man, does he fall flat in his attemps at acting! I think they should have cut the scenes with his facial shots, and just stay with the story... and the LADY.
She still had 30 years of life left in her... such a regrettable loss of a goddess.
The second one - Hoffa - in High Definition.
While the image quality was in itself reason enough to stay glued, Jack's performance is nothing short of spectacular, one of his finest. I saw it years ago, and this was a nice refresher.
I also enjoyed Danny DaVito tremendously - I always love watch him act, as act he can and he is always natural. Here he sparkles as an actor, but demonstrates he simply doesn't have it in him what it takes to be an interesting director.
The movie has all the traditional fingerprints of a Hollywood production - it is incredibly professional in all respects... and it is also boring. Danny just couldn't bring in directing zest, something that would make the movie more than just a story. So it remained a perfectly edited series of professionally shot but mostly trivial and all-too-familiar images, something any pro Hollywood director should be able to do with his eyes closed and after a night of heavy partying.
But this - as regrettable as it might be, given my respect for Danny - doesn't make the movie any less worthy of viewing - OK, it does look like a made-for-TV docu-drama, but the two great actors give more than enough to enjoy and remember.
For all those who have grown annoyed of Jack's mimics, this should be like a tropical paradise vacation. He keeps great control of his face, and only in a few shots you can see his old hedonistic lecher's eyes suddenly pop through the mask...
Follow Ups:
Danny DeVito's direction in "Hoffa" is only perfunctory...there is nothing like the zest he showed in "Throw Momma from the Train". Perhaps he was concentrating too much on his own performance, or making sure that Jack was comfortable. Perhaps he felt too constrained by the fact that he was directing a movie based on real people and real events (with the exception of how Hoffa died...that ALMOST noone knows about!). Perhaps the producers and studio were leaning on him to "smooth it out" and make a film about a man who challenged the president of the United States as "unedgy" as possible. Until DeVito gives his "end of career" interviews, we may never know why his direction of "Hoffa" is so spiritless!
what about Eastwood, he doesn't show much emotion in his facial
expressions either. Ditto, Redford. -AH.
I don't think the two are quite the same - Eastwood is far superior as an actor, I think.It is not just the static nature of the facial expression - there are actors who can present very broad range of emotions without moving one facial muscle - people like Gabin... problem with Wayne was he simply didn't know how to play the emotions, his face was straining but nothing was coming out.
In that respect his ineptitude reminded me of two other great logs - Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford - if you recall the scene in Top Gun when Tommy boy sits alone in the bar, expressing grief over his partner's death - that's what I mean... the laughable attempts at portraying any real emotions, besides shaking his finger at camera.
What is weird about Tom Cruise is that he was pretty good when he was just an up and coming actor. His work in 1982's "Taps", 1983's "The Outsiders", "Losin' It", and "Risky Business", and 1984's "All the Right Moves" is very nice. He can play the nervous boy who is afraid of screwing up. But then he started to get offers for roles calling for other kinds of thoughts and feelings....and they just aren't there!A nervous man who is terrified of screwing everything up...what actor should Tom Cruise have modeled his career on? Who does that sound like?
ah
With perhaps his best actual acting in his final film - The Shootist. As for Mr. Devito, with good role selection he could go down in history as one of the best American character actors. He has had some crappy roles, though.
In Vino Veritas
Wayne's character is dying (and Wayne himself knew he was)
Shootist doesn't 100% work as a film; I have seen it several times and can't quite put my finger on why (not); but Wayne is just great as J Bernard Books and there is Jimmy Stewart and several other great supporting actors
Yes, it's easilly his best role
Grins
The three best Wayne roles, IMHO, are in "Red River', "The Searchers", and "True Grit".
however I think as he grew older he grew beyond the one-note tough westerner roles. True Grit is a good example, as is Rooster Cogburn and the aforementioned Shootist.
In Vino Veritas
Totally agree on "Hoffa" (or as we say in new England, "Hoffer"). I had never seen it so when I surfed to it on Hi Def cable last night I stuck with it. I almost didn't recognize Nicholson, so good was his makeup, demeanor, and acting. But a really boring film.
Yes Danny is one step less of a very good actor, but I am also fond in him..I still have hopes....
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