Just saw A Fish Called Wanda for the second time. This film is considered a classic and I thought it was OK the first time I saw it several years ago, but I found the film really flawed on second viewing.
The film is a combination heist thriller and romantic comedy. The romance is between an entirely irredeemable woman (Jamie Lee Curtis, who I've personally never found very attractive) and pretty much every other member of the all-male ensemble who she seduces as a fall-black plan every time something goes wrong. Not only is Curtis' character unsympathetic, she's uninteresting.
Her main love interest is a British barrister (aka lawyer with a wig) played by John Cleese. She's playing him so that she can get the inside scoop on a case he's trying. Although there's sappy music playing in the background during their scenes together, any sediment here is unearned: Cleese's character loses all credibility by not seeing through a hot young woman (who just happens to be a defense witness) posing as a groupie who wants to discuss details of his upcoming depositions during their lovemaking. He's also irredeemable himself as he renegs on a gift from his wife and then leaves her (along with his daughter) for a woman who is obviously a fraud.
What's worse, even though the movie's clearly a dark comedy, I don't think the film's flimsy romantic subplot was intended in any ironic way either.
One of the other subplots involves another one of the baddies trying to kill off an old lady who's a witness. It's completely predictable that nothing will happen to her because she's really sweet and this particular guy (Michael Palin) is a softie, so those scenes are a waste of time.
The film does have a couple high points. Although he's a little too mean-spirited to be endearing, Kevin Kline creates a character that's certainly amusing to watch. He's Curtis' main lover and is passed off as Curtis' brother for some reason (so she can screw more people) and he has a good running gag of blowing up completely and ruining everything when someone calls him stupid. Michael Palin, as a stutterer who loves animals, also brings something enjoyable every time he's on screen.
The film has some great scenes but as a film, I think it falls apart.
Other films considered classics that I'm not a fan of:
The Incredibles-This Pixar film that parodies superhero conventions is something I saw five years earlier in "Mystery Men" and a year later in "Sky High." I'm sure there are other examples too that I just can't think of at the moment, but "Sky High" (even though it fits squarely in the teeny-bopper genre) and "Mystery Men" are just as astute as "Incredibles" to me.
For a studio that is considered a hallmark of originality, "Incredibles" really didn't bring that much new to the superhero parody genre.
Viva Zapata-Considered one of the better films of legendary director Elia Kazan, the film tells the story of Mexican Revolution hero Emiliano Zapata. The film isn't entirely inaccurate (from someone who was taking a grad level course on Latin American history at the time), but it's also oversimplified and hard to follow, so you likely won't even be able to develop much appreciation for the subject matter anyway. On the whole, I get the impression that Kazan doesn't care much about the Mexican revolution. The film's purpose, as far as I can tell, was to give Kazan's prize pupil, Marlon Brando, an opportunity to flex his acting with dramatic speeches on how he wants to freedom, and later how he doesn't want to fight anymore, or how he wants a pinata that matches his sombrero- I stopped caring after a while.
Annie Hall-Considered Woody Allen's best film. I've never seen a romantic comedy and thought "This is good but it needs more of a Momento-style fracturing of the storyline to make it great." The film attempts to be clever and it really just feels like a stream-of-consciousness first draft of a better film. Woody Allen did experiment a lot with the conventional love story and some of those results are very good. I suppose a few misses are aloud along with the hits and we each have different definitions for what hits are. I'm just surprised so many have gotten behind this one as "the hit."
All That Jazz, 8 1/2 and The Doors-Sympathetic portraits of rock stars who had more sex and fame than most of us will dream of who we're supposed to feel bad for? Films about highly successful artists should at least attempt to bring them down to Earth so we can relate to their struggles and I found myself not really caring about why they caused their self-inflicted reckless behavior. A good film in this genre ("Ray" or "Walk the Line" comes to mind) treats the character like they're interesting stories.
These three films reek of vanity: Be interested in their predictable problems, because they're famous people you know and love and want to know more about them. "8 1/2" reeks of vanity because it's autobiographical. "All that Jazz" is borrowed from the template of 8 1/2. It's probably the most promising of the three films (although 8 1/2 is the most praised): Roy Scheider does well in the part and it has a few interesting motifs.
Expecting me to like "The Doors" is pretty much the same as expecting me to subscribe to "Rolling Stone" magazine and worship rock stars like the magazine does. "The Doors" is even worse than those Oscar bait films about a guy with some disability who's limited in life, because this is a guy who's just inflicting his own wounds for the hell of it. It's the difference between the degree of sympathy we feel towards Charlie Sheen verse Temple Grandin.
The Graduate-Not a particularly bad film, but not a film that isn't great either. It's got great performances, no doubt, but it's just about a guy screwing his dad's friend's wife. It's a little bit of a stretch to say it's a big symbolic statement about the 60's. The filmmakers themselves said that the cross symbol at the Church scene was entirely by accident (I'll have to double-check but I believe that's the case)
Heaven can Wait and Shampoo-If Heaven can Wait is a best picture nominee, then I absolutely agree with Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes: Ghost Town (or "Heart and Soul" or "Ghost Dad", take your pick) got robbed of a best picture nomination too. It's just a lightweight relatively fun film.
"Shampoo" is really a film about nothing except how studly and charismatic Warren Beatty is and how his politics and problems are interesting. Oh, and it was written by Warren Beatty himself. Nothing against Beatty (he comes from my hometown) but the guy's overrated. He's basically got one go-to move as an actor: shrugging his shoulders like the world is too hard for him. I don't think the quality of his films would be damaged that much if Matt LeBlanc replaced Beatty in every role he played.
The Queen-David Spade, when he was the anchor of "The Showbiz Show" said it best: This was a film that boiled down to about whether to read a press release or not.
Showing posts with label Marlon Brando. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marlon Brando. Show all posts
Saturday, May 07, 2011
Monday, February 02, 2009
20 Best actor/director pairings of all time
While this is not the case with every actor and director, one can say that for every great actor, there's often a great director who mentored him to a successful film career, and for many great directors, there's that one reliable actor they go to again and again to get their material across.
1. Elia Kazan/Marlon Brando-All of the actors of today look up to DeNiro, Hoffman, Hackman, Duvall and Pacino and those actors all idolized Brando. Brando learned his craft at the actor's studio which was co-founded by Kazan and it was Kazan who discovered Brando on stage and fought for him to be cast into Streetcar Named Desire, which along with On the Waterfront became two of the best performances ever captured onscreen. With so many aspiring actors cutting their teeth on screenplays from the Kazan/Brando collaborations, it's hard to argue any other way.
2. John Ford/John Wayne-It's not just remarkable how much Ford and Wayne contributed to the Western, but how much they grew with the Western and evolved with the genre. Normally, with a genre, you have one director who accomplishes something big, and then the genre moves in a different direction as another filmmaker comes. Ford and Wayne didn't just create the preeminent Westerns of their day, but they evolved along with the genre. There's significant difference in John Wayne's stock character between Stagecoach and The Searcher with a lot of variation in between. They also ventured outside the Western for the Irish period piece, Quiet Man, which one John Ford an Oscar. Of their 22 films together, other highlights include She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, How the West Was Won, Rio Grande and Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
3. Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart-Frank Capra was the 1930's version of Spielberg and Scorsesee roled into one. He was the most respected, revered and commercially successful director of his time. His visions of homespun Americana gave hope to millions during the Great Depression. His two primary collaborators were Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart, and while I appreciate the Cooper/Capra pairings, I don't think anyone epitomized Capra's vision nearly as well as the wide-eyed Midwestern, Jimmy Stewart. Two of Capra's three entries onto AFI's 100 Greatest Films list, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It's a Wonderful Life, featured Stewart front and center. In addition, James Stewart starred in You Can't Take it With You which won Capra his second best picture Oscar.
4. Martin Scorsese/Robert DeNiro-Under Scorsese DeNiro hasn played a musician (New York, New York), a sexual predator (Cape Fear), a depressed taxi driver (Taxi Driver), a boxer (Raging Bull) and more. Scorsese used De Niro at every possible opportunity. The only major films Scorsese left DeNiro out of the lead part in the 20th century were Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (a family melodrama centered around a female lead), The Color of Money (which couldn't have called itself a sequel if it didn't use Paul Newman, and Last Temptation of Christ (which used Willem Dafoe instead).
5. John Huston/Humphrey Bogart-The stories behind the films alone, of the two going drinking off in the primitive jungles of Africa, are worth hearing about. Huston's three most prominent films, Maltese Falcon, African Queen, and Treasure of Sierra Madre all feature Bogart in addition to the parody Beat the Devil. Huston also won Bogie his only Oscar in The African Queen.
6. Billy Wilder/Jack Lemmon-Wilder worked for 20 years before finding the perfect comic muse in Lemmon. Lemmon embraced cross-dressing in Some Like it Hot, the plight of the working class in The Apartment, and had five other memorable collaborations with Wilder. It was through Wilder, that Lemmon also got introduced to his other half (comedically speaking): Walter Matthau. Lemmon and Wilder tended to veer for the comic, but in Avanti! and Apartment, they approached dramatic elements as well.
7. Martin Scorsese/Leonardo DiCaprio-Leo DiCaprio has grown so much in the three Scorsese collaborations from Gangs of New York to The Aviator to The Departed, it's amazing. In Gangs of New York he was just a capable actor with movie star looks, by Departed he was the preeminent actor of his generation.
8. Vincente Minelli/Judy Garland-Judy Garland was MGM's preeminent child star and most valuable commodity, but as she aged, the studio needed a movie made that would move her out of her teenage roles. Vincente Minelli, originally an art director, came along and had his biggest film to date, Meet me in St. Louis, that also introduced Judy Garland, as a full-fledged adult. They also got married (a union that didn't end particularly well due to her addiction to painkillers) and produced (for better or worse) future musical star Liza Minelli. They did make four other films together including "The Pirate."
9. George Lucas/Harrison Ford-If you don't count sequels, Lucas has had a sum total of 4 creative ventures which he has unleashed on the world and Harrison Ford was a part of three of them. Lucas discovered Ford in his 2nd film, and Ford returned the favor by turning his two main creative ventures, the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies into massive successes.
10. David Lean/Alec Guiness-Erase the filmographies of David Lean and Alec Guiness and there's very little reason at all to celebrate British cinema as a seperate genre. The two worked together on six films and while Guiness wasn't the star in all of them, he played a part in all of Lean's greatest successes (with the exception of Brief Encounter). The highlight, of course, was the Oscar-winning film Bridge on the River Kwai, which brought Oscars to both Lean and Guiness.
11. Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly-Kelly was also the co-director but they took over as MGM's most prominent team and worked their way up the ranks at MGM as a directing team. At first they took over Busby Berkley's troubled production of Take Me Out to the Ballgame before scoring a homerun in On the Town. In 1952, they followed that up with the most memorable film of the MGM musical era with Singing in the Rain. Donen then had a sole directing credit with Kelly as the star for It's Always Fair Weather, and after that Donen went on to become a prominent director in his own right.
12. Sidney Lumet/Sean Connery-Connery's best films outside of Bond were with Lumet and that's the director where he learned to be a serious actor from. Their most memorable collaborations were The Hill and Murder on the Orient Express.
13. Howard Hawks/Cary Grant-Grant was the early prototype of an action star. He was known as a suave matinee idol who could be molded to play the lead in any romantic film. For his own part, Grant saw himself as a funnyman who enjoyed playing around with good dialogue and Hawks supplied that in abundance. Grant has his most memorable performances when he's able to show off his flair for good comic timing and Bringing Up Baby, Only Angels have Wings, and His Girl Friday showcase his finest moments.
14. Tim Burton/Jonny Depp-Jonny Depp had been in five movies including the Oscar-winner Platoon before breaking out in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands. Although he only spoke 169 words of dialogue, Depp found his niche in off-beat behavior and Burton found a star that embraced his dark Gothic visions. The two have since worked together in Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeny Todd and have two more collaborations slated for 2010 and 2011, according to imdb.
15. Billy Wilder/Marilyn Monroe-Without him, she was barely capable of memorizing her lines in order, and it wasn't lost on Billy Wilder that his Aunt Mitzy could act better than Marilyn Monroe. "Then again," reasoned Wilder, "No one wants to pay to see my Aunt Mitzy." So Wilder learned to work with Monroe's weaknesses and the end result were two of his finest films in Some Like it Hot and Seven Year Itch. Marilyn Monroe was beautiful for sure, but Wilder made her look witty, alluring, and by all measures, a movie star.
16. Stanley Kramer/Spencer Tracy-Tracy provided "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" with a necessary counterweight. Amid all the comics running around, Stanley's character (a disheveled cop who flirts with the possibility of abandoning his post to chase after buried loot), was the one character with pathos. In three other films with Kramer, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Inherit the Wind, Spencer Tracy turned out his best work.
17. Ethan Coen & Joel Coen/Frances McDormand-The Coen brothers have elevated the careers of bit players like John Turturro, John Goodman, William H. Macy, and Steve Buscemi. They have also provided memorable turns for leading men such as Nicholas Cage, Jeff Bridges, Tom Hanks, Billy Bob Thorton and George Clooney. Let's not forget, however, that they let women join in the fun as well. In particular, Frances McDormand has been able to shine in one of the meatiest comic roles of the decade in Fargo. In addition, she's featured prominently in Burn After Reading, Man Who Wasn't There and had a small cameo in Barton Fink.
18. Stephen Soderbergh/George Clooney-Soderbergh gave Clooney his big break in Out of Sight and even after that bombed, the two kept working together in Ocean's 11 and pretty much everything else. The two have experimented together with the HBO's "K Street", Solaris, and The Good German and are often producing partners. Soderbergh's influence on Clooney is pretty well-documented and when Clooeny's not starring directly for Soderbergh, he could be starring alongside Soderbergh staples like Brad Pitt or with Stephen Gaughan who wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Soderbergh's Traffic. A few negative points go to Soderbergh for all the alleged fooling around on the set of Ocean's 12 that Soderbergh and crew distracted themselves with.
19. Sydney Pollack/Robert Redford-Pollack and Redford were good friends and collaborators who shared socially-conscious attitudes towards filmmaking. Without Redford, one might reconsider just how far into the political realm Pollack might have gone in the first place. Redford and Pollack's collaboration in Out of Africa led to an Oscar for the film. As Pollack's recent funeral was an indicator, Redford considered Pollack one of his greatest friends and mentors.
20. Orson Welles/Joseph Cotten-Cotten was Welles' old chum at the Mercury Theater and put him in Magnificent Ambersons, Citizen Kane, and Touch of Evil. Wells and Cotten's best performances were in the British thriller The Third Man co-starring alongside each other, but it must be noted, it was directed by a third party.
1. Elia Kazan/Marlon Brando-All of the actors of today look up to DeNiro, Hoffman, Hackman, Duvall and Pacino and those actors all idolized Brando. Brando learned his craft at the actor's studio which was co-founded by Kazan and it was Kazan who discovered Brando on stage and fought for him to be cast into Streetcar Named Desire, which along with On the Waterfront became two of the best performances ever captured onscreen. With so many aspiring actors cutting their teeth on screenplays from the Kazan/Brando collaborations, it's hard to argue any other way.
2. John Ford/John Wayne-It's not just remarkable how much Ford and Wayne contributed to the Western, but how much they grew with the Western and evolved with the genre. Normally, with a genre, you have one director who accomplishes something big, and then the genre moves in a different direction as another filmmaker comes. Ford and Wayne didn't just create the preeminent Westerns of their day, but they evolved along with the genre. There's significant difference in John Wayne's stock character between Stagecoach and The Searcher with a lot of variation in between. They also ventured outside the Western for the Irish period piece, Quiet Man, which one John Ford an Oscar. Of their 22 films together, other highlights include She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, How the West Was Won, Rio Grande and Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
3. Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart-Frank Capra was the 1930's version of Spielberg and Scorsesee roled into one. He was the most respected, revered and commercially successful director of his time. His visions of homespun Americana gave hope to millions during the Great Depression. His two primary collaborators were Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart, and while I appreciate the Cooper/Capra pairings, I don't think anyone epitomized Capra's vision nearly as well as the wide-eyed Midwestern, Jimmy Stewart. Two of Capra's three entries onto AFI's 100 Greatest Films list, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It's a Wonderful Life, featured Stewart front and center. In addition, James Stewart starred in You Can't Take it With You which won Capra his second best picture Oscar.
4. Martin Scorsese/Robert DeNiro-Under Scorsese DeNiro hasn played a musician (New York, New York), a sexual predator (Cape Fear), a depressed taxi driver (Taxi Driver), a boxer (Raging Bull) and more. Scorsese used De Niro at every possible opportunity. The only major films Scorsese left DeNiro out of the lead part in the 20th century were Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (a family melodrama centered around a female lead), The Color of Money (which couldn't have called itself a sequel if it didn't use Paul Newman, and Last Temptation of Christ (which used Willem Dafoe instead).
5. John Huston/Humphrey Bogart-The stories behind the films alone, of the two going drinking off in the primitive jungles of Africa, are worth hearing about. Huston's three most prominent films, Maltese Falcon, African Queen, and Treasure of Sierra Madre all feature Bogart in addition to the parody Beat the Devil. Huston also won Bogie his only Oscar in The African Queen.
6. Billy Wilder/Jack Lemmon-Wilder worked for 20 years before finding the perfect comic muse in Lemmon. Lemmon embraced cross-dressing in Some Like it Hot, the plight of the working class in The Apartment, and had five other memorable collaborations with Wilder. It was through Wilder, that Lemmon also got introduced to his other half (comedically speaking): Walter Matthau. Lemmon and Wilder tended to veer for the comic, but in Avanti! and Apartment, they approached dramatic elements as well.
7. Martin Scorsese/Leonardo DiCaprio-Leo DiCaprio has grown so much in the three Scorsese collaborations from Gangs of New York to The Aviator to The Departed, it's amazing. In Gangs of New York he was just a capable actor with movie star looks, by Departed he was the preeminent actor of his generation.
8. Vincente Minelli/Judy Garland-Judy Garland was MGM's preeminent child star and most valuable commodity, but as she aged, the studio needed a movie made that would move her out of her teenage roles. Vincente Minelli, originally an art director, came along and had his biggest film to date, Meet me in St. Louis, that also introduced Judy Garland, as a full-fledged adult. They also got married (a union that didn't end particularly well due to her addiction to painkillers) and produced (for better or worse) future musical star Liza Minelli. They did make four other films together including "The Pirate."
9. George Lucas/Harrison Ford-If you don't count sequels, Lucas has had a sum total of 4 creative ventures which he has unleashed on the world and Harrison Ford was a part of three of them. Lucas discovered Ford in his 2nd film, and Ford returned the favor by turning his two main creative ventures, the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies into massive successes.
10. David Lean/Alec Guiness-Erase the filmographies of David Lean and Alec Guiness and there's very little reason at all to celebrate British cinema as a seperate genre. The two worked together on six films and while Guiness wasn't the star in all of them, he played a part in all of Lean's greatest successes (with the exception of Brief Encounter). The highlight, of course, was the Oscar-winning film Bridge on the River Kwai, which brought Oscars to both Lean and Guiness.
11. Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly-Kelly was also the co-director but they took over as MGM's most prominent team and worked their way up the ranks at MGM as a directing team. At first they took over Busby Berkley's troubled production of Take Me Out to the Ballgame before scoring a homerun in On the Town. In 1952, they followed that up with the most memorable film of the MGM musical era with Singing in the Rain. Donen then had a sole directing credit with Kelly as the star for It's Always Fair Weather, and after that Donen went on to become a prominent director in his own right.
12. Sidney Lumet/Sean Connery-Connery's best films outside of Bond were with Lumet and that's the director where he learned to be a serious actor from. Their most memorable collaborations were The Hill and Murder on the Orient Express.
13. Howard Hawks/Cary Grant-Grant was the early prototype of an action star. He was known as a suave matinee idol who could be molded to play the lead in any romantic film. For his own part, Grant saw himself as a funnyman who enjoyed playing around with good dialogue and Hawks supplied that in abundance. Grant has his most memorable performances when he's able to show off his flair for good comic timing and Bringing Up Baby, Only Angels have Wings, and His Girl Friday showcase his finest moments.
14. Tim Burton/Jonny Depp-Jonny Depp had been in five movies including the Oscar-winner Platoon before breaking out in Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands. Although he only spoke 169 words of dialogue, Depp found his niche in off-beat behavior and Burton found a star that embraced his dark Gothic visions. The two have since worked together in Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeny Todd and have two more collaborations slated for 2010 and 2011, according to imdb.
15. Billy Wilder/Marilyn Monroe-Without him, she was barely capable of memorizing her lines in order, and it wasn't lost on Billy Wilder that his Aunt Mitzy could act better than Marilyn Monroe. "Then again," reasoned Wilder, "No one wants to pay to see my Aunt Mitzy." So Wilder learned to work with Monroe's weaknesses and the end result were two of his finest films in Some Like it Hot and Seven Year Itch. Marilyn Monroe was beautiful for sure, but Wilder made her look witty, alluring, and by all measures, a movie star.
16. Stanley Kramer/Spencer Tracy-Tracy provided "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" with a necessary counterweight. Amid all the comics running around, Stanley's character (a disheveled cop who flirts with the possibility of abandoning his post to chase after buried loot), was the one character with pathos. In three other films with Kramer, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Inherit the Wind, Spencer Tracy turned out his best work.
17. Ethan Coen & Joel Coen/Frances McDormand-The Coen brothers have elevated the careers of bit players like John Turturro, John Goodman, William H. Macy, and Steve Buscemi. They have also provided memorable turns for leading men such as Nicholas Cage, Jeff Bridges, Tom Hanks, Billy Bob Thorton and George Clooney. Let's not forget, however, that they let women join in the fun as well. In particular, Frances McDormand has been able to shine in one of the meatiest comic roles of the decade in Fargo. In addition, she's featured prominently in Burn After Reading, Man Who Wasn't There and had a small cameo in Barton Fink.
18. Stephen Soderbergh/George Clooney-Soderbergh gave Clooney his big break in Out of Sight and even after that bombed, the two kept working together in Ocean's 11 and pretty much everything else. The two have experimented together with the HBO's "K Street", Solaris, and The Good German and are often producing partners. Soderbergh's influence on Clooney is pretty well-documented and when Clooeny's not starring directly for Soderbergh, he could be starring alongside Soderbergh staples like Brad Pitt or with Stephen Gaughan who wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Soderbergh's Traffic. A few negative points go to Soderbergh for all the alleged fooling around on the set of Ocean's 12 that Soderbergh and crew distracted themselves with.
19. Sydney Pollack/Robert Redford-Pollack and Redford were good friends and collaborators who shared socially-conscious attitudes towards filmmaking. Without Redford, one might reconsider just how far into the political realm Pollack might have gone in the first place. Redford and Pollack's collaboration in Out of Africa led to an Oscar for the film. As Pollack's recent funeral was an indicator, Redford considered Pollack one of his greatest friends and mentors.
20. Orson Welles/Joseph Cotten-Cotten was Welles' old chum at the Mercury Theater and put him in Magnificent Ambersons, Citizen Kane, and Touch of Evil. Wells and Cotten's best performances were in the British thriller The Third Man co-starring alongside each other, but it must be noted, it was directed by a third party.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
AFI's list of top 25 actors
I came across this AFI list the other day:
The greatest stars in the eyes of AFI: 1)Humphrey Bogart 2)Cary Grant 3)James Stewart 4)Marlon Brando 5)Fred Astaire 6)Henry Fonda 7)Clark Gable 8)James Cagney 9)Spencer Tracy 10)Charles Chaplin 11)Gary Cooper 12)Gregory Peck 13)John Wayne 14)Laurence Olivier 15)Gene Kelly 16)Orson Welles 17)Kirk Douglas 18)James Dean 19)Burt Lancaster 20)The Marx Brothers 21)Buster Keaton 22)Sidney Poitier 23)Robert Mitchum 24)Edward G. Robinson 25)William Holden
Here's my take on it:
-Marlon Brando should be higher, #3 at most
-It's hard to compare Charles Chaplain to the others, when Chaplain the writer and Chaplain the director has as much to do with the success of the picture as anything else. Even if you attribute all of Chaplain's success to his acting, it's hard to justify putting him above Gary Cooper
-Orson Welles should be in the top 10, I think
-Fred Astaire at 5 is a humongous stretch. He's about even with Kelly, who was a better singer. I think people liked Astaire's off-screen personality vs. Kelly who was more abusive to his costars. That might have figured into it
-Orson Welles should be higher. Part of the genius of Orson Welles was that he was such a brilliant actor. You can't take your eyes off of him.
-Some were critical of Grant as nothing more than a pretty face and I think 2 might be high but putting him high up there's not that bad of an idea
-I see AFI is promoting the cult of James Dean. The guy was only in 3 films, for god's sake. I don't know. It also put Rebel without a Cause and Giant in its top 100 films list. Giant, I can understand but Rebel without a Cause was mostly a James Dean vehicle
-Gable might be a little high. He didn't have the charisma of Grant or the everyman quality of Fonda, Cooper, or Stewart in my opinion. He just made a lot of money and was popular. He also didn't really have any competition during his day. Except Gary Cooper, none of the above stars were big in the 1930's and many of the silent stars didn't carry over to the sound era.
-I'll refrain from judging Tracy until I've seen more of him. I've seen Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, 30 Seconds over Tokyo and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. That might be it.
-Kirk Douglas is an interesting and unconventional choice, one I support. Ditto for Edward G Robinson and William Holden
-Robert Mitchum and Burt Lancaster: Overrated
-William Holden is certainly deserving and I think he bridged so many eras: the Golden Age, the waning studio system, the counter-cultural films of the 60's and 70's (i.e. Wild Bunch, Network, etc) that it's hard to really place him anywhere. I don't think he was ever THE STAR of any one era
-The Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton: Again the list is trying to just raise awareness for the silents, not actually compare actors. Maybe Buster Keaton should be there, but the Marx brothers were just funny. Not "Actors" in any sense of the word. And there's more than one of them. That's cheating.
Missing from the list:
-Alec Guiness
-Michael Caine
-Robert De Niro
-Dustin Hoffman
-Douglas Fairbanks
-Peter O'Toole
The greatest stars in the eyes of AFI: 1)Humphrey Bogart 2)Cary Grant 3)James Stewart 4)Marlon Brando 5)Fred Astaire 6)Henry Fonda 7)Clark Gable 8)James Cagney 9)Spencer Tracy 10)Charles Chaplin 11)Gary Cooper 12)Gregory Peck 13)John Wayne 14)Laurence Olivier 15)Gene Kelly 16)Orson Welles 17)Kirk Douglas 18)James Dean 19)Burt Lancaster 20)The Marx Brothers 21)Buster Keaton 22)Sidney Poitier 23)Robert Mitchum 24)Edward G. Robinson 25)William Holden
Here's my take on it:
-Marlon Brando should be higher, #3 at most
-It's hard to compare Charles Chaplain to the others, when Chaplain the writer and Chaplain the director has as much to do with the success of the picture as anything else. Even if you attribute all of Chaplain's success to his acting, it's hard to justify putting him above Gary Cooper
-Orson Welles should be in the top 10, I think
-Fred Astaire at 5 is a humongous stretch. He's about even with Kelly, who was a better singer. I think people liked Astaire's off-screen personality vs. Kelly who was more abusive to his costars. That might have figured into it
-Orson Welles should be higher. Part of the genius of Orson Welles was that he was such a brilliant actor. You can't take your eyes off of him.
-Some were critical of Grant as nothing more than a pretty face and I think 2 might be high but putting him high up there's not that bad of an idea
-I see AFI is promoting the cult of James Dean. The guy was only in 3 films, for god's sake. I don't know. It also put Rebel without a Cause and Giant in its top 100 films list. Giant, I can understand but Rebel without a Cause was mostly a James Dean vehicle
-Gable might be a little high. He didn't have the charisma of Grant or the everyman quality of Fonda, Cooper, or Stewart in my opinion. He just made a lot of money and was popular. He also didn't really have any competition during his day. Except Gary Cooper, none of the above stars were big in the 1930's and many of the silent stars didn't carry over to the sound era.
-I'll refrain from judging Tracy until I've seen more of him. I've seen Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, 30 Seconds over Tokyo and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. That might be it.
-Kirk Douglas is an interesting and unconventional choice, one I support. Ditto for Edward G Robinson and William Holden
-Robert Mitchum and Burt Lancaster: Overrated
-William Holden is certainly deserving and I think he bridged so many eras: the Golden Age, the waning studio system, the counter-cultural films of the 60's and 70's (i.e. Wild Bunch, Network, etc) that it's hard to really place him anywhere. I don't think he was ever THE STAR of any one era
-The Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton: Again the list is trying to just raise awareness for the silents, not actually compare actors. Maybe Buster Keaton should be there, but the Marx brothers were just funny. Not "Actors" in any sense of the word. And there's more than one of them. That's cheating.
Missing from the list:
-Alec Guiness
-Michael Caine
-Robert De Niro
-Dustin Hoffman
-Douglas Fairbanks
-Peter O'Toole
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
50 best actors of all time
A pretty objective list, I think, of the top 50, I’m surprised I made it all the way to 50 and it was a really hard assignment since actors come in different types: mainly those who create a persona and are a personality and those who are character actors, so it's really hard to make a standard list. You also have people who are more prolific and people who made each picture count. Stars who are very bankable, stars who are confined to one niche (i.e. The Western, etc.)
I think i might keep working on providing descriptions and stuff but that would probably take a lot of time, and come on, i can't be here all day writing. Some notes though:
- Marlon Brando-Notable Roles: Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata, Apocolypse Now, Last Tango in Paris, On the Waterfront, The Godfather, Favorite Director: Elia Kazan
- Humphrey Bogart-Notable Roles: Sabrina, African Queen, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, To Have and Have Not, Key Largo, The Big Sleep. Favorite Director: John Huston
- Jimmy Stewart-Notable Roles: It's a Wonderful Life, Rear Window, Vertigo, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Winchester '73, Favorite Director: Frank Capra/Alfred Hitchkock
- Gary Cooper-Notable Roles: The Westerner, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Pride of the Yankees, Seargent York, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, High Noon, Favorite Director: Nomadic
- Alec Guiness-Notable Roles: The Lavender Hill Mob, Bridge on the River Kwai, Star Wars, Dr. Zhivago, Favorite Director: Mostly British directors
- Robert De Niro-Notable Roles: Once Upon a Time in America, Deer Hunter, Godfather II, Mean Streets, Raging Bull, New York New York, Goodfellas, Casino, Favorite Director: Martin Scorsesee
- James Cagney-Notable Roles: White Heat, Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Public Enemy, Favorite Director: Nomadic
- Henry Fonda-Notable Roles: Young Mr. Lincoln, Grapes of Wrath, My Darling Clementine, 12 Angry Men, Once Upon a Time in the West, On Golden Pond, Favorite Director: John Ford, pehaps
- Orson Welles-Notable Roles: Citizen Kane, Magnificent Ambersons, Lady from Shanghai, Othello, Third Man, Touch of Evil, Favorite Director: Himself
- Clark Gable-Notable Roles: It Happened One Night, Mutiny on the Bounty, Gone with the Wind, Favorite Director: Nomadic
- Charlie Chaplain: Modern Times, City Lights, Gold Rush, Great Dictator, Favorite Director: Himself
- Peter O’Toole: My Favorite Year, Lawrence of Arabia, Beckett, Lion in the Winter, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Last Emperor, Favorite Director: Nomadic
- Jack Lemmon: The Apartment, Days of Wine and Roses, Mr. Roberts, Some Like it Hot, Save the Tiger, Odd Couple, Glengarry Glenn Ross, Irma la Douce, Favorite Director: Billy Wilder
- Kirk
- Dustin Hoffman: The Graduate, Tootsie, Midnight Cowboy, Lenny, Papillon, Kramer vs Kramer, Rain Man, Wag the Dog, Favorite Directors: Barry Levinson, Mike Nicholls
- Jack Nicholson: Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown, The Shining, Prizzi's Honor, Terms of Endearment, A Few Good Men, As Good as It Gets, Favorite Director: Roman Polanski
- Gregory Peck: Duel in the Sun, Twelve O'Clock High, Gentleman's Agreement, Roman Holiday, To Kill a Mockingbird, Favorite Director: Nomadic
- William Holden: Network, Bridge on the River Kwai, Sabrina, Stalag 17, Wild Bunch, Towering Inferno, Favorite Director: Billy Wilder
- Gene Kelly-Notable Roles: Anchors Aweigh, On the Town, Summer Stock, American in Paris, Singing in the Rain, It's Always Fair Weather, Favorite Directors: Stanley Donen, Vincente Minelli
- John Wayne-Notable Roles: Stagecoach, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Fort Apache, Rio Bravo, The Searchers, The Alamo, True Grit, Favorite Director: John Ford
- Tom Hanks-Notable Roles: Splash, Big, Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, Cast Away, Road to Perdition, Favorite Directors: Rob Zemeckis, Ron Howard, Stephen Spielberg
- Sean Connery-Notable Roles: The Hill, Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Murder on the Orient Express, The Untouchables, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Favorite Director: Sidney Lumet
- Edward G. Robinson-Notable Roles: Little Ceasar, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Double Indemnity, Key Largo
- Spencer Tracy-Notable Roles: Boys Town, Woman of the Year, Adam's Rib, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Bad Day at Black Rock, Inherit the Wind, Favorite Director: Stanley Kramer
- Fred Astaire-Notable Roles: Flying Down to Rio, Top Hat, Swing Time, Holiday Inn, Barkleys on Broadway, Band Wagon, Towering Inferno, Favorite Director: Whomever was assigned by RKO
- Burt Lancaster-Notable Roles: The Killers, From Here to Eternity, Elmer Gantry, Atlantic City
- Robert Redford-Notable Roles: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Natural, The Sting, The Candidate, The Way We Were, All the President's Men, Out of Africa
- James Dean
- Clint Eastwood
- Paul Newman
- Al Pacino
- Albert Finney
- Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
- Michael Caine
- Harrison Ford
- Gene Hackman
- Ben Kingsley
- Frank Sinatra
- Denzel Washington
- Walter Matthau
- Tom Cruise
- Robert Duvall
- Anthony Quinn
- James Coburn
- Ernest Borgnine
-Although, i am capable of independently thinking about this, i did consult two sources: AFI's twenty five legends and Premiere's April 2005 issue of top 50 movie stars
-For those keeping track, i basically have Robert De Niro as the best actor today. Obviously, it doesn't look as good with his last few comedic movies but look back before Analyze This
-Among my immediate family, Cary Grant is controversial but oddly enough Premiere Magazine ranked him #1 star of all time and AFI named him the #2 screen legend.
-Walter Matthau was a tough cookie to place, cause what do you have of him without Jack Lemmon
-This isn't really my opinion, although it's a balance between my opinion and popularity
-Ever notice how Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck and Jimmy Stewart are all very alike? Gregory Peck has some great performances but he was so cheesy in Gentleman's Agreement
-I would say that the two biggest actors i grew up with are Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks, and it's interesting to put them up against the greats. If you think about movies that are entertaining and exciting, Harrison Ford is always front and center, though admittedly he hasn't had a hit in years. Hanks, to me, is the best, but i weighed that against other stuff. He's my personal favorite, put it that way
-Admittedly Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire aren't the best actors, but keep in mind that those were the only 2 guys out of the entire MGM roster of stars who can act, sing and dance at a level that made those musicals work. Donald O'Connor could dance but he couldn't act that well. Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra could sing but couldn't dance.
-Tom Cruise isn't the best actor, no, but he's done enough good work that he deserves a place on the list. Remember when he used to not be so universally reviled and thought of as one of the biggest stars in the world. It is pretty interesting because Premiere's April '05 (before Oprahgate) Issue ranked Tom Cruise as the greatest living star of today, so it wasn't that long ago. I wonder if the magazine editors who had pages and pages praising Tom Cruise would have changed their minds like the rest of the American public within the following 18 months
-I don't think number of oscars equals greatness. Jack Nicholson isn't number one although some people might say he is. He's good, i like him, he's definitely extroadinarily talented but I think late in his career he's relied on just being Jack. Also, i think i disagree with other people over his best performances (i like 5 Easy Pieces and Chinatown, not As Good as It Gets or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). I also perfer Robert Redford to Paul Newman even though Newman's been nominated a million times.
-James Coburn is interchangable with a number of stars from his era who were in The Great Escape or Magnificent Seven or similar Western/War movies with him-James Garner, Jack Palance, Charles Bronson, etc. It was a close call. I went for Coburn because In Like Flint just blew my mind. Was I supposed to take it seriously or was it a spoof? I couldn't figure out which.
-Sean Connery is also tough to nail down and evaluate outside of Bond. Is he a one-trick pony? The truth is he's done way more than 7 films in his career (that's how many Bond films he did), so it's a shame that he's so associated with Bond. His best acting performance outside of James Bond that i've seen is The Man Who Would be King. He's also not bad in Murder on the Orient Express
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