FOUR FILMS STARRING TERENCE STAMP

Probably the greatest compliment I could pay to Terence Stamp is that he is the type of actor who makes an otherwise not very good film interesting.  Like the party guest everyone looks forward to seeing who breathes life into an otherwise dull get together.

The present day Stamp is an elderly character actor with the deep voice of authority blessed by nature with a penetrating blue-eyed stare and granite authority.

However, back in the 1960’s, Stamp was a leading man who made a number of good to great films.  I’d like to discuss the four best and what about his acting makes them special….

Stamp’s first film BILLY BUDD works because Stamp is able to keep the audience guessing.  We do the same as Robert Ryan as the villainous master of arms Claggart tries to guess is he a fool, a wise man, or a smart ass?  Only in the end is the Christ analogy made obvious to us.  It would have been very easy for Stamp to take a lofty approach to playing this role but instead he keeps the audience unsure of Billy Budd with his stutter and inability to see evil in others’ hearts.

 

THE COLLECTOR is my favorite film that Stamp has acted in.  It contains his best performance.  This is not a horror film but a psychological study as in the head of the title character, Freddie Clegg as TAXI DRIVER was in Travis Bickle’s head.  The POV is totally from Clegg/ Stamp.  We know why he reacts the way he does and why he is ultimately let down by Samantha Eggar.  A great film all around with an actor who shows not tells the audience what his character is all about.

Stamp is not the main star of POOR COW but his role is important and allows the actor to indulge in a contradictory role.  We are shown that he is a mostly kind man who is loving to Carol White’s single mother and a surrogate father to her son.  It is only later when he is in court and the judge reads off a list of his past offenses dating back to childhood and including acts of violence one against an elderly lady that he robbed that we realize what a complex performance this was.

I have taught high school literature in the past and FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD was one of the texts I used.  In order to play Sgt. Troy, one must combine the right amount of clueless narcissism and raw charm.  Troy is not completely evil and it would be wrong to play him as such in a film.  Stamp finds the right mix and turns in a great performance.  Best scenes – The swordsmanship scene with Julie Christie and the drunken behavior/speech during the wedding party.

I watched an interview with Terence Stamp in youtube on the Michael Parkinson show dating from the late 80’s.  When asked about the 1960’s and his time as a leading man and cultural icon, Stamp said something along the lines of that he was very ordinary looking and his ordinariness became the look of the times.  He was being humble there I think.  There is certainly nothing ordinary about him as an actor.    

 

EMPEROR OF THE NORTH AND THE ILLUSION OF OWNERSHIP

One of the greatest tricks capitalism has pulled is getting the workers to think like owners, to behave as if they own whatever good or service is being offered and to act accordingly.

Shack, the brutal train conductor in EMPEROR OF THE NORTH (played with maximum hateful intensity by Ernest Borgnine) not only refuses to allow any bum to ride on his train but also makes sure that those he catches are either killed or maimed for this violation.  Considering that this film takes place during the Great Depression, there are many hobos who got around America this way.

Shack, aside from bursting with dynamic evil from every pore, has also been imbued with the false feeling that the train he is in charge of for periods of time is his.  It’s the same mentality a guard dog has once it’s been trained to attack intruders.

A-1, the legendary top hobo (played as a laid back cool alpha dog by Lee Marvin) who challenges Shack, represents perhaps the older America, the we are all in this together America.  Cigarette (Keith Carradine) the young hobo who tags behind him and proves himself to an untrustworthy companion represents the dog eat dog stab you in the back newer America.

EMPEROR, apart from analysis, is a great thrilling film with awesome cinematography (great locations, great train action sequences) riffs on honor and integrity and Borgnine vs Marvin ,two acting heavyweights, at the top of their abilities as well as Carradine holding his own.    

  

THE DAMNED AND DEPICTIONS OF FASCIST PERVERSIONS

The difference between how American films portray Nazism and fascism and how European films do is perhaps a difference based on distance.  For the US, the Nazis were cold-blooded killers and the personification of evil.  The accounts they heard of Nazi atrocities were secondhand prior to the start of World War II.

Europeans on the other hand offer at the same time a more realistic and a more scathing portrayal of fascists as decadent perverts- sort of a throwback to royalists of wars past going back to the Roman Empire.  It is a less comic book, more personal caricature.

This is problematic as some portrayals (which are rooted in fact) flirt with homophobia.  In particular, how the influence of the SA under Ernst Rohm before the Night of the Long Knives is shown.  They are portrayed as homosexuals.

Luchino Visconti‘s THE DAMNED certainly shows them this way (The night before they are murdered by the SS as one big homosexual orgy) and also ties Nazis to German big business and uses that to strongly suggest German society as a whole post Treaty of Versailles was sick.  Aside from homosexuality, we are presented with incest, rape, drug abuse, child molestation.  Dirk Bogarde as Frederich Buckmann the social climber who plots to take over the Essenbeck family business is the least bad of the lot.

The tempting, devilish SS officer Aschenbach himself a distant member of the Essenbeck family initiates their downfall through a series of intrigues and conspires to have the Nazi government take over the business.  This film is overwrought maintaining high levels of decadence throughout.  It sees fascism and capitalism as kin  Not as explicit as a film like 120 DAYS IN SALOM but in every way paints a similar picture of fascists as evil corrupt perverts.

This film is part of what I call Dirk Bogarde’s “streak” by which I mean when he switched from being a cookie cutter heartthrob to making arty interesting films culminating in his masterpiece THE NIGHT PORTER....I wrote more about that here   http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/03/night-porter-plus-dirk-bogarde-poster.html

DUEL IN THE SUN AND MALE FEAR OF FEMALE SEXUALITY

Fear of a woman’s sexuality or it could be argued jealousy of a woman’s sexuality or one could also say control or ownership of a woman’s sexuality is at the core of the most conservative regressive fundamentalist form of religious thinking.  The Taliban and right wing Christian groups share this fear.

To them, a woman is a voracious creature unable to control her sexual urges.  She requires a man to control her otherwise she’ll be easily led astray.

This type of thinking is a core plot point of DUEL IN THE SUN.  Pearl (played by Jennifer Jones who, at her peak around the time this film was made, was one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen) is the daughter of a Native American mother and a Hispanic father.  After her father killed her mother and her mother’s lover and is executed for the crime, Pearl is sent to live on a ranch with the family of her father’s second cousin and former love (Lillian Gish).  There Pearl encounters her sons; a “good” brother (Joseph Cotton) and a “bad” brother  (Gregory Peck).  Although she likes Cotton, she ends up getting involved with Peck.  Their big love scene is really a tightrope walk between rape and seduction.  For the rest of the film, she struggles with this attraction as she knows Peck is not a good person.

Despite this rather sexist notion at its heart (check out the scenes with Walter Huston as the sinkiller) and a woefully racist character in the African-American family maid who rolls her large eyeballs and speaks in shuck and jive slave language, I would still say this is a very good film.

King Vidor’s direction uses the sweeping Technicolor terrain to lay out a big story, a sort of anti-Wuthering Heights, where the two forces of nature do connect and havoc ensues.  The film’s other big plot point- the coming of the railroad which leads to a falling out between Cotton and his father (Lionel Barrymore) is every bit as progressive as the Jones plot point is regressive.  The movie argues that opening up lands from private ownership by cattle barons paved the way for people to move west.

I also like that Peck is allowed to be evil through and through.  In fact, he does more and more bad things as the movie progresses.  There is no redemption for him.  The final confrontation between him and Jones is as it should be – Kill the sin by killing the source.  If my own eye offend thee, pluck it out.    

 

SCALENE AND THE UNRELIABLE NARRATOR

SCALENE, an indie film from 2012, tells the same story at different times from three different points of view – In this order, a single mother in her late 40’s early 50’s, her brain damaged son, and the female college student age caregiver hired to look after the son who later charges him with rape.

By the end of the film, we are left with a very different picture about what has gone on then we had at the beginning and continuing through the first segment, the mother’s segment. 

The use of the unreliable narrator, someone who tells his version of a story that isn’t necessarily the truth, can be complicated as it almost always recalls multiple points of view and the planting of clues so the audience can understand what is really happening.

Of course, if the plot is constructed well enough one can go for a big reveal at the end like for example THE USUAL SUSPECTS when all that is happened has set up Verbal Kint and Kaiser Soze and that long walk down the street from the police station.

Showing events out of order such as in the films MEMENTO and 21 GRAMS directly contrasts the actions and words of characters.  In those cases, the camera itself is the unreliable narrator.

In the case of SCALENE, although I found the explanation of the denouement a bit farfetched, we see the mother’s view of her care for her son is very different than what the caregiver finds.  This results in the caregiver’s actions (the farfetched part).  

The acting is quite good here.  Margo Martindale turns in a desperate layered performance as the mother.  It reminded me of Ann Dowd’s performance in COMPLIANCE (not as good a movie).  Scalene IS An interesting movie that does a better than competent job of playing around with narrative structure.

LINKS TO PAST WRITINGS ON FILM

I have attempted in the past to write about film but found there were so many other topics(which is the main reason I started a blog just for film)....Here are some links to past film writing on my other two blogs.

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2012/01/best-movie-of-2011.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2012/08/three-films-absentia-iron-sky-vhs.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2012/12/john-dies-at-end-best-film-of-2012.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2011/07/five-best-clint-eastwood-as-actor.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2012/12/ooru-naito-rongu-or-all-night-long.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/660725052/why-i-wont-be-seeing-the-new-indiana-jones-film/

http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/676948581/my-list-of-favorite-11-surprise-or-twist-endings-in-movies/

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/07/three-movies-ichi-killerthe-suicide.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/09/why-i-like-final-destination-films.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/08/fury.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2010/05/three-movies-inside-martyrs-horseman.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/07/re-making-and-re-modeling-friday-13th.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/03/greatest-cop-movie-of-all-time.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2010/11/some-thoughts-on-saw-films.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/03/night-porter-plus-dirk-bogarde-poster.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/03/im-one-of-few-people-who-didnt-like.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2012/07/laurence-harvey-good-actor-or-bad-actor.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2011/04/hobo-with-shotgun-rubber-faux.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/02/best-performances-by-actors-this-decade.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/02/on-mickey-rourkes-unlikely-comeback.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/02/third-man-and-good-german.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/688874649/the-return-of-the-horror-movie-plus-gorno-sucks-and-the-signal/

http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/662819398/where-the-sidewalk-ends/

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/09/five-great-grade-b-horror-films-from.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2011/12/we-jam-econo-and-what-we-do-is-secret.html

http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/666688732/unrealistic-expectations-and-the-films-of-m-night-shyamalan/

http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/683144761/the-dude-abidesthe-big-lebowski-re-visited/

WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT GENE HACKMAN - CASE IN POINT: NIGHT MOVES

When journalists attempt to sum up what is special about Gene Hackman as an actor, they inevitably fall back on comparisons to laborers.  He’s a “lunch bucket’ type of actor.  He’s a tradesman.  He’s a blue collar actor.  He’s one of us.  This type of thing was parodied in TROPIC THUNDER when the Australian actor character played by Robert Downey Jr spoke of his "tools" in an interview.

These oversimplifications are meaningless and are useful only in that morons will find them easy to remember.  Yes, Hackman in his movie roles is someone a lot of American men (and women) find it easy to identify with.

But where Hackman has perhaps carved out a special niche for himself is as a “third” type of actor.  I say “third” because I basically see actors in movies falling into two groups – the first group are movie stars that play versions of themselves in most if not all of their movies – Clint Eastwood is an example of this perhaps Tom Cruise too.  The second group are actors like Dustin Hoffman and Gary Oldman who vanish into a role trying their best to be another person.  Some actors move back and forth between both groups one could say for example Robert De Niro in the first half of his career fit the second kind of actor but more recently perhaps he fits the first.

Hackman though fits neither.  He is instantly recognizable even on the rare occasions he changes his looks for a role but he never plays a caricature of himself.  His characters are film creations not part of a persona but yet he never disappears into them.  The name of Gene Hackman and the character he plays are equal when he’s in a film.

While I think THE FRENCH CONNECTION is still the greatest film Hackman has made, I think his best performance might be in NIGHT MOVES an extremely well written film.

Here Hackman plays all American middle-aged masculinity which looks good on the surface (former professional football player private eye business) but is falling apart underneath (wife cheating on him business not so good). 

NIGHT MOVES is also a damned good mystery but at its heart is Hackman.  His character is not very bright but also amazingly sensitive.  At times, you expect him to burst into violence but he doesn’t. The scenes between him and his wife and also him and his wife's lover are amazing and unexpected in their tenderness and depth.  He also doesn’t put the pieces of the case he is working on together until it is too late- In other words he’s not very good at his job.

There is no better embodiment of the befuddlement of a certain type of pre 60’s thinking (about priorities, about masculinity etc.) in the new post 60’s world and there is no better metaphor for this than the end of the film.  Hackman injured on a boat by himself going round in circles having been one step behind the criminals.  This hellish morass is the result of the 60’s social conscious being stripped away leaving only the me centered hedonism of the 70’s.