I happened to catch Ice Station Zebra this afternoon, due in part to last evenings mildly brain damaging behavior at the local pub replete with some bad Karaoke, but complemented nicely with some very good efforts, even professional, and even those ‘not so good’ brought enthusiasm so heartening it made up for any bad notes that might have been struck. And no, I didn’t sing. Anyway, back to the movie. Rock Hudson starred with Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, & Patrick McGoohan in supporting roles. As submarine flicks go, it was far below the level of Das Boat & The Hunt for Red October, my nominal standard for such fare. The movie itself was so-so, the writing being very average, but it struck me the overall impact was good just because of the cast. All of the actors I mentioned weren’t known as the cream of the crop of their trade, but I believe most of that is due to the conditions unconnected to their individual abilities in their craft. They were all better than many of their movies. Each of their perceptions within the industry seemed to limit the variety of characters they played, and it was difficult to escape for any of them. It would be simple to discuss the reasons why this condition existed for them, each of the individuals with their own unique crosses to bear, but that would take up even more space here than I already anticipate. It’s better just to remember those times ‘critical’ success came to them. Hudson, while mostly in leading man roles, lots of them comedies with 1950’s sensibilities, won an Oscar for his role in “Giant” with James Dean & Rock’s good friend Liz Taylor. But he also did the wonderful “Magnificent Obsession” & got rave reviews for his performance in “Farewell to Arms”, a box office bust he took instead of offers to do the Wm. Holden role in “The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Charlton Heston’s part in “Ben Hur”. Bad choices Rock! His personal favorite was actually the film I just watched, and he was pretty darned good in it, given the material. Jim Brown’s movie legacy was difficult for 3 main reasons in more or less equal ways. First, he was one of the first black actors at a time when very few good roles were provided, especially for leading role types Like Brown. Second, he was an athlete and in my less than humble opinion, still the best running back of all time, perhaps the best football player of all time. Athletes were never taken seriously when they attempted to entertain on the stage or film. It hasn’t gotten much better since then. Last, he was very independent, not the sort who would suffer fools gladly, & as a result, Hollywood looked at him as difficult to work with, & not worth the headaches. Still, he was very good in “100 Rifles”, Spike Lee’s “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka”, Stephen King’s “The Running Man”, and of course his most prominent role in “Dirty Dozen”, a movie Ernest Borgnine was in as well. Even the black exploitation roles he was forced to take demonstrated his ability to rise above the quality of the medium, making it ‘watchable’. Patrick McGoohan was typecast as the reliable evil guy in most of his films, with a few roles as in sort of classical times. You may recall him in the latter category in “Braveheart”, “Mary Queen of Scots” and “Man in the Iron Mask”, while the former included his work as the warden in “Escape from Alcatraz, and the bad guy in “Silver Streak” with Gene Wilder & Richard Pryor. He did a lot of movie work and too much TV to even begin to list, much of which he directed himself. Ernest Borgnine was prolific over a 60 year career, the list seemingly infinite in number in movies, TV & theater. Within the acting community he was so well regarded that he was considered to be among the best ‘character actors’ of all time. He is of course defined by 2 efforts however, first & most familiar to all of us as the Commander in “McHale’s Navy on TV, and for the Oscar winning title role in “Marty”, a truly wonderful performance, remarkable even today. He is no lead actor type, his looks being unfortunate, & gravelly voice to boot. Still, any scene he was ever in elevated everything around him. He was simply terrific. All in all, these 4 actors raised “Ice Station Zebra” from a 1 1/2 rating on my 4 point possible scale to a 3. That’s a 100% elevation due strictly to the actors’ efforts, talents & abilities. Acting makes a difference. While writing this comment throughout the afternoon I watched “My Favorite Year”, a fairly well written movie based on Sid Caesar’s “Show of Shows”, with some good actors, but some not so good. However, to my point, the fact Peter O’Toole was in it makes it an almost great flick, like anything else he was ever in. Now I’m watching on of my 5 favorite ensemble based movies ever, “Diner”. I haven’t seen it in forever. It just happened to be on TMC tonight. Drew Barrymore is the guest critic and selected it as one of her favorites. I always liked Drew, at least partly because of her pedigree. She has a leg up on everyone else based solely on that. Certainly her opinion is a ‘must consider’ just for that reason alone. I’m thinking of toasting myself a couple of waffles with 2 lightly scrambled eggs during commercial so I can enjoy it with a late evening repast designed to give me happiness if not good dietary practice. I expect a full recovery by tomorrow morning from the malaise I caused myself with last evening’s foray “out amongst them”. Meanwhile it’s been a restful day with only my eyes put at risk from exposure to TV.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 04:56:57 +0000
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