| Subject: Geoffrey Rush on RN and British villains |
Author:
Susan
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Date Posted: 16:44:34 06/09/07 Sat
In reply to:
Susan
's message, "Misc. piratical gab" on 15:11:31 07/06/06 Thu
"I loved GR's performance in the PotC movies. He does a great job portraying Barbossa, has a style similar to RN. :-)"
I know, that's probably why I like him so much. Although I do think he's an excellent actor just in general, which why I was disappointed in the new POTC. Yes, he was in it a lot, which was quite gratifying (best part of the movie, IMO), but he almost seems to be doing a caricature of his role in the first movie--something like the difference between RN in "Treasure Island" and in "Blackbeard the Pirate." In POTC3, he was obviously limited by the script/storyline of course, but I thought GR(rrr) ;-) got to show a lot more range in POTC1--I love that scene in his cabin with Elizabeth in which he's explaining the curse ... and then his last scene in the movie is really the best part of it all, so poignant the way he says that line. (Even though there's a blatant, I guess, continuity error between that line and what he says after making Elizabeth walk the plank!) Whereas in POTC3, his character has lost that underlying element of pathos and been forced to replace it with a lot of growling, snarling, clomping around, and really overdoing it with the unconjugated "be." I mean, come on, we know he has some concept of grammar ... remember the line: "You'd best start believin' in ghost stories Miss Turner; you're in one"? He's still fun in POTC3 (saves it from being nigh on unwatchable for me), but he absolutely "shines" in POTC1.
Actually, I was thinking a little bit more about some of the things he said in that quote, and (here I go, getting over-analytical as usual) technically, while it's great that he acknowledges Robert Newton, I don't think he really gave the best examples. Well, for one thing, his performance obviously owes a lot to Robert Newton--which is a good thing!--so I don't think he *exactly* started with a clean slate ... though his characterization is different enough that it's not at all an imitation--I see it more as an homage. He walks a very fine line and does it brilliantly.
And secondly, while I love Alan Rickman and Gary Oldman (just invoking those two names earns my respect!), I was thinking about them too, and I can't think of any British villains Gary Oldman has played in an American movie, can you? The one villain that comes to mind is Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK, and in that case he was anything but British; in fact, I was surprised when I later found out that he was. (Unlike AR(rrr) and even GR(rrr)*, Oldman does a flawless American accent.) And then you've got Dracula, but there he's doing a Transylvanian accent.
Then there's Alan Rickman who, in a recent interview, cryptically emphasized that he's only ever played *one* villain, leaving us to wonder which one character he perceived as a villain. (My guess would be the Interrogator in "Closet Land.") Anyway, from the somewhat black-and-white perspective of his audience, you've got Hans Gruber, who's ostensibly German. Snape (perhaps), who only terrorizes British children. The Sheriff of Nottingham, who, again only terrorizes, er, Kevin Costner, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Christian Slater ... all right, he's got me there, but they really deserve it! Or perhaps he's thinking of Marsdon in Quigley Down Under--a British villain in an *Australian* setting! :-)
Correct me if I'm forgetting anybody!
Whereas he is correct in terms of movies like Gladiator and Masada, where you can actually tell the good guys from the bad guys by their accents. And then there was Jeremy Northam in "The Net." Um ... Jeremy Irons in one of those Die Hard sequels, I think ... Can you name more?
__________
*I mean that in the sexiest possible way!
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