I recently told an audience that my favorite living actor was Gene Hackman.
I was wrong.
Hackman was dead.
The thing is, I was speaking during an Oscar preview on Feb. 23, and Hackman’s body (along with those of his wife and one of their dogs) was discovered on Feb. 26. It’s estimated that the actor died, at 95, around Feb. 18.
He hadn’t made a movie in more than a decade. But his 40+ years on the screen were more than enough to establish him as one of the all-time greats. He’s in my top four male actors of all time, along with Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre (yes, Peter Lorre) and Philip Seymour Hoffman. (In case you’re wondering, unlike them, my all-time favorite actress is alive and well: Kate Winslet.)
Gene Hackman in one of his greatest roles: private detective Harry Moseby in “Night Moves.” (Warner Bros.)
Hackman will probably be remembered for playing variations of an Everyman. He didn’t have movie-star looks. He rarely played straight-out heroes, instead playing anti-heroes or villains. He was the epitome of the character-actor-turned-leading-man, much like, say, his friend, and former acting-school classmate and roommate, Dustin Hoffman.
A closer look at Hackman’s filmography reminds us of his incredible range, whether as a lead, as a supporting actor, or in a bit part. Like Robert Duvall, Hackman made it look so easy, but he had a reputation as a serious, hard-working artist committed to his craft.
Below I’ve come up with a list of 10 movies featuring Hackman that would make for a great film festival. They’re presented in order – not necessarily ranked based on the quality of the films and not necessarily ranked in order of the quality or significance of his performances, but a vague combination of both.
Some readers will be appalled that I haven’t included “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001) in the mix, and understandably so. Based on the Wes Anderson movie, itself, or Hackman’s work in it, you could make a case for it being a better choice than at least half of the movies here. So, add that to the list and make it an 11-film Hackman festival.
Also, and it says something about Hackman, it wouldn’t be hard to come up with another 10 movies to include in such a festival. He’s great, for instance, as the villain in the highly entertaining Western “The Quick and the Dead” (1995) or the deputy district attorney protecting a witness on a train in the neo-noir “Narrow Margin” (1990). He’s great in pretty much everything.
So consider these 10 suggestions just a taste of his remarkable career:
1. “Night Moves” (1975). Director Arthur Penn’s underrated – and under-seen – noir stars Hackman as private detective Harry Moseby, who uses cynicism to camouflage his emotional pain.
2. “Unforgiven” (1992). Hackman earned a best-supporting-actor Oscar as Sheriff Little Bill Daggett – whose idea of keeping the peace comes with a large dose of sadism – in Clint Eastwood’s revisionist Western.
3. “Mississippi Burning” (1988). A movie about civil rights abuses in the ’60s South that is almost entirely concerned with white people is, um, problematic, but Hackman’s FBI Agent Rupert Anderson makes for one of cinema’s all-time compelling badasses as he takes on the Klan.
4. “Young Frankenstein” (1974). Mel Brooks’ monster-movie parody is one of the funniest movies ever, with hilarious performances by Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Teri Garr and Cloris Leachman, but Hackman steals the show in the tiny part of a blind monk who encounters Boyle’s monster
5. “Superman” (1978). Again, though not in the lead, Hackman towers over all with his comically meanspirted, egomaniacal Lex Luthor, archenemy of the Man of Steel.
6. “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967). Though Hackman had been making movies since the early ‘60s, his Oscar-nominated performance as Buck, Clyde Barrow’s good-ol’-boy, gun-totin’ brother, put him on the map.
7. “The French Connection” (1971). Four years after “Bonnie and Clyde,” Hackman took home the best-actor Oscar for his gritty work as tough New York narcotics cop Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in William Friedkin’s crime thriller (which won the best-picture award).
8. “Postcards From the Edge” (1990). Another relatively small supporting role, but a good one: Hackman plays a movie director (reportedly based on his “Superman” director, Richard Donner) who lends support to Suzanne Vale (Meryl Streep), a young actress with substance-abuse issues. A great comedy, directed by Mike Nichols and written by Carrie Fisher, based on her autobiographical novel.
9. “The Conversation’’ (1974). Between “Godfather” and “Godfather Part II,” director Francis Ford Coppola made this acclaimed psychological thriller, starring Hackman as a paranoid surveillance expert.
10. “The Scarecrow” (1973). Director Jerry Schatzberg’s seriocomic buddy/road movie pairs Hackman, as a brawling ex-con, and Al Pacino, as a sweet-tempered ex-sailor, who form an unlikely friendship. A buried treasure.
A few words about the Oscars
Even in death, Hackman made his presence felt at the March 2 Oscars.
Morgan Freeman’s earnest tribute to his “Unforgiven” co-star, which opened the In Memoriam segment of the awards show, was one of the ceremony’s highlights.
Among the others:
– The 7 p.m. EST starting time. Finally! The show ended before 11 p.m. Wish that had been the case when I was writing about the show on deadline.
– Kieran Culkin winning best supporting actor for “A Real Pain.” I wouldn’t have minded seeing his “Succession” co-star Jeremy Strong winning for “The Apprentice,” but either would have been a great choice.
– Culkin’s acceptance speech. Off-the-cuff and goofy, in a good way.
– Sean Baker, accepting for one of his four awards for “Anora,” imploring those tuning in to watch movies on the big screen before it’s too late and theaters disappear.
– “I’m Still Here” winning the best-non-English-film trophy.
– Ariana Grande’s beautiful rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to open the show.
– Host Conan O’Brien’s amusing opening bit, featuring help from Adam Sandler and John Lithgow in the audience.
– The Palestinian and Israeli directors of best-documentary winner “No Other Land” making a plea for peace.
There wasn’t anything particularly bad about the show, but it’s irritating that the In Memoriam segment had its usual omissions, probably for the sake of time, while there were three opening songs featuring “Wicked” stars Grande and Cynthia Erivo (“Rainbow” was enough), three performances of songs in a lame James Bond tribute, and an unnecessary performance of “Ease on Down the Road” (from “The Wiz”) during a tribute to Quincy Jones.
Sure, music is a big part of movies. But grandiose numbers like these are better suited to the Grammys or the Tonys, and are one reason why I can no longer sit through those awards shows.
Another downer: Adrien Brody acceptance speech for best actor for “The Brutalist.” Brody’s speech at first stood out as heartfelt and humble, but then he went on and on – for a record-breaking five minutes and 40 seconds – to spoil it. If he took a cue from Culkin, maybe he wouldn’t come across as quite so cluelessly self-indulgent.
As for predictions, I went 4-for-6. I guessed correctly on “Anora” as best pictures, Baker as best director, Culkin as best supporting actor and Zoe Saldana (“Emilia Perez”) as best supporting actress. I missed the boat by picking Screen Actors Guild Award winner Demi Moore (“The Substance”) instead of best-actress winner Mikey Madison (“Anora”) and SAG winner Timothee Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”) instead of chatty best-actor winner Brody.
Better late than never?
Here’s a review of “Flight Risk” that I wrote more than a month ago and never got around to sending to my Cape Cod Wave editor (sorry, Mr. Tarcy):
“I just made a Jackson Pollock in my pants.”
Yeah, you might, too, if you were stuck on the plane in the Mel Gibson-directed thriller “Flight Risk” (R, in theaters) – especially if bald-pated killer Daryl (Mark Wahlberg) was threatening to cut you to pieces.
The guy linking abstract expressionism and excrement is Winston (Topher Grace), a potential witness who, for immunity, is about to snitch on a mob kingpin. Daryl – or, at least, he calls himself Daryl, in a twangy Southern accent – has gotten the assignment to knock off Winston.
Daryl poses as the pilot of the small puddle-jumper of a plane transporting Winston and Madolyn, the U.S. marshal assigned to keep her prisoner out of harm’s way.
It doesn’t take long for Madolyn and Winston to figure out this good ol’ boy isn’t who he says he is. There’s lots of wrasslin’ around, and it looks like their flight might end early with a crash into snow-capped mountains in Alaska. No real danger of that, of course, because that would result in a short movie, but it’s intense enough for Winston to make the Pollock remark and for us to stay engaged.
At 91 minutes, “Flight Risk” is lean and mean, like an old film noir, only in color. Though there’s nothing new or surprising here, the cast makes it work fairly well – Wahlberg, having fun playing against type as a sadistic villain; Dockery of “Downton Abbey,” classy as always, providing emotional depth as the marshal; Grace, as the nervous wisecracker, delivering laughs in a role that seems written for Kieran Culkin. **½ (out of four)
** Click here for Tim Miller’s previous movie columns for Cape Cod Wave **
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Tim Miller, Movie Critic
Tim Miller is co-president of the Boston Society of Film Critics and a Tomatometer-approved critic. He teaches film and journalism at Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable. You can contact Tim at [email protected] or follow him onTwitter @TimMillerCritic. Or you can ignore him completely.
