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The last year probably won’t be remembered as a great year of cinema, reflected in the Oscar nominations and the fact that a flawed (but for its genre arguably outstanding) film like The Dark Knight was the biggest box office hit and has people talking to this day. But one trend that seems striking about the last year is actors trying to make amends and reinvent themselves. Case studies for this – Jean Claude Van Damme’s JCVD, Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino, and Micky Rourke’s The Wrestler. JCVD is a surprisingly effective film starring Van Damme that is immensely watchable. Playing a version of himself, the film begins with Van Damme’s troubles securing a role in a mediocre B-movie action flick (because Steven Seagal agreed to cut off his pony tail), fighting for the custody of his child and facing financial troubles. The latter being the reason why he enters a bank in Belgium to get money wired to his lawyer, only to get caught up in a bank hold-up that quotes heavily from Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon. And because he’s Van Damme and his recent personal troubles have been well publicized, people automatically assume he’s the one attempting to rob the bank and taking hostages after the plan has failed. Only he isn’t and the film is a refreshing look at stardom, the role of the media and a supposed star’s reflection on his whole career. The film builds towards a surreal moment of Van Damme floating out of the frame and above the action, breaking the fourth wall to address the viewer and deliver a scathing soliloquy about how he’s achieved nothing and has only been fooling us and, ultimately, himself. Somewhat obvious, yes, but it works. And the big surprise may be the fact that Van Damme can actually act – in French.
No, we don’t forgive you for Bloodsport or The Quest (or the fact that you're starring in a Universal Soldier sequel), but we get the sentiment – it’s all about a constructed persona that you’re making amends for now that it isn’t working anymore. Somewhat similar though in a way the polar opposite is Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino. Eastwood’s career has been going strong – both as an actor as well as a director, culminating in his Oscar for Million Dollar Baby as Best Film. But he’s still Dirty Harry and the poster-boy for conservative America, despite The Unforgiven. Gran Torino is the thinly veiled answer and apology to that. Playing a bitter Korean War veteran who doesn’t even try to hide his racism when faced with Asian Americans inhabiting his neighbourhood, Torino is a wanna-be PC tale about a racist finding love in the place he least expected to. Of course he learns his lessons and the film’s last five minutes make it painfully obvious that Eastwood is making sure we get it that Dirty Harry is a thing of the past. And from a technical standpoint, especially the direction, the film is flawless. But the underlying message that Eastwood actually, truly isn’t the Dirty Harry persona he’s been portrayed to be (and has used as an actor) in an attempt to discard HIS star persona, much like Van Damme, is a tad too simplistic. On top of which it’s problematic in the same way that Dances with Wolves was problematic in making amends for centuries of portraying the “Indian” as the bad guy – it’s still told from a white man’s perspective and it’s still the white man that is needed to save a minority – in this case from itself!
And in between is Mickey Rourke’s turn in The Wrestler. No less subtle but less problematic, this film focuses on the story and the acting, directed with surprising restraint by Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream). Rourke has shown his willingness to go ugly in his actual comeback Sin City (somewhat ignored), but The Wrestler is a fairly transparent story about a has-been struggling with his past glory and going out in a last hurrah doing that which he loves to do. Substitute wrestler for actor and you got the Mickey Rourke story. It isn’t quite as obviously self-reflexive as JCVD or trying as hard to make things okay as Gran Torino, but he’s our third case study in male Hollywood stars trying to deal with their past, the public’s image of them and attempting to reinvent themselves today while making sure to flagellate themselves for past “sins”.
Rourke got his Oscar nod for his performance (with a good chance of winning) and Eastwood was acknowledged at the Golden Globes on top of Gran Torino making an impressive $120 million at the BO so far. All of that pales in comparison to the true attempt at revitalizing themselves that is Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which just got 13 Oscar nods. Ironic for an actor that for the vast majority of his film is heavily disguised through CGI and completely lacks the self-reflexive quality of either Van Damme, Eastwood or Rourke. |
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