Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean 

4. There are two types of actors (not really but shh…just read this)

Ok, today I want to talk about actors and peoples’ reactions to them.  Have you ever noticed that you sometimes involuntary classify some actors differently?  This is not coming across properly at all so let me just use pictures.

 When you look at these two actors, what comes to mind. Did you say “Bradley Cooper and Daniel Radcliffe”? or did you say “Bradley Cooper and Harry Potter?” That’s what I’m talking about.  Now some of you would argue that Harry Potter was such an iconic role, but wait a minute.  Hasn’t Bradley Cooper had a few iconic roles too? Yet when you see him do you think the American sniper Chris Kyle, do you think Phil the pack leader in The Hangover movies, Pat from Silver Linings Playbook?  No, you just think “Bradley Cooper”.   He’s the actors that took on these roles.  That being said, Daniel Radcliffe is not any less of an actor than Bradley Cooper.  Radcliffe is excellent and has been in a number of other works in film and Broadway and has given extraordinary performances.  Is it because Harry Potter was a film series? I don’t know, maybe if I keep typing I’ll find an answer.

Let’s mention other actors.  I’ll give you 6, Robert Downey Jr., Jennifer Lawrence, Harrison Ford,  Elijah Wood, Sean Connery, and Kate Winslet.  What do they all have in common? There are vowels in their names- just kidding haha.  Lets break them down.  The first three, you can almost give them the title of the characters they’ve played.  Downey would get the name Iron Man, Lawrence would get Katniss Everdeen, and Harrison Ford would get either Han Solo or Indiana Jones.  These actors have played these characters in multiple, successful films. It’s not like no one’s ever heard of any of these characters, they’re iconic.  These actors are so much more than their roles though.  Robert Downey Jr. had already made a name for himself in Hollywood before donning the red and yellow armor.  Jennifer Lawrence was not exactly a household name before The Hunger Games was released, but she had done other work as Mystique in the X Men films, and she also was in Silver Linings Playbook the same year (2012) and won an Oscar for her portrayal of Tiffany.  Perhaps what helped Ford was that he was in two major franchises (Star Wars and Indiana Jones) but of course he has been in a number of other films and is just an iconic personality- WAIT THAT’S IT!  Another thing that ties the first three together is their attitudes. When you think Robert Downey Jr. you think snarky, fun, and cocky guy on the red carpet.  When you think Jenifer Lawrence, you think J-law, the regular girl who’s always hungry and isn’t very lady like.  When you think Harrison Ford, you think..grump. You can’t exactly put someone like Bradley Cooper in this group though.  He is known as nice, polite, charming, but he doesn’t really have a brand like these other three actors, and neither do most actors in Hollywood.  There are a choice few who really have the boisterous personality that gets attention.

The second group of three in the group I mentioned are obviously the actors that you think of a particular role they played.  Wood and Connery fall into the series trap, with The Lord of the Rings, and James Bond respectively.  What about Kate Winslet though? Well, lets be honest, a lot of people still associate her with Rose from Titanic.  It’s easy to do that though.  Titanic was incredibly successful so everyone and their mother saw it like 10 times.  It also doesn’t help that Kate Winslet also had a nude seen in that film.  It’s hard to erase that from the public’s memory.  Winslet has of course acted in a number of films, and was actually nominated for an Oscar this year,  for her role in Steve Jobs.  She was even the main villain in the Divergent films, yet we don’t look at her and say “look it’s Jeanine”.

There are also actors that we type-cast.  These actors are more part of the iconic actor group, instead of the iconic role group.    For example, people in the sixties weren’t shocked when John Wayne wasn’t casted for the lead in The Nutty Professor, just like today we wouldn’t be shocked if Chris Rock wasn’t picked to play the lead in this year’s historical drama.  John Wayne was the rough and tough cowboy, and Chris Rock is the funny, excited, goof ball.  The same thing happened with Robin Williams.  We always expected Williams to be the funny, heartwarming, silly hero.  When he was the deep and thoughtful therapist in Good Will Hunting you were probably pleasantly surprised, but also like “Hey, get back to making us laugh”.  Then One Hour Photo came out.  Robin Williams really took a different direction with that one.  I don’t know if this happens to you, but I always get kind of nauseous when a funny actor takes a more serious role.  When I saw Steve Carrell in Fox Catcher I was deeply disturbed.  I wanted my sweet Brick back, or my Michael Scott.  Some actors, when they take on roles other than what they usually take, it becomes funnier than anyone could have imagined.  Just think about how hilarious Robert DeNiro was in Meet the Parents.  The great man that once said “Are you talking to me?” actually say s “I have nipples Greg, could you milk me?”.  Just think about that for a minute.  It’s just too funny.

So what am I saying?  I think I know at this point, and what I’m saying is: there’s no one answer as to how some actors get put into which group.  It could be, but not always is, because of a series they were in.  Audiences see the same actor playing the same character over and over again, so it just sinks in that way.  Another reason could also be the timing of the movie.  Daniel Radcliffe grew up as Harry Potter, so that makes it so much harder for him to be seen as anyone else.  Like Kate Winslet’s case, it could also be because a film is so successful, or a very unique performance (we totally saw her naked..and that scene was long).  I’m just a college student with no experience in this field, so I can’t really give you a solid answer, but I will say this.  What we have to remember is to look at the motion picture as a whole, and not just the actor.  Thanks for reading, and please feel free to suggest some topics for posts in comments, or on my Facebook page.

 

 

 

 

Robin Williams as  John Keating: Dead Poet’s Society

 Richard Vernon: The Breakfast Club

3. Why The Breakfast Club will always be a classic.

DON’T YOU….FORGET ABOUT ME!!.. Sorry, every time I think of The Breakfast Club that song pops right into my head. I figured I’d start off with examining the soundtrack of the movie this week.   Don’t You Forget About Me is of course the “theme song” of The Breakfast Club, but the movie really has a pretty awesome soundtrack on a whole.  The songs include “Waiting” by Elizabeth Daily, “Didn’t I Tell You” by Joyce Kennedy, “Fire in the Twilight” by Wang Chung, “Heart too Hot to Hold” by Jesse Johnson, and of course “We are Not Alone” by Karla Devito which was the song they all danced to in the famous library rock out scene.  These songs are just the perfect 80s songs.  They also tie in perfectly to the themes of the movie.  Give them a listen sometime, they actually have music in them and lyrics that don’t only pertain to genitalia, sex, and drugs.

You ever watch a movie and love the script, the music, the effects and just about everything, but you just can’t stand the characters?  To me, The Breakfast Club is not one of those movies.  I love every character in this film, even Principle Vernon and he’s a jerk.  There aren’t a lot of characters in this movie at all.  It focuses mainly on Andrew (the athlete), Brian (the brain), Bender (the criminal), Claire (the princess), and Allison (the basket case).   Because there are so few characters, and so much attention is put on breaking down walls and getting to really know each other, character development was key in making this.  The acting is so well done that even though you think Bender is just an annoying, troublemaking idiot, you still feel really bad for him when he sheds light on his abusive father.  You get uncomfortable when Andrew reveals the amount of pressure he is under to be an excellent athlete and be a cool kid.  You laugh out loud when you find out that Allison is not all that scary or mysterious, she’s just bored, and of course you cheer when the group accepts Brian as more than just a nerd.  It really is a feel good movie because you are rooting for everyone in the group to not fall by the wayside.  You find a way to identify with every character and recognize that every person is struggling with their own issues that are out of their power and control a lot of the time.

Finally, my favorite part of The Breakfast Club is that it’s absolutely timeless.  Think about it,  ever since the first high school, everyone has had to go in for some stupid reason, it didn’t even have to be detention.  We have all been put into groups where we don’t know how to interact with the people around us.  We have all been misunderstood at some point or another.  We have all tried to break the rules, even a little bit at some point.  We have all tried to undermine the authority, even if it’s just with whistling or coughing and causing a ruckus.  We have all gotten our chops busted over something we were eating.   We also have all been bored out of our minds and forced to make some sort of connection with the person next to us just to kill time.  Above all this though is the message of The Breakfast Club.  The message is of course to never judge a book by it’s cover, and to just lighten up a bit.  Every person in the library in that movie was holding up some sort of wall and trying to keep an image, because that’s what they thought everyone else wanted them to do.  When everyone was done sharing their story though, they had one thing in common: the reactions they received were all “well why don’t you just chill out and stop putting so much pressure on yourself to keep that image?” (I’m paraphrasing).  The Breakfast Club teaches you to be yourself and to accept everyone else.  This message, and this movie are absolutely Transcendent.

 

 

 

2.Why did some people hate Les Miserables, but were fine with other musicals?

In 2012, Universal Pictures presented us with the musical motion picture, Les Miserables.  I remember when it was released, and how snarky everyone that had seen the show on Broadway was that they could pronounce it correctly (lay miser-ob) while everyone else was saying “that movie, umm lessmiserable..sss?”.  Anyway, the movie was widely famous, and everyone was walking around singing the songs all the time, and of course everyone was talking about the cast, made up of Hugh Jakman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, and Eddie Redmayne, just to name a few.  So many people were shocked how some of these actors sounded great, and how some didn’t, and that’s where the issue comes from.

                                 Les Miserables received some very mixed reviews.  Some people loved the idea of a musical movie, as well as the costumes, and actors, but a lot of people were furious. First of all, a lot of theater peple wouldn’t quiet down about how Anne Hataway wasn’t the perfect Fanzine (even though she won an Oscar) and others couldn’t get over how, even though Russel Crowe was on key and held his own in the singing, Javert sounded so awkward.  Among the whole population though, was the issue of the constant singing.  I can’t count how many times I heard “Dude! They sang the WHOLE time! Every word!”.  Audiences did not receive the non-stop singing well at all.  Why though?  Les Miserables is not the first musical movie we’ve had.  In fact, we’ve adored musical films in the past, so what gives? …. Well I’ll try and flesh it all out myself.

Think about every musical movie you’ve seen.  Try and think of live action movies, not animated movies. Singing in the Rain, Music Man, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, White Christmas, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Wizard of Oz,  Annie Get Your Gun, The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Annie, the list goes on and on.   How come these movies are celebrated by people young and old, and Les Mis is just..eh?  Well let’s begin with something you probably overlooked about these films, mot of them can be viewed by the young and old.  Most of the songs in these movies are also light hearted and chipper, so you love singing along to them.  There may be one or two sad or scary songs in these films, but they are nowhere near the amount of sad songs in Les Miserables.  I know that the theme of sad songs kind of goes along with the title of the play and the subject matter, but gosh other than the final song, when they all die, the happiest song is sung by a conniving landlord.  It just doesn’t appeal to audiences.

Let me go back to a point I raised earlier, that being the point of way too much singing in general.  Look back on the list I gave of other musicals.  In not one of those films is the dialogue exclusively singing.  The songs are broken up by regular speaking and natural plot development.  The only time they sing is when theres a big event, a moment of great emotion, a revelation, or perhaps a character introduction.  Take Annie for example, as it’s one of my favorites, and a more recent film as it came out in 1982.  Annie has some iconic songs, but they’re for exposition, character development, and big events.  “Hard Knock Life” explains to the audience that these orphans are not well tken care of.  “I think ]I’m Gonna Like it Here” introduces the audience to Mr. Warbucks’ house and Annie’s new way of life, and “Little Girls” displays some character development for the cruel Ms. Hannigan. The only songs that aren’t exactly prompted  are songs like “Tomorrow” or “Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile”  but Annie sings “Tomorrow” when she’s upset, but hopeful about the future, and the orphans sing “Without a Smile” to joke around with giddiness after hearing about Annie on the radio, and to display to audiences that the girls make their own fun.    The singing is not “hello monsieur, what’s new with you?” which is an actual line sang by Eponine to Marius in Les Miserables.  Though it’s not the worst thing that could happen in a film, the singing really exhausts itself when you’ve reached the second act and people are still singing to just say “hello” or “could you do me a favor buddy?” or “Hey, come in the house real fast”.  Some people even argue that although the singing does evoke passion and ceremony, some dramatic moments would do better with just shouting or intimate conversational whispers.

Part of me feels bad for writing this post, because I really did enjoy Les Miserables.  I thought Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman were an interesting match up, and I believe that Anne Hathaway truly deserved the Oscar she earned in that movie.  I like everyone else get frustrated with the film at times, but as a whole I think Les Miserables had great actors, great costume, nice sets, and a great soundtrack.  Hopefully I helped explain the disgust some people feel toward Les Miserables, and hopefully you guys keep coming back to read more.  Have a great week.