There's this viral meme infecting the blogs these days having something to do with naming ten favorite characters in the movies. So many have admitted that they have dozens of favorites and that the list changes from day to day and that a little bending of the rules is required that I don't feel bad about changing it around a little bit for myself as well.
I have dozens if not a couple of hundred favorite characters in the movies. Maybe more. Seriously. Think about how many movies where you see a character with only a line or two but they're so good you say in reference to them forever after, "I love that guy!" or "I love that lady!" Happens to me all the time. Or favorites from childhood like the Cowardly Lion played by Bert Lahr. I love the Cowardly Lion played by Bert Lahr ("Unusual weather we're having, ain't it?"). But, for favorites, true favorites, characters that really connect with me on a deeper level, well... that's a whole different ballgame.
Favorite characters for me are the ones that resemble someone in my life or remind me of some time in my life. And not just a passing resemblance but a 
feeling of "dear Lord that's me, or him, or her, or that time!" Where without even knowing me, the filmmakers and actors somehow pinned down an exact moment or time or relationship and got it dead on accurate. It happens in literature and music as well. Many people have a book they read again and again because it mirrors so closely something they have experienced or has a character that is all too familiar. And probably everyone has heard a song with a lyric that seems written for them. Having said that I am a bit trepidatious about revealing this list lest it feel too exhibitionist but what use is a blog for personal expression if one cannot express oneself personally. It's my view that most of us are covering up for something lacking in our lives and I'm no different. Think whatever you will about Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, but the tagline (one of several) of that movie is like a mantra to me: You may be through with the past but the past ain't through with you. With that in mind, here's the list:
Oma, Fat City. Not only do I think Susan Tyrrell, who played Oma, should have walked away (walked, as in no competition) with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, I think she should get a Presidential Medal of Freedom for the role. And if you think she or Stacy Keach, also fantastic as fellow drunkard Tully, overplayed their roles well then sorry, I guess you haven't known many alcoholics. I have. They're a part of my life, from my own family to working at a liquor store in a poor neighborhood (probably the saddest job I ever had) right up to today. My wife and I have a friend right now who is a raging alcoholic but also, and more importantly, there's my sister, and no one can steal the crown from my sister. She's been screwed up on drugs and alcohol for as long as I can remember, in jail and out, even married to a drug dealer in the eighties until the F.B.I. closed in and they both made deals to nab the higher-ups. After that they divorced. My sister, almost fifty, lives at home with my parents, sober now but no longer able to make her own way in this world. If you're curious what that looks like, watch Fat City and watch a brilliant portrayal of alcoholism by Susan Tyrrell.
Woody Allen in Husbands and Wives, Manhattan and Deconstructing Harry at various times and various moments of my life. I look nothing like him and certainly don't have groups of friends anywhere near as pretentious or self-important but I swear when I watch those movies it's like that son of a bitch followed me around.
George Bailey, It's a Wonderful Life, played by James Stewart, near the end when he's suicidal because everything, fucking everything, is closing in on him at once. Let me tell you, sometimes you really do feel like giving up. Fortunately I have a guardian angel just like George did and it's my wife.
Marion Crane, Psycho, played by Janet Leigh. Boy, how many times have I felt like taking off with a bagful of money? Too many to count. I feel for Marion and the unfair end she comes to after doing something not out of malice but desperation. She comes to her senses (fortunately I've yet to leave mine) just a little too late.
Madame de, The Earrings of Madame de..., played by Danielle Darrieux. She finally found love and look what it got her. I want her to find love and be happy. God I feel for her.
Laura, Brief Encounter, played by Celia Johnson. She is so like her. So very much like her I can't think of anyone else when I see her. And she's wonderful, both the character and the real person so close to me.
Cooper "Gooper" Pollitt, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, played by Jack Carson. A minor character sure, but there's someone I always think about with him and I have great sympathy for just how badly he misses it. How he just doesn't get it. He just doesn't understand that playing by all the rules and having a tidy life doesn't mean acceptance or even love will come your way. Come to think of it, I know a few people like that. And yet sometimes I envy them even while I know they often envy the stragglers.
Kay Adams, The Godfather I, II and III. Even though I can confidently say my first wife and her friends and family were not gangsters I cannot watch The Godfather and see Kay Adams and not feel an absolute closeness to her and what she's going through. I was never, ever, connected to the world my first wife lived in and she never made any attempt to connect me to it. Not that I wanted to. Like Kay, I made several futile attempts to get her out of it but never could. Oddly enough, the most derided of all Godfather films, the third one, provides the most dead on line for me in my situation with my first wife. When Michael says to Kay, "You hate me, don't you?" she responds, "I don't hate you, I dread you." Wow! That is it! Spot on!
Everyone seems to have a cheat on these lists and here's mine: Dodsworth, all three leads played by Walter Huston, Mary Astor and Ruth Chatterton. They're all wonderful and I feel for all three, even Ruth Chatterton, desperately trying to cling to youth by bedding younger men.
Howard Beale, Network, played by Peter Finch. I have no connection to this character whatsoever. None. But this line - "I just ran out of bullshit" - that he uses to explain his dramatic change on the air in how he addresses the world... well, I just wish it were that easy sometimes. To just run out of bullshit and bombard the world with brutal honesty. But then you get fired from your job and your kids go hungry and your friends desert you and someone eventually finds a way to kill you, not as dramatically as Howard, but in a slow creeping way. They say "Bullshit makes the world go round" and they're probably right. If I let my higher ups in on my true feelings I'd be cleaning out my desk within the hour and I know it. So I keep feeding them bullshit and my kids keep eating. My wife and I run out of bullshit from time to time but usually realize it's sometime more cruel to tell someone the truth than feed them a lie. You might be ready to be blunt but that doesn't mean someone else is and they've got to get there on their own, same as you. Still, wouldn't it be nice?
I hope no one reading this thinks less of me for the mild exhibitionism in this post but that is how a character truly does become an all-time favorite of mine, a character I can think about at different peaks and valleys of life for inspiration, guidance or even as a warning. It's just one of the reasons the movies mean so much to me, because in so many ways, they are and always will be, a part of me.
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Now comes the matter of tagging. Well, I don't know who is left at this point. I thank Flickhead and Brian for tagging me for this meme and extend the tag to anyone who has not yet been tagged. And even if they have already been tagged, I still want to tag Arbogast, Neil, Marilyn, Sheila and Ryan. Also anyone who is linked on my sidebar and has not been tagged yet I tag YOU! Seriously. Look on the blogroll. If you're there and have not been tagged yet consider this official. I just don't want to type out all those links right now. Thanks.
27 comments:
Well. You tried a bit harder than me, didn't you?
Great list, Jonathan. I, too, have characters that I feel very close to beyond simply liking or being fascinated by them. Among those I feel particularly close to are Jacob Mitchell, played by Billy Bob Thornton, in A Simple Plan, and Miles (Paul Giamatti) in Sideways. Also Tom Doniphan in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, but he DID make the list, while the other two, regrettably, slipped my mind until it was too late.
But you really hunkered down and thought about this one. And here I thought you didn't like memes.
Well done.
Bill, I'll tell Jonathan you liked the list (I know, I know, it's my own damn fault for keeping that pseudonym going on so long in the first place).
I like memes that you can go someplace with, like this one. I never took part in the alphabet meme that I think everyone on the internet did besides me because it felt like a dead end. A is for... yeah whatever. But characters, well that gives you a personal connection.
I feel deeply for Jacob Mitchell too and even though I have only seen the movie once, when it was released, that's what I've taken with me. His character is so sympathetic to me and his end is so meaningless. He is a great choice.
Bill, I'll tell Jonathan you liked the list
Son of a...! I can't believe I did that. And I was doing so well, too. I've actually thought that I'd done that before, but then I'd reread my comment and find that I said "Greg". Well anyway.
I should have put Jacob Mitchell on my list. Damn it.
And I need to see Fat City again. It's been forever since I watched that film, and I lucked into the out-of-print DVD recently for cheap (Criterion is putting out a lot of Huston these days, though, so they'll probably pounce on Fat City pretty soon). In my memory, Keach stands out the most, but now that you've reminded me, I think I took particular note of Tyrell, as well, at the time. So I'll have to watch it again.
Criterion is putting out a lot of Huston these days, though, so they'll probably pounce on Fat City pretty soon
God, I hope so. I watched it again about a month ago on TCM and both Keach and Tyrell do such an amazing job in their roles. When I watch something like Leaving Las Vegas there's a phoniness I can't necessarily describe but it's there. Watching Fat City again my wife and I kept looking at each other and saying, "That's her" or "that's him" depending on which alcoholic we were referring to. And that's sad too because I'd much rather watch a movie like Fat City and not recognize anyone.
You know what a part of it is. Leaving Las Vegas and others like Days of Wine and Roses portray the self-loathing front and center whereas Fat City shows them under the guise that they're always right, everyone else is always wrong and if you don't say what they want to hear they immediately insult or deride you. The alcohol brings out a meanness, a pettiness or an aloofness that helps them cope with the world. That's what I see in the ones I know. Our friend, my sister - they're just like that. And I don't begrudge them that, if they need it but I don't want to be around it for long.
And the movie itself is just amazing. It was better than I remembered. Great movie.
I don't have, fortunately, the experience with alcoholism in the family, or in my life in general, that you do, though I do know a lot of people who really like to drink, as I used to, myself. And movies just plain get drinking wrong most of the time, so why should they get full blown alcoholism right? Drunkeness is almost always overplayed, even when it's supposed to be a serious situation, and it drives me nuts. Huston, I think it's safe to say, knew of where he spoke, as did -- I'm guessing here -- Leonard Gardner, the writer. And, more importantly, they had the talent, as did the actors, to, in a sense, observe and report what it's like. That's probably not a great way of putting it.
Anyway, a recent drunk performance that I will tip my cap to is Josh Brolin in Milk. He has a drunk scene in that which I thought was pretty good, due in large part to the dialogue. I would have lost one word that he says, because it seems to push too hard for a laugh, but otherwise it's pretty good.
Greg - I like your twist on the meme. For me, my appreciation of any film or character is inextricably tied up with my personal experience and feelings, so this slant makes perfect sense to me.
And this:
everyone else is always wrong and if you don't say what they want to hear they immediately insult or deride you. The alcohol brings out a meanness, a pettiness or an aloofness that helps them cope with the world.
really hit me at a gut level - it perfectly sums up my recent relationship experience with a recovering alcoholic. (Apparently, that behavior persists even when the drinking stops.)
If Tyrell captures that in "Fat City," then that's a film I need to see.
I agree. This is an interesting little meme. I'll definitely have to consider it. As I said on Bill's post, his is remarkably close to what I'd choose... I may, as it goes, choose to use only Tom Doniphan or Bennie when I make mine.
We'll see.
Either way, I'm not sure I'm up to quite as insightful or compelling a post as this one. Thank you for sharing.
That's probably not a great way of putting it.
No Bill, that perfectly summarizes it. It's the talent and experience of the people involved that make the difference. And the movies do get it wrong so much of the time.
At first I didn't really have any feelings one way or the other about Milk but the more I read the more I want to see it.
If Tyrell captures that in "Fat City," then that's a film I need to see.
She really does, exceptionally well. And Stacy Keach too. I'm glad she was nominated and received a host of critics awards but Keach should have been nominated too. And the film.
Thanks Neil, I appreciate that. I almost considered doing what you suggested: Just picking one or two and really focusing on them. I saw your comment at Bill's but I still want to see a Bleeding Tree list - if you want to of course.
You might be ready to be blunt but that doesn't mean someone else is and they've got to get there on their own, same as you. Still, wouldn't it be nice?
I can't speak for you, of course, but I get the feeling that you're able tp put "bullshit" aside when you blog. I know I can... or, at least I try to really hard. It's kind of the main motivator for me.
No photos of your characters?
I can't speak for you, of course, but I get the feeling that you're able tp put "bullshit" aside when you blog. I know I can... or, at least I try to really hard. It's kind of the main motivator for me.
I definitely do. That's a main motivator for me as well. Rather than pick up blogging because I thought, "Wow, I'm such a great critic" or "People need to know my opinion" it was instead, "I want to talk about movies and the way I feel freely and without restriction."
That's part of why I used the pseudonym so long. I didn't want to put myself out there completely but now I'm okay with it.
No photos Peter, sorry. I was more into writing about what the characters meant to me and as such didn't feel like pics were necessary.
And Peter, Pat, and anyone else who shows up - I'm sure you two have been tagged but if not please put something up soon, I'd love to see what both of you produce.
Great list, and a wonderful read. It's not exhibitionist in the slightest; rather, these personal touches are what separates the blogsophere from everywhere else. A touching personal account of your journey through a handful of pictures.
And thanks for tagging me, Greg, I'm gonna get started on mine right now.
And thanks for tagging me, Greg
Well, we knew Bill wasn't going to didn't we? I mean, you and I are just a couple of non-people to Bill.
Thanks for the comments on the piece Ryan, much appreciated. I look forward to your list soon.
Hey Greg and Ryan -- why don't you two just get married, or something?
And regarding Milk, Greg, you should see it, but don't expect too much. It's a good movie with some good-to-great performances, but it's still just a biopic.
Hey Greg and Ryan -- why don't you two just get married, or something?
He begged me to get married, but I turned him down. We only just met, after all.
And I'm just not that kind of blogger.
but it's still just a biopic
Yeah, that's what I figured but it's the performances I want to see more and more now.
And I changed my mind right after asking Ryan anyway. He's kind of slutty and that's just not something I need in my life right now.
At least I don't kiss and tell!
Greg,
Great list, and thanks for sharing so much of yourself-- this was very moving. I especially liked the entry on Kay. Diane Keaton is so good in that role, and sometimes overlooked because there are so many other powerhouse performances around her. But it takes a lot of courage and skill to play that character, and to see her develop over the course of the series.
Brian, she is so very good in that role isn't she? Diane Keaton has become so famous for her Woody Allen roles that even though the Godfather films weigh so heavy in the cinematic record she is kind of glossed over it seems which is a shame. Even before my first marriage I identified with her because in part, that's what she's there for. She is us, the audience and outsider, granted a brief but painful glimpse on the inside.
Bill,
Don't feel bad. I keep wanting to call Greg, "Lapper" and I think I might just keep doing that. Lapper, great list, Lapper. I like your inclusions, Lapper.
Your bit about Godfather and Kay is very curious. I think maybe that you've lived a very interesting life, Mr. Lapper.
I'm so tempted to delete that comment. No more Lapper, Piper! Hey those sound good together; Lapper, Piper. Piper, Lapper.
Okay, anyway, like I said, she wasn't in organized crime and I won't go into it here but it was a different world, increasingly isolated and cultish, in my opinion.
I hear ya.
My wife had a brief stint with Amway as well.
I still kind of miss the products.
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