In Contention

Tag: Year of the Dragon

  • On Mickey

    Mickey RourkeAfter screening “The Wrestler” again recently, I realized just how much I have missed the work of Mickey Rourke in movies. There are some actors that are consistently interesting, those that we enjoy watching because we just know they are going to give us something we have not seen before. Jack Nicholson does this, as does Sean Penn, Johnny Depp and Dustin Hoffman, each artist giving us something extraordinary with each new performance, and often even in failure, growing as artists.

    Rourke was discussed in the 1980s as Marlon Brando was in the 1950s, the next great actor. His work in “Diner” was nothing short of spectacular, but it was his small role as Teddy the arsonist in “Body Heat” that told me Rourke was going to be something quite incredible. As a firebug saved from charges by his lawyer Ned (William Hurt), he never once raised his voice.  In fact, he spoke so softly, with such gentle tones it was alarming to realize what he was. He pulled the audience in just as he pulled William Hurt to him to share his secrets.

    Rourke had what the great Pauline Kael called “bite-you-on-the-nose talent” and I could not wait for his next role.

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  • SANTA BARBARA: Mickey Rourke puts a bow on the fest

    Mickey Rourke at the 24th Annual Santa Barbara International Film FestivalMickey Rourke landed in Santa Barbara tonight to accept the final award of the festival, the American Riviera Award.  The on-stage Q&A/career retrospective was moderated by Pete Hammond and presented a swift trip through the actor’s portfolio of impressive performances, making me want to revisit films like “Rumble Fish” and “The Pope of Greenwich Village,” or finally get around to those I’ve never seen, like “Year of the Dragon” and “Animal Factory.”

    Michael Cimino’s “Dragon,” in fact, was the beginning of Rourke’s downward spiral in Hollywood, the actor said.  After reading some lacerating reviews that seemed to be more interested in attacking Cimino (in the wake of the “Heaven’s Gate” disaster) rather than the film, Rourke started to become disenchanted.  The seeds were actually planted when Francis Ford Coppola’s “Rumble Fish” wasn’t well-received here in the states and picked up steam with the critical reception of “Dragon.”

    The conversation was a fascinating one, and really, anyone who spends more than five minutes talking to the guy is bound to hear a couple of great stories or some particularly revealing insights.  Rourke touched on his beginnings at the Actors Studio in New York, where he befriended Christopher Walken and paid the bills working at a transvestite club (an experience that would come in handy when Steve Buscemi would direct him in “Animal Factory” 20 years later).

    He also mentioned, as I believe he’s noted elsewhere, that he believes Adrian Lyne (who directed Rourke in “9 1/2 Weeks”) may be the most underrated actor’s director out there and that Eric Roberts remains one of the best actors he’s ever worked with.  And he offered some nice sentiments for fellow Oscar nominee Michael Shannon, who co-stars with Rourke in the upcoming remake “13.”

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  • Welcome back Mr. Rourke

    Mickey Rourke in The WrestlerHe could radiate danger or disarm you with an impish smile. His eyes flashed with rage, or softened with love, both entirely believable. There was a purity to his work, an honesty, an authenticity that many other actors did not, and do not have; he seemed destined to be one of the greats.

    There was a time Mickey Rourke was the heir apparent to Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall and Jack Nicholson, an actor with extraordinary gifts having given an impressive array of performances throughout the 1980s. He stopped “Body Heat” in its tracks with his intimate arsonist, speaking quietly to William Hurt, his lawyer, instructing him on how to build a bomb, his tones quiet as so not to be heard, yet slightly ashamed at what he was suggesting.

    He was astonishing as Motorcycle Boy in Francis Ford Coppola’s experimental and brilliant film “Rumble Fish.”  He tackled the role of a young man blessed, or cursed, with being good at everything he did, yet lacking in ambition because nothing challenged him.

    Rourke was brilliant in “Diner” as the would-be hair dresser that gets in too deep with gambling. And opposite Eric Roberts in “The Pope of Greenwich Village” he put on a method acting workshop that would have made De Niro and Pacino jealous

    Michael Cimino’s under-appreciated “Year of the Dragon,” Alan Parker’s “Angel Heart” — equal success as a  bigoted police captain and a dedicated gumshoe respectively.  And then it all fell apart.

    Friendships with members of the Hells Angels, some of whom he took to studio meetings, and a strange foray into boxing made Rourke poison in the business. No one would work with him.

    This is all beautifully outlined in my good friend Christopher Heard’s book Mickey Rourke: High and Low, and it’s fascinating to read, to gain an understanding of how and why Rourke’s career imploded as it did. Here was a massively talented actor, a prodigy if you will, one of the new greats, and before he was 35 he was finished.

    BUT…now he’s coming back with what is said to be a solid performance in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler.”  If rumors can believed (sometimes they can, sometimes…well…), the performance might land him in the Oscar circle.  Kris touched on these possibilities a few weeks ago.

    In fairness, Rourke has been back for a while with acclaimed work in “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” and “Sin City,” but this new film supposedly challenges him as an actor and I hear he rises to the occasion with what is being hailed as the finest performance of his career and among the finest of this year.

    All hail Mr. Rourke.  And weclome back…it’s been too long.