Monday, July 14, 2008

Happy Birthday Mr. Ford

Photo: Firewall with Harrison Ford

Over at Pop Dose, Robert Cass wishes Harrison Ford a happy 66th. This is one of my favorite movie stars -- a Golden Era leading man in an age of disposable icons. However, I agree with Cass when he asserts that Mr. Ford tried to hang on to his status perhaps a bit too long with more than a few roles (see: 'Firewall') in which he plays (as Cass rightfully points out, citing many a reviewer's assessment) yet another character who delivers cliche dialogue through clenched jaws with eyes burning of determination and the lips snarled just so.

Photo: Still from Crossing Over with Harrison Ford

With Ford not willing to budge on his asking price per movie and with the scripts (and box office) for said movies becoming more laughable, I thought his career was in crash-and-burn mode. But then comes Indiana Jones 4 and, just like that, Ford earns a reprise. He's putting the new lease on his movie star's life to use not by demanding top-dollar for a retread execution of a bloated cliche script, but by doing small pieces like 'Crossing Over' (pictured, with Alice Braga), and what looks like another character-driven drama, 'Crowley', in what one would hope and assume is an effort to re-establish himself as a viable commodity.

Good to see him back, albeit not exactly in the same form as a president kicking terrorists off Air Force One or a privateer blasting the Millennium Falcon into hyperspace to elude capture. By the same token, though, he's not in the same form as he was in 'Hollywood Homicide' (which, in this case, is first degree premeditated murder of one's career)... At age 66 doing movies like 'Crossing Over' is a very smart move.

Here's Cass' write up. A couple excerpts:

If you were to ask me "What did you want to be when you grew up?," I could lie and say "astronaut" or "baseball player" or even "actor," but the answer is "Harrison Ford." More than anything else, I wanted to be Harrison Ford. I grew up in the '80s, a decade in which the actor played Han Solo in two Star Wars films and Indiana Jones in three films. For a young boy, those were iconic characters...

...because he wouldn't drop his $20 million fee, those interesting scripts from young writer-directors never showed up in his mailbox...

6 comments:

Robert Cass said...

Thanks, Alan! Truth be told, I plan to rewrite some of that post when I have some time to make my points a little clearer without just rehashing a lot of Ford's career.

Did Ford reduce his price for "Crossing Over"? I would hope so. I don't know for a fact that he asked for $20 million for "Traffic" or "Syriana" (I can't imagine he would've gotten it for those ensemble films), but I would assume he would've dropped his price if he had really wanted to do them.

Marcy Green said...

Robert

i'll catch it when you do the rewrite. i'm assuming he dropped his asking price for CO. but, i'm just assuming. i never even thought to look into it. that movie's budget couldn't support that kind of payout for just one actor, could it?

i can't imagine that's the case. if ford scored 20 mil for that role he's working some kind of magic

Robert Cass said...

I didn't realize until I was writing my post on Sunday that Patricia McQueeney, Ford's longtime manager, had died in 2005. I don't know which agency Ford's with, but maybe someone there convinced him after "Firewall" to push hard for "Crystal Skull," which Anne Thompson says he did more than Lucas or Spielberg, then lower his price for a smaller, non-action film.

Like I said, even if "Crossing Over" isn't great, it's a step in the right direction, and unlike "K-19," which I think is underrated, "Crossing Over" can't be confused for an action film in its advertising campaign.

Nice blog, by the way. I look forward to catching up on some of the older entries.

Marcy Green said...

Robert

yeah, it seems like lucas and spielberg were dragging their feet on crystal skull. it makes sense that ford would have been the one to push the most to get that script in shape and greenlit.

i see CS as a turning point in ford's career -- after which he will no longer seek out big roles -- he'll be able to say he finished with those with CS and went out huge.

Robert Cass said...

That would be nice -- I want to see Ford in Paul Newman mode soon, meaning that he can carry a film, but if it bombs, it's not like it hurts his reputation or legacy in any way. Like I said, he's not the greatest actor of his generation, and it's not the same for me as it was when I was younger, but he is a great star, which ain't easy, and with the right roles in the future he can boost his reputation as a good, reliable actor who knows exactly who he is and what he can do on-screen.

Marcy Green said...

yeah, paul newman aged very gracefully. he took roles you could accept an older man in. that's really the heart of ford's problem, or rather, the problem audiences have with ford's recent stuff -- he takes roles that would be much better played by a younger actor.

newman didn't do that. on film, he aged like a fine wine. his roles became smaller, more supportive, and always kept their charm. he didn't try to hang on to that 'cool hand luke' energy past the time when it would work.

ford clung to that and it cost him. not only were the roles harder to accept the scripts got worse. that has to be because, naturally, agents were sending the best action scripts to younger actors. what ford ended up securing were second-tier roles in scripts that lacked polish.

ford could keep on keeping on as a welcome addition to any cast for a long time if he would adjust his approach (which it would seem he has done with crossing over, etc).

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