Today is Al Pacino’s 80th birthday. Damn, Al, way to go. I love that he’s still having so much fun onscreen when he’s actually got material that’s worthwhile, and in the meantime, he seems to make a great living on direct-to-video junk I’ll never see.
Pacino was one of the first movie stars I decided I needed to know everything about, and it entertains me greatly that he’s turned out to be the same thing for Toshi. In my case, it was the original Godfather that made me pay attention to Pacino, but Toshi’s entry point was at the other end of Al’s career with The Irishman. We’re celebrating his birthday tonight by screening The Godfather Part II for the boys for the first time, and they’re practically frantic for the screening to start.
So here’s the question for today’s Saturday Free-For-All: who was the first movie star who made you want to watch everything they’d ever made, and what was the film you saw that made you feel that way?
As always, feel free to talk about whatever you want, and let’s just have fun. It’s a gorgeous day out in LA, and if you do feel the urge to be out and about, please wear your masks and practice social distancing. I understand we’re all going stir crazy, but if I have one more person roll up on me on a sidewalk without any mask and without giving me room to navigate, I am going to end up on the news. So please. For my sake.
Today’s discussion thread is open to everyone. If you like the free content here, you’d love the stuff that’s just for subscribers. It’s only $7 a month, and it’s less if you go annual.
I think my first was Harrison Ford. Already occupied space in my brain as Han Solo and Indiana Jones, but catching him in Mosquito Coast kind of broke my image of him and made me want to see what other speeds he had. Subsequently getting to take in the likes of Witness, Working Girl, even Presumed Innocent, was a fun way to further an appreciation for Ford and performance in general.
It’s an instacall for me: Michael Keaton. Because I was an 8 year old boy in 1988-89. Beetlejuice or Batman doing the trick? Can’t really say, it was just a magical set of circumstances that had me at the right age.
The first I can remember recognizing in multiple films was probably The Arnold. The first I can remember tracking down in multiple films was Lea Thompson, which of course led through Howard the Duck, but I was still young enough to enjoy even that one.
Mine was Dustin Hoffman. I’ve since been disappointed to learn that he may, in fact, be a creep, but man I was obsessed with him when I was a kid. I think it was Rain Man that first caught my eye, and the first movie of his that I sought out and watched after that was Kramer vs. Kramer. After watching that, I was hooked and sought out all of his 60s and 70s work I could find on VHS. I was fascinated by his ability to disappear into characters and by the fact that this short, not very looking guy was a successful leading man. He hasn’t done much great work in recent years but he had one hell of a run from 67 to 88.
You’ll probably here this a lot, but mine is Harrison Ford. Seeing Star War and Han Solo at age 11 was all it took. Then Indiana Jones after that, sealed the deal for me. My favorite film of his, without question, is Witness. My favorite performance of his, is Mosquito Coast. A criminally underrated film and performance. If you look at his performances after that, he was never quite the same. He still had some great highlights, such as Working Girl, Presumed Innocent, and The Fugitive, but after Mosquito Coast, that’s when he went into “wooden actor” mode for a lot of his roles, and it breaks my heart seeing some of those performances, because he was absolutely THE actor for me growing up.
Tilda Swinton. After seeing CONSTANTINE at age 15, I was instantly taken by this woman who looked and acted like no other actor I'd seen on the screen. From there, I went on a renting spree of all her movies up to that point: ORLANDO, THE DEEP END, YOUNG ADAM, whatever I could find.
Mine was Robert Shaw, of course. Jaws started it, but Swashbuckler, Black Sunday, The Deep and Force 10 From Navarone followed. Then he was dead. Also obsessed with Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss but Shaw was my main man.
For me, it's John Wayne, especially from THE QUIET MAN. The idea of a man of violence finding a second lease in life through the love of a fiery woman in an exotic land was really interesting to me: everyone can start over, everyone can find love.
I was 6 when I saw Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid Part II. I was fixated on him for a few years, but was done after Part III. I saw The Golden Child that same year and have been a huge fan and follower of Eddie Murphy since then. I was so happy to see him in Dolemite last year and can't wait for seeing him now that he seems reengaged.
You know, as a child of 80's who grew up watching a ton of movies, the first actor I saw who I then wanted to watch more of was probably Richard Dreyfuss. I know it's not a sexy pick like Stallone or Arnold or even Harrison Ford, but when I saw Jaws when I was seven years old, I KNEW I was going to be a marine biologist. Unfortunately, much like George Costanza, I am not a marine biologist, but I digress.
I quickly realized after Jaws ended that I had seen that scruffy face before in The Goodbye Girl on a weekend afternoon movie. For those who don't understand that reference, a weekend afternoon movie is something that used to play on one of the UHF stations in Atlanta during that time, and across the country, too. Man, did I just date myself or what? After seeing Jaws, the next time we went to the video store I made sure my dad got me at least two more Richard Dreyfuss movies, and that's when I saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Stand By Me. Before the summer was over, I saw American Graffiti as well. I was too young to see a lot of Dreyfuss's work in the 80's, but caught up with Down and Out in Beverly Hills and Stakeout when I was older. I dragged my mom and little brother to see What About Bob? when it got to the dollar theater in Lawrenceville, and loved every demented minute of that movie. So did my brother. My mother did not. The of course, in high school, as a big Band Nerd, Mr. Holland's Opus was like crack to me. Crack that makes me cry to this day.
He may not be a giant star. He excelled at being the everyman. Maybe that's why I like Richard Dreyfuss, especially in those 20 years between 1975 (Jaws) through 1995 (Mr. Holland's Opus). He's a normal, kinda schlubby guy who sometimes help saves the day, sometimes gets the girl, but always manages to end the film in the right place.
I started with the weird stage of getting sucked into 'B' level areas when the movie bug really kicked in early teens. I went down the Bruce Campbell, Eric Roberts and Christopher Lambert rabbit holes. I mean sure, we all ran out and devoured all the Pacino, De Niro stuff but who doesn't want to track down stuff like Knight Moves from the early nineties when they are 13 years old!?
The first actor I was like that with was Brandon Lee. When I watched “The Crow,” it was transformative for how I saw films. I had read about the tragedy, but I wanted to go back to watch his other work; I still have the VHSs of the rest of his films.
There weren’t really too many other actors I had that itch to dig into their entire filmography- crushes for Sarah Michelle Gellar, Claire Danes and Amber Benson led to the only other ones I consciously made. Once I really began to dive into films, it was director filmographies I made my way into more than actors. (My mom’s big one in this area was pre-“Passion” Mel Gibson- the reason I saw many of his films a crazy amount of times in theatres.) I was also a lunatic for Hans Zimmer’s scores starting in 1996.
This week, I watched “Terms of Endearment” and “Mephisto” for the first time- both were stellar experiences. I also did rewatched of “2001” and Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy.
I was 9 when Han Solo appeared on screens and I was fixated by the character, which slowly morphed into fixation on Ford himself. Even wrote an essay about him in 9th grade that I did research on (old school library card catalogue).
Mine was Arnie. It became obvious in the mid-80s to me and my mates (in a small seaside town in N Ireland) that Arnie was the main man in cinema. Still in those days we thought Destroyer was better than Barbarian, and Red Sonja was a Conan film with a different name, & Cactus Jack was a collective favourite for about 3 years!
Had a heck of a time trying to source Hercules in New York back in the VHS days. Never did find it, still haven’t seen it, doubt I ever will now.
I think my first was Harrison Ford. Already occupied space in my brain as Han Solo and Indiana Jones, but catching him in Mosquito Coast kind of broke my image of him and made me want to see what other speeds he had. Subsequently getting to take in the likes of Witness, Working Girl, even Presumed Innocent, was a fun way to further an appreciation for Ford and performance in general.
It’s an instacall for me: Michael Keaton. Because I was an 8 year old boy in 1988-89. Beetlejuice or Batman doing the trick? Can’t really say, it was just a magical set of circumstances that had me at the right age.
The first I can remember recognizing in multiple films was probably The Arnold. The first I can remember tracking down in multiple films was Lea Thompson, which of course led through Howard the Duck, but I was still young enough to enjoy even that one.
Mine was Dustin Hoffman. I’ve since been disappointed to learn that he may, in fact, be a creep, but man I was obsessed with him when I was a kid. I think it was Rain Man that first caught my eye, and the first movie of his that I sought out and watched after that was Kramer vs. Kramer. After watching that, I was hooked and sought out all of his 60s and 70s work I could find on VHS. I was fascinated by his ability to disappear into characters and by the fact that this short, not very looking guy was a successful leading man. He hasn’t done much great work in recent years but he had one hell of a run from 67 to 88.
You’ll probably here this a lot, but mine is Harrison Ford. Seeing Star War and Han Solo at age 11 was all it took. Then Indiana Jones after that, sealed the deal for me. My favorite film of his, without question, is Witness. My favorite performance of his, is Mosquito Coast. A criminally underrated film and performance. If you look at his performances after that, he was never quite the same. He still had some great highlights, such as Working Girl, Presumed Innocent, and The Fugitive, but after Mosquito Coast, that’s when he went into “wooden actor” mode for a lot of his roles, and it breaks my heart seeing some of those performances, because he was absolutely THE actor for me growing up.
Tilda Swinton. After seeing CONSTANTINE at age 15, I was instantly taken by this woman who looked and acted like no other actor I'd seen on the screen. From there, I went on a renting spree of all her movies up to that point: ORLANDO, THE DEEP END, YOUNG ADAM, whatever I could find.
Mine was Robert Shaw, of course. Jaws started it, but Swashbuckler, Black Sunday, The Deep and Force 10 From Navarone followed. Then he was dead. Also obsessed with Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss but Shaw was my main man.
Strangely enough, mine was also Pacino/Godfather, but that coincided with Goodfellas/Deniro/Scorsese around ‘91 and ‘92.
For me, it's John Wayne, especially from THE QUIET MAN. The idea of a man of violence finding a second lease in life through the love of a fiery woman in an exotic land was really interesting to me: everyone can start over, everyone can find love.
I was 6 when I saw Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid Part II. I was fixated on him for a few years, but was done after Part III. I saw The Golden Child that same year and have been a huge fan and follower of Eddie Murphy since then. I was so happy to see him in Dolemite last year and can't wait for seeing him now that he seems reengaged.
You know, as a child of 80's who grew up watching a ton of movies, the first actor I saw who I then wanted to watch more of was probably Richard Dreyfuss. I know it's not a sexy pick like Stallone or Arnold or even Harrison Ford, but when I saw Jaws when I was seven years old, I KNEW I was going to be a marine biologist. Unfortunately, much like George Costanza, I am not a marine biologist, but I digress.
I quickly realized after Jaws ended that I had seen that scruffy face before in The Goodbye Girl on a weekend afternoon movie. For those who don't understand that reference, a weekend afternoon movie is something that used to play on one of the UHF stations in Atlanta during that time, and across the country, too. Man, did I just date myself or what? After seeing Jaws, the next time we went to the video store I made sure my dad got me at least two more Richard Dreyfuss movies, and that's when I saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Stand By Me. Before the summer was over, I saw American Graffiti as well. I was too young to see a lot of Dreyfuss's work in the 80's, but caught up with Down and Out in Beverly Hills and Stakeout when I was older. I dragged my mom and little brother to see What About Bob? when it got to the dollar theater in Lawrenceville, and loved every demented minute of that movie. So did my brother. My mother did not. The of course, in high school, as a big Band Nerd, Mr. Holland's Opus was like crack to me. Crack that makes me cry to this day.
He may not be a giant star. He excelled at being the everyman. Maybe that's why I like Richard Dreyfuss, especially in those 20 years between 1975 (Jaws) through 1995 (Mr. Holland's Opus). He's a normal, kinda schlubby guy who sometimes help saves the day, sometimes gets the girl, but always manages to end the film in the right place.
I honestly can't remember. I think it was either Bruce Lee or Robin Williams.
Yeah, Robin Williams. I was aware of Mork & Mindy but I just didn't watch it on a regular basis.
But his movies, especially Dead Poets Society, blew me away.
And then there was The Fisher King.... oooh, boy.
I started with the weird stage of getting sucked into 'B' level areas when the movie bug really kicked in early teens. I went down the Bruce Campbell, Eric Roberts and Christopher Lambert rabbit holes. I mean sure, we all ran out and devoured all the Pacino, De Niro stuff but who doesn't want to track down stuff like Knight Moves from the early nineties when they are 13 years old!?
The first actor I was like that with was Brandon Lee. When I watched “The Crow,” it was transformative for how I saw films. I had read about the tragedy, but I wanted to go back to watch his other work; I still have the VHSs of the rest of his films.
There weren’t really too many other actors I had that itch to dig into their entire filmography- crushes for Sarah Michelle Gellar, Claire Danes and Amber Benson led to the only other ones I consciously made. Once I really began to dive into films, it was director filmographies I made my way into more than actors. (My mom’s big one in this area was pre-“Passion” Mel Gibson- the reason I saw many of his films a crazy amount of times in theatres.) I was also a lunatic for Hans Zimmer’s scores starting in 1996.
This week, I watched “Terms of Endearment” and “Mephisto” for the first time- both were stellar experiences. I also did rewatched of “2001” and Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy.
I was 9 when Han Solo appeared on screens and I was fixated by the character, which slowly morphed into fixation on Ford himself. Even wrote an essay about him in 9th grade that I did research on (old school library card catalogue).
Mine was Arnie. It became obvious in the mid-80s to me and my mates (in a small seaside town in N Ireland) that Arnie was the main man in cinema. Still in those days we thought Destroyer was better than Barbarian, and Red Sonja was a Conan film with a different name, & Cactus Jack was a collective favourite for about 3 years!
Had a heck of a time trying to source Hercules in New York back in the VHS days. Never did find it, still haven’t seen it, doubt I ever will now.