The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded (209 page)

She played with Walter Matthau in
Hopscotch
(80, Ronald Neame);
H.E.A.L.T.H
. (80, Robert Altman); as the actress afflicted by a stroke in
The Patricia Neal Story
(81, Anthony Harvey and Anthony Page);
The Return of the Soldier
(82, Alan Bridges); as a documentary filmmaker in
Giro City
(82, Karl Francis); as Elena Bonner in
Sakharov
(84, Jack Gold);
Turtle Diary
(85, John Irvin);
Beyond Therapy
(86, Altman);
Business as Usual
(87, LezliAn Barrett);
Salome’s Last Dance
(88, Russell); as the mother to the character she played in
Women in Love
in
The Rainbow
(88, Russell);
Doombeach
(89, Colin Finbow); and
King of the Wind
(90, Peter Duffell).

In Britain’s 1992 General Election, she was returned to the House of Commons as Labour M.P. for Hampstead and Highgate. She won a junior ministerial appointment, but then found herself in increasing opposition to Tony Blair.

Peter Jackson
, b. Pukerua Bay, New Zealand, 1961
1987:
Bad Taste
. 1989:
Meet the Feebles
. 1992:
Braindead
. 1994:
Heavenly Creatures
. 1996:
The Frighteners; Forgotten Silver
(s). 2001:
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
. 2002:
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
. 2003:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
. 2005:
King Kong
. 2009:
The Lovely Bones
.

When your children ask you where the screen story of
The Lord of the Rings
is going, you might remember to tell them Michael Atkinson’s description of how Jackson’s
Braindead
ends: “The hero’s Mum transforms into a giant Moloch and swallows him up her uterine canal.” Or perhaps not. Nevertheless, the visionary epic style of the Tolkien films (if you can trust the first part) was forged originally in the gleeful manufacture of low-budget gore movies. And nothing stands between the two extremes of anti-respectability and who knows how many Oscars but the astonishing
Heavenly Creatures
, the giddiest teenage murder spree in the movies and one of the most rapturous portraits of adolescent pathology.

It’s enough to leave you wondering whether the frighteners in the
Rings
might not get out of hand before the series ends. And it only leads one to marvel at what Jackson might do when he is rich, famous, and secure after Tolkien. Beware. But in the meantime, just realize that Jackson has rediscovered the serial epic and given it an energy and dread not known since Fritz Lang’s
Nibelungen
. Maybe that’s what he does next—
Meet the Nibelungen!

The
Rings
trilogy may not be our Wagner. Nevertheless, it may be the end to old-fashioned theatrical moviegoing. Or a new beginning? The eleven Oscars for the film equaled the record, and included the Oscar for direction. So, we are all New Zealanders now, but will Jackson ever regain the smack and shock of
Heavenly Creatures?

The three films of
The Lord of the Rings
stand as a monument—not just of computer-generated imagery, but of the dramatic visualization of a looming mythology. Good and evil ride side-by-side in the series, but I’m not sure how far the films are still seen in a pathetic age of
Avatar
.

King Kong
turned out very routine, no matter the plausibility of the ape and the detail of the island.
The Lovely Bones
did not work at all, but I’m bound to say that it did awaken the sense of wickedness from
Heavenly Creatures
. Not the worst or least thing about
Avatar
was the feebleness of its “evil” characters. To his great credit as an artist, Jackson believes in evil. It is his best way ahead.

Samuel L. Jackson
, b. Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1949
Samuel Jackson is his own man, but if you propose that he is also Morgan Freeman cut directly with Eddie Murphy, then I think you begin to understand his terrific popularity, his ease, and the way, in
Pulp Fiction
(94, Quentin Tarantino), say, one of his breakthrough films, he can go from the laid-back repartee of fast-food terminology to the laying on of spirits. He has handled mainline, sentimental roles very well, but anyone not letting his humor loose is missing the real point. If ever there was an actor ready to play some of the jazz greats—Miles, Mingus, or even Ellington—this is the guy.

He made his debut in
Ragtime
(81, Milos Forman);
Eddie Murphy Raw
(87, Robert Townsend);
School Daze
(88, Spike Lee);
Coming to America
(88, John Landis);
Sea of Love
(89, Harold Becker);
Do the Right Thing
(89, Lee);
A Shock to the System
(90, Jan Egleson);
The Return of Superfly
(90, Sig Shore);
Mo’ Better Blues
(90, Lee);
Goodfellas
(90, Martin Scorsese);
The Exorcist III
(90, William Peter Blatty);
Def by Temptation
(90, James Bond III);
Betsy’s Wedding
(90, Alan Alda);
Strictly Business
(91, Kevin Hooks).

A lot of people felt he stole
Jungle Fever
(91, Lee) as the junkie brother;
Johnny Suede
(91, Tom DiCillo);
Jumpin’ at the Boneyard
(92, Jeff Stanzler);
Patriot Games
(92, Phillip Noyce);
Juice
(92, Ernest Dickerson);
White Sands
(92, Roger Donaldson);
National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon I
(93, Gene Quintano);
True Romance
(93, Tony Scott);
The Meteor Man
(93, Townsend);
Menace II Society
(93, Allen and Albert Hughes);
Jurassic Park
(93, Steven Spielberg);
Amos & Andrew
(93, E. Max Frye).

After
Pulp Fiction
, he did
The New Age
(94, Michael Tolkin);
Fresh
(94, Boaz Yakin); in Attica in
Against the Wall
(94, John Frankenheimer);
Kiss of Death
(95, Barbet Schroeder);
Losing Isaiah
(95, Stephen Gyllenhaal), where he played with LaTanya Richardson, his wife;
Die Hard with a Vengeance
(95, John McTiernan); the voice of the dog,
Fluke
(95, Carlo Carlei); a boxing promoter in
The Great White Hype
(96, Reginald Hudlin); the father driven to murder in
A Time to Kill
(96, Joel Schumacher); with Geena Davis in
The Long Kiss Goodnight
(96, Renny Harlin);
The Search for One-Eyed Jimmy
(96, Sam Henry Kass);
Trees Lounge
(96, Steve Buscemi);
Hard Eight
(97, Paul Thomas Anderson);
187
(97, Kevin Reynolds); producing as well as acting in
Eve’s Bayou
(97, Kasi Lemmons); outstanding in
Jackie Brown
(97, Tarantino);
Sphere
(98, Barry Levinson); with Kevin Spacey in
The Negotiator
(98, F. Gary Gray);
Out of Sight
(98, Steven Soderbergh); doing very little in
Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace
(99, George Lucas); a little fancy in
The Red Violin
(99, François Girard);
Deep Blue Sea
(99, Harlin);
Rules of Engagement
(00 William Friedkin);
Shaft
(00, John Singleton);
Unbreakable
(00, M. Night Shyamalan);
The Caveman’s Valentine
(01, Lemmons);
The 51st State
(01, Ronny Yu);
Changing Lanes
(02, Roger Michell); wasted again in
Star Wars: Episode II, Attack of the Clones
(02, Lucas);
Formula 51
(02, Ronny Yu);
The House on Turk Street
(02, Bob Rafelson);
XXX
(02, Rob Cohen);
Basic
(03, John McTiernan);
S.W.A.T
. (03, Clark Johnson);
Twisted
(04, Philip Kaufman);
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
(04, Tarantino).

If Jackson remains the best actor in American film who has to work his ass off to keep being noticed, just wonder if race has anything to do with it. No one survives more bad material with humor and dignity:
The Incredibles
(04, Brad Bird);
In My Country/Country of My Skull
(04, John Boorman); a big hit as
Coach Carter
(05, Thomas Carter);
xXx: State of the Union
(05, Lee Tamahori);
Star Wars III
(05, Lucas);
The Man
(05, Les Mayfield);
Freedomland
(06, Joe Roth); seeing that
Snakes on a Plane
(06, David R. Ellis and Lex Halaby) wasn’t necessarily a hit;
Home of the Brave
(06, Irwin Winkler); kidnapping Christina Ricci in
Black Snake Moan
(07, Craig Brewer);
1408
(07, Mikael Håfström); as the ex-boxer in
Resurrecting the Champ
(07, Rod Lurie);
Cleaner
(07, Harlin);
Jumper
(08, Doug Liman); a bit in
Iron Man
(08, Jon Favreau); brilliant and scary in
Lakeview Terrace
(08, Neil LaBute);
Soul Men
(08, Malcolm D. Lee);
The Spirit
(08, Frank Miller);
Mother and Child
(09, Rodrigo García).

Henry Jaglom
, b. London, 1939
1971:
A Safe Place
. 1976:
Tracks
. 1979:
Sitting Ducks
. 1981:
National Lampoon Goes to the Movies
(codirected with Bob Giraldi). 1983:
Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?
. 1985:
Always
. 1987:
Someone to Love
. 1989:
New Year’s Day
. 1990:
Eating
. 1992:
Venice/Venice
. 1994:
Baby Fever
. 1995:
Last Summer in the Hamptons
. 1998:
Déjà Vu
. 2001:
Festival in Cannes
. 2005:
Going Shopping
. 2006:
Hollywood Dreams
. 2009:
Irene in Time
. 2010:
Queen of the Lot
.

How long can someone remain a maverick, if he is as busy and as natural a self-promoter as Henry Jaglom? On the one hand, Jaglom makes films that are chronically sui generis. On the other, he has become so industrious, and so regular a figure at international festivals, that their panorama seems incomplete unless his sun-hat head is there bobbing around, as Henry talks beneath it. This maverick is so anxious to be liked. Perhaps no one has made so many films out of the pure, naked need to be loved. And if Henry is a narcissist, he is far too smart and talented to let that role play solemn or merely self-concerned. Someone would have shot him years ago if it were not for his intelligent whimsy and ironic charm. Henry is a fictional character and it is somehow all the more wondrous that he traffics so much on the borders of cinema verité. He has become not just the figment of his own imagination, but its fixture and supreme hope. As he would be the first to admit, he deserves not just an entry, but a book of his own.

He was originally an actor. No, that won’t do. Doesn’t one know that, even within the womb, he must have been a player rehearsing improvisational riffs on how to secure attention when he made his entrance? Still, he studied at the University of Pennsylvania and the Actors’ Studio, to be a performer, and he has appeared in a few films beyond his own:
Psych-Out
(68, Richard Rush);
Drive, He Said
(71, Jack Nicholson); and
The Last Movie
(71, Dennis Hopper). He was a part of the Hollywood avant-garde around 1970 that included Nicholson, Hopper, and Bob Rafelson, and Jaglom was credited as a consultant on
Easy Rider
(69, Hopper and Peter Fonda). His debut picture,
A Safe Place
, was part of the BBS deal with Columbia.

Acting has edged over into psychotherapy for Jaglom—in other words, the decisions an actor faces have become for the filmmaker a model for the search for happiness and for the infinite metaphysics of being. It is also a way of meeting women, and some might say that the value of Jaglom’s films depends very much on the loveliness and personality of the women.

But these are films made resolutely outside the mainstream. Not that Henry is uninterested in money or naïve at business. He works from independent means, yet he has been very successful at making and marketing his economical pieces of pseudo-verité in the 1980s. Thus, he is an odd mixture of the therapist/pilgrim open to everything and the sweet-talking tyrant who does
everything
absolutely his way. Yet he is well aware of, and eloquent about, the spoiled child–ism of Henry Jaglom—and that
is
a great subject, and not only in America.

To my eyes, he is an awkward photographer of scenes, and a rather aimless editor. Moreover, he has sometimes found himself with women who do not quite stand up to the adoration of a whole film. There is no way of denying that Jaglom, at his best even, walks very close to the pit of absurd self-involvement and pretension.

But he has done remarkable things:
Always
(an account of the breakup in his marriage with Patrice Townsend) is a lovely, heartbreaking picture that adds to the list of great Hollywood bittersweet comedies on marriage and remarriage;
Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?
finds real pain in Karen Black’s performance;
Someone to Love
is a loving farewell to Orson Welles (a friend to Jaglom and a profound influence). And even in the early films there are moments of wonder—Tuesday Weld in the epochally pretentious
A Safe Place
(which also stars Welles as a magician—now Jaglom’s logo), and Dennis Hopper as the cracking soldier in
Tracks
.