Post by petrolino on Jun 5, 2018 20:48:47 GMT
A very underrated actor, I've binged on his filmography a few times, but it's hard to keep up because he remains quite busy as an actor. I think he was overlooked for years as just another sex symbol, since that's what made his mark, initially. But he brings the goods in movies like Brooklyn's Finest, The Hoax or Arbitrage, all of which were themselves overlooked or very few have seen. Also, Bloodbrothers (1978) is absolutely hilarious, although it's meant to be a drama, see it for yourself, it sometimes pops up on TCM.
I enjoyed Robert Mulligan's 'Bloodbrothers', used to have it a copy years back- strong cast. It's based on a novel by crime writer Richard Price.
I really like 'Brookyln's Finest' (2009). Not yet seen 'Arbitrage' (2012) but heard good things; if I recall correctly, Gere had high praise for the work of co-star Brit Marling.
"The movie's effectiveness relies on our ambivalent feelings about Gere himself; his good looks and good luck. You may root for Miller in his plight, but half of you wants him to fail, to suffer. It also relies, however, on a rich lead performance: the man can really act. You think Gere's a 1980s actor because of An Officer And A Gentleman in 1982? Not really: that was his last hit until 1991. The never-ending succession of duds in the intervening years (as in his other lean periods) is exhausting just to read: The Honorary Consul, The Cotton Club, No Mercy, Power...
In this he is like his exact contemporary and kinda-sorta doppelganger John Travolta (they both played the lead in Grease; Gere on stage, Travolta in the movie). Each closed out the 70s on a high note. Travolta was the iconic face of that decade in America so his subsequent drift into irrelevance until Pulp Fiction must have hit hard. Gere, by contrast, was the Boy Most Likely. He started out with a succession of eye-catching turns in movies by noted directors: John Schlesinger's underrated Yanks, Looking For Mr Goodbar (Richard Brooks), Days Of Heaven (Terrence Malick) and Paul Schrader's American Gigolo. All the action came early on in Gere's career; the rest has largely been comebacks.
The defining scene of Gere's whole career β and, indeed, his on-screen persona β comes in American Gigolo, when Smokey Robinson sings The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage while Gere's high-end male prostitute lays out one exquisite silk shirt after another on his bed, each alongside its appropriate tie, cufflinks and shoes: "Oh, you gave the illusion that your love was real..." Arbitrage will repeatedly remind you of that moment."
In this he is like his exact contemporary and kinda-sorta doppelganger John Travolta (they both played the lead in Grease; Gere on stage, Travolta in the movie). Each closed out the 70s on a high note. Travolta was the iconic face of that decade in America so his subsequent drift into irrelevance until Pulp Fiction must have hit hard. Gere, by contrast, was the Boy Most Likely. He started out with a succession of eye-catching turns in movies by noted directors: John Schlesinger's underrated Yanks, Looking For Mr Goodbar (Richard Brooks), Days Of Heaven (Terrence Malick) and Paul Schrader's American Gigolo. All the action came early on in Gere's career; the rest has largely been comebacks.
The defining scene of Gere's whole career β and, indeed, his on-screen persona β comes in American Gigolo, when Smokey Robinson sings The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage while Gere's high-end male prostitute lays out one exquisite silk shirt after another on his bed, each alongside its appropriate tie, cufflinks and shoes: "Oh, you gave the illusion that your love was real..." Arbitrage will repeatedly remind you of that moment."
- John Patterson reviews 'Arbitrage', The Guardian