Post by petrolino on Jun 16, 2018 2:49:36 GMT
Kevin Costner
(born January 18, 1955, Lynwood, California, U.S.)
"Few actors seem more to the saddle born than Kevin Costner. Onscreen, he’s ridden the American frontier in “Silverado,” “Open Range,” “Wyatt Earp” and his Oscar-winning calling card, “Dances With Wolves.” Offscreen, he owns a 160-acre ranch in Aspen, Colo., and fronts a band called Modern West.
Which makes him a perfect fit for “Yellowstone,” a modern-day western created by Taylor Sheridan (“Wind River,” “Hell or High Water”) with a protagonist and story line cut from 150-year-old cloth. Mr. Costner plays John Dutton, the patriarch of the largest contiguous cattle ranch in the United States — the size of Rhode Island, best navigated by helicopter — which abuts a national park, an Indian reservation and a town overflowing with land developers and energy speculators."
Which makes him a perfect fit for “Yellowstone,” a modern-day western created by Taylor Sheridan (“Wind River,” “Hell or High Water”) with a protagonist and story line cut from 150-year-old cloth. Mr. Costner plays John Dutton, the patriarch of the largest contiguous cattle ranch in the United States — the size of Rhode Island, best navigated by helicopter — which abuts a national park, an Indian reservation and a town overflowing with land developers and energy speculators."
- Kathyrn Shattuck, The New York Times
"Almost a quarter of a century ago, Kevin Costner held his Oscar statuettes aloft, triumphant after winning Best Picture and Best Director for his epic Western, Dances with Wolves. Made on a low budget during an arduous five-year shoot, using Native American dialogue, untamable wolves and running at three hours long, detractors were quick to dub it “Kevin’s Gate”. But still the movie roared, defying expectation to net seven Oscar wins and taking $424m at the box office. Costner would be credited with revitalising the Western genre and was promptly made an honorary member of the Sioux nation.
But Hollywood executives have short memories, and he was unable to get financing to make an as-yet unreleased film about race called Black and White, forcing him to bankroll the movie himself. It’s in sharp contrast to the days of his notorious 1995 film Waterworld, which had a budget of $172m. “To me, it’s the same movie as Dances with Wolves,” Costner says during a Las Vegas interview where he was recently honoured with the 2014 Cinema Icon Award at CinemaCon."
But Hollywood executives have short memories, and he was unable to get financing to make an as-yet unreleased film about race called Black and White, forcing him to bankroll the movie himself. It’s in sharp contrast to the days of his notorious 1995 film Waterworld, which had a budget of $172m. “To me, it’s the same movie as Dances with Wolves,” Costner says during a Las Vegas interview where he was recently honoured with the 2014 Cinema Icon Award at CinemaCon."
- Gill Pringle, The Independent
“I’ve been very lucky with the movies, but I think essentially I’m a blue-collar kind of guy. I worked on commercial fishing boats and always thought that’s what I’d do, but I’ve had enormous good luck. I have too much. I have the health of my children; I’ve had worldwide fame; I have a lot. When I travel the world, I see that people have very little, and I don’t need everything I have.”
- Kevin Costner, The Telegraph
"Among the many inviolable rules of film criticism - that Nic Cage is a genius; that Terminator 2 was better than the first Terminator; that Kevin Costner will never, ever not be absurd – the most inviolable of all centres on Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, the holy trinity that, whether you like their films or not, must be bowed to as towering luminaries. There’s no question that we owe these guys a debt of gratitude, not only for the mob movies of the last 40 years, but for the equally strong tradition of name-dropping Marty or Bob as a sign a young actor has made it. Old guys whose paths they once crossed nurse the anecdotes like gold. Cameras at awards ceremonies close in on their faces, which are often baffled in the manner of a monarch so grand he can’t make sense of the mortals around him.
I’ve had cause to think about this reverence twice in the last week: first when Kyle Smith wrote a piece in the New York Post claiming that women, to their detriment, don’t get Goodfellas; and then again after a run-in with De Niro, the star of that movie, who is promoting a new film. Smith’s piece was roundly mocked for being silly and reductive, and, sure, lots of women love Goodfellas. After re-watching it, however, I’m not one of them – and if I never have to sit through the Godfather again, either, I’m pretty sure I’ll survive. These films, so often cited in best-of lists and lip-synched to by legions of fans, are long-winded, dimly lit and over-rated. And while their narrative arcs might be great (guy kills other guy, gets killed by first guy’s friends, who kill each other ad infinitum until the Feds yell “Stop!”) and the acting convincing, they are also jerk-off movies – in this case, for the kind of man who mourns the end of the age of machismo – passing themselves off as profound or insightful.
I’ve had cause to think about this reverence twice in the last week: first when Kyle Smith wrote a piece in the New York Post claiming that women, to their detriment, don’t get Goodfellas; and then again after a run-in with De Niro, the star of that movie, who is promoting a new film. Smith’s piece was roundly mocked for being silly and reductive, and, sure, lots of women love Goodfellas. After re-watching it, however, I’m not one of them – and if I never have to sit through the Godfather again, either, I’m pretty sure I’ll survive. These films, so often cited in best-of lists and lip-synched to by legions of fans, are long-winded, dimly lit and over-rated. And while their narrative arcs might be great (guy kills other guy, gets killed by first guy’s friends, who kill each other ad infinitum until the Feds yell “Stop!”) and the acting convincing, they are also jerk-off movies – in this case, for the kind of man who mourns the end of the age of machismo – passing themselves off as profound or insightful.
I don’t want to be too much of a buzzkill about all this: mobster tales are fun in the way that cartoons are fun. What I struggle with (which, like the verb “ to find problematic”, has become the polite way to say “loathe”) is the way that mobster movies invite us to believe that they are deeply meaningful in a way that excuses the heroic portrayal of their gratuitous, male-centered violence. Years ago, I remember running into a friend after she’d been at her boyfriend’s for dinner. “He made me watch Once Upon A Time In America”, she said miserably of the Sergio Leone love-letter to New York’s violent past. “That horrible rape scene seems to go on forever.” All actors become proxies for the roles that they play, and so Pacino and De Niro are, one suspects, loved less for their acting ability than for their status as men who pound heads into tables."
- - Emma Brockes, The Guardian
"I don't give up. I'm a plodder. People come and go, but I stay the course."
- Kevin Costner