Posted on 04/21/2022 12:03:53 AM PDT by nickcarraway
What an actor and fine gentleman. Met him once in West Texas when he was getting some character information for one of his movies on the border.
Have enjoyed his movies over the years and hollywierd cannot make movies anymore because the characters cannot come to life like Duval.
One of the most exciting and fun days I ever spent was as an extra in the filming of a Robert Duvall movie, “Get Low”. He played Felix Breazeale, true story about a Tennessee recluse who planned and carried out his own funeral while he was still alive so he could enjoy it. Also starring Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek.
C’mon FReepers. 22 posts and no “Smell the Napalm” reference?
I’m going back to bed.
Second Hand Lions was awesome.
It actually attempted to portray Southern Pentecostals genuinely (though over-emphasizing the Holy Spirit) and culture overall positively and used many actual members as actors while even the furniture store owner was not an actor, and some footage was off-script. And police were shown as respectfully waiting until after pastor "Sonny" finished preaching. And while "Sonny" certainly was a problem, yet his wife was the worse offender.
A brilliant observation as it explains both why Robert Duvall is among America's finest actors ... and why he is worthy of the adulation of serious film fans. (That very small part he played in "Slingblade" -- in which Duvall, without even trying, "stole" the scene from Billy Bob Thorton who was exceptional in the lead role of his screenplay, is how effectively Duvall "becomes the character.") Cheers!
Probably the best American actor of the last half century. I only qualify him as American to prevent the usual squabbles over Daniel Day Lewis vs. Anthony Hopkins vs. Gary Oldman. That said, IMHO he’d still rank with or above those three as well. Dominates the screen in every scene.
Just as an odd one, young Robert Duval on The Alfred Hitchcock Show plays a jealous outrageous method actor who murders his rival and has the head in an ice bucket, when everyone including a detective stops over on a sweltering hot day.
Agree with all the other observations about his great career. A masterful movie steal is as the detective in Falling Down, facing danger on the last day before a retirement he doesn’t want.
From Wiki:Duvall’s first film role was as Boo Radley in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird with Gregory Peck. His other roles in the 1960s included Bullitt with Steve McQueen (1968) and True Grit with John Wayne (1969). In the 1970s, he played Major Frank Burns in M*A*S*H (1970), Tom Hagen in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), Jesse James in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972), Dr. Watson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), Bull Meechum in The Great Santini (1979) and as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in Apocalypse Now (1979).
In 1983, Duvall was cast as Mac Sledge in the drama film Tender Mercies, which earned him an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Actor.[3][4] He went on to co-star in the films The Natural with Robert Redford (1984), Days of Thunder with Tom Cruise (1990), as Joseph Pulitzer in Newsies with Christian Bale (1992), Something to Talk About with Julia Roberts (1995), Sling Blade with Billy Bob Thornton (1996), A Family Thing with James Earl Jones (1996), Phenomenon with John Travolta (1996), and Deep Impact with Téa Leoni (1998). For his role in the 1998 film A Civil Action again with Travolta, he won a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.[5]
In the 2000s, Duvall had notable roles in the films Gone in 60 Seconds opposite Nicolas Cage (2000), Secondhand Lions co-starring with Michael Caine (2003), Open Range co-starring with Kevin Costner (2003) and in the comedy film Four Christmases opposite Vince Vaughn (2008). He starred in and executive produced the 2006 Western television miniseries, Broken Trail. For that, he won two Emmy Awards, one for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Miniseries Or A Movie and the other for Outstanding Miniseries which he shared with the other producers.[6][7] In 2012, he reunited with Tom Cruise after 22 years in the action thriller film Jack Reacher where he played the character Cash. In 2014, he co-starred with Robert Downey Jr. in the legal drama film The Judge where he played Judge Joseph Palmer, the father of Downey’s character.
Too bad they could work it out to have him play Tom Hagen in Godfather III.
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didnâÂÂt find one of âÂÂem, not one stinkin’ dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like victory.”
Not a horse opera fan by any stretch of the imagination, but that was one GREAT movie.
Just this past week, in a discussion of good movies, I commented to my better half that Godfather I and II were 2 of the best movies ever put on film. To my surprise, she had never seen either of them (she’s 56).
We had a couple of bad weather days, which allowed us to watch both and she loved them. One particular comment” “Wow, they don’t make them like that any more and there definitely aren’t actors like that any more.”
Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman.
Three superlative actors who make their characters stand out, regardless of the rest of the cast and script.
This. I was waiting for someone to mention it. :)
I would think so too, but I think there is a freeper who knows the answer for sure.
Ping.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8IlXA4ArPg
That was a wonderful movie, very deep. Also loved "A Family Thing", where a bigoted white southerner finds out he is part black and that James Earl Jones is his half brother. He wrote both of those films, as well as the masterpiece "The Apostle."
When he still owned a little restaurant in The Plains, Virginia, I used to go have lunch and steal glances at the back of his head. He and his wife and guest(s) sat at a table that looked out the front window, with his back to the room. I wanted to go over there and gush, but it was such a laid-back place, it would have been rude.
He is surely one of America's greatest film actors of all time.
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