Why don't they make this as interesting to WATCH as it is to read?

[trinityvixen]

Y'all probably have vague recollections of me whining about that class I took this summer on Westerns. I finally got around in the queue far enough that Tombstone came up. It wasn't bad. It doesn't have the cheese appeal of Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (nor the snappy theme song and dear God do I wish I could upload it for you all to hear), and the ending completely failed, but it was pretty decent, all things considered.

But it's not really half as interesting as the actual people the film is based off of. I'd love to see a film adaptation that tracks the period of his life where Wyatt Earp and his long-time adulterous partner basically made up his history to sell it as a True Tale of the Old West. Because Wyatt Earp is as much a con-man as a lawman. I hate that he's synonymous with the integrity of law and order in the lawless lands because he really was not. And isn't that more interesting? Or do we not like commentary on how mass-consumer Americans are a bunch of suckers for this?

And Doc Holliday--anyone know of a decent him-centric film or television show? Because he is ENTIRELY fascinating in every way, and, although he lives up to less than a tenth of the reputation he built in his entire thirty-six years of life, he was actually reknowned among the people populating the West at the time (whereas almost no one gave two shits about Wyatt Earp until he got himself a book deal). My Westerns professor said there's no way, in any adaptation of the Earp-Holliday stories that Doc won't be the more interesting character. And he's absolutely right. So what's with all the Earp-love? I likes me some Holliday!

On an almost unrelated note: Michael Biehn, why aren't you more famous? Seriously, what happened to him? Anybody know?

Who doesn't love Michael Biehn? Step up so I can stab you in the ear. No, really. Where are you people who don't appreciate what he does and how he does it that you have made him not be famouser? Okay, he's a character actor, I do get that. He's the tough guy in one stripe or another (usually a soldier). But he really does his best to draw out a full idea of a person--not just "the man" the character could be written as.

Look at Kyle Reese from Terminator. Reese is a soldier, fighting literally to the death against SkyNet and for the preservation of the human race. He goes back--naked (yum!)--in time to continue the fight and is suitably clever and bad-ass about it. And he completely flips out. There's such an allowance for Reese to be weak, scared, and insecure that you don't find in a lot of action heroes period (not just "these days"--I mean ever). He's crazy-possessed by the knowledge that his mission is all-important and deflated by the realization that, even if he prevents Sarah Connor from dying, humanity still has a shit future ahead. How Michael Biehn conveys the dogged determination alongside the defeated resignation makes Reese not just some adrenaline junkie with a god-complex. He's a person, a person dealing with ideas and concepts beyond his simple understanding and doing the best with the skill set he has. And not always doing it perfectly. That's life.

There are two scenes cut from the film that really sold his humanity. They might have oversold--a little--but Michael Biehn managed to carry them off and I'm sorry they weren't a good fit for the pacing. In the first scene, Reese literally breaks down into tears of grief and rage over the fact that there are no pretty things like trees and grass in his world and Sarah and the rest of the people in her time completely don't appreciate what they have. He cries. For himself, for the future, for everyone and everything that won't have a chance to be. The last time I saw an action hero (note: not heroine--they are allowed to cry as they are weak females) cry, I think it was Con Air and that was over a daughter or something, and it's totally okay to cry over kids. It's not "manly" to cry over feelings. Somehow, Reese can do that, he can cry and angst and hurt and he's no less a man for it. It's helped by the motif of crying as being something that machines cannot do (as exemplified in the denouement of Terminator 2), which further connects masculinity to humanity. This is something that modern grunt-fuck-kill "masculine" heroes are sadly lacking: humanity.

The other scene is equally emotional but in a much lighter way. After the absolutely confusing, romantic, awkward, screwed-up adorable way that Reese confesses he's been in love with Sarah for as long as he's ever really known, they totally do it. That's in the movie, and it's really one of a scattered few love scenes in modern cinema I really found credible. But the scene that was cut immediately after it is less a post-coital thing and more about how Reese is just a person. He may be Sarah's hero and the one who opens her eyes, but he's just a human being. The entire scene is just Sarah discovering that Reese is ticklish--which is also Reese discovering that he is ticklish. It's awful that he doesn't know. Fine, killer robots, whatever, but what kind of monstrous future is it where people don't touch often enough to know that already at his age? It breaks my heart.

Plus, my GOD Michael Biehn is cute when he smiles. He does that so precious little in movies. He becomes walking sex when he does. Which is also why the slightest of wry grin with Hicks and Ripley in Aliens almost (almost) makes me forget about the chest-bursting, head-chomping, monstrous-birth-oh-my-fucking-god aliens running around (and that movie scares the shit out of me, so that's how cute he is flirting). So explain to me why he's not more famous?

Comments

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I once rented a room from descendents of Wild Bill Hickock. They had posters of him all over the house.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

That's a legitimately awesome claim. Wild Bill was at least a real figure in the West.

[thekit.livejournal.com]

Well, he's been working continuously since 1977,
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000299/

But unfortunately cast actors are actually at a disadvantage because they can actually act, as opposed to star actors who become famous for playing a single recognised persona.

Also he does a lot of tv as a guest actor. That is not the way to build up a fanbase, but a great way to do favours to other actors who are starting out.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I miss him in leading roles. I did enjoy him in Grindhouse, but you need his kind of staring incredulity in a film of that much good ridiculosity.

[cbreakr.livejournal.com]

Cut to the chase and just watch Unforgiven. It's a western with the mystique bleeding out of it as it moves along. It completely deserved its Best Picture win.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I hear that Unforgiven is what might be a sequel to The Outlaw Josey Wales, which we watched in my class. I'll check it out some time, I'm sure. It's just that I heard great things about Tombstone, and, as if the cut-tag wasn't a clue, I'm a total Michael Biehn fangirl.