I really miss Gene Hackman. I understand that he has spent his time writing; unfortunately I haven't sought out any of his work. Still, an actor and artist as great as he was (is?) should not end a career with Mooseport.
shareWhen asked during a GQ interview in 2011 if he would ever come out of retirement to do one more film, Hackman said he might consider it "if I could do it in my own house, maybe, without them disturbing anything and just one or two people".
Someone in the biz please get to work on this pronto!
Yep, bloody Mooseport. If it had been Runaway Jury then that would have been an acceptable swan song or if he had come out of retirement for Nebraska (not to take away from Bruce Derns wonderful performance) then that could have been an actually perfect way to finish. But no, bloody Mooseport.
Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt!
Yeah... not a great way to bow out... but if he waited for another 'prestige' role, then he might have ended up working longer than he wanted to, so...
"Your mother puts license plates in your underwear? How do you sit?!"
I like to think of these incredible performers as human beings first; subject to the same intangible rules which apply to us all in the twilight of our best years. That which restrain us as the many: the metaphysical shift of our being due to the panicky and anxiety-laden assaults of aging and time.
Certainly, we'd all like to head out of our careers in enchanted glory, like the premise of so many of the stories we adore and celebrate on this very website. But how odd would it be to witness all of our actors going out or taking their final curtain call in complete perfection, of course to appease our lofty expectations as a greedy and spoiled audience.
When one gives half a century of their time in the pursuit of entertaining and giving light to the lives of a pretentious audience only to be judged for a slight misstep to the left in the closing chapter?
It would appear that the man chose the perfect way to exit. Mr. Hackman hated and hates the politics, viciousness and shallowness of TinselTown. He knew it would be a typical response for fans to whine about a plot of insignificance, instead of celebrating the genius of his life's work.
For every brilliant theory that Albert Einstein brought forth, he had hundreds of admitted failures. We tend to associate him with his highly substantial theory of special relativity. Not the two dozen *beep* ups which lead to it, or many of the dustbins which came after.
Gene Hackman could have done a dozen Mooseports in the end. His worst movies surpass half of the crap which purports to be a good movie today.
Keep the faith, Mr. Hackman and thank you for your dedication in keeping the idle entertained.