N,uff said.
I know McQueen is cool, but he was too much of a famous star, and that can sometimes get in the way of the main attraction; the film and its compelling story.
Some top films benefit from casting fine, but not too famous actors, in the lead roles. Stars can sometimes be distracting, even annoying. We don't really see the character, we see the famous celeb who portays him.
Roy was great. Let's leave it at that.
R.I.P.
Roy was great. I dont know what billy friedkin is talking about when he says its the worst casting decision of his entire career. that's a crazy statement to make.
http://most-underrated-movies.blogspot.com/
He was great but I have to admit I had a hard time accepting him as an Irish mobster at first.
sharehe wasn't an irish mobster, he was a "loser from Queens". A small time hood.
shareHe was working with Irish mobsters during the church heist and Scanlon is a very Irish surname.
shareIt´s very difficult to imagine McQueen, Eastwood or Newman - whom Friedkin had contemplated before Scheider - in this role of some small time hood on a dead-end road in a film with such bleakly existentialist overtones. Scheider´s a much better fit in those filthy slums and muddy forests than some real big movie star would have been. I don´t think his character needed any heroic lifting as he was a bit of a lowlife to begin with.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
I cant understand Friedkins statement about how Scheider was the worst casting choice. I think he was perfect for the role, i really think Scheider was an great actor and that Friedkin should take back that statement.
"Microchanges in air density, my a$$....."
Roy Scheider was definitely fitting enough... in a way he carries it.
"Don't... get... eliminated!"
Nicholson would have worked...
shareRoy did a great job. As the story progressed, Jackie kept losing pieces of himself along the way. By the time he completed his mission he was a physical and mental basketcase. And at the very end in the bar he looked drained and used up. It was all very believable, which shows how talented Roy was. He wasn't really a "hero" in the classic sense, just a capable and determined everyman. But still a loser.
shareScheider was a brilliant & underappreciated actor. I saw him as a modern day Bogart. Especially in this film. This is my fave Friedkin film & Roy's a big part of why. He could look desperate like nobody.
Warren Oates was close.
Carpe Noctem!
Funny you should mention Bogey. Jackie looked and acted a lot like Fred Dobbs from TOTSM. Expecially after he landed in that h**l hole of a town. Harrison Ford tries to get that look too in the Indiana Jones movies, but Roy really nails it. Bogey also played an antihero in a lot of his films, to great effect. What impresses me the most about his character (and the other three guys too) is their raw determination. They all knew there was a good chance they wouldn't survive the mission, but they tried with every cell in their bodies to succeed, survive and get a 2nd chance at life with the big payday they were expecting. They truly had nothing left to lose but their lives, and in the situation they were in, their lives didn't mean much. And I doubt any of them (except perhaps Kassiem)had much hope in a rosey afterlife. So this was their last roll of the dice.
shareScheider was perfect as Jackie Scanlon. Never heard Friedkin's statement nor the fact that Steve McQueen and other A list stars were offered the part till reading the trivia section on imbd. Saw the movie in a theatre in '77 and thought it was a masterpiece. It never occurred to me that Scheider wasn't made for the part.
shareHe had a great face for the part whilst McQueen was fighting cancer at the time.
Its that man again!!