Matt Wilson wrote:Geezee wrote:I wonder about that - what's the evidence for him being a once-in-a-generation comic genius? He certainly had his moments. But I wonder how docs like that handle the undeniably saccharine, awful side of his work. We saw the Whitney Houston doc recently and while it does occasionally highlight the fact that she was effectively producing sugary, meaningless pop, there is no real critical appraisal of this - instead just her fans lavishing praise on her brilliance and plenty of talk of the records she broke. I can imagine something similar with Robin Williams. I mean do they in any way delve into the fact that this man is responsible for some of the worst movies of all time?
Why would he be responsible for them? He didn't write the parts. Plenty (all?) of great actors have made shit films. Does that make them 'responsible?' Filmmaking is a collaborative process and no one has a perfect record of successes.
He
is responsible because he really consistently went for the same role. It's what he went for, and what he was typecast as - a sentimental, well-meaning, empty blaaghhh. The vast bulk of his movies really are the worst of what Hollywood can produce, and the fact that he consistently sought those movies is ultimately up to him. Yes he sought to diversify towards the end but the movies seemed pretty generic to me and were only remarkable in that they could promote it by saying "Look at this! Robin Williams is playing a dark role!". None of his movies would likely features in my top 500 movies of all time - and many would feature at the very bottom. Even his roles in movies like Good Morning Vietnam and Dead Poets are problematic to me.
But absolutely, I recognise the uniqueness of some of his qualities - the almost exhausting quality of his energy. And in some ways I admire that, including when I see it in others. But I did find his comedy was typically very bland (someone put up here - likely when RW passed away - several examples of his comedy, including some sketch on golfing in Scotland or something like that, as evidence of his supreme talent and I found it completely generic observational comedy).
I almost certainly will watch the documentary though.