Peter O'Toole

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Matt Wilson
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Peter O'Toole

Postby Matt Wilson » 30 Jan 2007, 23:01

My favorite British actor (is he British? he claims to be Irish). I'm only going to spotlight his oscar-nominated roles here as I feel they are by far his best. He doesn't elevate a picture like The Last Emperor enough to really recommend it and most of the other non-nominated films of his I've seen didn't do it for me enough to bother with them here. So, with no further interuption:

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Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Well, this is the one, isn't it? The reason most of us are O'Toole fans. Is there a better wide-screen epic? It truly has to be seen theatrically rather than on TV but even there it shines. The cast is good, Lean's direction is stirring and Peter is wonderful (if somewhat un-O'Toolelike in his underplaying). His most subdued performance and his best movie. It won the oscar as best film too.

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Becket (1964)
Another big '60s period piece and another best picture nominee. O'Toole and Burton are both fantastic. It'll be released on DVD in a few months and he was nominated again for playing the same character (Henry 2) in The Lion in Winter. He could do no wrong at this stage in his career. That would soon change...

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The Lion in Winter (1968)
The same king with a different cast (all perfect) in my second favorite O'Toole picture. The writing is witty and Peter's loud, boastful, over-the-top turn is my top pick of his performances. Hepburn is just as good, but then so is everyone concerned.

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Goodbye Mr. Chips (1969)
OK, so it's not the Donat version, it still has charm. And O'Toole sings! Well, at least good enough for his fourth nomination of the decade (few actors have ever had more). Probably the least of his famous acting noms but not without merit. Hard to see these days though.

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The Ruling Class (1972)
Oh, I quite like this one. Veddy English and some of the musical sequences don't work but boy, is it interesting. A Criterion DVD to die for and the last time O'Toole would be nominated in his golden period. After this he'd look old and tired (come to think of it--he looks older than he was even at this point in his career).

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The Stunt Man (1980)
Interesting little movie from a B-picture director (Richard Rush) who would never be this good again. Pete is over-the-top again but at this point he does it so well we don't begrudge him. He's probably on screen for less time than any other film mentioned here but he steals every scene he's in so no one complains. I recommend the two-disc DVD pictured above.

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My Favorite Year (1982)
Oh how we loved this one in high school... A homage to '50s TV with Peter in an Errol Flynn-type role. The fact that Flynn never did TV doesn't matter. This is the last truly great leading man performance O'Toole would give until Venus. Hard to believe only twenty years seperate him from Lawrence here as he looks like Keith Richards' less-healthy father. No matter--his best performance since Lion.

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Venus (2006)
Which brings us to his latest little gem. I say that before having even seen it though but since I've heard nothing bad about the picture from those who have I expect I'll like it. His eighth nomination and all for Best Actor (that's more than Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, etc--and tied with Paul Newman). I gotta say as I'm sure it'll be the last time he'll be nominated I hope he wins. Unless Forest Whitaker is so good (again--I haven't seen the film) he walks away with it.
Last edited by Matt Wilson on 31 Jan 2007, 02:36, edited 2 times in total.

Sneelock

Postby Sneelock » 30 Jan 2007, 23:08

I think Peter O'Toole is as good in 'The Ruling Class' as anybody is in anything. I'll niggle with the best of them over the movie itself but O'Toole is astonishing.

I remember something called 'Foxtrot' that I quite liked the old boy in. I can't remember if the movie did anything for me.

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The Modernist

Postby The Modernist » 30 Jan 2007, 23:11

Nice post Matt.
It's interesting (to me at any rate!) how many of your list I haven't seen. Some actors just slip the radar, and with me it seems he's one. I'm not a great lover of the 60's costume epic (Lean excepted) anyway, I thought The Lion And the Winter was slow and hammy. Neither if I'm being honest am I that interested in the kind of patrician roles 'O' Toole specialises in.
I've always been attracted to the idea of 'O' Toole, the wild man out on the town with Harris (a much more interesting irish actor in my book), but wish there'd been more of that wildness in 'O' Toole's screen acting which always seemed slightly starchy and restrained to me.
As a late performance though his role as the tutor in The Last Emperor deserves to be on your list.

Sneelock

Postby Sneelock » 30 Jan 2007, 23:16

well, one man's slow and hammy is another man's brilliant. I wouldn't change a little hair on it's head. I wish more movies could deal with interesting bits of history in as conversational and entertaining a way.

Ivan the Terrible is slow and hammy and I think it's pretty brilliant too!

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Postby Matt Wilson » 30 Jan 2007, 23:20

Sneelock wrote:Ivan the Terrible is slow and hammy and I think it's pretty brilliant too!


Oooh, talk about a "classic" I can't stand... I much prefer Alexander Nevsky.

Sneelock

Postby Sneelock » 30 Jan 2007, 23:24

I'll have both with a side order of 'Potemkin'!
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Postby Jimbly » 30 Jan 2007, 23:58

Lawrence is the one for me. I always find it a staggering movie. The sort of movie that would never get made today, too many shades of grey in the main characters. I also love the way that the story is given space to breathe and that it credits it audience with having a brain
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Sneelock

Postby Sneelock » 31 Jan 2007, 00:00

also, how intimate the acting is. usually big movies had big acting. I think Lean's innovation was maybe realizing how much could be accomplished on a big canvas with a certain amount of restraint. O'Toole is brilliant. he's like a lighthouse in that movie.

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Postby Matt Wilson » 31 Jan 2007, 00:05

Sneelock wrote:also, how intimate the acting is. usually big movies had big acting. I think Lean's innovation was maybe realizing how much could be accomplished on a big canvas with a certain amount of restraint. O'Toole is brilliant. he's like a lighthouse in that movie.


I love Kwai and Zhivago too.

Sneelock

Postby Sneelock » 31 Jan 2007, 00:07

I like his earlier, funnier ones!

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Postby Jimbly » 31 Jan 2007, 00:08

Matt Wilson wrote:
Sneelock wrote:also, how intimate the acting is. usually big movies had big acting. I think Lean's innovation was maybe realizing how much could be accomplished on a big canvas with a certain amount of restraint. O'Toole is brilliant. he's like a lighthouse in that movie.


I love Kwai and Zhivago too.


I watched Zhivago last week, I love that movie, I wish it was a lot longer there are so much more that could be told about some characters, Steiger and Courtney esp

I also have a soft spot for Ryan's Daughter, although it has its faults.
So Long Kid, Take A Bow.

Sneelock

Postby Sneelock » 31 Jan 2007, 00:11

it's faults have LONG overshadowed it's strength...
Robert Mitchum!!!!

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Postby BARON CORNY DOG » 31 Jan 2007, 00:18

I saw O'Toole on Charlie Rose the other night. Baroness noticed that he looked totally bizarre. Like they had botoxed his whole face and then given him a sloppy makeup job. He looked like a talking corpse!
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Postby Sneelock » 31 Jan 2007, 00:20

and he still gets more pussy than I do!

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Postby Count Machuki » 31 Jan 2007, 02:30

i thought he was dead for probably 5 years, until this last xmass... :oops:
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Postby BARON CORNY DOG » 31 Jan 2007, 03:04

It looked like they had picked him out from between Walt Disney and Ted Williams to be defrosted.
take5_d_shorterer wrote:If John Bonham simply didn't listen to enough Tommy Johnson or Blind Willie Mctell, that's his doing.

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Postby toomanyhatz » 31 Jan 2007, 03:08

Lawrence is of course the one, but I'm glad you mentioned the Stunt Man. Probably his most underrated film. He's great in it, and the movie, although it has its kitsch moments, is no mere B-film. As for Rush, two movies that he directed- Hells Angels on Wheels and Psych Out, which probably are B-movies, are incredibly stylish ones. (I'll leave whether the fact that he directed Freebie and the Bean is to his credit or detriment to you. :D)

He is definitely a walking corpse, though, isn't he? I remember the AFI Lean tribute in the early 90s, and O'Toole was interviewed from his local pub. He looked like hell then! He's the acting version of Keith Richards, isn't he? He'll outlive the cockroaches after the nuclear war.
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Re: Peter O'Toole

Postby Billybob Dylan » 31 Jan 2007, 17:18

Matt Wilson wrote:My Favorite Year (1982)
A homage to '50s TV with Peter in an Errol Flynn-type role. The fact that Flynn never did TV doesn't matter.

Actually he did. The inspiration for MFY was Flynn's appearance on Sid Cesar's Your Show of Shows where Mel Brooks was a writer. Brooks also produced MFY.

I love this film, too. Especially the scene where Alan Swann jumps off the roof with a fire hose tied around his waist, and when he comes to rest dangling in front of a balcony where someone's having a cocktail party, and Swann, placing his cigarette holder in his mouth, casually asks "do you have a light?"
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Re: Peter O'Toole

Postby Matt Wilson » 31 Jan 2007, 17:24

Billybob Dylan wrote:
Matt Wilson wrote:My Favorite Year (1982)
A homage to '50s TV with Peter in an Errol Flynn-type role. The fact that Flynn never did TV doesn't matter.

Actually he did. The inspiration for MFY was Flynn's appearance on Sid Cesar's Your Show of Shows where Mel Brooks was a writer. Brooks also produced MFY.



Wow, thanks for that bit of trivia, Alasdair.
I read Flynn's autobiography but don't recall that happening.

Sneelock

Postby Sneelock » 31 Jan 2007, 17:40

Flynn had better stories to tell!


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