Rocky also defeated Bound for Glory (a biopic of Woody Guthrie), Network, and All the President’s Men for best picture. And three of the acting Oscars went to Network.
But as I said, it was enormously popular.
I doubt it. They’re not all snobs.
The 70s was an incredible time for movies: The Godfather I & II; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Network, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Chinatown, Clockwork Orange, Star Wars, Dog Day Afternoon, The Conversation and on and on. It was the last gasp before big studios just turned out dreck.
Most film scholars will tell you that the 1970s were the greatest decade of film. The legend typically revolves around the mavericks of “New Hollywood,” directors who used their unprecedented power and skill to helm some of the most iconic films of the last half-century, such as The Godfather, Jaws, Star Wars, Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter , and Apocalypse Now.
I have seen Zardoz. I was either too high or not high enough when I saw it. It might be my favourite thing about Connery.
Producers offered Connery percent of box office to play Gandalf in LotR. Connery said no, because he didn’t ‘get’ the story. He missed out on $400 million because he didn’t understand the story.
Then realize that he actually made Zardoz…
I believe that is same reason Connery gave for turning down playing The Architect in The Matrix.
Exception granted, per OP.
Yes, of course, one recalls normally the “You want me to hold the chicken?” scene from 5EP, but as in this movie and several others, Mr. Nicholson delivers moving performances.
https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7y8tLgvpCY
I agree with this.
Kevin Costner loves to portray the 1960s, but usually does so as an idealist, law abiding good guy.
In A Perfect World, he’s still in his preferred era, but he plays a bad guy who kidnaps a kid. While the movie shows his good side, and he ends up a sympathetic character, it’s quite incongruent to see Costner committing crimes.
He turned down Morpheus at first, then also turned down the Architect.
I would not thought he was physically able enough to be Morpheus, who fights a lot, but maybe the script looked different then. I mean, I don’t think Fishburne could do the role today without working out for a few months in prep.
Anyway, I have a feeling the Gandalf story is exaggerated. I don’t think they would have gone with him over Ian McKellan, but probably wanted to screen test or at least talk to him about it.
Has anyone found a definitive source that says clearly that Peter Jackson offered Gandalf to him? I know Christopher Lee asked for Gandalf and even made a video of himself as Gandalf, reading some lines from the book, in order to petition/audition for it.
How about this one, where the point is that he’s so danged unnerving with his pauses-and-emphasis schtick that he makes Woody Allen seem like a regular guy?
While it’s true that Wepner inspired Stallone to write “Rocky,” he didn’t go the distance. Ali knocked him out in the 15th round.
Ali insisted that it shouldn’t have been ruled a knockdown, that he fell because Wepner stepped on his foot and pushed him. Film and photos support his claim.
And now back to your regular programming. . .
I don’t think of Hackman as an actor who usually plays himself. He’s a character actor who’s had a lot of lead roles. He was quite different in The French Connection, The Conversation, and Hoosiers.
I love hearing him talk about Hoosiers. He made it for the money, just a job. He had no idea it would be so memorable and loved for years to come.
He’s great in it, but it’s hard to tell what things are like when you are making them.
ACTING!!!
(You have to admit, ‘unsociable intellectual’ was definitely outside his usual wheelhouse.)
It’s not so much about being a snob, as about noticing how massively the film industry changed after Star Wars.
Today we see “indie” movies on streaming services, but back then they–and also fairly big studio pictures that emphasized character over spectacle and fx–opened in theaters.
That’s practically unimaginable, today.
Not completely. There’s one photo that looks that way but Wepner’s foot might not have actually been over Ali’s at all . Photojournalist were autoclicking cameras around the ring but I don’t recall seeing another one that has showing Wepner’s boot touching Ali’s. It is certainly possible though. Whether an intentional tactic or accidental it’s often the result of stepping on a boxer’s foot because yanking a foot away or any disturbance to their footwork can leave them off balance. Wepner has said he made a mistake because he woke Ali up, and then Ali proceeded to torture him through the remaining rounds.
Thanks for the correction. Ali did indeed take him out. But it was the final round. And Wepner was still trying to get up when the ref waived it off.
There was grit on display. I can see where Stallone got the inspiration.
It wasn’t a devastating blow. More of a body shot, and Ali popped right back up. But as the clip below shows, it was only the third time, to that point, that the champ had ever been knocked down.
What he said.
Jack Nicholson (except “King of Marvin Garden”)
Oh, you can’t leave out his spot on Taxi !
I had never seen that!
What about the guy fighting The Fonz with karate?