Sean Connery (1930-2020)

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beamish14
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Re: Sean Connery (1930-2020)

#51 Post by beamish14 » Mon Nov 02, 2020 4:43 pm

colinr0380 wrote:
Sat Oct 31, 2020 7:26 pm

Plus he became an early internet meme with "You're the man now, dog!" from Gus Van Sant's Finding Forrester! (Finding Forrester unfortunately could not really compete with Van Sant's earlier Good Will Hunting and was pretty much overwhelmed by the same year's thematically similar Wonder Boys, but its not a bad piece of work. Though it is telling that Van Sant did that enormous swerve away from that kind of character drama into 'figures in the landscape' abstracted dramatics with Gerry, Elephant and Last Days after that!)


Finding Forrester is truly campy, and his overblown performance matches the silliness of the proceedings. To this day, I randomly spout some of the nonsense
that comes out of his eponymous character's mouth like "That's me up there!" (which he exclaims when seeing a portrait of himself in the prep school), "Punch the keeesh, boy!" and "Women will sleep with you if you write a BAD book".

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hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: Sean Connery (1930-2020)

#52 Post by hearthesilence » Mon Nov 02, 2020 9:07 pm

beamish14 wrote:
Mon Nov 02, 2020 4:43 pm
"Women will sleep with you if you write a BAD book".
Along with the similarly loutish "winners go home and f*** the prom queen" from The Rock, I always figured this was the real inspiration behind Darrell Hammond's warped SNL impression.

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hearthesilence
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Location: NYC

Re: Sean Connery

#53 Post by hearthesilence » Mon Nov 09, 2020 3:55 pm

MichaelB wrote:
Sat Oct 31, 2020 9:24 am
hearthesilence wrote:
Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:56 am
beamish14 wrote:
Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:00 am
I've always overlooked the ridiculousness of an Irish-American beat cop who speaks with his Scottish brogue.
I believe this is true of every Connery role. I haven't seen either in a very long time, but if memory serves, he has his usual Scottish brogue playing a Spaniard (or at least someone who lived as a Spaniard) in the Highlander films and a Russian in The Hunt for Red October.
I can't remember the exact quote, but it was something to the effect of "if you want an accent, you hire a character actor. If you want me, you know what you're getting by now."
Actually came across this from an L.A. Times report on the ceremony for his AFI Lifetime Achievement Award:

Much was made during the evening about how no matter what type of character Connery played -- from his Oscar-winning turn as an Irish cop in “The Untouchables” to an Arab chieftain in “The Wind and the Lion” to a Russia sub commander in “The Hunt for Red October” -- he always spoke in his distinctive Scottish brogue.

“Sean never changes,” said Terry Gilliam, his “Time Bandits” director, in a taped interview. “He’s always Scottish.”

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L.A.
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Re: Sean Connery (1930-2020)

#54 Post by L.A. » Thu Mar 25, 2021 1:51 pm

Studio Canal will release The Frightened City (1961) on Blu-ray in April.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Sean Connery (1930-2020)

#55 Post by hearthesilence » Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:26 pm

I saw Robin and Marian again over the weekend. I got the Sony MOD from Deep Discount - it's a pressed disc though it's annoying how often I get MOD's with scratches on the side closest to the substrate. Anyway, hadn't seen it in years, but it left a far greater impression this time around. What a great film, and the ending really is worthy of Borzage at his best, all the more impressive coming from a director who's so well-known for whimsy. I absolutely loved Connery in this, and again, it's a film that seems to address or confront the things that created his star persona. I tried watching his Bond films two years ago, and I was cringing a lot at the sexism, which may have been familiar but had become much harder to take. As a middle-aged Robin Hood, none of those things have left Connery the star, but it worked a lot better in this new context. For one thing, he GETS it, and it seems convincingly and organically tied to maturity, like when he admits to sleeping with other women while away from Marian. ("Yes, but they all looked like you" is followed by a facial expression that seems to say "I'm a complete ass" and "Really? Is that what Marian means to me?")

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Maltic
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Re: Sean Connery (1930-2020)

#56 Post by Maltic » Mon Mar 29, 2021 1:59 pm

His 1970s "slump" gave us his best movies, in my opinion (aside from Marnie): Zardoz, The Man Who Would Be King, and Robin and Marian.

I see JSC hinted at this earlier in the thread.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Sean Connery (1930-2020)

#57 Post by hearthesilence » Mon Mar 29, 2021 2:14 pm

Maltic wrote:
Mon Mar 29, 2021 1:59 pm
His 1970s "slump" gave us his best movies, in my opinion (aside from Marnie): Zardoz, The Man Who Would Be King, and Robin and Marian.

I see JSC hinted at this earlier in the thread.
I think David Thomson suggested this is his biographical encyclopedia as well, and I wouldn't disagree. Again, my three favorites would have to be Marnie, The Man Who Would Be King and Robin and Marian. (I still haven't seen Zardoz - I had no idea Boorman directed it.) I wish there were more "young" Connery films that I liked as much as Marnie, but Bond occupied so much of his time and I suppose he needed those films to build up his career.

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Maltic
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Re: Sean Connery (1930-2020)

#58 Post by Maltic » Mon Mar 29, 2021 3:31 pm

Zardoz is a bit hard to follow the first time around and it's (obviously) Boorman at his most new-agey, but I like it. It also deals with Connery's superagent/superstar persona in quite interesting ways, come to think of it.

There's a fine performance from Connery in The Hill (1965), though I don't like that film very much. Lumet at his most Lumety, applying the post-war genre film techniques to a social problem film. But yeah, it was all about Bond for him in the 1960s.

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L.A.
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Re: Sean Connery (1930-2020)

#59 Post by L.A. » Mon Mar 29, 2021 3:43 pm

Shalako (1968) sounds interesting.

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Maltic
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Re: Sean Connery (1930-2020)

#60 Post by Maltic » Mon Mar 29, 2021 3:50 pm

"Late style" Dmytryk is a huge blind-spot for me. :D

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knives
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Re: Sean Connery (1930-2020)

#61 Post by knives » Mon Mar 29, 2021 9:29 pm

The Molly Maguires is also a great movie.

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domino harvey
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Re: Sean Connery (1930-2020)

#62 Post by domino harvey » Mon Mar 29, 2021 10:09 pm

L.A. wrote:
Mon Mar 29, 2021 3:43 pm
Shalako (1968) sounds interesting.
It isn't, sadly. My thoughts from the Westerns List
domino harvey wrote:
Fri Jun 03, 2011 7:19 pm

Shalako (Edward Dmytryk 1968) Here's a great practical example of how something can sound great when pitched and utterly fail on delivery. A group of European bourgeoisie have gathered together on an Indian reservation under the protection of a US Senator to track and hunt big game. Only the senator didn't give much mind to the fact that they'd be breaking a treaty with the Apaches. Think about the possibilities, as these effete animal hunters must hunt the most dangerous animal, break out of their social barriers, and fend for their lives against insurmountable odds. I want to see that movie!

But instead I saw this, a lousy Euro production starring Sean Connery as the ex-army knowitall that tries telling a bunch of Euro fops that their plan to just shoot at any savages who dare to interrupt their fun is pretty dumb. Speaking of dumb, every victim in this film operates under such childish arrogance that it's hard to muster up any energy in caring what happens to their little hunting party. The film also stumbles with its heavy-handed Marxist commentary-- one particularly tasteless example being the rich trophy wife who runs off with a gunslinger for protection, only to be raped by a band of indians, who end their fun by causing her to fellate her precious diamond jewelry until she suffocates. "Great." Brigitte Bardot's presence here, a few years past her sell-by-date, doesn't help anything.

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L.A.
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Re: Sean Connery (1930-2020)

#63 Post by L.A. » Tue Mar 30, 2021 12:51 pm

Thanks, guess a pass then. The Frightened City is going to the next Connery film I shall watch and the upcoming Blu.

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L.A.
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Re: Sean Connery (1930-2020)

#64 Post by L.A. » Sat Jul 03, 2021 8:12 am

Regarding The Red Tent (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1969), is the original version available on DVD/Blu-ray?

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