criterionforum.org

I was just watching The Main Event the other day and defending him as maybe the most charming leading man of his era. I hope he died peacefully after such a troubled life.

With all sincerity: Oh man, oh god

Matt wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 10:33 pm I was just watching The Main Event the other day and defending him as maybe the most charming leading man of his era. I hope he died peacefully after such a troubled life.

He really did inflict a lot of misery on everyone in his orbit, particularly members of his immediate family.


My grandmother used to work at Gulf & Western, which was Paramount’s parent company for many years, and she still mentions him asking her for directions to the washroom as being an extremely memorable experience

jlnight wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 12:18 pm Shane MacGowan - the Pogues, the Popes and Straight to Hell (film).

From the funeral:

The Pogues, "The Parting Glass"
Nick Cave, "A Rainy Night in Soho"
Glen Hansard and Lisa O’Neill, "Fairytale of New York"

beamish14 wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 11:33 pm My grandmother used to work at Gulf & Western, which was Paramount’s parent company for many years, and she still mentions him asking her for directions to the washroom as being an extremely memorable experience

Must this anecdote end there? Must it? I'm not saying it shouldn't. And ultimately only you can decide, one way or another, only youuuuu...

There was a sweet picture of him reuniting with Ali MacGraw (another seemingly hated Hollywood type of that era...I simply wouldn't know). Anjelica Huston has a somewhat harsh, unflattering take on their brief 70s liaison, and called him a raving, violent lunatic. What was his deal? His performance in Paper Moon, while effective, also seems like a performance an uptight, unhappy, overly-driven lunatic might give. No hard feelings or anything. Rest in Peace!

White misogynist leading man who knew

Randall Maysin Again wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 12:25 am

beamish14 wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 11:33 pm My grandmother used to work at Gulf & Western, which was Paramount’s parent company for many years, and she still mentions him asking her for directions to the washroom as being an extremely memorable experience

Must this anecdote end there? Must it? I'm not saying it shouldn't. And ultimately only you can decide, one way or another, only youuuuu...

That’s truly all there is to it! She was taken with his attractiveness, but there was no possibility of romance between them (despite her being single!), which was probably a great thing given his history with women.

beamish14 wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 4:14 am That’s truly all there is to it!

That's a bummer. You made it sound so funny and preposterous!

A 70s hottie...blech, what a gross decade. Seriously though, what was his mental health profile? Why was he so unpleasant?

Randall Maysin Again wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 5:15 am

beamish14 wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 4:14 am That’s truly all there is to it!

That's a bummer. You made it sound so funny and preposterous!

A 70s hottie...blech, what a gross decade. Seriously though, what was his mental health profile? Why was he so unpleasant?

I want to avoid the trap of diagnosing someone, but he clearly had a lot of anger issues and substance abuse challenges. He was doing cocaine with his offspring when they were in elementary school, and Tatum O’Neal goes into detail about his abuse in her memoir

brundlefly wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 11:43 pm

jlnight wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 12:18 pm Shane MacGowan - the Pogues, the Popes and Straight to Hell (film).

From the funeral:

The Pogues, "The Parting Glass"
Nick Cave, "A Rainy Night in Soho"
Glen Hansard and Lisa O’Neill, "Fairytale of New York"

Brundlefly thank you so much for posting those. I had no idea they were available for mass consumption. I'm very pleased to have seen those!

Don't know O'Neal specifically, but there were a lot of drug casualties in the 70's.

Randall Maysin Again wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 5:15 amA 70s hottie...blech, what a gross decade.

I assume you didn't experience it firsthand? Because it was the culmination of the 20th century - black power, women's lib, latchkey kids, punk rock, power pop, smoking indoors, institutionalized paranoia, Judy Blume... it was fucking AWESOME. I pity anyone born after 1979!

It was just an offhand, silly comment, based solely on how, to me, the various fashions of the day seem to genuinely make people generally less attractive, rather than a serious evaluation of all the social changes of the entire era. I did not live through it, no

It was pretty funky, you missed it

It sounds like it! I'm pretty sure I would have liked it better than any era I've personally lived through. Although I should have appreciated the 90s more, but I was still really young when they ended

The proliferation of instant gratification to the nth degree we live in now, does make me yearn for the days when I waited for something to come on. That’s maybe just how also youth extends time into something interminable but so fleeting now.

Infantilism + hypertrophic greed = world culture today. people will always be greedy, and always were, but now its just so grotesque

Blip Martindale wrote:

Randall Maysin Again wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2023 5:15 amA 70s hottie...blech, what a gross decade.

I assume you didn't experience it firsthand? Because it was the culmination of the 20th century - black power, women's lib, latchkey kids, punk rock, power pop, smoking indoors, institutionalized paranoia, Judy Blume... it was fucking AWESOME. I pity anyone born after 1979!

A lot depends on where you were. LA, awesome. Northern Ireland, less so. Much of my favourite art originates in the 70s, but it was also an often grubby, cruel decade.

Oh how I miss the 70s. I remember Watergate and what a bad bad man that Nixon was. Fast forward to now and Trump basically does Watergate To The Power Of Ten most days, and nobody seems to blink.

I cannot help feeling that Ryan was an underrated actor. He was completely brilliant in the very misunderstood Barry Lyndon. I hope Barry Lyndon pulls a Jeanne Dielman in the near future.

Yes, to get this back on topic (RIP Ryan O'Neal) my initial response/defense about the "scuzzy" 70s was made because I thought it odd that anyone would mention O'Neal in that context. The guy was classically beautiful and about as squeaky clean a star that that decade produced. I just found it amusing to think of him as a bum... grifter, maybe, drug addict, sure, but always a kind of class, or at least an arrogance that elevated him above the filth of that decade. Which may be why so many dismiss him as an actor of depth. And they may be right. But I'll take Barry Lyndon over 99% of other films, and The Driver over 95% of other films.

Let’s not forget his (and Babs’) effervescent performance(s) in one of my personal favourites, What’s Up Doc?

I dare any human not to fall in love with it.

British actress Shirley Anne Field, who appeared in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and Alfie
amongst many films and television series.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-67687117

JSC wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 8:39 pm British actress Shirley Anne Field, who appeared in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and Alfie
amongst many films and television series.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-67687117

The Entertainer and Losey's The Damned too.