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So this is what it feels like when doves cry

Known for a lot of things but he'll always be Roy Batty to me first and foremost. God damn it.

His collaborations with Paul Verhoeven were as significant as Kurosawa/Mifune or Ford/Wayne. Him raising a glass in the final shot of Soldier of Orange always gives me frisson. An incredible screen presence.

I also loved his wry sense of humour about the bizarre situations he would find himself in, probably best shown off in those Guinness adverts. And he was great recently as the mourning detective father exploring the fate of his long missing son through a dystopian apartment complex (and diving into the minds of various characters there) in the cyberpunk video game Observer, which is obviously riffing off his Blade Runner presence.

Spoiler for the ending of Observer

I actually got the 'bad ending'(?) of the game first time through (Embrace), in which the father decides to merge with what remains of his son (but which is presumably just a ruse to let the electronic entity escape the locked down building into the wider internet), but I felt more than satisfied with it simply because of Hauer's moving performance as a father who simply doesn't want to let what remains of his son die, even if that means the worst for the rest of the world.

And don't forget his fantastic force of nature antagonist in the amazing thriller The Hitcher!

On a slightly different note, he's basically playing an Americanised version of Zatoichi in Blind Fury. And I remember the ubiquitous in the video stores I frequented in the early 90s double bill of Wedlock (an early version of Battle Royale II's premise of people getting paired up and fitted with explosive collars!) and the brilliantly stylish serial killer thriller Split Second, set in the post-apocalyptic flooded London of "2008", where the Thames Barrier failed!

I'm afraid I have not gotten to that recent Arrow release of Ermanno Olmi's The Legend of the Holy Drinker, which I hear is one of his best performances.

Still wondering why The Hitcher doesn't have a Blu Ray release here in the states. Nolan is a big fan. Wish he'd give someone a nudge to help get it out there.

Surviving the Game is a really fun, Ernest Dickerson-directed riff on The Most Dangerous Game, with Hauer leading the pack of men hunting down
vagrant Ice-T for sport. I love Roeg's Eurkea and Peckinpah's overlooked The Osterman Weekend, too. There's almost too much cult/genre actor power to
contain in Eureka, especially in a scene he shares with Ed Lauter, Mickey Rourke, Gene Hackman, AND Theresa Russell!

Oh yes, he's great in The Osterman Weekend. Its a flawed film (mostly because the spy thriller aspect and the technology stuff is a bit silly) but its a film that is really elevated by the acting of that entire cast. That scene between Hauer and John Hurt where Hurt is forced to pretend to be a television presenter is really great. And Hauer's character is the centre of the one absolutely brilliantly brief flash of the old slo-mo Peckinpah magic touch towards action scenes when his dive into the swimming pool is intercut with Meg Foster shooting arrows into the baddies.

Died the same year as Roy Baty...

That gave me an audible no. He's definitely one of the great character actors.

He's great in Ladyhawke too, as the opposite half of the couple with Michelle Pfeiffer. Their characters are cursed, with Pfeiffer to turn into a hawk during the day and human at night; and Hauer human during the day and a wolf at night. With their transformations being their one moment of heartbreaking connection. No wonder Guillermo del Toro likes that one, as it is high fantasy used for high emotion.

A really interesting documentary Blond, Blue Eyes from 2006 that followed Hauer around. Apparently he had lots of behind the scenes material relating to his films stored away!

Anyone catch him in Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block? A relatively recent performance on a criminally underrated horror series.

Having just watched the above-mentioned season of Channel Zero, I was very impressed, both by Hauer who put in a great performance and by the rare example of a horror TV show that managed to remain unsettling throughout. It's included on Amazon Prime's AMC Premium channel if anyone is interested in a good horror show with a notable late career performance by Hauer. Although be warned, it's plenty gory.

Big Ben wrote: Wed Jul 24, 2019 8:29 pm Still wondering why The Hitcher doesn't have a Blu Ray release here in the states. Nolan is a big fan. Wish he'd give someone a nudge to help get it out there.

Eric Red tweeted that a Blu-ray of The Hitcher will be announced soon.