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The Gene Hackman Appreciation Thread

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He was born in 1930, so he's a bit old, but he's a damned good performer. Where the heck is Gene Hackman? I love his performances and really miss em, too. This thread is in honor of the greatest Lex Luthor ever!
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Gene Hackman said:
Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors.

I do not like assassins, or men of low character.

I wanted to act, but I'd always been convinced that actors had to be handsome. That came from the days when Errol Fyln was my idol. I'd come out of a theater and be startled when I looked in a mirror because I didn't look like Flynn. I felt like him.

I was trained to be an actor, not a star. I was trained to play roles, not to deal with fame and agents and lawyers and the press.

If I start to become a star, I'll lose contact with the normal guys I play best.

If you look at yourself as a star, you've already lost something in the portrayal of any human being.

It really costs me a lot emotionally to watch myself on screen. I think of myself, and feel like I'm quite young, and then I look at this old man with the baggy chins and the tired eyes and the receding hairline and all that.

The difference between a hero and a coward is one step sideways.

You have a powerful weapon working for you. For you there is no tomorrow and that makes you all very dangerous people!
 
I love Gene Hackman in The French Connection.

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You picking your feet in Poughkeepsie!?!? Huh!?! Come on, I wanna hear it!
 
Gene Hackman is no doubt an awesome actor. He just was in a lot of movies I just had no interest in.
 
Duderz said:
One of my favorite actors.

Has he won an Oscar for anything? I feel like I'm forgetting something.

The French Connection - Best Actor
Unforgiven - Best Supporting Actor
 
What about a Dennis Hopper appreciation thread? The whim of a madman; I like that!
 
He was king koopa, dude. But he was in the latest Gorillaz album, so he breaks even. He's pretty ace on that new E Ring show on NBC, too.
 
The Conversation is a pretty damn good Gene Hackman movie. And my favorite Hackman role is definitely Royal Tenenbaum.
 
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You look up the definition of "Mailing it In" in the dictionary, you see a picture of Hackman in The Replacements.
 
Yep, Hackman is definitely one of my favorite actors. I put him up their with Connery, and Morgan Freeman. He ALWAYS brings believability to his roles. IIRC, Hackman was also in the marines. That must be were got that hard edge from.
 
i just wanted to step in and say that Gene Hackman is by one of the best actors of all time, if not the best actor of all time when it comes to acting pissed off and frusterated.
 
Gene Hackman for the win!

Unforgiven, Superman, Wyatt Earp, Mississippi Burning, French Connection I & II, Bonnie & Clyde, Hoosiers... go Gene go!
 
Sholmes said:
How does The French Connection stand up today? I'm very eager about that Hackman film.

Really slow by todays standards. The real killer though is the near to nothing music score. All the way through its just silence. That puts me off the most.
 
some of my favorite Gene Hackman movies

The French Connection
The Poseidon Adventure
Superman
Hoosiers
Mississippi Burning
Unforgiven
Absolute Power
Heist
The Royal Tenenbaums
Runaway Jury

I had no idea he was so old though. He will be 76, which is insane.
 
Crow said:
Really slow by todays standards. The real killer though is the near to nothing music score. All the way through its just silence. That puts me off the most.

While The French Connection is slow by today's standards it's a damn fine movie by any standard. I love the atmosphere (minimal score and all), Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider are both fantastic, and the car chase sequence is positively amazing.

However, my favorite Gene Hackman flick is The Conversation:

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Bataman, if you liked Ned Beatty as Otis in Superman, go rent Hopscotch sometime. It's a spy comedy about CIA agent Walter Matthau saying to hell with it, hooking up with Glenda Jackson, quitting his job, and hiring his memoirs. The problem is that he leaves his job without bothering to inform his boss - a positively apoplectic Ned Beatty - and his memoirs are horribly emberessing for intelligence agencies around the world, particularly the CIA. Cue Matthau tormenting Beatty over the course of an extended wild goose chase. It's terrific, and everyone in it does a helluva job - particular an impossibly young Sam Watterson in his pre-Law And Order days.

Wait, we're discussing Hackman, right? Yeah, he's totally awesome. Now if only I could remember who I loaned my copy of The Royal Tennenbaums to...

FnordChan
 
Gene Hackman is a dick!

Yes, this is appropriate for this thread since Gene Hackman plays dicks, and plays them well.

You're a real son of a bitch Gene Hackman! >:(

Like James Woods, he plays characters that make you want to see him meet a violent end in real life. :P
 
You're even worse than his sniveling henchlings in Superman! :P But yeah, that just means he does his job well. Loved him in The Royal Tennenbaums. Well, considering your post, loved to hate him. :)
 
It's funny, as much as I like Hackman, I've only seen a couple of his classic performances (Unforgiven, Superman 1 & 2). Most of the stuff I've seen is newer fare, including Heist, Absolute Power, The Replacements and er, that medical drama with him and Hugh Grant (Hack has a great 3 minute scene in that one).
 
phantomile co. said:
i just wanted to step in and say that Gene Hackman is by one of the best actors of all time, if not the best actor of all time when it comes to acting pissed off and frusterated.

LOL :lol THIS IS so TRUE!

whenever i think of gene hackman, I think of someone who is just pissed off and ready to snap.

"THIS MY SHIP! GIVE ME THE DAMN MISSLE KEY!!!!"
 
The Conversation is inarguably his best movie and, generally speaking, one of the best ever; as an aside, fans of that one would do well to check out the Parallax View with Warren Beatty... who happened to direct Reds, which Hackman was also in. Not exactly six degrees of Kevin Bacon, but it works for the thread. :)

Night Moves is another favorite Hackman vehicle of mine, though maybe one of his less popular movies. I love his little jab at Eric Rohmer when his wife asks if he'd like to go to the movies. And punching someone in the head with a conch shell? Awesome.

I've got Nic Roeg's Eureka! in my Netflix queue, which sounds interesting even if Hackman's not in the entire movie.
 
Kindbudmaster said:
Just watched this a few days ago on hdnet. Great movie, don't know how I missed it all these years.

Speaking of HDNET -

Once you watch a movie in High-Def, doesn't regular TV just look like a booger?

Gene Hackman was excellent in Bonnie and Clyde. And the scene in the barbershop in Mississippi Burning made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
 
GitarooMan said:
I'm a huge Gene Hackman fan. Here's one of my favorites of his, The Conversation

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I have this one on DVD.

Gene Hackman rocks.

I just like many of the old guys.

Sean Connery, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Douglas, Ed Harris, Dustin Hoffman, James Caan, Michael Caine, Richard Dreyfus, etc.
 
Hotarubi said:
The Conversation is inarguably his best movie and, generally speaking, one of the best ever; as an aside, fans of that one would do well to check out the Parallax View with Warren Beatty

The Parallax View is terrific fun. It's about a reporter who witnesses a presidential candidate's assassination and begins to investigate, at which point everything goes straight to hell. It's a bit goofy, but the escalating paranoia makes up for it. The highlight of the film is a Clockwork Orange-esque video montage that's worth the price of admission. I also love how 70s everything else, particularly the stark difference between air travel then and now.

FnordChan
 
Most of my favorite Hackman movies have been mentioned (except Unforgiven), so I'll just note that I think he's among the most consistant, solid actors out there. He's been in some bad movies, but I've never seen a bad Hackman performance.
 
FnordChan said:
The Parallax View is terrific fun. It's about a reporter who witnesses a presidential candidate's assassination and begins to investigate, at which point everything goes straight to hell. It's a bit goofy, but the escalating paranoia makes up for it. The highlight of the film is a Clockwork Orange-esque video montage that's worth the price of admission. I also love how 70s everything else, particularly the stark difference between air travel then and now.

FnordChan

It's good, but the plot kinda struck me as jumbled.... maybe I should watch it again sometime.
 
One of the greatest actors ever.

Bat 21
Superman
The French Connection 1
The French Connection 2
Mississipi Burning


and some film in which he investigated the desaparition of a young girl...don't remember the name...
 
AB 101 said:
I think younger crowds like the younger actors.

More hip and all that shit I guess. :/


Most young actors are fucking terrible. Scarlett Johannson is like the only good actor/actress born after 1981.
 
I <3 Hackman.

I just recently got around to seeing The Conversation, and wow-- they don't make movies like that anymore.

I fear Spacey will not live up to his Lex Luthor.
 
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