Thursday, June 20, 2013

In Character: James Gandolfini

Yesterday, while in Rome with his family, James Gandolfini passed away after suffering a massive heart attack. News of Gandolfini’s death was crushing enough, but the fact that he was only 51 years old adds to the loss. Fifty-one is young. My parents are older than 51. My aunts are older than 51. And I’d like to think they all have a lot more life to live.

Minutes after news broke of Gandolfini’s death, social media came alive with talk of favorite Gandolfini performances. And as I scrolled through my Twitter feed, I noticed a very pleasing trend. After about 10 minutes, nearly every single Gandolfini performance had been listed as a favorite by at least one of my followers. That says it all, really. It’s so hard to pick just six performances to highlight this tremendous actor. It didn’t matter what he was in, he instinctually made every film better. And then some.

Five Essential Roles
True Romance (1993)
Virgil
Virgil stays in the background for much of True Romance, playing a dedicated goon in search of a young kid in way over his head. But whenever I think of True Romance, one of the first images that pops into my head is James Gandolfini telling poor Patricia Arquette to slowly turn around, so that he can punch her in the face, and lay her out cold. Virgil’s vicious beating of Arquette’s character, Alabama, is extended, horrifying, and shockingly realistic. After he became famous, Gandolfini occasionally remarked how difficult that scene was to shoot. I can hardly imagine. But nevertheless, it’s the work of two dedicated actors who shock the hell out of their audience.

The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
Big Dave Brewster
There’s something about Gandolfini’s portrayal of department store manager Big Dave Brewster that I’ve always been undeniably drawn to. Gandolfini isn’t in the Coen brothers’ superb The Man Who Wasn’t There for very long, but what memorable use he makes of his time.

Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) isn’t even upset when he begins to suspect that his wife, Doris (Frances McDormand) is having an affair with Big Dave. Instead, he sees it as a golden opportunity to blackmail Big Dave out of some fast cash. But Big Dave slowly catches on, which results in a dark and moody confrontation between Ed and Big Dave that stands as one of the single finest scenes Gandolfini ever acted in. The scene is paced purposefully, simmering to a slow boil, before a quick burst of violence ends it as concisely as it began. Gandolfini always had the ability to make us fear him within seconds, and his work as Big Dave is certainly case in point.

In the Loop (2009)
Lt. Gen. George Miller
I’d be curious to know how Gandolfini was cast in Armando Iannucci’s masterful satire, In the Loop. Did Gandolfini have to audition for the part of sarcastic military Lt. Gen. George Miller? Did Iannucci specifically seek him out for the role? I only ask because George Miller is unlike any role I’ve seen Gandolfini play before or since. The man has a knack for comedy; he’s one of the main reasons we laughed so hard during many episodes of The Sopranos. But with In the Loop, Gandolfini was given a chance to play out-and-out comedy, and he simply killed it.

In one of the film’s best moments Gandolfini engages in a hilarious debate with Peter Capaldi’s scene stealing Malcolm Tucker, in which Gandolfini gets to say lines like: “Look, Tucker, you might be some scary little poodlefucker over in England, but out here you’re nothing. You know what you look like? A squeezed dick. You got a big blue vein running up your head all the way to the temple.”

Bravo, good sir. Bravo.

Welcome to the Rileys (2010)
Doug Riley
Welcome to the Rileys is a perfect case of Gandolfini elevating an otherwise lacking film. The movie, directed by Ridley Scott’s son, Jake, tells the story of a husband and wife who have drifted apart since the death of their daughter. Lois (Melissa Leo) handles her grief by never leaving the house. She interacts with few as a means of keeping life at bay.

Doug is different. Because of his job, Doug has to leave the house. He has to put on a face that reads acceptance. But it’s all a mask. Inside, Doug is a deeply scared man, and if I’m being honest, it is very refreshing to see Gandolfini handle such pain with calm remorse. Gandolfini is an actor known for his loud, swift temper, but Doug is far more understated than that. A welcome change of pace that proved Gandolfini always had multiple facets to his craft.

Killing Them Softly (2012)
Mickey
In my initial review for Killing Them Softly, I made mention that James Gandolfini’s brief role as alcoholic hitman, Mickey, was my favorite part of the movie. Mickey only has two scenes in the film, but because of a great script and an excellent actor, we get to know more about Mickey than we do about most leading performers in movies. We learn of his pain and anguish; his lasting torment fueled by booze and bimbos. Simply put: no one could play burly and brutish quite like Gandolfini could.

The Best of the Best
The Sopranos (1999-2007)
Tony Soprano
Is James Gandolfini’s role as Tony Soprano the best television performance of all time? 

I could dedicate pages to the monumental achievement that is Tony Soprano. The complexity, the angst, the impeccable charm, the ferociousness – few modern TV characters are better realized and more captivating than he. Through Tony, Gandolfini took a character and made it his own. There’s simply no better way to put. And in breaking the role down, how does one come to decide upon a single best episode that demonstrates Gandolfini’s skill? Maybe it’s killing an old rat while on a college tour with his daughter, maybe it’s murdering his best friend who had been informing for the feds, maybe it’s rescuing his son from a clumsy suicide attempt. The list goes on, but for me, I was rather surprised how quickly I thought of my favorite Sopranos episode.

The season four finale, titled “Whitecaps,” is a lengthy and brutal examination into a marriage collapsed. The latter part of the episode captures Tony and Carmela (Edie Falco) exchanging in a series of devastating arguments that ultimately leads to their separation. They scream, they shout, they berate, they get violent – it is truly a tour de force of acting, something that I will never forget.

So, back to my initial question. With so many performances to choose from, it seems unfair to label one as the best, but is it? Is Gandolfini’s work on The Sopranos the finest performance the television medium has ever captured? I’m still not sure, but at this present time, I’m having a damn hard considering anyone else.

Other Notable Roles
In Zero Dark Thirty
Terminal Velocity (1994)
Crimson Tide (1995)
Get Shorty (1995)
The Juror (1996)
Night Falls on Manhattan (1997)
She’s So Lovely (1997)
12 Angry Men (1997)
A Civil Action (1998)
8mm (1999)
The Mexican (2001)
The Last Castle (2001)
Surviving Christmas (2004)
Romance & Cigarettes (2005)
Lonely Hearts (2006)
All the King’s Men (2006)
The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)
Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
Cinema Verite (2011)
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Not Fade Away (2012)


44 comments:

  1. The scene where he's explaining how many troops they would have left after an invasion using the toy calculator is brilliant.

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    1. Totally brilliant. He surprised the hell out of me in that movie.

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  2. When I saw that he passed away, I immediately went to Netflix and added The Sopranos to my (already overflowing) Netflix Queue. (Near the top, mind you.) Such a massive loss.

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    1. If you're renting the DVDs via Netflix, it'll take you a long time to get through the series. But believe me, it's so worth it. A milestone of the television medium.

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  3. Damn, I just found out about this! So sad, Gandolfini was an amazing actor! I totally get what you were talking about when you say he elevates otherwise mediocre films with his presence, I recently saw him in a film called Not Fade Away and he definitely improved that film. Also loved him in In The Loop and the other films you mentioned. The passing away of a great man, so sad.

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    1. So sad indeed. I was a little bummed by Not Fade Away - I shamelessly expected something more. I don't know what, just... more. Point is, while the film as a whole didn't really work for me, Gandolfini was just perfect in it.

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  4. Wow, my mind was blown when I read that he passed. My parents are both 51 this year so it also hit me oddly to think as young as they seem that this sort of thing happens all the time to people of all ages. I firmly believe no one should be allowed to die until they're at least 65. It's only fair.

    I still have yet to watch The Sopranos but the whole series was my gift to my dad this past Christmas since it's his favorite show, so I plan to at some point. It's just a bit of an undertaking. I'm really glad you included Welcome to the Riley's though because that movie has gotten practically no notice despite having a few excellent performances in there, especially Gandolfini.

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    1. I was completely taken aback. Fifty one is so damn young. Such a shame.

      The Sopranos is definitely a long undertaking. I went through the entire series again last summer, took me about six weeks of very dedicated (i.e. obsessive) watching. Very dense, very epic, and, it must be sad, occasionally uneven. But at its core, it is a masterful TV show, and Gandolfini might very well deliver the finest performance the medium has ever seen. Crazy good.

      I always felt that Welcome to the Rileys deserved more ink. Decent film with some great performances.

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  5. It's so sad to see him gone but what a career of work he left behind. Can't disagree with any of these performances being some of his best, but Killing Them Softly was so good, that I honestly think he deserved an Oscar nomination. You feel like you know everything about this character, just from the two scenes with him. Great stuff, as always man. He's a talent that's surely going to be missed.

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    1. I was really vying for an Oscar nom for him as well. His Mickey was a perfect incarnation of a lost drunk.

      You're right... a damn shame that he's gone too soon, but wow, what a body of work.

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  6. So sad for him, he was just amazing. I'm not one person that says "he was aboslutely mai favorite actor111!!!1!!" after he died, but shit, we lost such a great actor

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    1. We did indeed. So many solid performances. Are you a Sopranos fan?

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    2. Of course man. It has been a great surprise seeing again the Lorraine Bracco of Goodfellas, but James literally stole the show, in my honest opinion, one of the best portrayals of a gangster ever.

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    3. Hell yeah, couldn't agree more. His role as Tony will go down in history as one of the all time greats. So remarkable.

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  7. Great post as always, Alex.

    Gandolfini, regardless of the film, was always someone to watch out for. His characters were often unpredictable, and that made his roles, even the smaller ones, exciting.

    Though I respect him as an actor, after seeing Alive Day Memories on HBO, I simply cared for him as a person. Not only is the documentary gripping and extremely well done, but Gandolfini deflects any attention or admiration with the exact amount of grace you would expect from a truly good human being.

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    1. Thanks man.

      I really wish the format of this series allowed me to discuss Alive Day Memories, because I couldn't agree with you more. He fought damn hard to get that doc made, and it is such a testament to the kind of man he was. Great actor, all around great guy.

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  8. My favorite performance from him, outside of The Sopranos, was in Where the Wild Things Are. He brought a childlike innocence to that role as someone who is very angry and disappointed but there was also a sadness. I couldn't think of anyone but Gandolfini who could play that role and he did it so perfectly.

    I pretty much love everything he's been in. Even a bad movie like Surviving Christmas. It still saddens me that he's gone and the fact that he was in Italy not just for a film festival but a family vacation just to celebrate his son's eighth-grade graduation and that his son was the one who saw him die. I'm really gutted by that.

    I love that episode that you mentioned. The performances he and Edie Falco gave was just incredible because of all of the rage and such that was boiling between Tony and Carmela. HBO better do a full re-run of The Sopranos every Sunday as of now because we need that show right now as True Blood is just too dumb to watch nowadays.

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    1. The circumstances surrounding his death were just all around gutting. Such sad news.

      I was really tempted to include his work in Where the Wild Things Are. Of the great voice talent in that film, he was a definite highlight. You're right, he was so very sad, and it played through exceptionally.

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  9. It's so sad to lose someone so suddenly, especially an actor as talented as he was. I really need to watch The Sopranos, and Welcome to the Rileys for that matter. Great write-up man.

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    1. Thanks man. Yeah, I highly recommend The Sopranos if you've never seen it. A long undertaking, but oh so worth it.

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  10. I loved him in Killing them Softly. He made such an impact with his short time on screen. Another role I loved him in was Surviving Christmas - such an underrated, amusing film.

    As it sits The Sopranos is my favourite TV show of all time. That man, that character - it's something else.

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    1. He actually was pretty damn entertaining in Surviving Christmas. His ongoing feud with Affleck is hilarious.

      I will forever miss Tone Soprano.

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  11. Sad news and I still need to watch The Sopranos in it's entirety. A quick suggestion for the next In Character how about J.K. Simmons?
    -Dan

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    1. Simmons is one who has been at the top of my list for a long time. Only put him off because I haven't seen a lot of the TV shows he's starred in. But seeing as how I'm probably never going to watch them, I should just write the damn thing anyway. He's one of my absolute favorites.

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  12. God, I love these posts. I learn so much here - I had no idea that Welcome to the Rileys was directed by Scott's son! I actually quite liked the movie and the fact that it allowed Gandolfini to show his tender side more - there are glimpses of that in all of his roles, hell even in True Romance with my most memorable line from the movie - "You've got a lot of heart, kid".

    I watch In the Loop every few weeks/months as it's one of my fav comedies, it's going to be harder to watch now. I'm glad you mentioned he was only 51, I was just shocked - I assumed he was a lot older, I guess he is just one of those actors who always looked the same. And it's so saddening that in this day and age people still die at such a young age.

    I think maybe he was a fan of Thick of It (a show more people should see) and he contacted Ianucci when he heard of the sequel? It just seems to be the case since he is probably the most famous actor in the movie.

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    1. It means the world to me that you like this series. I respect your blog and your writing so much, so your words really are validating. So thanks!

      Interesting take on how he was cast in In the Loop. Makes perfect sense to me. You know, I've only seen In the Loop twice, and I really need to just buy it because I laughed my ass off both times. He really was an actor of tremendous range.

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    2. Thank you! Especially with my GoT talk lately, there was just no time to check out any movies for me, so I've been writing a LOT about that :) But Visual Parallels about Somewhere/Earrings is on its way :)

      The Thick of It is actually even funnier than In the Loop, I think it's my most rewatched TV series.

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    3. Your GoT posts have me right on the egde of actually watching the show. I will soon!

      I can't wait for your Visual Parallels. It's so funny, because I did not consciously use Somewhere as a visual reference for Earrings. Shame, Hunger, and Traffic were my main influences. But when I watched Somewhere recently, that movie so clearly informed my vision of Earrings. Soderbergh's Solaris was also a very obvious influence, even without me knowing. The subconscious is a crazy thing.

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  13. Oh and he would definitely be in my top 10 best TV performances, but I still give Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Peter Capaldi (Thick of It) and Ian McShane (Deadwood) a higher place on the list.

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    1. McShane had foolishly slipped my mind... he'd definitely be in the Top 5 for me. I'd be curious to make a list, but I'm far too under skilled in the world of TV. Especially older TV.

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    2. I'm not that knowledgeable about older TV series but it seems The Sopranos is somewhere around the beginning of its Golden Age - I bet a lot of people would name a number of Mad Men actors there, but I'm quite fond to lean towards not so obvious choices like comedy shows - Nick Offerman is just incredible in Parks and Rec for example. But among HBO series Gandolfini definitely would be on top of the list, the only challenge would be GoT but for me the best acting there is among actresses.

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    3. I only watched the first two seasons of Parks and Rec, but Offerman was a definite highlight there. So deadpan and brilliant.

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  14. Truly heartbreaking, he was a monumental actor, one whose presence downright made films. Gandolfini handled himself with such magnitude, he was always bigger than life to me. Tony Soprano was a role that stands as a fine example of the potential of television. He will be dearly missed by many, I should plow through The Sopranos when I get a chance.

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    1. Heartbreaking indeed. So so sad. Have you seen all of The Sopranos before? It is truly remarkable. He's perfect in it.

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  15. Great tribute Alex, well done. I re-watched Romance and Cigarettes recently (just before the great man passed, as it happens) and I absolutely love what he does there. He gets overshadowed by the likes of Chris Walken and Bobby Cannavale, but without Gandolfini nothing grounds that film. I thought he was good in The Mexican too. The film isn't great, but he definitely elevated it by playing both along and against type, simultaneously.

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    1. Thanks man. I do enjoy his performance in Romance and Cigarettes for sure, as well as The Mexican. In fact, I was this close to including his work in The Mexican. Very against type in that film, and he plays it beautifully.

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  16. I'm not quite so sure as to declare Tony Soprano the best television character ever. It may well be the best acted one over the course of many years, but the best? I don't know if I'm willing to put it out there. I can think of others like Michael Richards' Kramer for example. In this case I must confess my biased adoration for that role and the Seinfeld series as a whole, so maybe I shouldn't be giving my opinion.

    Like I commented elsewhere. I respect Gandolfini's career and his tremendous skill as an actor. I just wish his film career had been a little more prolific and robust. A lot of good roles, but very few meaty lead roles. This is no fault of his own I'm sure. This is just Hollywood is and probably always will be.

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    1. Yeah, I'm not sure if T is the best character ever, but I do wonder if Gandolfini's performance is the finest of all time. I'm not much of a TV guy, so I really can't say.

      You're last two sentences pretty much sum up my thoughts on his film acting career. Just the way it is.

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  17. Beautiful tribute, Alex. I haven't seen a lot of his film work, but yeah, The Sopranos is about as good as it gets. I just started rewatching the series, too, this time with my girlfriend who has never seen it. Such an amazing show, and of course it just wouldn't be possible without Gandolfini's tremendous work. He will be missed.

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    1. Thanks buddy. I'm curious, what does your girlfriend think of the show? I tried to show that to a lady in the past, and she could not get into it at all. And she really dug mob-type flicks. Who knows...

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    2. I think she's getting into it. She was apprehensive at first -- gangster films/shows aren't really her thing -- but it seems to be growing on her. It's just a matter of finding a character or two that she likes, and then I think she'll be hooked.

      The Wire, on the other hand, is a show that I cannot get her into at all. Not for a lack of trying on my part either.

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    3. Glad to hear that about The Sopranos.

      Dude, the first season of The Wire is tough for EVERYONE. No exposition, no setting up the story, no help - it's as if the first episode is actually the 5th episodes of the season, we're just thrown right in there. So I get where she's coming from with that one. I don't think the first season makes full sense until you've seen more seasons, and get familiar with the vernacular.

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    4. Hah, good point. Her biggest issue with The Wire was that it felt *too* real. It's messed up to think that so much of that show is steeped in reality -- she didn't want to see that type of corruption and violence firsthand. Can't say I blame her on that, but it's still damn good television.

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    5. Definitely can't blame her. That show is real as shit.

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