BAMAPHIN 22
12-24-2005, 06:34 PM
The rising stardom of Kevin Costner in the 1980s perplexed me. Sure, he starred in a string of good movies — “The Untouchables,” “No Way Out,” “Bull Durham,” “Field of Dreams,” “Dances with Wolves” — but, “Bull Durham” aside, he was often a bland presence upstaged by supporting players. James Earl Jones added punch to “Dreams,” Morgan Freeman added dignity to “Robin Hood” and Sean Connery added balls to “The Untouchables.” In fact, every Untouchable upstages Costner. His Eliot Ness wants to do good but it’s Connery who shows him how, Charles Martin Smith who points the way and Andy Garcia who provides the firepower. Ness? He plays butterflies and Eskimos with his daughter.
The falling stardom of Kevin Costner in the 1990s perplexed me, too. Just when his work became dark and complex the audience vanished. I’m thinking of “A Perfect World,” which came out the year after the monster-hit “The Bodyguard,” and was directed by Clint Eastwood the year after he made “Unforgiven.” Great star power, right? Critics loved it. It was released in November — prime movie real estate. Yet it made only $31 million in the U.S. — a quarter of “The Bodyguard’s” take —and garnered no end-of-the-year awards.
I’m also thinking of the unfairly maligned “Wyatt Earp,” in which Costner plays the titular lawman who grows darker the longer he lives and the more he kills. There’s an air of authenticity to the movie — an attempt to ground the mythology that grew out of Hollywood’s early depictions of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. But Costner’s Earp was a cold character and that translated into even colder box office. It made only $25 million.
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The falling stardom of Kevin Costner in the 1990s perplexed me, too. Just when his work became dark and complex the audience vanished. I’m thinking of “A Perfect World,” which came out the year after the monster-hit “The Bodyguard,” and was directed by Clint Eastwood the year after he made “Unforgiven.” Great star power, right? Critics loved it. It was released in November — prime movie real estate. Yet it made only $31 million in the U.S. — a quarter of “The Bodyguard’s” take —and garnered no end-of-the-year awards.
I’m also thinking of the unfairly maligned “Wyatt Earp,” in which Costner plays the titular lawman who grows darker the longer he lives and the more he kills. There’s an air of authenticity to the movie — an attempt to ground the mythology that grew out of Hollywood’s early depictions of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. But Costner’s Earp was a cold character and that translated into even colder box office. It made only $25 million.
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.