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Re: Daltrey Movies
>Not many have your unbounded energy, keets! :-)
My interests tend to be fairly intense, but then they shift, too. I may
suddenly disappear one of these days. ;)
>I must be honest, my interest in Daltrey flicks isn't enormous. I
>sometimes cringe when I see him in a movie or on a T.V. show. Acting is
>kind of an odd backdrop for me to view Daltrey, considering how I *usually*
>see images of him (fronting the great WHO beast).
When he does a good job, you don't think about it being him. Roger is a
pretty good character actor, and now and then you get flashes of star
quality. I haven't seen all his movies, but of the ones I have seen, I
didn't care for his seventies stuff (including TOMMY). The eighties are
pretty good, if a little off-beat, and I'd recommend those. That includes
MCVICAR, COMEDY OF ERRORS, THE BEGGAR'S OPERA, MACK THE KNIFE and BUDDY'S
SONG--all okay UK movies.
In the nineties, Roger made the move to Hollywood, and then the results got
variable. Starting in 1988, he showed up in a couple of American movies and
TV shows, and then there is some really bad stuff in there. You'd gather
it's been tough to break in, and he still hasn't quite done it, but things
are looking up just lately. He's appeared in a couple of high-profile TV
movies, and this last little thing, CHASING DESTINY, is well-done, if a
little bland. There are signs he might eventually work up to higher-budget
movies.
I'm sure Roger would rather be making movies at home, but Hollywood has
pretty much killed the UK independent movie business. There seems to be
very limited opportunity and hardly any financing, which lend even more to a
poor product. Now and then the US sees a real UK movie, but mostly what we
see these days are joint ventures, where the UK can provide location and
lower costs for an American-financed movie.
You might also say that Roger hasn't gone about the movie thing in the right
way. I don't think Ken Russell was a good way to start, plus Roger has
pretty much taken what came along in order to gain the experience, which
doesn't build a good resume. Since he never got to be a prominent UK actor
and didn't have a strong plan to break into Hollywood, we end up with all
that bad stuff on TV. I'd like to see Roger's agent come up with a couple
of high quality independent pictures now. A few successes like that might
get him into big-budget movies.
>Ya know, a Daltrey movie I *do* want to see, & embarrassingly still
>haven't, is MCVICAR. Is this movie still in print? Do any internet
>stores sell it? Or would I have to search on e-Bay if I want a copy?
I didn't even see it on e-Bay. There are several copies at half.com,
though. Here's the link:
http://www.half.com/products/videos/detail.cfm?item=1945779
McVicar is a gritty and gripping movie, and it certainly demonstrates
Roger's talent for putting things together. He was the producer here, and
the star and did the soundtrack, all with pretty minimal experience in the
movie business. When you check what he'd done before, it was the two Ken
Russell movies and a bit part in THE LEGACY--and from that he's jumped into
making a major drama.
I did think MCVICAR failed to make a clear statement, but that's more a
problem with the script and the director than anything Roger did. You might
argue that he was responsible (as the producer) for making sure it said
something, but then it may be a matter of style, too--I liked the statement
QUAD made, but some folks have told me it's heavy-handed. The MCVICAR
statement might be in there, and I just missed it. When you've gotten a
chance to watch it, let me know what you think.
keets
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