Dargis on Marvin

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"Lee Marvin moved across the screen like a shark coming in for the kill," Manohla Dargis has written in a 5.11 N.Y. Times appreciation for this late, great actor whose films are being honored with a retrospective series at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade theatre.

"Long and lean, with shoulders that looked as wide as his hips and hair as silver as a bullet, he seemed built for speed. He roamed across genres, excelling at gangsters and cowboys. Romance was not his thing. He could make you laugh, at times uneasily, but it's his bad men that stick in your head. They are scary as hell, sometimes seductively so, because their every punch and twist of the knife seems delivered not in the heat of violence but in its chill."

Not me. I've always admired Marvin's brute masculine force, bit I've always preferred his good-guy variations -- Walker in Point Blank (that's right -- Walker is a man of steely character and admirable fortitude in that film), the dry-mannered mercenary in The Professionals, the drunken gunfighter and his evil twin brother in Cat Ballou, the flinty Army officer in The Dirty Dozen, the washed-up athlete in Ship of Fools, the good hired-gun in Prime Cut, etc.

Marvin's bad guys, by contrast, always seemed way too easy for a guy with that voice, those eyes, that size. His baddie-waddies in The Wild One, The Big Heat and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance always brought out that Bob Dylan in me -- i.e., "All right, I've had enough...what else can you show me?"

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on May 12, 2007 at 11:33 AM

comment #1

vansmith says ...

Cant forget The Killers, he was uncomfortably scary in that one, he had a leering quality about him, would'nt want to be in an elevator with him you know what i mean...

Posted by vansmith at May 12, 2007 11:53 AM

comment #2

George Prager says ...

He was good, but he never played a superhero. I'm much more interested in superhero movies and actors who play them. And actors who play supervillians in superhero movies. God I love superheroes!

Posted by George Prager at May 12, 2007 12:09 PM

comment #3

Geoff says ...

Emperor of the North Pole....it's fun.

Posted by Geoff at May 12, 2007 12:43 PM

comment #4

christian says ...

how odd. i just clicked on this while i'm listening to the beautiful john barry score for MONTE WALSH -- widescreen DVD release please!

Posted by christian at May 12, 2007 1:34 PM

comment #5

alynch says ...

Another couple worth mentioning: The Big Red One and The Iceman Cometh.

Posted by alynch at May 12, 2007 2:04 PM

comment #6

George Prager says ...

Shack Out on 101

Posted by George Prager at May 12, 2007 2:11 PM

comment #7

nemo says ...

That is a seriously beautiful headstone. Stripped down, lean, keeping it simple and to the point, like the man himself. The only thing it mentions is his Marine Corps rank and WW II service. Is he buried in a military cemetery?

Playing a heavy may have looked easy for Marvin, but he sure worked a lot of variety into those roles. When I re-watched "Bad Day at Black Rock" a few months ago, I was struck by how weird and sinister he could make the simple act of rising from a chair. He did it the same way four times, and I can't recall ever seeing him or any other actor get up like that in any other movie.

Most people when they get up from a chair plant both feet on the ground and lean the torso forward to get the center of gravity over the feet. Not Lee Marvin. He slouched way back, planted his left foot on the floor, and extended his right leg way out in front of him, then pushed down on the arms of the chair with his hands. Using his extended right leg as a counterweight, he rose up like a seesaw with his entire body almost straight through the whole process.

Unless you re-ran the video to analyze what he was doing, you hardly noticed the strange way he was getting up, but it sure had a uncanny and unnerving effect. He looked like something that defied gravity, like a corpse rising from a coffin, or a giant snake rising up from the ground.

And then there was that hungry look on his face, too, like a tiger that just rose to its feet after catching the scent of its prey.

Posted by nemo at May 12, 2007 2:17 PM

comment #8

rgmax99 says ...

Prime Cut is such a fun, nasty little movie. I've always been surprised it hasn't gained a better reputation over the years.

Marvin just glides through the film like a literal T2 killing machine with a sardonic sense of life, pulling a frightened Sissy Spacek along and mowing down anything in their way.

Plus Gene Hackman as a mob boss named Mary Anne who has a particular affinity for turning his enemies into hot dogs; naked women in hay-filled cages; and a combine eating a limo.

That's entertainment!

Posted by rgmax99 at May 12, 2007 3:44 PM

comment #9

Gaydos says ...

Anybody here seen the Route 66 episode starring Lee Marvin as the angry piano-playing manager-boyfriend of a supper club singer? Written and directed by....Sam Peckinpah. Yep, it's as cool as it sounds. Ah, the movies those two ex-Marines could have conjured, but I guess the Gods of casualty insurance won out over the Gods of movie mayhem.

Posted by Gaydos at May 12, 2007 4:07 PM

comment #10

cm65 says ...

Lee Marvin is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in fact.

Posted by cm65 at May 12, 2007 4:09 PM

comment #11

christian says ...

and he's coming back to chew bubble gum and kick ass.

Posted by christian at May 12, 2007 4:29 PM

comment #12

colby says ...

I've always had a soft spot for Marvin in "Hell in the Pacific", I just wished they would have kept the original ending.

Posted by colby at May 12, 2007 5:19 PM

comment #13

le corbeau says ...

"Lee Marvin is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in fact."

Which I've always thought was his final expression of stone cold cool-- like at the end, being a movie star was secondary in his mind to having been part of his unit, way back when.

Posted by le corbeau at May 12, 2007 5:37 PM

comment #14

Thrudvangar says ...

Hey thanks guys. Especially to Nemo. Mr. Marvin is the shit. I needed to hear that stuff.

Posted by Thrudvangar at May 12, 2007 9:44 PM

comment #15

JoeGreenia says ...

He is also, in fact, buried right next to Joe Louis.

http://www.hollywoodusa.co.uk/GravesOutofLA/joelouis.htm

That is one tough motherfucking stretch of ground.

Posted by JoeGreenia at May 13, 2007 1:40 PM

comment #16

christian says ...

don't even THINK about stepping on it.

Posted by christian at May 13, 2007 1:46 PM

comment #17

kimi98 says ...

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comment #18

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