Is there a bigger Hollywood pretzel-contortionist than Dennis Hopper? He starts out in the ’50s as the moody, intense young actor who’s influenced by James Dean and that whole alienated, tortured, wandering-in-pain thing. Then he becomes lysergic Dennis of the ’60s and ’70s — the visionary director of Easy Rider and The Last Movie, brazen and wild-maned, a “lesbian chick” rollicking in Taos, beset by increasing drug use.
And then he shifts into sobriety and the older, cleaned-up, more clear-headed version that emerged in the mid ’80s. And then into being a Bush-supporting Republican over the last 20 years (having voted for Bush ’41 and Bush ’43 twice). Ad recently having played a supporting role (for reasons that were at least partly ideological, one presumes) in David Zucker ‘s An American Tale. And then suddenly lurching into being an Obama supporter at the last minute.
How exactly do you do that? How does that work? I’m cool with Obamacans but how do you go from being on the Zucker team to saying “I pray to God Barack Obama [will be] elected” and making mention of the Bush administration’s “lies,” etc.?