Mickey Rourke did the business tonight winning Best Actor at The BAFTAs for The Wrestler. This pleases me no end, as I caught the film last week. A totally deserved win, along with a great f**kin' speech. Great interveiw with Andrew Collins. I am a big fan of Rourke from his hey day were he had a streak of hits that made him an A-list movie star and then Nine 1/2 Weeks made him a heart throb.
Angel Heart is probably my favourite Rourke film, thats partly because its the best all round film, a great story and visuals that makes for an interesting mix of genres and boy does it keep you hooked till the end. Even the end credits have an unnerving quality that makes them totally watchable. It is hardly surprising, it is also my favourite Alan Parker film. I can remember watching The Outsiders (1983) and Rumblefish on Moviedrome as part of a Francis Ford Coppola double bill. What a great pair of films, both are in much need of a re-vist, as I probably haven't watched them since the late 80's. I can remember in 1990 when I was 15 going to see Wild Orchid with Rourke, Carre Otis his then girlfriend and Jacqueline Bisset. Sadly its nothing more than a softcore porn movie with Rourke banging his girlfriend in some very realistic scenes. At 15,,this probably ticked all the boxes.
Rourke films from the 80's to check out
Angel Heart (1987)
Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986)
Year of the Dragon (1985)
The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984)
Rumble Fish (1983)
Diner (1982)
Year Of The Dragon has a high pedigree as it was directed by the man behind The Deer Hunter Micheal Cimino and scripted by Oliver Stone. That said its not a perfect script or film, however it does have the tone and feel of an 70's cop film. This clip is one of reasons I keep coming back to this great film. Its a 1-take wonder, I love the long gliding tracking shot done with a Steadicam and with Rourke's motivational speech to his men for me is pitch perfect.
From what I can tell Rourke got into acting late as he spent most of the 70's as a amateur boxer. according to IMDB he finished with a record of 20-6, with 17 knockouts and was disqualified 4 times. He reportedly scored 12 consecutive first round knockouts. He must been pretty quick to avoid the punches. Making movies, earning lots of money and sleeping with Kim Basinger on screen couldn't have been enough. Rourke made a boxing movie Homeboy (1988) and stepped back in the ring as a professional in 1991. He retired in 1995 after 11x wins and 2x draws. The boxing and daily grind of sparring left him with short term memory loss and the need for reconstructive surgery on his face that ended his acting career as a A-list heart throb. After 15 years of bit roles he bounced back in Sin City (2003). Surprisingly roles have been sparse. Then came Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler. It has been said it was a role he was born to play. And boy does he become Randy "The Ram" Robinson, the truth is its almost impossible seeing anyone else as Randy. The success of this has led to Rourke winning a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and possibly an OSCAR,,,that would really be something special achieving a grand-slam sweep of the awards.
The 30 minutes or so of The BAFTAs I saw it seemed to be a very good show, although J. Ross is using his BBC suspension as part of his act. This had better stop soon,,,cos its getting boring now. To make things worse when the show had finished, just as most people, including me were about turn over they began showing highlights of the so called small awards like best animation. What got my goat is The BBC/BAFTA they started showing the credits over Nick Park and the other winners speeches. This totally riles me with anger as this shows a total lack of FUCKING respect for these artists. The OSCARS do it right and celebrate these awards mid-way through the main show.
The main highlight was seeing Terry Gilliam rightly become a fellow of BAFTA. I loved his gag about thanking all the little people of his movies. He proceeded to pull out a huge peice of paper and then named all the dwarf actors from Time Bandits. Very funny and a very Gilliam thing to do.
The role call of those sadly no longer with us, seemed longer than normal and filled with some greats, like Paul Newman, Charlton Heston, Sydney Pollack, Jules Dassin and Richard Widmark who starred in one of my fav films, Dassins' Night and The City. A surprise face to see on this list was FX wizard Stan Winston who worked on Predator, Aliens and Terminator 2. He sadly died of multiple myeloma or Bone Cancer, a condition I wasn't aware of until I googled it. Speaking of Bone Cancer they paid tribute during the England v Italy Six Nations game to a rugby player that also died of this dreadful condition.
Sadly a close friend of mine lost his dad to Cancer this weekend and so I just wanted to say my thoughts are with you and your family. I am feelin' for you mate.
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