By Rachel Bennett
Television Editor & Columnist
***
Aside from seeing who wins, one of the best parts of the Primetime Emmys is seeing what the winners have to say once they reach the stage.
Whether they’re calm and collected or shocked and speechless, some Emmy winners steal the night with their acceptance speeches.
Actress Parker Posey (or Jan), who has never been nominated for an Emmy, released this week a video of speech tips for this Sunday’s lucky nominees.
However, there have been several Emmy champs who haven’t needed advice on what to say. Here are our choices for the top 10 Emmy speeches of the past 10 years:
10. Peter Dinklage (2011) – Dinklage’s nomination and win for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for HBO’s Game of Thrones were exciting for numerous reasons. Not only was it his first Emmy win, but he is also the first little...
Television Editor & Columnist
***
Aside from seeing who wins, one of the best parts of the Primetime Emmys is seeing what the winners have to say once they reach the stage.
Whether they’re calm and collected or shocked and speechless, some Emmy winners steal the night with their acceptance speeches.
Actress Parker Posey (or Jan), who has never been nominated for an Emmy, released this week a video of speech tips for this Sunday’s lucky nominees.
However, there have been several Emmy champs who haven’t needed advice on what to say. Here are our choices for the top 10 Emmy speeches of the past 10 years:
10. Peter Dinklage (2011) – Dinklage’s nomination and win for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for HBO’s Game of Thrones were exciting for numerous reasons. Not only was it his first Emmy win, but he is also the first little...
- 9/19/2012
- by Rachel Bennett
- Scott Feinberg
Farrah Fawcett's longtime partner Ryan O'Neal has opened up about their 1998 break-up - he left her for a younger woman because she was going through menopause.
The pair's two-decade long relationship came to an end in 1998, but they subsequently reconnected in 2001 after O'Neal was diagnosed with leukaemia. The actor then remained by Fawcett's side throughout her battle with anal cancer up until her death in June.
O'Neal has now spoken of their break-up, admitting he couldn't deal with the changes his partner was going through at the time so he found comfort in the arms of younger actress Leslie Stefanson.
He tells Vanity Fair, "I believe Farrah was going through some kind of life change. I didn’t have a change of life. I was always a jerk. But they’re hard work, these divas; I was sick of it, and I was unappreciated. I just don’t think she liked me very much. So I excused myself, and I was lucky enough to meet this young girl. She was more a daughter to me than a lover, and my own daughter had flown the coop, so here was this replacement.”
And O'Neal recalls an embarrassing incident when Fawcett walked in on him in bed with his younger lover during an unexpected Valentine's Day visit to his Malibu, California, home.
He adds, "It was terrible. I didn’t expect to see her down there. I tried to put my pants on, but I put both legs in one hole.”...
The pair's two-decade long relationship came to an end in 1998, but they subsequently reconnected in 2001 after O'Neal was diagnosed with leukaemia. The actor then remained by Fawcett's side throughout her battle with anal cancer up until her death in June.
O'Neal has now spoken of their break-up, admitting he couldn't deal with the changes his partner was going through at the time so he found comfort in the arms of younger actress Leslie Stefanson.
He tells Vanity Fair, "I believe Farrah was going through some kind of life change. I didn’t have a change of life. I was always a jerk. But they’re hard work, these divas; I was sick of it, and I was unappreciated. I just don’t think she liked me very much. So I excused myself, and I was lucky enough to meet this young girl. She was more a daughter to me than a lover, and my own daughter had flown the coop, so here was this replacement.”
And O'Neal recalls an embarrassing incident when Fawcett walked in on him in bed with his younger lover during an unexpected Valentine's Day visit to his Malibu, California, home.
He adds, "It was terrible. I didn’t expect to see her down there. I tried to put my pants on, but I put both legs in one hole.”...
- 8/3/2009
- WENN
Opens Friday, March 14
"The Hunted" is about as basic as a chase movie gets. Tommy Lee Jones, a retired teacher in survival and assassination techniques, is called in to hunt down Benicio Del Toro, a former pupil gone bad. Jones hunts Del Toro down. Government operatives let him escape. So Jones hunts Del Toro again and the two fight to the finish. By stripping an action thriller this close to the bone, director William Friedkin has removed too much meat. Because these two guys intrigue an audience, especially given the relative nature of good and evil in their mano a mano conflict, one feels cheated by the movie's relentless drive to oversimplify the narrative. The urge is strong to cry out: Where's the rest of the movie?
The film's bloody action includes enough knife fights and suspenseful tracking sequences to hold its mostly male target audience. Del Toro should create female interest in the movie as well, so Paramount can expect above-average results. But they missed out on a classic thriller when Friedkin and writers David and Peter Griffiths and Art Monterastelli decided to cut to the chase and leave the potential for thematic complexity to the audience's imagination.
In a sense, this is a bold movie. Friedkin wants us to read volumes into the film's silences, into the men's physical movements and eye contact with each other. But in an action movie, this is asking too much even of actors this talented. We sense their connection but have no idea how they feel about each other.
In long-ago training sessions, Jones' L.T. Bonham turned Del Toro's Aaron Hallam into a killing machine. Yet L.T. has never harmed a fly. Hallam has killed so many at the behest of the U.S. government that he has lost all sense of moral control. Each gets an opening "credentials" sequence: In 1999, Hallam slips into the nighttime chaos of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and without being seen or heard swiftly kills a murderous Serb officer. In the British Columbia wilderness, L.T. tracks down and gently heals a wolf wounded by a hunter's snare.
Four years later, Hallam is stalking and butchering hunters in the Oregon forest. The FBI calls in his teacher to track him down. Does L.T. feel any guilt? Does Hallam? Might not L.T. empathize with Hallam to the point he really doesn't want to kill him? Why is he so willing to kill a pupil for a government that has exploited them both?
Their brief, tenuous scenes together fail to answer any of these and so many more questions. A young woman (Leslie Stefanson) and her child are part of Hallam's world, but how they are involved is anybody's guess. A glimmer of a relationship develops between L.T. and an FBI agent (Connie Nielsen), but the movie has no time for that. What it does have time for are absurdities.
Hallam escapes from gray-suited government operatives in Portland. The city, L.T. remarks earlier, is a wilderness, and the movie means to prove his point. As if he were back in British Columbia, L.T. tracks Hallam through the city's tunnels, artificial waterfalls and riverway -- much of this implausible, to say the least. An elaborate sequence on the Interstate Bridge, where Hallam is exposed to SWAT sharpshooters for minutes but emerges unharmed, stretches things even further. But the final absurdity comes when the two men stop their hunt to give us a primer in turning urban debris into flint and steel weapons. OK, Hallam must do so since he has no weapon. But can't L.T. just grab a good hunting knife?
Their one-on-one fight is well-choreographed and contains visceral tension. This is a far cry from the martial arts follies in most action movies. But the stakes aren't high enough. Instead of two guys struggling to kill each other, we should sense their ambivalence. Truffaut once said Hitchcock filmed his murder scenes like love scenes. That should be the case here.
Fine location work by a superb crew -- cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, production designer William Cruse and costume designer Gloria Gresham -- adds compelling elements to the chase. Augie Hess' razor-sharp editing lets the movie flow gracefully.
THE HUNTED
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures in association with Lakeshore Entertainment a Ricardo Mestres/Alphaville production
Credits:
Director: William Friedkin
Screenwriters: David Griffiths, Peter Griffiths, Art Monterastelli
Producers: Ricardo Mestres, James Jacks
Executive producers: David Griffiths, Peter Griffiths, Marcus Viscadi, Sean Daniel
Director of photography: Caleb Deschanel
Production designer: William Cruse
Music: Brian Tyler
Co-producer: Art Montersatelli
Costume designer: Gloria Gresham
Editor: Augie Hess
Cast:
L.T. Bonham: Tommy Lee Jones
Aaron Hallam: Benicio Del Toro
Abby: Connie Nielsen, Irene: Leslie Stefanson
Ted: John Finn
Moret: Jose Zuniga
Van Zandt: Ron Canada
Dale Hewitt: Mark Pellegrino
Running time -- 94 minutes
MPAA rating R...
"The Hunted" is about as basic as a chase movie gets. Tommy Lee Jones, a retired teacher in survival and assassination techniques, is called in to hunt down Benicio Del Toro, a former pupil gone bad. Jones hunts Del Toro down. Government operatives let him escape. So Jones hunts Del Toro again and the two fight to the finish. By stripping an action thriller this close to the bone, director William Friedkin has removed too much meat. Because these two guys intrigue an audience, especially given the relative nature of good and evil in their mano a mano conflict, one feels cheated by the movie's relentless drive to oversimplify the narrative. The urge is strong to cry out: Where's the rest of the movie?
The film's bloody action includes enough knife fights and suspenseful tracking sequences to hold its mostly male target audience. Del Toro should create female interest in the movie as well, so Paramount can expect above-average results. But they missed out on a classic thriller when Friedkin and writers David and Peter Griffiths and Art Monterastelli decided to cut to the chase and leave the potential for thematic complexity to the audience's imagination.
In a sense, this is a bold movie. Friedkin wants us to read volumes into the film's silences, into the men's physical movements and eye contact with each other. But in an action movie, this is asking too much even of actors this talented. We sense their connection but have no idea how they feel about each other.
In long-ago training sessions, Jones' L.T. Bonham turned Del Toro's Aaron Hallam into a killing machine. Yet L.T. has never harmed a fly. Hallam has killed so many at the behest of the U.S. government that he has lost all sense of moral control. Each gets an opening "credentials" sequence: In 1999, Hallam slips into the nighttime chaos of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and without being seen or heard swiftly kills a murderous Serb officer. In the British Columbia wilderness, L.T. tracks down and gently heals a wolf wounded by a hunter's snare.
Four years later, Hallam is stalking and butchering hunters in the Oregon forest. The FBI calls in his teacher to track him down. Does L.T. feel any guilt? Does Hallam? Might not L.T. empathize with Hallam to the point he really doesn't want to kill him? Why is he so willing to kill a pupil for a government that has exploited them both?
Their brief, tenuous scenes together fail to answer any of these and so many more questions. A young woman (Leslie Stefanson) and her child are part of Hallam's world, but how they are involved is anybody's guess. A glimmer of a relationship develops between L.T. and an FBI agent (Connie Nielsen), but the movie has no time for that. What it does have time for are absurdities.
Hallam escapes from gray-suited government operatives in Portland. The city, L.T. remarks earlier, is a wilderness, and the movie means to prove his point. As if he were back in British Columbia, L.T. tracks Hallam through the city's tunnels, artificial waterfalls and riverway -- much of this implausible, to say the least. An elaborate sequence on the Interstate Bridge, where Hallam is exposed to SWAT sharpshooters for minutes but emerges unharmed, stretches things even further. But the final absurdity comes when the two men stop their hunt to give us a primer in turning urban debris into flint and steel weapons. OK, Hallam must do so since he has no weapon. But can't L.T. just grab a good hunting knife?
Their one-on-one fight is well-choreographed and contains visceral tension. This is a far cry from the martial arts follies in most action movies. But the stakes aren't high enough. Instead of two guys struggling to kill each other, we should sense their ambivalence. Truffaut once said Hitchcock filmed his murder scenes like love scenes. That should be the case here.
Fine location work by a superb crew -- cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, production designer William Cruse and costume designer Gloria Gresham -- adds compelling elements to the chase. Augie Hess' razor-sharp editing lets the movie flow gracefully.
THE HUNTED
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures in association with Lakeshore Entertainment a Ricardo Mestres/Alphaville production
Credits:
Director: William Friedkin
Screenwriters: David Griffiths, Peter Griffiths, Art Monterastelli
Producers: Ricardo Mestres, James Jacks
Executive producers: David Griffiths, Peter Griffiths, Marcus Viscadi, Sean Daniel
Director of photography: Caleb Deschanel
Production designer: William Cruse
Music: Brian Tyler
Co-producer: Art Montersatelli
Costume designer: Gloria Gresham
Editor: Augie Hess
Cast:
L.T. Bonham: Tommy Lee Jones
Aaron Hallam: Benicio Del Toro
Abby: Connie Nielsen, Irene: Leslie Stefanson
Ted: John Finn
Moret: Jose Zuniga
Van Zandt: Ron Canada
Dale Hewitt: Mark Pellegrino
Running time -- 94 minutes
MPAA rating R...
- 3/14/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal have rekindled their relationship - six years after their nasty split. The couple broke up in 1997, after 18 years together, after Ryan had an affair with actress Leslie Stefanson. But original Charlie's Angels star Fawcett kick-started the former lovers' reunion, rushing to Ryan's side when he was diagnosed with leukemia in 2001. Ryan says, "We're getting along extremely well. Lately, Farrah's been coming around a few times a week, and it's very solid between us. "We're friends again and for the past six months our relationship has been especially great. It's about time!" Ryan and Farrah, who's become an artist, have been enjoying quiet dinners at home, playing tennis together and dining at their old favorite California seaside restaurants. Ryan, 61, adds that he and 56-year-old Farrah "have been watching the movies that we have to vote on for the Academy Of Motion Pictures for the Oscars." A pal of the pair tells American tabloid the Star, "The two of them had their share of wicked brawls during their years together, but they never stopped loving each other. Ryan always had an incurable thing for Farrah, and he's been the only man she could ever really love with a passion. I think they both believe that they're destined to grow old together."...
- 2/3/2003
- WENN
Actor Ryan O'Neal discovered on his 60th birthday (April 20th) that he has leukemia. In a tragic twist of fate, Ryan has contracted the same disease that killed off his screen lover Ali McGraw in his signature film Love Story. Ryan says, "Yes, I have chronic leukemia. But it is treatable. I have told my family - it's best that they hear it from me." Brother Kevin says, "It's horrendous. We're doing all we can to help and are praying for him." O'Neal discovered the cancer after checking into the famous Cedars-Sinai Medical Center when he fell ill while filming. A friend describes how Ryan accepted the news of his illness, "Ryan spent hours in a daze. He wandered alone on the beach plucking up the strength to deal with the tragedy and tell his family." The first person Ryan told was his girlfriend, 27-year-old actress Leslie Stefanson. A family source reveals, "She broke down in tears when he told her. Then she promised to be at his side every step of the way." Ryan refuses to let the illness get him down, however - he has reconciled with his estranged actress daughter Tatum O'Neal and will continue shooting his new movie.
- 5/2/2001
- WENN
M. Night Shyamalan's fascination with pop culture and the supernatural continues in "Unbreakable", a deconstruction of comic book superheroism. Where his previous film, boxoffice sensation "The Sixth Sense", reconsidered the basic elements of a ghost story, "Unbreakable" tackles the theme of personal destiny and purpose in a story about an ordinary man who comes to question his role in life and whether his fate might lie in protecting people.
Buena Vista is understandably marketing "Unbreakable" as the new film "from the writer-director of 'The Sixth Sense.' " The drawback to this strategy is that fans of the previous film, expecting more of the same, might be disappointed.
To his credit, Shyamalan does not exploit the wild success of "Sixth Sense" by producing a film similar in theme and scope. But the ad campaign and his reteaming with "Sixth Sense" star Bruce Willis will nevertheless raise expectations, and when these are dashed, those nifty Thanksgiving weekend grosses might drop precipitously.
Critics, too, might be uncomfortable with a film that is slower, darker, more brooding and more portentous than Shyamalan's previous effort. But those prepared for a much different experience that clearly derives from the same artistic sensibility will be rewarded with an intriguing story executed with visual panache and fine acting performances.
As a filmmaker, Shyamalan sticks pretty close to the surface. While the characters in his films "Wide Awake", "Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" do struggle to figure out the meaning of life, Shyamalan is content to answer those questions with imaginative twists on pop culture cliches. When the meaning of life is that you might be a superhero, such a movie is clearly aiming for the multiplex and not the art house.
Willis plays a man aimlessly drifting through life. He is on the verge of leaving his wife Robin Wright Penn) and young son Spencer Treat Clark) in Philadelphia for a better-paying job in New York. But he will do so with a singular lack of enthusiasm.
Boarding a return train from his job interview, he tries unsuccessfully to pick up an attractive young woman (Leslie Stefanson) and then settles in for the ride home. But the train derails, killing all on board except him. He doesn't even have a scratch.
He is then approached by Samuel L. Jackson, who asks him one startling question: Has he ever been sick? Neither Willis nor his wife can recall a single sick day in his life.
Jackson, who runs a store specializing in comic books for serious collectors, is a man who has never known a well day in his life. Born with a debilitating disease that leaves bones so brittle they break with ease, he is called Mr. Glass by some.
Jackson raises the possibility that Willis might be one of those people in the world "put here to protect us, and he doesn't know it." The person Jackson truly convinces, though, is not Willis but his admiring son.
Shyamalan constructs his film like a comic book in which the key for its artist is how much visual information can be squeezed into each panel. Shyamalan eschews traditional movie editing of master shot, closer shots and reverse shots, choosing instead to cut as much as possible in the camera.
The camera moves from shot to shot in lengthy takes. Likewise, actors move in and out of the camera frame. Doors, windows and mirrors narrow or widen the focus. Overhead shots dramatically situate actors in their environment. This gives a feeling not unlike a comic book in which the action flows from one static but visually arresting panel to the next.
The colors in the production design are muted and dark, favoring grays and blues, creating a moodiness that the brooding music further emphasizes.
This is an intimate story with a handful of characters who operate on a broad canvas of crowded streets, stadiums and train stations. Willis and Jackson deliver quietly intense performances, playing characters at opposite ends of the physical and spiritual spectrums. Penn and Clark match those intensity levels with considerable grace.
But the surprise twist, unlike the genuine shocker in "Sixth Sense", telegraphs itself too early to arrive with much impact. Thus, the film suffers something of a letdown in the third act.
While this twist might satisfy the comic book convention of good vs. evil archetypes, there's something a little flat in the ending. Audiences might find themselves echoing the refrain from that old Peggy Lee song, "Is that all there is?"
UNBREAKABLE
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures presents
a Blinding Edge Pictures/Barry Mendel production
Producers: Barry Mandel, Sam Mercer, M. Night Shyamalan
Screenwriter-director: M. Night Shyamalan
Executive producers: Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum
Director of photography: Eduardo Serra
Production designer: Larry Fulton
Music: James Newton Howard
Costume designer: Joanna Johnston
Editor: Dylan Tichenor
Color/stereo
Cast:
David Dunn: Bruce Willis
Elijah Price: Samuel L. Jackson
Audrey Dunn: Robin Wright Penn
Joseph Dunn: Spencer Treat Clark
Elijah's mother: Charlayne Woodard
Dr. Mathison: Eamonn Walker
Kelly: Leslie Stefanson
Running time - 107 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Buena Vista is understandably marketing "Unbreakable" as the new film "from the writer-director of 'The Sixth Sense.' " The drawback to this strategy is that fans of the previous film, expecting more of the same, might be disappointed.
To his credit, Shyamalan does not exploit the wild success of "Sixth Sense" by producing a film similar in theme and scope. But the ad campaign and his reteaming with "Sixth Sense" star Bruce Willis will nevertheless raise expectations, and when these are dashed, those nifty Thanksgiving weekend grosses might drop precipitously.
Critics, too, might be uncomfortable with a film that is slower, darker, more brooding and more portentous than Shyamalan's previous effort. But those prepared for a much different experience that clearly derives from the same artistic sensibility will be rewarded with an intriguing story executed with visual panache and fine acting performances.
As a filmmaker, Shyamalan sticks pretty close to the surface. While the characters in his films "Wide Awake", "Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" do struggle to figure out the meaning of life, Shyamalan is content to answer those questions with imaginative twists on pop culture cliches. When the meaning of life is that you might be a superhero, such a movie is clearly aiming for the multiplex and not the art house.
Willis plays a man aimlessly drifting through life. He is on the verge of leaving his wife Robin Wright Penn) and young son Spencer Treat Clark) in Philadelphia for a better-paying job in New York. But he will do so with a singular lack of enthusiasm.
Boarding a return train from his job interview, he tries unsuccessfully to pick up an attractive young woman (Leslie Stefanson) and then settles in for the ride home. But the train derails, killing all on board except him. He doesn't even have a scratch.
He is then approached by Samuel L. Jackson, who asks him one startling question: Has he ever been sick? Neither Willis nor his wife can recall a single sick day in his life.
Jackson, who runs a store specializing in comic books for serious collectors, is a man who has never known a well day in his life. Born with a debilitating disease that leaves bones so brittle they break with ease, he is called Mr. Glass by some.
Jackson raises the possibility that Willis might be one of those people in the world "put here to protect us, and he doesn't know it." The person Jackson truly convinces, though, is not Willis but his admiring son.
Shyamalan constructs his film like a comic book in which the key for its artist is how much visual information can be squeezed into each panel. Shyamalan eschews traditional movie editing of master shot, closer shots and reverse shots, choosing instead to cut as much as possible in the camera.
The camera moves from shot to shot in lengthy takes. Likewise, actors move in and out of the camera frame. Doors, windows and mirrors narrow or widen the focus. Overhead shots dramatically situate actors in their environment. This gives a feeling not unlike a comic book in which the action flows from one static but visually arresting panel to the next.
The colors in the production design are muted and dark, favoring grays and blues, creating a moodiness that the brooding music further emphasizes.
This is an intimate story with a handful of characters who operate on a broad canvas of crowded streets, stadiums and train stations. Willis and Jackson deliver quietly intense performances, playing characters at opposite ends of the physical and spiritual spectrums. Penn and Clark match those intensity levels with considerable grace.
But the surprise twist, unlike the genuine shocker in "Sixth Sense", telegraphs itself too early to arrive with much impact. Thus, the film suffers something of a letdown in the third act.
While this twist might satisfy the comic book convention of good vs. evil archetypes, there's something a little flat in the ending. Audiences might find themselves echoing the refrain from that old Peggy Lee song, "Is that all there is?"
UNBREAKABLE
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures presents
a Blinding Edge Pictures/Barry Mendel production
Producers: Barry Mandel, Sam Mercer, M. Night Shyamalan
Screenwriter-director: M. Night Shyamalan
Executive producers: Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum
Director of photography: Eduardo Serra
Production designer: Larry Fulton
Music: James Newton Howard
Costume designer: Joanna Johnston
Editor: Dylan Tichenor
Color/stereo
Cast:
David Dunn: Bruce Willis
Elijah Price: Samuel L. Jackson
Audrey Dunn: Robin Wright Penn
Joseph Dunn: Spencer Treat Clark
Elijah's mother: Charlayne Woodard
Dr. Mathison: Eamonn Walker
Kelly: Leslie Stefanson
Running time - 107 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 11/20/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Well on his way to becoming a new action hero, John Travolta's burly Army investigator battles a vicious gun smuggler and flirts with an attractive enlisted woman before Paramount's "The General's Daughter" turns into a fairly routine murder mystery set in the hothouse environment of fictitious Fort MacCallum, Ga.
Based on the novel by Nelson DeMille -- tailored by screenwriters William Goldman and Christopher Bertolini to draw the viewer into a heavy drama of potentially West Point-destroying crimes and other nasty secrets among our men in uniform -- "General's Daughter" doesn't look to be a huge winner at the boxoffice, but it should march off to a strong opening and finish with a healthy theatrical run.
James Cromwell is Joe Campbell, a U.S. vice president-bound, much-loved general with a big problem. His daughter Elisabeth (Leslie Stefanson) is a captain on the same base, and her beguiling skill while changing the tire of cigar-chomping Army-dick-in-disguise Paul Brenner (Travolta) is tame behavior. A psychological operations instructor and researcher, Elisabeth never recovered from a horrible incident she barely lived through years earlier during training at West Point, when she was one of very few women cadets.
When she finally chooses a dramatic and dangerous way of confronting her cowardly father about his role in her past, Elisabeth is apparently raped and strangled, left naked and dead in the road near the shot-up fake buildings where soldiers practice urban warfare. A Vietnam War survivor who served under Campbell, Brenner swings into action but never quite drops the Old Boy shtick.
This don't-screw-with-me maverick is able to uncover the truth about Elisabeth's death without much trouble. Along to make sure the investigator remembers he's a cop first and soldier second -- and to provide minimal sparks in a nearly romanceless date-night flick -- Sarah Sunhill (Madeleine Stowe) is also an Army sleuth who had a fling with Brenner years before.
The two crusaders for truth and justice suspect, investigate and practically have to blow the noses of a trio of weepy, remorseful colonels: Elisabeth's shifty boss in psy-ops (James Woods), Brenner's old buddy and the current provost marshal (Timothy Hutton) and Campbell's menacing adjutant (Clarence Williams III).
Travolta squints nastily and snarls his lines, while Stowe bats her eyes and flings out a few helpful observations. Travolta plays the hero like a heavy but not too roughly. Both do what they can with the characters, but they're the least interesting of a pretty dull group to begin with.
Be it the source material or director Simon West's much-too-kind approach to it, "General's Daughter" is also mangled storytelling, with the revelations growing progressively more kinky, felonious and preposterous. While the murder in question keeps changing in nature, with the leads stumbling into helpful witnesses and a few macho unfriendlies, the identity of the perpetrator is a too-well-guarded secret until near the end.
In its tone and serious subject matter, "General's Daughter" strives to be a political nail-biter in the tradition of Fred Zinnemann, Alan J. Pakula and Oliver Stone -- director John Frankenheimer even has a small role -- but there's really no comparison.
THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER
Paramount Pictures
A Mace Neufeld and Robert Rehme production
Director:Simon West
Producer:Mace Neufeld
Executive producer:Jonathan D. Krane
Co-producer:Stratton Leopold
Screenwriters:William Goldman, Christopher Bertolini
Based on the novel by:Nelson DeMille
Director of photography:Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer:Dennis Washington
Editor:Glen Scantlebury
Costume designer:Erica Edell Phillips
Music:Carter Burwell
Color/stereo
Cast:
Paul Brenner:John Travolta
Sarah Sunhill:Madeleine Stowe
Gen. Joe Campbell:James Cromwell
Col. William Kent:Timothy Hutton
Col. Robert Moore:James Woods
Col. George Fowler:Clarence Williams III
Capt. Elisabeth Campbell:Leslie Stefanson
Running time -- 116 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Based on the novel by Nelson DeMille -- tailored by screenwriters William Goldman and Christopher Bertolini to draw the viewer into a heavy drama of potentially West Point-destroying crimes and other nasty secrets among our men in uniform -- "General's Daughter" doesn't look to be a huge winner at the boxoffice, but it should march off to a strong opening and finish with a healthy theatrical run.
James Cromwell is Joe Campbell, a U.S. vice president-bound, much-loved general with a big problem. His daughter Elisabeth (Leslie Stefanson) is a captain on the same base, and her beguiling skill while changing the tire of cigar-chomping Army-dick-in-disguise Paul Brenner (Travolta) is tame behavior. A psychological operations instructor and researcher, Elisabeth never recovered from a horrible incident she barely lived through years earlier during training at West Point, when she was one of very few women cadets.
When she finally chooses a dramatic and dangerous way of confronting her cowardly father about his role in her past, Elisabeth is apparently raped and strangled, left naked and dead in the road near the shot-up fake buildings where soldiers practice urban warfare. A Vietnam War survivor who served under Campbell, Brenner swings into action but never quite drops the Old Boy shtick.
This don't-screw-with-me maverick is able to uncover the truth about Elisabeth's death without much trouble. Along to make sure the investigator remembers he's a cop first and soldier second -- and to provide minimal sparks in a nearly romanceless date-night flick -- Sarah Sunhill (Madeleine Stowe) is also an Army sleuth who had a fling with Brenner years before.
The two crusaders for truth and justice suspect, investigate and practically have to blow the noses of a trio of weepy, remorseful colonels: Elisabeth's shifty boss in psy-ops (James Woods), Brenner's old buddy and the current provost marshal (Timothy Hutton) and Campbell's menacing adjutant (Clarence Williams III).
Travolta squints nastily and snarls his lines, while Stowe bats her eyes and flings out a few helpful observations. Travolta plays the hero like a heavy but not too roughly. Both do what they can with the characters, but they're the least interesting of a pretty dull group to begin with.
Be it the source material or director Simon West's much-too-kind approach to it, "General's Daughter" is also mangled storytelling, with the revelations growing progressively more kinky, felonious and preposterous. While the murder in question keeps changing in nature, with the leads stumbling into helpful witnesses and a few macho unfriendlies, the identity of the perpetrator is a too-well-guarded secret until near the end.
In its tone and serious subject matter, "General's Daughter" strives to be a political nail-biter in the tradition of Fred Zinnemann, Alan J. Pakula and Oliver Stone -- director John Frankenheimer even has a small role -- but there's really no comparison.
THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER
Paramount Pictures
A Mace Neufeld and Robert Rehme production
Director:Simon West
Producer:Mace Neufeld
Executive producer:Jonathan D. Krane
Co-producer:Stratton Leopold
Screenwriters:William Goldman, Christopher Bertolini
Based on the novel by:Nelson DeMille
Director of photography:Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer:Dennis Washington
Editor:Glen Scantlebury
Costume designer:Erica Edell Phillips
Music:Carter Burwell
Color/stereo
Cast:
Paul Brenner:John Travolta
Sarah Sunhill:Madeleine Stowe
Gen. Joe Campbell:James Cromwell
Col. William Kent:Timothy Hutton
Col. Robert Moore:James Woods
Col. George Fowler:Clarence Williams III
Capt. Elisabeth Campbell:Leslie Stefanson
Running time -- 116 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 6/11/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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