"I like these calm little moments before the storm."
March 21, 2013 1:47 PM Subscribe
For those of us who would like to celebrate the 55th birthday of one of the greatest actors of his generation, enjoy this majestic collection of clips: Gary Oldman Loses His Shit.
Bonus: Gary Oldman alignment chart.
Bonus: Gary Oldman alignment chart.
Surprisingly, no.
posted by ocherdraco at 1:54 PM on March 21, 2013
posted by ocherdraco at 1:54 PM on March 21, 2013
Suprisingly no Lee Harvey Oswald...which is rather odd.
posted by clavdivs at 1:58 PM on March 21, 2013
posted by clavdivs at 1:58 PM on March 21, 2013
I haven't clicked it yet, but if this doesn't have EV-ERY-OOOOOONEEEE I'm going to shoot somebody.
posted by entropicamericana at 2:00 PM on March 21, 2013 [8 favorites]
posted by entropicamericana at 2:00 PM on March 21, 2013 [8 favorites]
I was hoping for "I... am... VERY DISAPPOINTED!" But I myself am only slightly disappointed.
posted by Foosnark at 2:04 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Foosnark at 2:04 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
What movies are the "true neutral" and "chaotic neutral" screencaps from?
posted by rmd1023 at 2:06 PM on March 21, 2013
posted by rmd1023 at 2:06 PM on March 21, 2013
True Neutral is from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, which is a not-great adaptation of the Tom Stoppard play (though I will always love it for the fact that it features both Gary Oldman and Tim Roth in leather trousers). Chaotic Neutral is The Contender, I believe.
posted by scody at 2:10 PM on March 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by scody at 2:10 PM on March 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
Oh! I've seen R&GAD, but I forgot that bit. I must've been busy flipping a coin. I haven't seen "The Contender"
posted by rmd1023 at 2:15 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by rmd1023 at 2:15 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Why is it a not-great adaptation ? it's one of my favorite Tom Stoppard movies.
posted by Pendragon at 2:26 PM on March 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by Pendragon at 2:26 PM on March 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
Suprisingly no Lee Harvey Oswald...which is rather odd.
Not so odd, since LHO ( and Oldman's portrayal ) is pretty much the exact opposite of "losing his shit." He's cool as a cucumber throughout (even when blasting away from the sniper's nest)
There's just one brief scene of he and Marina fighting, with him yelling and hitting her, but the audio's mostly covered by voiceover, so it probably wouldn't work as well in the supercut.
posted by ShutterBun at 2:33 PM on March 21, 2013
Not so odd, since LHO ( and Oldman's portrayal ) is pretty much the exact opposite of "losing his shit." He's cool as a cucumber throughout (even when blasting away from the sniper's nest)
There's just one brief scene of he and Marina fighting, with him yelling and hitting her, but the audio's mostly covered by voiceover, so it probably wouldn't work as well in the supercut.
posted by ShutterBun at 2:33 PM on March 21, 2013
Pendragon: it's funny, my opinion about R&G Are Dead has really waxed and waned over the years. I loved it the first couple of times I saw it (mainly because I adore the play, plus Roth and Oldman's performances are priceless -- Oldman's epiphany when Richard Dreyfus explains "Hamlet: in love: with the old man's daughter: the old man thinks" is a thing of beauty and joy forever -- and the aforementioned leather trousers), but on repeated viewings it strikes me as really visually static, like Stoppard hadn't yet realized that as the director he could ask for the camera to be moved, the rhythm and pacing has very little of the breakneck spryness of the play, and (IMO) most of the supporting performances are pretty weak.
The Questions sequence is wonderful, though, and I do like that Stoppard added in all the silent visual jokes about Oldman's Rosencrantz (who's supposed to be the stupid one) inadvertently discovering various laws of physics, while Roth's Guildenstern (the smart one!) is constantly disregarding them impatiently. So I have really mixed feelings about it; I'm fond of it, in spite of everything, but there's a lot of "everything" to overlook.
posted by scody at 2:42 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
The Questions sequence is wonderful, though, and I do like that Stoppard added in all the silent visual jokes about Oldman's Rosencrantz (who's supposed to be the stupid one) inadvertently discovering various laws of physics, while Roth's Guildenstern (the smart one!) is constantly disregarding them impatiently. So I have really mixed feelings about it; I'm fond of it, in spite of everything, but there's a lot of "everything" to overlook.
posted by scody at 2:42 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Oldman never fails to take my breath away, no matter whether I like the film or not, he transfixes me every single time.
posted by maggieb at 3:17 PM on March 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by maggieb at 3:17 PM on March 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
I should see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead again. I don't think I've seen it since it came out on videotape, but I really enjoyed it at the time; I was so excited to see Oldman and Roth together. Besides that and Meantime, have they done anything else good together?
They're both great actors who have done a lot of crap to pay the bills(Oldman more so), but even in the bad movies they just shine. Only Oldman could pull off the ridiculous plastic prosthetic forehead in the Fifth Element and still be a funny and menacing villain.
posted by Red Loop at 3:29 PM on March 21, 2013
They're both great actors who have done a lot of crap to pay the bills(Oldman more so), but even in the bad movies they just shine. Only Oldman could pull off the ridiculous plastic prosthetic forehead in the Fifth Element and still be a funny and menacing villain.
posted by Red Loop at 3:29 PM on March 21, 2013
I liked The Bonus: Gary Oldman Alignment Chart a lot.
It reminds me of a Dan Flavin light sculpture...I like how Flavin names his works by dedicating them to people. 'for you' 'and one for you'
So the Alignment Chart, it looks a bit like a lit up hashtag...which looks like
something you would lean against, like a safety rail, to keep from falling.
maybe a green screen.....
Anyway, happy birthday.
posted by sirlikeitalot at 3:56 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
It reminds me of a Dan Flavin light sculpture...I like how Flavin names his works by dedicating them to people. 'for you' 'and one for you'
So the Alignment Chart, it looks a bit like a lit up hashtag...which looks like
something you would lean against, like a safety rail, to keep from falling.
maybe a green screen.....
Anyway, happy birthday.
posted by sirlikeitalot at 3:56 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
I have always wanted to get really angry in front of Oldman & Thewlis.
..OK, in all honesty, I've actually wanted to be perfectly gracious in front of them. BUT, if things didn't go well, THEN I would get angry in front of them, and that would probably make whatever was wrong be right. Or right'ish, anyway.
posted by aramaic at 4:03 PM on March 21, 2013
..OK, in all honesty, I've actually wanted to be perfectly gracious in front of them. BUT, if things didn't go well, THEN I would get angry in front of them, and that would probably make whatever was wrong be right. Or right'ish, anyway.
posted by aramaic at 4:03 PM on March 21, 2013
Years and years ago (mid-90s, maybe?) I was in NYC. I was wandering around 30 Rock, and although the Today Show had finished broadcasting for the day, I could spy Gary Oldman being interviewed in one of the studios. He wasn't chewing the wall or threatening the interviewer with a gun or trying to steal the stones for the Fifth Element. He was just there, politely answering questions.
I was slightly disappointed.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 4:09 PM on March 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
I was slightly disappointed.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 4:09 PM on March 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
visually static
I always thought that was appropriate since they're, you know, in a play. And I don't mean simply, "It's a screen adaptation of a play," - I mean in the whole meta- dimension of the work. It's appropriate that all the locations feel very much like sets.
posted by neuromodulator at 4:38 PM on March 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
I always thought that was appropriate since they're, you know, in a play. And I don't mean simply, "It's a screen adaptation of a play," - I mean in the whole meta- dimension of the work. It's appropriate that all the locations feel very much like sets.
posted by neuromodulator at 4:38 PM on March 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
I had this dawning moment of Oldman comprehension a few weeks ago where I realized that it was HIM in Fifth Element and HIM in AIR FORCE ONE? And The Dark Knight?
Like, I know it sounds totally obvious, but those movies were so far apart and I was younger for two of them, and he's just so brilliant and actor and so different in his performances that I was truly shocked.
posted by disillusioned at 4:45 PM on March 21, 2013
Like, I know it sounds totally obvious, but those movies were so far apart and I was younger for two of them, and he's just so brilliant and actor and so different in his performances that I was truly shocked.
posted by disillusioned at 4:45 PM on March 21, 2013
If you really want to blow your mind, enjoy a triple feature of Oldman as Sid Vicious, Beethoven, and 19th-Century Hipster Dracula.
posted by scody at 4:56 PM on March 21, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by scody at 4:56 PM on March 21, 2013 [5 favorites]
Gary Oldman on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me, answering questions about his accent and playing Not My Job (topic: Up With People).
posted by djb at 5:06 PM on March 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by djb at 5:06 PM on March 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
scody: "If you really want to blow your mind, enjoy a triple feature of Oldman as Sid Vicious, Beethoven, and 19th-Century Hipster Dracula"
And then enjoy the racially ambiguous rasta drug dealer then the prisoner in Chattahoochee and then the playwright Joe Orton then Christ the guy's ridiculously versatile! It (almost) doesn't matter what he's in.
posted by Red Loop at 5:17 PM on March 21, 2013
And then enjoy the racially ambiguous rasta drug dealer then the prisoner in Chattahoochee and then the playwright Joe Orton then Christ the guy's ridiculously versatile! It (almost) doesn't matter what he's in.
posted by Red Loop at 5:17 PM on March 21, 2013
What I like about Gary Oldman is that I almost always have a 'wait, is that Gary Oldman' moment, but he doesn't do the Meryl Streep thing of showboating his versatility. I also like him better when he notches it right back.
posted by unSane at 5:24 PM on March 21, 2013
posted by unSane at 5:24 PM on March 21, 2013
FYI, the alignment chart is from MeFi's own mightygodking.
posted by zombieflanders at 5:40 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by zombieflanders at 5:40 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
I'm sure Gary Oldman and Tim Roth must be up for a lot of the same parts.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:49 PM on March 21, 2013
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:49 PM on March 21, 2013
I think Gary Oldman is arguably the best all around actor of his generation, whatever that is.
I feel like you can never, ever truly appreciate Gary Oldman for who and what he is without seeing Tiptoes at least one time.
posted by Sphinx at 5:51 PM on March 21, 2013
I feel like you can never, ever truly appreciate Gary Oldman for who and what he is without seeing Tiptoes at least one time.
posted by Sphinx at 5:51 PM on March 21, 2013
Prick Up Your Ears is still his finest hour.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 6:23 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Joseph Gurl at 6:23 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
I agree that R&GAD, the movie, is just... no. Basically, I think it's a problem that cannot be solved: it should not be a movie. If you've seen the play, you understand when I say that the entire point of the play is that, in a magnificent subversion *and* comment on Hamlet's role in Hamlet they cannot leave the stage, while everyone else can. The moment you have a movie, the moment you open it up to them being able to go even from one room to another, the whole story loses the one thing that makes the play such a fucking highwire act.
Also, the movie is filled with pauses for no reason. Playwrights should never direct their own plays as films. They know things we don't, and it never comes across right.
posted by tzikeh at 7:28 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Also, the movie is filled with pauses for no reason. Playwrights should never direct their own plays as films. They know things we don't, and it never comes across right.
posted by tzikeh at 7:28 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
If you really want to blow your mind, enjoy a triple feature of Oldman as Sid Vicious, Beethoven, and 19th-Century Hipster Dracula.
Not 19th-Century Hipster Dracula -- more like 19th-Century Purple Rain Dracula.
God, that movie isn't great but I love it unreasonably. The costumes, the sets, the laughably bad Keanu....
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 7:47 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Not 19th-Century Hipster Dracula -- more like 19th-Century Purple Rain Dracula.
God, that movie isn't great but I love it unreasonably. The costumes, the sets, the laughably bad Keanu....
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 7:47 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
I will not have anyone badmouth Dracula, it was all practical effects, in camera. It's a delirious feverish dream state homage to the heady days of 30s cinema, the holy-crap-we-don't-have-to-film-plays-we-can-do-ANYTHING wild wooly experimental movies that are totally baffling to modern movie grammar pushing right past ridiculous into the superposition of high camp and high art. It's wonderful and over-ripe and I love it.
posted by The Whelk at 8:22 PM on March 21, 2013 [10 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 8:22 PM on March 21, 2013 [10 favorites]
What was the low-budget looking one (with...I think a very young Tilda Swinton) toward the end?
posted by psoas at 8:29 PM on March 21, 2013
posted by psoas at 8:29 PM on March 21, 2013
I'm totally on board with the Dracula love. "Hallucinogenic postmodern fever dream" was exactly how I tried to explain it to someone (the bit where the closeup on the blood cell turns into the setting sun? LOVE). And that whole Industrial Revolution-on-shrooms vibe was basically proto-steampunk. And then there's Keanu Reeves with baby powder in his hair and Winona "Sweetheart of the '90s" Ryder mincing around with her terrible accent, and Gary Oldman shows up and rasps "I... have crossed oceans... of time" and OH MY GOD IT IS SERIOUSLY THE BEST
posted by scody at 8:33 PM on March 21, 2013 [8 favorites]
posted by scody at 8:33 PM on March 21, 2013 [8 favorites]
something about the shadows...he moves around the shadows don't agree.
plato of course...
let's throw in the whopper...you know from war games...
keanu...it's too big...to big to fit in your mouth...
and his correspondence with that...
make a little birdhouse in your soul...check out my furry hands...
trouble...there's tribbles...
posted by sirlikeitalot at 9:30 PM on March 21, 2013
plato of course...
let's throw in the whopper...you know from war games...
keanu...it's too big...to big to fit in your mouth...
and his correspondence with that...
make a little birdhouse in your soul...check out my furry hands...
trouble...there's tribbles...
posted by sirlikeitalot at 9:30 PM on March 21, 2013
If you really want to blow your mind, enjoy a triple feature of Oldman as Sid Vicious, Beethoven, and 19th-Century Hipster Dracula.
And cap it off with Smiley.
posted by homunculus at 9:58 PM on March 21, 2013
And cap it off with Smiley.
posted by homunculus at 9:58 PM on March 21, 2013
It's telling that in a movie made of really crackerjack well constructed scenes, the most powerful is a nine minute close up on Oldman's face,
posted by The Whelk at 10:16 PM on March 21, 2013
posted by The Whelk at 10:16 PM on March 21, 2013
"Take me away from all this death!"
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 10:21 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 10:21 PM on March 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
homunculus: "
And cap it off with Smiley"
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a great movie, but it's somehow also quite boring. I've never figured out how it manages to be both. But Oldman is great in it.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:31 AM on March 22, 2013
And cap it off with Smiley"
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a great movie, but it's somehow also quite boring. I've never figured out how it manages to be both. But Oldman is great in it.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:31 AM on March 22, 2013
YMMV. I wasn't bored at all, and I thought Oldman should have got the Oscar.
posted by homunculus at 12:47 AM on March 22, 2013
posted by homunculus at 12:47 AM on March 22, 2013
I kind of get the feeling that Oldman is doing this on purpose.
posted by blue_beetle at 5:38 AM on March 22, 2013
posted by blue_beetle at 5:38 AM on March 22, 2013
"My reaction when I see Gary Oldman in a movie I just watched: 'That was Gary Oldman?'"
posted by zoetrope at 8:23 AM on March 22, 2013
posted by zoetrope at 8:23 AM on March 22, 2013
Gary Oldman Loses His Shit At Athletes Who Act
posted by haricotvert at 11:31 AM on March 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by haricotvert at 11:31 AM on March 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
I liked The Bonus: Gary Oldman Alignment Chart a lot.
It reminds me of a Dan Flavin light sculpture...
That is quite possibly the nicest compliment I have ever gotten about these silly things.
posted by mightygodking at 3:45 PM on March 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
It reminds me of a Dan Flavin light sculpture...
That is quite possibly the nicest compliment I have ever gotten about these silly things.
posted by mightygodking at 3:45 PM on March 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
Oh you're welcome!
Your site is neat. A lot of the talk at the used bookstore I go to is about games.
I guess the Flavin thing occurred to me last November or so...I saw one online at the Forth Worth
Modern Art Museum.
And I was reading a bio of Garcia Marquez and I was remembering how bad a Spanish student I was.
So I looked up my old professor and there was a photo of him with a group of students on a trail in Spain...He was leaning on the guard rail behind them.
posted by sirlikeitalot at 5:27 PM on March 22, 2013
Your site is neat. A lot of the talk at the used bookstore I go to is about games.
I guess the Flavin thing occurred to me last November or so...I saw one online at the Forth Worth
Modern Art Museum.
And I was reading a bio of Garcia Marquez and I was remembering how bad a Spanish student I was.
So I looked up my old professor and there was a photo of him with a group of students on a trail in Spain...He was leaning on the guard rail behind them.
posted by sirlikeitalot at 5:27 PM on March 22, 2013
He's cool as a cucumber throughout (even when blasting away from the sniper's nest)
There's just one brief scene of he and Marina fighting, with him yelling and hitting her, but the audio's mostly covered by voiceover, so it probably wouldn't work as well in the supercut.
Did you see the beads of sweat, the controlled anger, whacking a cop. I'll stick to my guns it is odd considering the role he played and the nature of the post.
As Smiley...no one could pull it off but him. Smiley does not lose his cool except when it comes to Anne and KARLA. Guiness even had a time with his anger (Rodey fucking Martingdale.) The fly in the Car was good and indicitive of Smileys character.
posted by clavdivs at 10:08 AM on March 23, 2013
There's just one brief scene of he and Marina fighting, with him yelling and hitting her, but the audio's mostly covered by voiceover, so it probably wouldn't work as well in the supercut.
Did you see the beads of sweat, the controlled anger, whacking a cop. I'll stick to my guns it is odd considering the role he played and the nature of the post.
As Smiley...no one could pull it off but him. Smiley does not lose his cool except when it comes to Anne and KARLA. Guiness even had a time with his anger (Rodey fucking Martingdale.) The fly in the Car was good and indicitive of Smileys character.
posted by clavdivs at 10:08 AM on March 23, 2013
Did you see the beads of sweat, the controlled anger, whacking a cop. I'll stick to my guns it is odd considering the role he played and the nature of the post.
Controlled anger = again, not "losing his shit."
Also, there's no dialogue in those scenes except for Costner's voiceover, so it wouldn't work as well in this montage. The fight scenes with Marina would have worked ("YOU MUST UNDERSTAND!") if they didn't have the voiceover covering them.
posted by ShutterBun at 3:35 PM on March 23, 2013
Controlled anger = again, not "losing his shit."
Also, there's no dialogue in those scenes except for Costner's voiceover, so it wouldn't work as well in this montage. The fight scenes with Marina would have worked ("YOU MUST UNDERSTAND!") if they didn't have the voiceover covering them.
posted by ShutterBun at 3:35 PM on March 23, 2013
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posted by clavdivs at 1:50 PM on March 21, 2013