February 6, 2021
MY CORNER by Boyd
Cathey
Christopher Plummer:
In Memory of a Great Actor
Friends,
Friday, February 5, the noted actor Christopher Plummer passed
away at the age of 91. His departure brought back to me memories of films he
appeared in during an impressive career that spanned seven decades. The pallid
and often insipid and undeserved fame of recent Hollywood stars and starlets
pales in significance to Plummer’s achievements in film and on stage. Truly he
was one of an older generation of actors who were far more talented than the
cinematic midgets that infest Tinsel Town these days. He understood the power of cinema and theater
which could not only entertain an audience but also through choice of subjects
and the art of conveyance had the ability to add something grand to our
culture.
Like many viewers and fans of Plummer, the first film I
remember seeing with him as a leading star was The Sound of Music (1965), with Julie Andrews and Eleanor Parker. My
whole family motored into Raleigh to see it when it played at the old
Ambassador Theater on Fayetteville Street, one of those special occasions that
remain etched in my memory. Plummer assumed the role of the Austrian aristocrat
and conservative opponent of the Nazis, Baron von Trapp. Although he was not fond of the role, it will
remain forever connected to him and serve to identify him for millions of
viewers who otherwise may not know that much about his distinguished career.
A few later in college I was able to take a side trip into Charlotte to see him in The Night of the Generals (1967), with Omar Shariff and Peter O’Toole (Plummer played Field Marshall Rommel) and Battle of Britain (1969)—still in my opinion one of the greatest “war” movies ever made, with some fantastic air combat scenes. Then, in grad school at the University of Virginia, I took time out to see what would become my favorite historical film, Waterloo (1971).
Waterloo is criticized by some film critics as “too static,” that
it simply is two hours of fighting, cavalry and infantry charging back and
forth, but lacking a momentum that would carry it forward. I strongly disagree; if anything that
criticism misses the intentions of director Sergei Bondarchuk. On a large
screen canvas he attempts to actually re-create, to paint cinematically if you
will, to the smallest detail an historical event—every uniform, every bit of
action, everything said (quoted) by Plummer (Duke of Wellington) and Rod
Steiger (Napoleon) brought to the screen. It’s more like an illustrated volume
of history, unfolding visually before the audience, in some ways perhaps like a
docudrama, but much more than that. Each time I view my Russian-made DVD I imagine myself on that field in Belgium back in 1815, and I can see and
understand that momentous battle and what it meant to the future of Europe.
And Plummer as Wellington is priceless…an absolute joy to
watch him actually become the Iron
Duke. The screen writers went back and combed through the records. Left behind and scribbled down by observant
note-takers were numerous accounts of what Wellington said right before and
during the battle. Bondarchuk integrates those sayings and quotes seamlessly
into his production, and in speaking those lines Plummer excels in bringing his
character alive—he truly is Lord
Wellington.
Some of those quips and quotes remain with me now fifty years
after I first saw Waterloo. Let me
offer some memorable examples.
In reviewing the somewhat disreputable moral state of his
Welsh Guards on the eve of the battle, he turns to his adjutant and says: “I
don’t know how these men will do against the enemy, but by God they scare the
hell out of me.” On his preparation for battle he declares: “Always get over
heavy ground as lightly as possible,” and concerning the request of a junior
officer to take a shot at the Emperor Napoleon who has ridden too close to the
English lines, Plummer laconically replies: “Certainly not! It is not the
business of generals to shoot at each other.” And perhaps my favorite, spoken
near the end of the film as he rides over the battlefield surveying the
thousands of dead and horribly wounded: “Next to a battle lost, nothing is so
tragic as a battle won.”
Plummer incarnates Wellington, his presentation totally
believable…and certainly mirrors somewhat the two-volume biography that Lady Elizabeth
Longford painstakingly wrote and published at roughly the same time (1969 and
1972). I don’t think any other actor could have done as well.
Although accomplished in many cinematic genres Plummer
continued his mastery of historical film with such titles as The Assassination at Sarajevo (1975) as
the doomed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, The
Man Who Would Be King (1975) as Rudyard Kipling (co-starring with Michael
Caine and Sean Connery), The Scarlet and
the Black (1983), where he played the German commander of Rome against
Gregory Peck’s Catholic monsignor who has been smuggling Allied prisoners and
dissidents out of harm’s way, and then another favorite, Young Catherine (1991), on the early life of Tsarina Catherine the
Great of Russia. Later he took roles in such historical on-screen dramas as Nuremburg (2000) and The Last Station (2009)—a memorable
account of the last years of Russian novelist Count Leo Tolstoy (receiving his
first, and long overdue, first Academy Award nomination).
He was nominated a second time for his portrayal of John Paul Getty in director Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World (2017), depicting the infamous kidnapping case of J. Paul Getty III. And he finally received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the comedy, Beginners (2011), making him the oldest actor to ever receive an Academy Award.
Beyond his mastery of historical drama, Plummer excelled in
other areas as well. He could be a believable character from an Agatha Christie
mystery, such as in Ordeal by Innocence
(1984), or in a Charles Dickens classic, such as Nicholas Nickleby (2002) as the evil Uncle Ralph Nickleby, or
portraying Julius Caesar in George Bernard Shaw’s comedic Caesar and Cleopatra (2009). And his on stage Shakespeare roles
were uniformly praised…Othello, Macbeth, Henry V, and King Lear
Lastly, modern and younger viewers may recall his iconic role
as Chang in Star Trek VI.
Christopher Plummer worked tirelessly up until his death. He
was one of the last remaining giants in a swirling sea of mediocrities who
populate our film industry these days. He will be missed.
What he said in Waterloo,
reputedly words uttered by Wellington when the battle seemed lost to the
English, may well apply to us and the bastardization and corruption of our
culture: “May God have mercy on us…for no one else will.”
To know the subject >>>>>>>
ReplyDeleteExceptional piece.I now have my 2021vfilm list to boot. And, as always, perfect conclusions
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