Author:
Webmistress Susan ;-)
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Date Posted: 03:21:49 12/23/05 Fri
This is a pretty thought-provoking question, Ilsa. I'm still contemplating it, but I guess I'm ready to venture a reply.
First off, it's obvious he put a lot of thought into all his performances considering he was so adept at transforming himself into so many different kinds of characters and was so convincing at all of them. He definitely took the profession of acting very seriously. And it's been said that he sometimes "lived" his roles off screen when preparing for them. (I sure wouldn't have wanted to be around when he was working on Hatter's Castle!)
I do think he put quite a bit of thought into how he would portray Long John Silver and gave a completely original performance. Nobody had played Silver with so much swagger and charisma before. I suspect he read the book, and having spent a lot of time at sea himself in real life, made an intentional effort to convey the way real sailors talked in the 18th century. (He was probably aware that the RP accent so common in contemporary movies only came into being in the 19th century; before that most people in England pronounced their final "r"'s, even adding them in if the word ended in a vowel. You can tell this by reading actual documents written by pirates before English spelling became standardized and words were generally spelled the way they were pronounced by the person spelling them.) Also, a considerable number of real pirates did hail from the West Country, and, though Stevenson never states so, it's pretty clear that the first part of Treasure Island is set in Cornwall. So I don't think it was an accident that he dusted off the old West Country accent he had used before in Poison Pen and Busman's Honeymoon, then added a little extra crustiness to make his speech more faithful to Stevenson's original dialog. (And, of course, in actually playing the role, he threw subtlety to the winds, knowing that he was playing primarily to an audience of children.) I think that performance was a stroke of genius, and obviously influenced the way people have thought of pirates ever since.
As for Lukey, I don't know what sort of preparation he did for the role, but he was almost certainly influenced by coming from a family of artists, particularly with his own father being a famous painter.
I feel bad now, Susan, that my review put you off seeing it! Odd Man Out is one of his best films, I think, but not as easy viewing as, say, Treasure Island or Jamaica Inn. It took at least four viewings for me to appreciate it. I found it a very deep film that forces you to think and pay attention--something I'm not very good at, so that probably colored my review. I did give it four out of five stars, but I'm sorry that wasn't enough to encourage you to see it. Maybe I should have talked more about Lukey. I just thought that by mentioning the brevity of his role, I could save others from spending the first three-quarters of the movie like I did going, "Where's Robert Newton?" instead of watching the story. (My first reaction when he came on screen was disappointment at seeing him portray yet another alcoholic character, and not a very sympathetic one. I didn't find Lukey's eccentricity charming as some people did; I was appalled by his selfishness in trying to prevent Johnny from getting medical attention. But he eventually grew on me; he's definitely an original. And he's only one of many selfish characters in the story.)
I think, of the roles you mentioned, Susan, Peter McCabe and Bill Sikes are the ones I felt the most compassion for. McCabe was really a tragic character, I thought, while Bill Sikes is genuinely evil, but Robert Newton makes him fascinating at the same time. (I have issues with animal abuse, so Clive Riordan completely lost my sympathy the minute he decided to ... well, I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it, but let's just he doesn't have a lot of compassion for his wife's dog. Of course, following that reasoning, I shouldn't like Bill Sikes either for what he intended to do to poor Bulleye!)
As for Pistol in Henry V, I had some trouble understanding his speech--he sounds like he had a cold or was having a hard time enunciating through all that make-up. (Luckily, the script's not hard to find!) But I discovered in my Shakespeare class that his overacting is 100% historically authentic, so, again, he obviously knew what he was doing, through years of experience in the theatre. The first half hour of that film, in fact, is almost a documentary of how Shakespeare's plays were originally staged at the "Globe" theatre--with the actors completely breaking down the "fourth wall" and playing directly to the audience. (Especially since the audience surrounded the stage on three sides and there was no fourth wall!) Also the comic character of Pistol would have been a favorite of audiences back then, which is why he keeps taking so many conspicuous bows.
BTW, Susan, I didn't like the beard either! :-) (But then, it's hard to play "Blackbeard" without one. But, as I mentioned in another topic, if they had just called the movie something other than "Blackbeard" and fictionalized the other pirates' names as well--as long as they weren't going to do their homework and make it historically accurate, that is--I might have enjoyed the movie a lot more!) On the other hand, while I usually hate mustaches, don't you think Robert Newton actually looked good in one? (I'm thinking of This Happy Breed.) But he definitely looks best clean shaven (or with a hint of stubble; I think he was at his sexiest as Bill Sikes and Bill Walker!) ... but this is getting waaay off topic!!!
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