November 16, 2007
The other weekend, I saw American Gangster and Michael Clayton. Both were excellent. Great acting, above par directing, nice production design and in the case of American Gangster, lovely 1970s attire.
But the films are not what I want to discuss. No, rather one actor from each film. Nope, not the gifted Denzel Washington, distinguished George Clooney or even Mr. Telephone-chucker himself, Russell Crowe. Nay, instead I'm going to direct your attention to actors Josh Brolin and Robert Prescott. Now, some of you may only know Josh Brolin as the son of James Brolin. Or perhaps as the step-son of Barbra Streisand. Others may know him as Diane Lane's hubby. Likely still others are drawing a complete blank. The same goes for Robert Prescott--drawing a blank that is, not that La Streisand is his step-monster or thinking he's enjoying wedded bliss with Diane Lane.
I suppose it is rather telling that when I first saw Josh Brolin on screen in American Gangster, I immediately flashed to the first film of his that I saw--The Goonies (telling of me that is, not of his performance). Highly enjoyable film. Perhaps not a great film, but a thoroughly fabulous '80s film--which is nothing less of what one would expect from a film with a character named Sloth. Or, come to that, a film which consists of tweens and teens running amuck in booby-trapped caves searching for the treasure of famed pirate One Eyed Willie. Josh Brolin played Brandon, one of the older teenagers--who I can still see riding his younger sister's pink bike complete with a front basket decorated with flowers down a wet road in an early scene. I should make it clear that Brolin is quite good as an extremely corrupt cop in American Gangster. It's really my own fault that I kept seeing him riding that pink bike in my mind sometimes when he would come onto the screen.
I did not immediately flash onto anything when I first saw Robert Prescott on screen in Michael Clayton. But he looked familiar, so I kept puzzling on it whenever he was in a scene--which is not terribly often as he does not have a large speaking role, but rather lurks and menaces rather silently. About the third or fourth time I saw him, though I had a sudden flash of recognition. He played Kent, an annoying, whiny sycophant in Real Genius. Another hard hitting film from the 1980s about a university filled with young geniuses who are tricked by a slimy Professor into perfecting a laser that can blow up anything on Earth from space (it goes without saying that the slimy Professor is in cahoots with the U.S. military). Again, an enjoyable film. Unlike with Josh Brolin, I was more able to distance Robert Prescott as Mr. Verne in Michael Clayton from his earlier role as Kent. Quite possibly because he just looks different--certainly the fact that he was not in braces and occasionally head gear while playing Mr. Verne helped.
In general, I just found it amusing to note that these two actors were playing the bad guys in these later films and comparing them with their earlier screen roles. Of course it could be argued that in both American Gangster and Michael Clayton there are no good guys. But don't trust me on this--after all I'm the one who kept seeing one character from each film about 20 years younger--one of whom rode a pink bike.
