We now are celebrating the year’s top films and performances as we compile ten-best lists and prognosticate about whose name will be announced in February after “...and the Oscar goes to...” But it also is fitting to recall the talent we lost in 2014: those individuals who no longer will be appearing in yet-to-be-released films with Academy Award aspirations.
At the top of this list is Philip Seymour Hoffman. Much has been written about his life, and his demons, but the focus here will be on his wonderful, multifaceted talent. As proof, all you need do is note his characters and performances in two films that were released after his passing last winter. In A MOST WANTED MAN, a John le Carre spy thriller, Hoffman is the jaded, secretive German-born head of a Hamburg-based anti-terrorist unit. In GOD’S POCKET, his character comes straight out of a Richard Russo novel: an unrelentingly grim small-town/blue-collar loser with serious money issues.
These characters are so unlike Hoffman’s Oscar-winning turn a decade ago as Truman Capote in CAPOTE. In all these films, his talent enables him to effortlessly immerse himself in his characters, to become the person he’s playing. This is what makes him so special onscreen and, in this regard, Philip Seymour Hoffman most reminds me of an actor of an earlier generation who could play a range of characters with equal aplomb. That actor is Edward G. Robinson
It seems that a staggering number of gifted individuals passed in 2014. It is hard to believe, for instance, that Mike Nichols no longer will be directing for the screen. THE GRADUATE, which dates from 1967, is one of his earliest credits. This classic may be best-recalled as Dustin Hoffman’s breakthrough as well as for Anne Bancroft’s iconic “Mrs. Robinson.” But THE GRADUATE also is a textbook example of how to direct a film, on how a smart filmmaker will employ the camera to communicate ideas and impressions that transcend performance and dialogue. (Here is a bit of trivia: One of the stars of Mike Nichols’ final directorial credit, 2007’s CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR, is Philip Seymour Hoffman.)
A list of additional talent who passed in 2014 only begins with Eli Wallach, Lauren Bacall, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Shirley Temple, Ruby Dee, Elaine Stritch, Marian Seldes, Martha Hyer, Paul Mazursky, Maximilian Schell, Alain Resnais, Sid Caesar, and Robin Williams. There is Misty Upham, whose career was just getting started, and Mickey Rooney, whose credits date from the 1920s. James Gandolfini was going to be included here, but a quick google search reminded me that he passed in June, 2013. Time sure does fly, as the cliché goes, but Gandolfini is worth citing-- and not because his galvanizing performance as Tony Soprano is arguably the all-time outstanding dramatic character on a TV series.
One might say that Gandolfini peaked in The Sopranos but, over the years, he compiled an extensive filmography. His final screen work came in THE DROP, released this past fall, in which his character, “Cousin Marv,” might have appeared on a Sopranos episode. But Gandolfini’s range is ever-apparent in his next-to-last feature: ENOUGH SAID, a romantic comedy-drama in which he is radiates charm and sensitivity as a genuinely nice guy, an average sort who might easily be your next-door neighbor. By the way, ENOUGH SAID is an insightful film that is about grownups and for grownups. It explores the complexities of relationships, whether they be between husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, parents and children.
If you somehow missed this film, it definitely is worth seeking out. And you also can savor Eli Wallach in THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, and Lauren Bacall in TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, and James Garner in THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY, and Robin Williams in AWAKENINGS, DEAD POETS SOCIETY, MRS. DOUBTFIRE, GOOD WILL HUNTING, and GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM...
Rob Edelman teaches film history at the University at Albany. He has written several books on film and television, and is an associate editor of Leonard Maltin’s Movie and Video Guide.
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