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The (Non-Bond) Films of Sean Connery
I started similar threads for Dalton and Brosnan:
http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/8666/the-films-of-pierce-brosnan-non-bond#Item_29
http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/8627/the-films-of-timothy-dalton-non-bond/p1
So let's talk Connery's films. He's retired now but it's fair to say that after Bond Connery is the actor who did best. Not only did the series make him a bonafide star but he went on maintain his marquee status successfully over the years.
I mean he worked with Hitchcock, Sidney Lumet and won a Oscar. Not bad at all. No other Bond actor has really matched him since.
http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/8666/the-films-of-pierce-brosnan-non-bond#Item_29
http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/8627/the-films-of-timothy-dalton-non-bond/p1
So let's talk Connery's films. He's retired now but it's fair to say that after Bond Connery is the actor who did best. Not only did the series make him a bonafide star but he went on maintain his marquee status successfully over the years.
I mean he worked with Hitchcock, Sidney Lumet and won a Oscar. Not bad at all. No other Bond actor has really matched him since.
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Comments
To be honest, I prefer Connery much more in his non-Bond roles than as Bond.
And of course, Sir Wynter in The Avengers!
The Untouchables (he's what makes Kevin Costner watchable)
The Rock ("Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and f*ck the prom queen.")
Best Robin Hood film I've seen by far. Love how Robert Shaw is the baddy too. Bond vs Red Grant round two :D
Connery plays his part the way he does in FRWL.
I second this. Connery is great in this film. Interestingly this was the film Connery made with UA as part of his deal to secure his return as Bond in 1971. There was another non-Bond movie that Connery had in his contract that would have seen him in the director's chair but it never came to pass.
'The Offence' however is a very interesting film and is somewhat surprising and a total departure for Sean. Not only does he look nothing like Bond but the character he plays is a very complex individual.
Connery did another film around the same time called 'The Anderson Tapes' that I've seen. I remember it not being great and having a vey weird score that I imagine was hip and cool at the time but now badly aged. The film though does feature a young Christopher Walkern. However, there is one memorial scene in the film where Connery's character condemns society and capitalism that has always lingered with me:
Those are all magnificent. I also like him a lot in Highlander and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I was really excited when Meteor came out, but that was a bummer. Not due to Connery, though.
This is simply as true as it gets! Great,great Film (and touching as hell)!!!
I join in praise of The Offence. The film is badly paced (its first half drags badly), but once Connery is given a chance to act, he turns in a volcanic performance, a study in repression and rage. Connery explored aspects of his screen persona that were never touched on before or since. His most daring, draining, and astonishing role.
The crown of Connery's career, outside Bond, is the mythic trilogy of The Wind and the Lion, The Man Who Would Be King, and Robin and Marian. It was such work that made Pauline Kael write "with the glorious exceptions of Brando and Olivier, there's no screen actor I'd rather watch than Sean Connery. His vitality may make him the most richly masculine of all English-speaking actors." Kael also remarked on Connery's "confidence in himself as a man. I don't know any man since Cary Grant that men have wanted to be so much."
It's that self-confident masculinity that allowed Connery to play an Arab chieftain, a Victorian adventurer, Robin Hood, King Arthur (First Knight), Agamemnon (Time Bandits), Shakespeare's Hotspur (An Age of Kings), and King Richard the Lion-Hearted (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) with such authority, with so little self-consciousness, and with sly, twinkle-eyed humor.
Oh, and at the risk of being thought insane, I would like to praise Zardoz. I freely acknowledge that the film is bat-s**t insane, pretentious, incredibly silly, and features Sean Connery running around in a diaper, bandoleros, and thigh-high go-go boots (later on he appears in a wedding dress). And it begins with a giant stone head whizzing around, shouting "The gun is good, the penis is evil!" But that's also why the film is kind of awesome--it has its own kind of demented integrity, and is stuffed with ideas that are interesting even when half-baked. And Connery projects enough gravitas to anchor the film, which might otherwise fly off into cloud cookoo land. Who else could give life to lines like "I love to see them running. I love the moments of their deaths - when I am one with Zardoz."
If you want to get stoned without taking drugs, take Zardoz.
Superb post @Revelator. I remember reading the Kael quote, and I've even paraphrased it myself on occasion, simply because I agree with it totally.
SPOILER ALERT:
The Hunt for Red October
Rising Sun
The name of the rose
The Rock
The Anderson Tapes
Outland
Entrapment
The Untouchables
If I had to pick one out above all others, then The Rock would just about edge it. I can't abide the irritating Cage, so Connery gets all the accolades going for that one. Name of the rose and The Untouchables would be up there also, but Rock would appear most favorite. I really enjoyed his John Mason (?) character's disputes and scenes with the Ed Harris character (unable to remember the name)
Edit - Frank Hummel
A great underrated movie and one of, if not THE, most underrated performances of Sean Connery. I remember hearing a fellow student when I was making my medieval master degree that it didn't work because Sean Connery equaled sex and virility, not celibacy and monk's life. But he sold William of Baskerville. He played a very believable asexual intellectual.
Connery's character on paper, Mark Rutland, is the villain of the piece. He traps a young woman with psychological and mental health issues in a bid to 'cure' her, he blackmails her into marriage and later rapes her. However, Hitchcock and Connery make the character very charming and his interest in Marnie never seems perverted, instead Mark genuinely seems to care for the girl. He does provide Marnie with redemption at the end but in getting there he does oppress her. I'm not sure how I feel about Rutland and as far as I'm concerned that is a commendable thing Hitchcock has pulled off.
It would have been a rather easy decision to make the Rutland character an out-and-out villain but instead he is far more complex. Connery is an extremely natural performer and never does he become hammy or too stagy, however I would have liked the character of Mark to have had a little more bite on occasion. It was an interesting decision to cast 'James Bond' in this role as Connery had a reputation as the hero at this point so playing such an ambiguous character was an interesting move. For those concerned he is also operating at his full Bond powers throughout the film as well:
The film though belongs to Tippi Hedren. She gives a fantastic performance of a psychologically damaged woman. She brings a tragic vulnerability to the part, so much so that it is almost understandable why Mark feels such a need to protect her. Marnie is a very interesting and layered character; she is a compulsive thief and liar and harbours massive psychological issues. In a surprise twist the film does reveal the root of Marnie's mental issues and it is very shocking indeed (and somewhat surprising for 1960's standards let alone today). In the pre-production leading up to making the film the role of Marnie was heavily sought after by many actresses and I can see why. Tippi brings a lot to the table aside from having a brittle fragile nature she at times can seem borderline psychotic which in turn makes a very sympathetic character seem slightly unpredictable and in turn difficult for the audience to fully support. Marnie could have been portrayed as a classic heroine but like with the Rutland character, Hitchcock refuses to deal in absolutes and makes the characters suitably ambiguous.
The film though is little overly-long and the script has little wit to it and it is a little expository-laden and overly concerned with psychoanalysis at times. But despite being relatively dry an affair, the film is very compelling and the characters are interesting and multifaceted.
It's so hard to believe BUT as I was watching the films from the beginning, I did have a bit of sentiment to Moore in AVTAK whenever the theme song would flute-bust in the background. Still, not quality or substance just sentiment which didn't mean as much business as the Craig films do to keep audiences both fans and non-fans alike interested.
And once seen, it can NEVER be unseen. That goes for any film featuring Sean Connery in a wedding dress.
:D ;)
The Offence
The Untouchables
Five Days One Summer
The Name Of The Rose
Medicine Man
The Russia House (Make it 6 :)