Film School: Stardom

Aside from directors, the thing that most often attracts us to movies is who stars in them. Often it is the case we know what the main character will be like before we see the film. We know Bruce Willis will be the tough guy, Jack Nicholson will be a little eccentric and Arnie will be… Arnie.

Perhaps there’s a certain comfort in that fact that attracts us to certain stars. We’ve enjoyed their performance in a previous film, and so believe we’re in safe hands when we see their name in the opening credits.

Nevertheless, stars playing the same types of character can lead to an air of predictability and fatigue. Just as certain stars can attract us to films, they can also do the opposite. Take the recent backlash against Michael Cera or Tom Cruise.

It takes a special kind of actor to make us forget their previous performance while watching their current film. This week sees the release of the seventh Harry Potter film. It would be an impressive feat for any of its three stars to have a career not overshadowed by this series of films.

Perhaps they should look at the examples of Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill to see how, and how not to, move on from the franchise that made your career.

The difference between Ford and Hamill is perhaps best summed up by the phrase “Star Quality”.

What is it about Harrison Ford we are so charmed by? What is that means no matter how irritating he is being as Han Solo or Indiana Jones, we still want him to succeed? Is it his looks? Is it his walk? His glances? His delivery of one-liners?

This month saw the twenty-fifth anniversary of Back to the Future. Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly is perhaps the best summation of everything that was cool about the eighties. His attitude, his spirit, his ability to ride a hoverboard.

What a lot of people may not realise is that the first movie had completed shooting with a completely different actor (Eric Stoltz) and Michael J. Fox almost never got the role.

The decision to replace Stoltz with Fox must have had something to do with that ‘Star Quality’ we so often look for from our leading actors and actresses. It’s strange to think that the film may have been nothing more than a blip on the radar had someone not made such a bold choice twenty-five years ago. A choice which could probably never happen today.

The principle of ‘Stardom’ has been around since the dawn of cinema. It’s interesting to note that before there were films, the most famous of people were always the rulers or writers of their day. Since then there have been few as famous as those who pretend for a living. The better their ability to con us into believing they are something else, the more we enjoy our movie-going experience.

Top 5 Time Travellers

Today (Saturday) sees the return of Doctor Who, complete with new Tardis, new assistant and a new Doctor, played by Matt Smith. Time travelling as a concept, was arguably popularised by H.G. Wells Time Machine. Certainly the common notion of having a vehicle/device to transport you through time can be linked back to this story. In celebration of this most paradoxical of plot-devices I’ve devised the following list:

Top 5 Time Travellers

5. Bill & Ted
Every time I think about the plot of this movie, I wonder if I got it right. Bill & Ted get taken on a trip through time so they can pass their history class, otherwise Ted will be shipped to military school, and the Wyld Stallyns will never make the music that forms the utopian society of the future with its very simple philosophy:

Be Excellent to each other. And Party on Dudes!

It’s strange that I was first introduced to Genghis Khan, Napoleon and Abraham Lincoln through this movie (and possibly also the short-lived animated series) but there you go. In fact, growing up most of my knowledge of non-British history comes from films/shows like Forest Gump, Animaniacs, etc. It makes me wonder how many kids nowadays were first introduced to Shakespeare and Dickens through their appearance in Doctor Who? Or whose primary knowledge of the past is through the excellent Horrible Histories series? Anyway back to matters at hand:

4. Donnie Darko
Perhaps a less obvious time-traveller than all the others. However, his conversations with the bunny rabbit, following of worm holes, and so on have definitely earned him a place. Without spoiling anything, its surprising that his decision at the end of the movie hasn’t been considered more often by time travellers. It and It’s a Wonderful Life would make a brilliantly murky double bill.

3. Hiro (Heroes)
Say what you want about Heroes, in its prime you couldn’t help but smile as Hiro got to grips with controlling time and space. His determination to follow a hero’s arc, based on superheroes he has read about, feels like a very noughties concept. I often felt sorry for his character as he went on all these ridiculous journeys in later seasons, why couldn’t his adventures be as cool as his role-models like Superman or Spiderman?

2. The Terminator
Come with me if you want to live.
There’s a lot of great things about the first two Terminator movies. Perhaps the most obvious is the fact that Arnie has only ever been believable in his role as an almost indestructible being. He truly was born to play a robot.

Beyond that, I think the idea of a mother being told her son is destined for greatness is a very powerful one. And Sarah’s arc in doing her utmost to protect and develop her son has a surprising amount of depth in it.

Finally the time travel in the movie exists essentially without rules. It’s never really established how the technology came about, or whether its creators know whether it’s even possible to change the past. It’s probably the only movie about time travel where the concept is of little importance to the characters involved.

1. Marty McFly
Marty McFly almost sums up the 80s for me, or at least teen movie stars in the 80s. He’s wise-cracking, slick, and confident; he’s the guy all the geeks in 80s movies wanted to be. As a child my favourite scene was always the climax of him playing “Johnny Be Good” to get his parents together. Although the brilliantly played scene when he ends up being seduced in his mother’s bedroom has probably overtaken it since then.

It’s influence on me is such that the rules established in this movie about setting things right for the future, and not seeing your future self are the rules for time travelling. And I always have a deep suspicion for any story where claims to the contrary are made. Example of the types of conversations that go on in my head: “He’s meeting his former self – why isn’t the universe imploding?! I’ve never seen something so ridiculous in all my life! Don’t they know ANYTHING about time travelling?”

Over to you now: What are you favourite time travellers? Is there any movie/television show whose time travel rules you consider absolutely definitive?