' ' Cinema Romantico: Cinema Romantico's Inevitable Response To The Natalie Portman Controversy

Saturday, April 02, 2011

Cinema Romantico's Inevitable Response To The Natalie Portman Controversy

(What "controversy"? This controversy.)

In "Without Limits", my favorite sports movie, Billy Crudup stars as the late, legendary long distance runner Steve Prefontaine. Crudup, throughout, mimicked Prefontaine's unorthodox running style to great effect, though, throughout, real life footage of Prefontaine's races is blended with re-enacted footage. Does it matter where and exactly how often? Would the real life Prefontaine have given one quarter of half a flip? And I wonder if I care? Should I care? I mean, I'm taking this movie with me to a desert island.

Wait, that's not Steve Prefontaine! Imposter! Imposter!
Hmmmmm. Well, when I think of "Without Limits" what I think of most often and most fondly is the conversation Crudup and Donald Sutherland have to segue into the Olympic trials or the confrontation Crudup and Sutherland have outside the bar where Prefontaine's working near the end. I think of the way Crudup offers to carry Monica Potter's books and then accidentally drops one and picks it back up ("Modern Behavior?") and the way he phrases the words "That's pretty" to her in that same scene. I think of the way Crudup says to Sutherland at a crucial point "You don't know what'll happen to me if I run. But you know what'll happen to me if I don't." and the way he makes that kinda hackneyed line ring with truth like the Bells Of St. Mary's. I think of the converstion Crudup and Sutherland have at the picnic bench and the way Crudup brushes the dust, or whatever, off the table and the way he looks at and then casually dismisses what Sutherland has written on a legal pad regarding three mile times and most especially the way Crudup slams down the picnic bench and then calmly, bemused, wipes the hair out of his face. (They should have just stopped production at that moment and given Crudup the Oscar on the spot.)

Yeah. That's what I think about.

1 comment:

My Other Brother Daryl said...

Wait. Things actors do in movies isn't real? But, wait, no, that doesn't make sense. Casper Van Dien must have captured the Brain Bug, or else we would all be getting hit with asteroids. Right?