Sunday, 11 November 2007
Here Come the Hotsteppers: Ten Great Movie Walks
posted @1:26 p.m. by Richard Kelly
Yes, YOU decided, folks, and after receiving my most bumper mail-sack yet... the winner was clearly Best Walks. Let's do this again soon, shall we? The Top Ten that follows is a more than usually subjective mix of movie legends and unsung heroes, all with a special knack for putting one foot in front of the other...
TEN GREAT MOVIE WALKS
#10. Richard Pryor’s affected lope/scuttle in Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1978)
In a few piss-poor movie comedies the brilliant Pryor did a certain shtick where he would demonstrate to a white guy (usually Gene Wilder) how to be ‘hip’, and it was usually funny, kind of. What’s hilarious, though, is in his first and greatest concert movie, when Pryor does a bit on why white guys, when out walking in the woods, get bitten by snakes; and why black guys don’t. (It’s in the walk, see – you’ve gotta lope, not scuttle.) So much of the genius of this picture is in Pryor’s incredible physical gift, never properly exploited in any acting role he ever took.
9. John Travolta's strut in Saturday Night Fever (1977, dir. John Badham) and Richard Gere's rolling hips in American Gigolo (1980, dir. Paul Schrader)
Two boys deeply in love with themselves, after a very late-1970s Culture-of-Narcissism fashion. I always chuckle thinking of Travolta’s self-conscious reprisal (‘I wanna strut’) at the end of Sly Stallone’s glisteningly tacky sequel Staying Alive. Whereas Gere’s hip-rolling Armani-clad stroll into the cocktail bar of the Beverly Hills Hotel still looks pretty cool to me, frankly. Schrader has since made a kind of sequel called The Walker, so we may see the depth of his interest.
8. Willie Ross’s stiff-legged drunk act in Rita, Sue, and Bob Too (1987, dir. Alan Clarke)
The second and last of my Humour entries in this 10. So, you’ll want to know, where’s Chaplin? Where’s Groucho? Where’s Tati’s Monsieur Hulot? Of course you do. What can I say? It’s just that none of those guys are from Bishop Auckland in Co. Durham or ever worked with the great Alan Clarke, or mastered the art of the drunken stagger (you’ve just got to keep one leg a bit stiff.) Do yourself a favour and look (again if needs be) at the heroic Steadicam shot that opens this very British comic masterwork.
7. Peter Weller’s clunking hydraulic stride in Robocop (1987, dir. Paul Verhoeven)
Could as easily have been Yul Brynner in Westworld, but then I wrote about that one only recently for the Computers list. This, then, is the Robot entry, and robots raise a key criterion for this 10, i.e. the ability of a movie walk to inspire imitations by kids in school playgrounds. I was 16 when Robocop came out but had I been 6 (and able to talk my way into seeing this viciously gory 18-certificate picture) I would have been clunking round the playground afterwards, no worries.
6. Toshiro Mifune in Yojimbo (1961, dir. Akira Kurosawa)
I can’t improve on this excellent tribute from blogger Jai Arjun Singh: 'If Yojimbo had never be made, the word “swagger” could comfortably have been pulled out of all dictionaries by now. The incomparable swaggerer here is, of course, Toshiro Mifune…’
5. Max Schreck’s high-shouldered long-bodied shuffle in Nosferatu (1922, dir. F.W. Murnau)
This is the Horror entry of the 10, and yes, of course, but what about Boris Karloff's Frankenstein, or George Romero's zombies, or Sadako in The Ring? et cetera. All good stuff, but nothing compares to the great Murnau and the indelible Schreck. For a while at least, I assume, you can watch the whole thing here.
4. Sean Young in Blade Runner (1982, dir. Ridley Scott)
Again, I feel sure, connoisseurs amongst you are thinking: Mae West, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich... so many iconic sashaying females from the Golden Age of Hollywood… and he goes and picks the Ridley Scott hommage/rip-off. It’s just that I saw the so-called 'Final Cut' of Blade Runner the other week, and felt on reflection that Sean Young gives the best performance in the picture - she's the soul of it, if you like. A pity things didn’t work out better for her down the line… Anyhow, I’m talking about that long shot of her clicking out of the gloom towards Harrison Ford at the Tyrell headquarters – absolutely fabulous.
3. John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons (1988, dir. Stephen Frears) and Portrait of a Lady (1996, dir. Jane Campion)
Stage-trained actors are taught not to slouch when playing period characters in period costume: it’s just not appropriate. There’s something so offensively sly in Malkovich’s disregard for this convention that it uniquely serves the pair of louche characters he plays in these pictures – and says a lot, too, about the humour and amour propre of Malkovich.
2. Marilyn Monroe as Sugar in Some Like It Hot (1959, dir. Billy Wilder)
‘Jello on springs, right? Monroe did versions of this inflammatory hot-step in umpteen films, but the reason we all remember this one is also the reason why Billy Wilder is still considered the acme of a certain kind of smart/funny screenwriting.
1. John Wayne in most things, but mainly The Searchers (1955, dir. John Ford) and any Western directed by Howard Hawks.
Best described by Paul Schrader: ‘He walks just like Jack Benny with that swishy little gait, like he was holding something up his ass.’ Not how Wayne’s imitators and admirers might wish to see it, perhaps, but the analysis takes nothing away from the iconic effect on screen. And it happens to be true…
Comments
Great list, particularly Yojimbo.
Couple of others:
William Petersen's bow legged stride whilst "attached" to his prostitute informer in To Live and Die in LA. It somehow highlights the total lack of regard he has for her.
Peter Fonda as Chuck Browning at the end of futureworld (garnished with a finger)
Tony Moran (I think?)as Michael Myers - He would only ever walk and yet get in front of you. I like to think that when out of sight of the viewer he was doing that running walk with straight arms and legs that kids do when they want you to believe that they walked but still got somewhere before you.
Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy? There's something about the devious introverted and insect like constipated shuffle that works so well next to Voight's confident cowboy strut. Of course, he has what is probably the most New York line in any film ever -'I'm walkin' here!'. It is a wonder that this is the same man who appears so energetic and free-flowing in Marathon Man.
How could I have forgotten Emilio Estevez's "Butt in the Moonbeam" walk in Loaded Weapon?
Did Emilio sport fake butt-cheeks for that one? There's a list... Top Ten Prosthetic Arses. Loaded Weapon is also due a mention in Top Ten Scenes Involving Guys On The Khazi.
Your thoughts