I see HBK has worked his way to Lee Van Cleef for movie marathons. Good stuff HBK. Just thought I would throw out a few names people might want to consider if they are doing movie marathons of this sort in the future. Maybe a few actors people wouldn't think of nowadays. Maybe I'll throw in a couple recommendations for movies for some of the actors as well. If nothing else, some stuff to watch for the Sherbros and Shersisters...
Julie Christie - Al Pacino called her the most sensuous of all actresses.
- McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Dr, Zhivago, Heaven Can Wait, Don't Look Now, Demon Seed, etc.
Jane Fonda - I wouldn't rule out a start to finish for her whole career, from Barbarella right through to Our Souls At Night, with all of the Oscar worthy stuff falling between those bookends. She could perhaps be the best actress of all time.
Richard Dreyfuss - Stakeout, Mr. Holland's Opus, Close Encounters, The Goodbye Girl, Jaws, American Graffiti, Moon Over Parador, Let it Ride, The American President, Stand By Me, etc. I guess like most actors of his time things slow down or drop off around the year 2000 or so.
John Travolta - right up until the end of the 90s. You'll get some great stuff (Carrie, Pulp Fiction, Saturday Night Fever) and some good stuff (Look Who's Talking, Urban Cowboy, Grease, Blow Out) and some awful stuff that is so bad it's interesting (Moment by Moment, Two of a Kind). Some odd but somewhat interesting failures (Shout and Perfect). And Staying Alive of course. I'd pull the rip cord after 2000 but I'd watch the Taking of Pelham 123 remake with Denzel...that was probably Travolta's last very good performance as of this writing. And the old Welcome Back Kotter sitcom where he got his start is worth a watch as well.
Patrick Swayze - in addition to the well known ones like Dirty Dancing and Road House and Ghost and Point Break, there will be hidden gems like Youngblood, forgotten gems like Red Dawn, odd quirks like Steel Dawn and the odd misstep or two but they're generally at least notable or unusual (Wong Foo, Skatetown USA). It's all downhill after Ghost and Point Break and you really can stop at 1991 or so save for Donnie Darko, but only Tom Cruise has a prime that lasts forever it seems.
There are actors where you don't need to watch every piece of junk they ever did but if you look at their filmography anything that made it to theatres will probably be worth a look and a good way to see some great character work.
Joe Spinell - I made a thread about him.
Brion James - I made a thread about him as well.
But there are some more actors like that...
Kurtwood Smith - Dead Poets Society, Fortress, Robocop, Star Trek 6, The Crush, To Die For, Prefontaine, Girl Interrupted, etc.
Burt Young - Rocky, Back to School, The Last Don, Mickey Blue Eyes, Excessive Force, Chinatown, Across 110th Street, The Killer Elite, Uncle Joe Shannon, etc. and his episode of Miami Vice and Law & Order.
Lance Henriksen - I wouldn't watch much after the mid 90s and there will be a lot of junk but there are a lot of good movies where he is the 2nd to 5th lead character.
- Jennifer 8, No Escape, Stone Cold, Quick and the Dead, Aliens, The Terminator, etc.
Robert Loggia - Scarface, Over the Top, Jagged Edge, Gladiator, Independence Day, Opportunity Knocks, etc.
Gary Busey - Drop Zone, Silver Bullet, Point Break, The Buddy Holly Story, Lost Highway, Soldier, Lethal Weapon, Under Siege, The Firm, Predator 2, Big Wednesday, A Star is Born, Surviving the Game (one of the best monologues ever that nobody has seen) etc.
Ronny Cox - Deliverance, Total Recall, Robocop, Beverly Hills Cop 1 & 2, Taps, Bound for Glory, The Onion Field, Vision Quest, his episode of Star Trek TNG and Dexter
Maury Chaykin - Whale Music, Dances with Wolves, Blindness, Hero, WarGames, Mr. Destiny, Mystery Alaska, The Mask of Zorro
Michael Biehn - Terminator, Abyss, Aliens and Tombstone are the big four, but Lords of Discipline is a forgotten good film (also on the GD Spradlin list), plus The Seventh Sign, Strapped, Navy Seals, Planet Terror, The Rock, K2, Jade, Mojave Moon, The Art of War, Deep Red (decent for straight to video), Deadfall (not good but entertaining), Coach (a 70s movie to start things out that was okay). He also did a couple of TV movies to start things out...The Fan with Lauren Bacall and another one where he plays George C. Scott's missing son (China Rose).
Sam Elliott - Mask, Tombstone, Road House, Lifeguard, The Big Lebowski, A Star is Born, Fatal Beauty, Shakedown, Rush, We Were Soldiers, Thank You for Smoking, Up in the Air, The Company You Keep
I have said before on here that if you randomly select any movie from the 70s with the following actors you'll have about an 80% hit rate for a good movie. So I wouldn't rule out something like a 70s (or 70s and 80s) marathon from these actors...
Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Donald Sutherland, Harvey Keitel, Robert Duvall, Jon Voight, Diane Keaton, Gene Hackman, James Caan, Maximilian Schell, Ellen Burstyn, Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider (don't bother with the 80s), Richard Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Vanessa Redgrave, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Robert Redford, Sally Field, Paul Newman. I guess Pacino and De Niro are obvious.
A couple dark horse candidates... Jenny Agutter and Barbara Hershey (Barbara Seagull for a while).
I'll make a few recommendations for some of those actors here if people want something to watch and don't want to do a marathon. I'll stick to movies that aren't the obvious choices or that well known today...
Jack Nicholson - Terms of Endearment, Hoffa, The Pledge.
Bruce Dern - Silent Running, Diggstown, Coming Home.
Maximilian Schell - The Man in the Glass Booth, Judgment at Nuremberg.
Harvey Keitel - Fingers, Bad Lieutenant, Point of No Return.
Donald Sutherland - Lock Up, Benefit of the Doubt, Ordinary People, Backdraft.
Richard Harris - Man in the Wilderness, A Man Called Horse.
James Caan - Alien Nation, The Program, The Gambler, Thief, The Killer Elite.
Robert Duvall - The Great Santini, Tender Mercies, The Killer Elite, Falling Down.
Sean Connery - Outland, The Man Who Would Be King, Highlander, Just Cause.
Michael Caine - The Man Who Would Be King, Half Moon Street, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Cider House Rules.
Jon Voight - Runaway Train, The Champ, The Odessa File, Coming Home.
