RIP Gene Hackman (10 Essential Performances)
Following the actor’s death at the age of 95, The Ringer’s Sean Fennessey looks back to offer 10 essential Gene Hackman movie performances.
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Gene Hackman
The Quick and the Dead
- Title: The Quick and the Dead
- IMDb: link
Sam Raimi knows how to make a B-movie. While 1995’s The Quick and the Dead was seen as both a critical and box office failure, Raimi’s revisionist western has earned some respect over the years coming to be classified as a cult classic. Sharon Stone stars as The Lady, a gunfighter who arrives in the town of Redemption to enter a gunfighting competition. However, her true motives lie more with an undisclosed vendetta against the town’s owner John Herod (Gene Hackman) than winning any competition.
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Heartbreakers
- Title: Heartbreakers
- IMDb: link
2001’s Heartbreakers, a film about a mother/daughter (Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt) team of con artists working to scam to separate a wealthy man (Gene Hackman) from his money, is more notable for its cast than its plot. Yearning to get out from under her mother’s thumb Page (Hewitt) decides to target her own mark in a goodhearted bar owner (Jason Lee) she inevitable falls for. The women also must deal with their last previous mark (Ray Liotta) who shows up looking for his money.
More dumb romcom than smart heist/con film, Heartbreakers is a mixed bag, although it does provide some humorous moments. The cast (including appearances by Anne Bancroft, Ricky Jay, and Sarah Silverman) is fine but they’re mostly slumming it here in movie that belongs on home video. Re-released on Blu-ray, the movie includes the previous behind-the-scenes feturettes and deleted scenes but lacks the audio commentary from the DVD release.
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The Replacements
- Title: The Replacements
- IMDb: link
Despite being nearly old enough to drive (the film was released in theaters in 2000), The Replacements hadn’t been available on Blu-ray until now. Based very loosely on the 1987 NFL strike, the script by Vince McKewin centered around a ragtag group of replacement players for the Washington Sentinels (a fictional stand-in for the Redskins). Keanu Reeves stars as college star and NFL bust Shane Falco who is given a second chance by Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman) who assembles his team from a hodgepodge of unknowns.
Playing on various underdog themes The Replacements isn’t that far removed from a number of sports movies (most notable Necessary Roughness which follows a very similar plot at the college level). Joining Reeves on the football field are Jon Favreau (as the character most likely to kill someone on the field), Orlando Jones (as the bigmouth wide receiver), Faizon Love, Michael Jace, Michael Taliferro, David Denman, and Rhys Ifans.
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Hoosiers
- Title: Hoosiers
- IMDb: link
Loosely based on the true experiences of Milan High School’s basketball team’s championship in 1954 the film tells the story of Coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) who lost his last head coaching job due to his temper and a violent outburst directed at one of his players. Now considered untouchable Dale is given the opportunity by an old friend (Sheb Wooley) to coach a small high school in Indiana with barely enough players to field a team.
What Hickory, Indiana does have however is a vocal local fanbase of knowledgeable basketball fans who aren’t too keen on the new coach or his system of team ball. Earlier on the coach spends more time deflecting, and ignoring, their unsolicited advice than actually coaching.
With support of the town’s best player (Maris Valainis) and the knowledge of an alcoholic assistant coach (Dennis Hopper), Coach Dale manages to keep his job long enough to start winning some games and make a run at the state championship.
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