We were lucky to have Harry Dean Stanton
STEPHEN REMUS
Harry Dean Stanton’s 60-year acting career provides a map to innovations in American cinema as well as a primary guide to the biggest shifts in the counter culture.
He’s there in a sweltering prison camp serenading Paul Newman on guitar with a gospel song in Cool Hand Luke, he’s hitching down the road in director Monte Hellman’s emblematic ‘New Hollywood’ cult masterpiece Two-Lane Black Top, and he pops up in Francis Ford Coppola’s second Godfather film.
Stanton also appears at the advent of the summer blockbuster as a crew member in the landmark Alien, he’s a frequent collaborator with David Lynch appearing in Twin Peaks (including it’s contemporary reincarnation) and its big-screen extension, Wild at Heart, and he’s hand-picked by Sam Shepard for a rare leading role in the acclaimed Paris, Texas.
As Roger Ebert famously claimed, any movie with Stanton in it can’t be all bad.
Stanton was an icon of American cool, breaking into a mariachi song on Letterman, the subject of a documentary called Partly Fiction that shared his philosophies — influenced largely by Eastern mysticism, the inspiration for a film festival in his home state of Kentucky and the subject of songs by his former lover Debbie Harry as well as the band The Swimmers.
Stanton’s death last month coincides with the release of one of his last screen performances, a starring role in the offbeat Lucky.
It’s as perfect a cinematic swan song as there’s likely to be.
In his directorial debut, John Carroll Lynch (no relation to David) creates a sparse, humble film set in a tumbleweed desert town. The harshness of the arid landscape is a perfect compliment to Stanton’s grizzled,
The Film House
FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, 250 St. Paul St., St. Catharines, 905-688-0722 Listings for Oct. 11 to 16 Rumble: The Indians who Rocked the World: Wednesday 7 p.m. Lucky: Thursday 7 p.m., Friday 6:30 p.m., Saturday 9 p.m. Person to Person: Friday 9 p.m., Saturday 6:30 p.m., Sunday 7 p.m. The Painting: Saturday 4 p.m. Long Time Running: Sunday 4 p.m. Admission: $7 members, $9 general Online: FirstOntarioPAC.ca
weather-beaten features.
Lynch’s history as a character actor (Zodiac, Gran Torino, Fargo) clearly informs his style. This is a film all about characters and though Stanton’s is at the centre even the smallest parts are well-drawn.
There’s not much to the narrative here. Lucky is a creature of habit. He has a daily routine that includes exercise every morning, a trip to the diner, doing the crossword, watching a game show and evenings with bloody marys at the local bar. And cigarettes. Somewhere between a pack or three a day.
You’re given the clear sense that the routine’s been going on for a long time and it has endeared him to the town folk that populate his route, his comings and goings making part of a normal day. But Lucky’s in his 90s and an inexplicable fainting spell forces him to face his mortality.
A trip to the doctor, played by Ed Begley Jr., garners Lucky this diagnosis, “I can do a lot more tests but I think it’s going to turn out to be exactly what I think it is: You’re old and you’re getting older.”
The film’s substantial charm is derived from the blurring between Stanton the actor and Lucky the character. There are many factors contributing to this.
The screenplay was co-written by Stanton’s longtime assistant Logan Sparks and the character of Lucky espouses views on existence straight out of the Stanton doctrine. To top it, Stanton’s acting is so effortless, his gestures so natural, that an intimacy with the viewer pervades even the stagiest moments (and there are a few).
In an interview Stanton once claimed, “Everything just happens, nobody’s in charge, it’s one big phantasmagoria. Everything is unfolding perfectly.” In the film’s final scene Stanton looks out at the audience in a moment that is at once profound and self-effacing and shares that idea wordlessly. Lucky is a final triumph for a much-admired performer.