CATCH A CLASSIC
Starring Gene Hackman TCM, Beginning at 5 p.m
When looking at the extensive body of work compiled by actor Eugene Allen Hackman, better known to moviegoers as Gene Hackman, it’s really hard to find a performance of his that is not enjoyable. Even in film projects that have been of lesser quality as a whole, Hackman always gives it his all, making even something like Superman IV: The Quest for Peace worth watching, if just for him alone. Fortunately, tonight’s salute to Hackman on Turner Classic Movies features the actor in three films from the 1970s and ’80s that are good in their entireties, and especially when Hackman is onscreen. The movies in this lineup range, as Hackman’s career has, across a variety of genres, beginning with one of the most beloved and inspirational sports dramas of all time: 1986’s Hoosiers (pictured). Hackman stars as a new coach who leads a small-town Indiana high school basketball team on an unlikely run toward the state championship in the early 1950s. Barbara Hershey and Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Dennis Hopper costar. Next, Hackman teams with Al Pacino in the cult-favorite 1973 road movie
Scarecrow, in which the acting legends portray two men who travel from California to start a business in Pittsburgh. Tonight’s final film is Arthur Penn’s outstanding neo-noir thriller Night Moves (1975), which is one of the bleakest thrillers of the ’70s, and that’s saying something. Hackman is terrific as L.A. private investigator Harry Moseby, who uncovers all kinds of sinister activity while searching for the missing teenage daughter (Melanie Griffith) of a famous actress. Susan Clark, Jennifer Warren and James Woods also star.