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From: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: "Witness" (long)
Message-ID: <4051@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 23-Feb-85 14:50:50 EST
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.4051
Posted: Sat Feb 23 14:50:50 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Mar-85 05:56:17 EST
References: <3883@ucla-cs.ARPA> <8253@watarts.UUCP>
Reply-To: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (Peter Reiher)
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 33
Summary: 

In article <8253@watarts.UUCP> dbrown@watarts.UUCP (Dave Brown) writes:
>I haven't seen Witness yet, but comparing Harrison Ford to Cary Grant or
>Gary Cooper does sound a little bit much.
>

What I meant was that Harrison Ford has precisely the same type of talent
as these two gentlemen.  Let's face it, neither Cooper nor Grant was really
a great actor.  Both had limited ranges.  However, they were
great movie stars, because they had a charisma that reached out of the
screen into the audiences.  Moreover, they had enough talent so that they
were a bit more than just personalities.  I contend that Ford is the same type
of performer.  He does not have the ability to play many disparate kinds of
roles, but what he does he does extremely well.  Ford will never succeed as
WIlly Loman in "Death of a Salesman" or as the father in "Long Days Journey
Into Night".  He will never physically transform himself into a character
as DeNiro did in "Raging Bull".  He will probably never successfully play
any character other than a slightly transmuted Han Solo in a different
setting.  But then, Sargeant York and the sheriff in "High Noon" and
Mr. Deeds and John Doe were all just Gary Cooper in different circumstances,
and I'd be hard pressed to point out essential character differences 
between Grant's roles in "The Philadlephia Story", "North By Northwest",
"Holiday", and "Bringing Up Baby".  

It's too early to tell if Ford will prove to be as enduring as Grant and
Cooper, but his undeniable appeal (to most people, at least) is the
same type as those actors.  Keeping in mind that, for as long as they were
actively making films, Grant and Cooper were highly underrated actors, I
don't think that this comparison is too outrageous.
-- 

        			Peter Reiher
        			reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
        			{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher