Tag: epoch-defining performances

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The Gary Numan: βˆ°.

Praying To The Aliens. {studio}.
Live, 1980.

Let ∰ = “The High Priest of quasi-androgynous Synth-Pop/Electronica, the Impassive Alien Deity, The Gary Numan.” What heretofore had been used to calculate Flux Densities, and whatnot, now is more—much more—much, much more.

He created aural landscapes which allowed access to the unfathomable. His performances have been described in so many ways. Strikingly “robotic”. Otherworldly. Mesmerizing. And moreover, there’s an unease, a disquiet, accompanying his trenchant intelligence; a wariness. Aware of a certain danger we cannot grasp. The ritual held out in the open, hauntingly obvious, yet impenetrable. A language we’ve forgotten; mind-argot beyond our ken.  

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Actors Actors of Greatness Brad Dourif epoch-defining Film Geniuses performers Photo-Editing photography Police Procedurals Predators Psychopaths Sci-Fi serial killers TV X-Files

The X-Files: Beyond the Sea.

The brilliant actor Brad Dourif gives a mind-boggling portrayal of convicted—and soon to be executed—serial killer Luther Lee Boggs. In this story, there’s a catch—a quite big one—in that the murderer claims to have acquired psychic powers, and might be able to help capture a predator who has abducted two people, and has killed ritualistically in the past. Mulder (David Duchovny), for one, is less than convinced.

In these two subsequent scenes, firstly… although Agent Scully would dearly love to converse with her recently deceased father, it’s quite possible that Luther Lee Boggs’ (Brad Dourif loses his mind, in the best possible way) intense aversion to the electric chair has even greater motivational potency. Lastly, in the poignant, haunting final scene (the final scene *we’re* going to present…), the correct warning Boggs had given to Scully ended up saving her life, and convinces her that he’s been telling the truth. He’s only willing to convey her father’s message if she is his witness when he’s strapped to the chair in a few hours. Is this one last trick, one potential last act of cruelty? Or does he truly value the agent whose life he saved? This ambiguity is part of what makes him such an intriguing character…and Dourif’s masterful performance makes Boggs truly indelible.

Amen. Simply one of the greatest performances I’ve seen, ever.

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Actors Actors of Greatness Film Gary Oldman LΓ©on The Professional Psychopaths videos

The Gary Oldman.

{Note: Massively Revised 7/8/2019}

Gary Oldman, in a titanically twisted, iconic, canonical, epoch-defining performance, portrays psychopathic, corrupt DEA agent Norman Stansfield in the film LΓ©on, The Professional. Stansfield really gets down to some serious malevolent weirdness in the above video scene with would-be DEA agent-slayer Mathilda (Natalie Portman).  He calmly interrogates the young lady in ways that would bamboozle, unnerve, and intimidate anyone in human history. Throughout, the crazed but {mostly} composed DEA agent manages to be one moment menacing, the next pleasantly conversational. Stansfield presents an enigmatic, occasionally humorous, malevolent-ly inclined figure. Quite unforgettable.

In The Fifth Element, Lost in Space, and True Romance, he displays the ability to simply do anything he wants as an actor. All 3 roles are quasi-humorous/sinister, but in entirely different ways. Masterful.