Top 7 Birthday Bash: Richard Gere

On Saturday, Richard Gere turned 75. Once a week, here at the Contending we will celebrate the birthdays of filmmakers, and actors (film and TV) by creating a top 7 list of their best work. Why 7? Because it’s a pretty number, and everyone does 10. We are doing 7. 

There are some minor (but not hard and fast rules):

• Filmmakers can be directors, screenwriters, cinematographers, composers, etc.
• Actors who are typically leads will have those performances weighted more heavily, but, for example, were I writing about Brad Pitt today, his cameo in True Romance would get serious consideration.
• The challenge of selecting an actor’s best work is whether the list concerns their best films or performances. I say we blend.
• Actors who are typically in supporting (or character) roles may find their selections more fast and loose
• As we are so used to in the modern day, those in front of, and behind, the camera move from film to TV with regularity. These lists reserve the right to mix and match.
• All rules above, such as they are, are subject to exception and how passionately a writer of one of these posts feels about a particular work by the talent being feted.

Before we begin, as a reminder, the only list that really matters is your own

The top 7 works of Richard Gere on his 75th birthday:

7. Arbitrage (2012): Seemingly inspired by the story of the infamously crooked financial adviser Bernie Madoff, Gere plays Robert Miller, a hedge fund manager who has to finalize a bank purchase to cover up his underhanded dealings. Gere has always been great at projecting barely hidden stress–a skill that comes in more than handy here. Watching Gere scramble while holding up a handsome and suave facade when needed is a real acting feat. Gere always knows when to push to the edge and draw back, before finally going over it. Despite the film getting excellent reviews, and the fine work of Susan Sarandon and Brit Marling as his unknowing wife and daughter, Arbitrage (the first narrative film by Director Nicholas Jarecki) came and went without much notice. A damn shame I say, because had the film found an audience, I think Gere would have been on many Best Actor shortlists for his work in Arbitrage.

6. Unfaithful (2002): Gere is best known for his beauty and magnetism on screen. He’s often played the guy who will have no trouble getting the girl–even if it’s against the girl’s best interests. With Unfaithful, Gere plays against type. In Adrian Lyne’s very sexy thriller, with the Oscar-nominated Diane Lane, giving the performance of her life as a wife who strays from her kind (but somewhat dull) husband, Gere plays the cuckold. It’s alarming to see how vulnerable and pained Gere is in the part. His performance largely went unnoticed while the well-deserved huzzahs and hosannas found their way to Lane. That being said, without Gere selling himself as a good, but greatly wounded man whose actions upon learning of the affair lead to tragedy and an impossible moral dilemma, the film would be far less grounded. Gere’s husband, out of pain and a moment of rage does a terrible thing, but he is not a terrible person. Unfaithful is perhaps the most subtle performance Gere has ever given. He should have received more praise for it.

5. An Officer and a Gentleman (1982): The film that launched Gere into mega-stardom. As Naval Officer Candidate Zack Mayo (or “MAYO-NNAISE” as Lou Gossett Jr.’s hard-as-nails drill sergeant calls him), Gere plays a damaged young man who sees the military as his only way out. However, his shifty ways with contraband threaten to get him thrown out of the Navy before he even gets in. The film was a massive hit, and Gere’s co-stars Debra Winger (as a local factory worker that Gere romances) and Gossett Jr. both scored Oscar nominations (with Gossett winning for Best Supporting Actor). Gere, the center of the film and in nearly every scene, was somehow overlooked. There is a scene of Mayo doing sit-ups in a driving rainstorm as punishment for his latest transgression while Gossett’s Sgt. Foley stands over him, trying to get him to quit. Foley keeps pushing and Gere keeps refusing. Foley finally asks him why he won’t give up, Gere howls “I got nowhere else to go!” with such force and desperation that even Foley’s hard case bends in Mayo’s direction. Much has been made over the years of the behind-the-scenes feud between Gere and Winger. Yet somehow, those hard feelings never made their way on screen. Gere and Winger are completely convincing as a hot-hearted couple and have great chemistry in front of the camera. I guess that’s why they call it acting. Some have called the film’s ending too “fairy-tale” like, and I get that. At the same time, those who think that way may want to consider who is saving who as the needle drops on Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes’ Oscar-winning theme song “Up Where We Belong.”

4. Primal Fear (1996): A classic case of the more colorful performance getting the Oscar nomination when the central character’s work is the true key to the film’s success. (For other examples see Dutin Hoffman > Tom Cruise in Rain Man, and Tom Hanks > Denzel in Philadelphia). That’s not to diminish the work done by Edward Norton Jr.’s performance as a young man named Aaron (or is it “Roy”), who is on trial for killing an Archbishop in Chicago. Norton’s performance has that “magic trick” quality that people love so much when the twist comes at the end of a film. All that being said, it’s Gere who sells the film to us. We believe in Norton because he believes in Norton. So, when that stunning moment happens to Gere’s Vail, it’s happening to us too. Vail goes from the ruthless cocksure attorney who, just this one time, lets his guard down and truly cares about his client, and is paid back for that care with a wicked comeuppance. Vail wins and loses at the same time. The last shot of the film, with Gere’s Vail standing in the middle of the street, utterly lost, is an all-timer. Primal Fear may be pulp, but it’s pulp done at the highest level, that’s largely because of Gere.

3. Internal Affairs: As directed by Mike Figgis, Internal Affairs is truly one of the nastiest neo-noirs of the 20th (or any other) century. As Dennis Peck, a corrupt cop for the ages, Gere showcases how his charm and handsomeness can be used as a weapon. Gere has always exuded a level of danger and seediness behind all that physical beauty and never has he used it better than here. As the crooked cop to Andy Garcia’s Raymond Avilla, an internal affairs officer investigating Peck, Gere does not hold back on the playing of a truly wicked man who uses the system to further his gains. Like Samuel L. Jackson as Ordell Robbie in Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, Peck seems to have a crew of men and women all over  Los Angeles at his beck and call. There is a scene between Gere and Garcia in an elevator where Gere not only assaults Garcia with a knee to his manhood, but he plants the idea that just maybe he has been “familiar” with Garcia’s beautiful wife (the lovely Nancy Travis) and the sheer force of his will makes Garcia believe in that what cannot possibly be true–that his wife would be drawn to Gere’s vile character. He does so, in part, by being racist. Telling Garcia that his Latino cop has a problem with being “Too fuckin’ macho,” and that machismo comes from his background. Internal Affairs did solid box office and received strong reviews, but not much of an Oscar campaign. Had the studio focused on Gere in the supporting actor category (although he’s really a co-lead), Paramount might have had a shot at getting the film and Gere a nomination. He’s that good. Sidenote: Incredibly, this was Gere’s follow-up to Pretty Woman. He could not have gone further in the opposite direction of that film and his performance in it.

2. American Gigolo (1980): In perhaps his defining role, Gere plays a hustler named Julian whose level of success in taking out women of all ages and providing them with a service that they happily pay sizable sums of money for, cannot protect him from a murder investigation that he is the central target of. Everything Gere is best at is on display in Paul Schader’s film which feels very ‘70s (in terms of its boldness) and very ‘80s (in terms of its style–including the fantastic use of Blondie’s “Call Me” as a theme song) at the same time. Gere’s ridiculous good looks draw your eye, but his ability to play desperation and shallowness are on full display. As Julian tries to rebuild bridges with pimps that he used to work for, only to find that they “…never liked you (Julian) much myself”–words spoken by Bill Duke as if he were whispering from the darkest of dark places–Julian finds himself without an alibi. Except possibly one. In the form of a never better Lauren Hutton as the wife of a politician who has fallen for Julian. In the end, what saves Julian is that for all his bravado and his vacant desire for material possessions (there’s a great scene of Julian laying out his clothes on his bed trying to find just the right combination for his “date”), what he wants is the same thing we all do: Love. And love is what rescues him.

1. Days Of Heaven (1978): So, this is a bit of a cheat. Like all movies by Terence Malick, actors are just part of the fabric. You could call what Malick does as a director to be similar to music producer Phil Spector’s “wall of sound”–Malick creates a wall of vision. And within that vision, actors as terrific as Gere, Sam Shepard, and the astonishing Linda Manz, are no greater a part of Malick’s visual fabric than the wheat fields, the plague of locusts, or the burning of those fields. Malick’s films are tapestries, but lordy, what a wonderful part of the tapestry Gere is here. He and Brooke Adams as his girlfriend (with his sister Manz in tow) pretend to be brother and sister themselves, to have an ailing farmer (Shepard) fall in love with and marry Adams, and then take over his land after he dies. That description almost makes Days of Heaven sound like The Postman Always Rings Twice, but this is no pulpy narrative. In Malick’s hands, the film is a take on man vs. nature, and how nature (the earthly and humankind) cannot be overcome. Is this Gere’s finest hour on film as an actor? Maybe not. You can certainly say that he has “more to do” in many other films he’s made, but the very fact that he belongs in this masterpiece of pure cinema makes me put all other criteria aside. Gere was in Days of Heaven. One of the greatest films ever made. And he was integral to its success. That’ll do.

Postscript: Cutting a list down to seven for an actor with a long and storied tack record is never easy. I fought off the compulsion to include Pretty Woman (a movie that has no business working at all, save Gere and Julia Roberts’ chemistry) because, for all its success, it’s a ridiculous movie. I was also tested by the Best Picture-winning Chicago, which I cannot stand, but Gere is the highlight. There’s also Todd Haynes’ ethereal I’m Not There (a kaleidoscopic look at Bob Dylan), one of the best films Gere has been in, but his part is pretty small. Hachi (one of the rare man and dog films that earn its tears), The Hoax, Time Out of Mind, Norman, and even the critically and commercially disastrous remake of Jean Luc-Godard’s Breathless (which deserved a better fate) were all tough cuts. Gere has the sad distinction of being a hell of an actor and a hell of a movie star who has done a lot of great work but never been nominated for a single Oscar. My favorite bit of trivia about Gere: Chicago, An Officer and a Gentleman, and American Gigolo are all films that Gere was able to be a part of because John Travolta was the first choice, and turned all three of those defining Richard Gere films down. Hell, Travolta bailed on American Gigolo just five days before shooting was to begin. A Truth that makes Gere’s performance in the film all the more remarkable. I hope Richard sends John a Christmas card every year. He might not have become THE Richard Gere without Travolta’s declinations.

Ps. I would throw in that no man (not even George Clooney) has ever grayed as well as Richard Gere.