Henry Fonda

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http://www.hillebrander.de/fonda/dc4.jpg

i can't think of another actor who is so extraordinarily expressive without being demonstrative. every one of his tiny, almost microscopic, gestures and intonations are charged with purpose.

― amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, 27 September 2003 20:20 (twenty-two years ago)

also he is so beautiful i want to cry.

― amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, 27 September 2003 20:21 (twenty-two years ago)

also there is something purely american about his form of expression, or perhaps the form of expression that suited him most. i realized this when reading the french subtitles of my darling clementine this evening, which can't hope to capture the spirit of his portrayal of wyatt earp.

― amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, 27 September 2003 20:23 (twenty-two years ago)

i always see shows at the theatre named after him!

― chaki (chaki), Saturday, 27 September 2003 20:30 (twenty-two years ago)

My favorite movie of his -- that I've seen, and I haven't seen them all by any means -- is Mister Roberts, which admittedly I was always biased towards given my dad's Navy background (and he himself loves the film unreservedly, I think recommended to me in the first place when I was ten or something). In a movie where the lead characters are seeming stereotypes all shot through with their own sometimes surprising depths (James Cagney suddenly letting all his frustrations of his youth burst out in a combination of rage and attempting to stay in psychological control of a situation = brilliant), Fonda portraying a guy who has to make a deal with the devil and then attempt to maintain it in order to live up to his end of it -- even though arguably both those above and below him let him down -- is astonishing. It's not a tragedy (as such, though obviously the end fate of his character is a fine take on the waste of war that never explicitly points that out) or deep study of the human heart per se, really, but it is a sharp microcosm of a particular situation that loads much of the breezier humor with roiling frustrations, and Fonda carries an already strong cast with perfect aplomb.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 27 September 2003 20:30 (twenty-two years ago)

not only have i seen him in two movies this week but once upon a time in the west was playing upstairs at fnac. i watched ten minutes of the climax. tomorrow the grapes of wrath is playing at action ecoles and i hope to be there.

chaki, where is there a theater named after him?

― amateurist (amateurist), Saturday, 27 September 2003 20:33 (twenty-two years ago)

LA, baby -- somewhere in Hollywood itself, I think?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 27 September 2003 20:38 (twenty-two years ago)

a horrible, boring, vacant actor. i want to die every second he is on screen. (though this thread will make me re-evaluate him in the future)

― ryan (ryan), Saturday, 27 September 2003 22:24 (twenty-two years ago)

this thread definitely makes me want to see more of his stuff. Only one I think I've seen all the way through is 12 Angry Men.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 27 September 2003 22:39 (twenty-two years ago)

ryan i disown you.

― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 28 September 2003 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

for now.

― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 28 September 2003 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

sorry! it really is something to do with his manner that bothers me. its a visceral reaction. i really, really LOVE The Lady Eve mainly for the way Stanwick plays off his boringness. i dont think another actor would make that movie any better. i still haven't seen The Wrong Man to my shame.

― ryan (ryan), Sunday, 28 September 2003 17:29 (twenty-two years ago)

anybody seen On Golden Pond? Pauline Kael's review makes it sound like total shit.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 28 September 2003 17:34 (twenty-two years ago)

http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Mptv/1088/0969_0008.jpg
this picture just feels so wrong.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 28 September 2003 17:35 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah what kind of fool dog likes the c7 chord?? cagney's gonna get bit

― jones (actual), Sunday, 28 September 2003 17:46 (twenty-two years ago)

i am never not astonished to rediscover who starred in Tentacles

― jones (actual), Sunday, 28 September 2003 17:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Plenty of Tentacles love

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 28 September 2003 18:09 (twenty-two years ago)

best lincoln ever!

― cinniblount (James Blount), Sunday, 28 September 2003 18:39 (twenty-two years ago)

two months pass...

i think it's mostly in john ford's movies that i love fonda.

yasujiro ozu on ford and fonda:

"Look at Henry Fonda in My Darling Clementine: motionless and expressionless - there is the greatness of John Ford. Fonda sits in a chair with his legs propped up on a pillar and a satisfied smile on his face - I really envy that rapport between Ford and Fonda."

i still think fonda in my darling clementine and drums along the mohawk is the most beautiful thing ever.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 28 November 2003 00:21 (twenty-one years ago)

i want to bottle his voice.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 28 November 2003 00:22 (twenty-one years ago)

six months pass...

what does ILX think about THE GRAPES OF WRATH?!?!

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 24 June 2004 05:14 (twenty-one years ago)

three years pass...

The last scene is too chin-up, pep-talk resilient. But then, Tom Joad is gone already.

― Dr Morbius, Friday, 21 December 2007 18:24 (seventeen years ago)

he's AMAZING in young mr lincoln

― J.D., Friday, 21 December 2007 22:34 (seventeen years ago)

three years pass...

He's a very convincing ornery ol' bastard in Paul Newman's adap of Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion, swearing his head off. You can almost feel what Jane and Peter went through.

― Dr Morbois de Bologne (Dr Morbius), Monday, 14 November 2011 16:49 (thirteen years ago)

Did both Peter and Jane say he was a cold bastard?

― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 November 2011 16:57 (thirteen years ago)

Peter I'm not sure of. Jane, over and over and over.

― Dr Morbois de Bologne (Dr Morbius), Monday, 14 November 2011 16:58 (thirteen years ago)

I just watched Fonda in My Darling Clementine two nights ago. He was marvelous in it. My wife remarked approvingly at how utterly un-macho his performance was, saying "he so looks lost".

― Aimless, Monday, 14 November 2011 19:23 (thirteen years ago)

^^^ my favorite Fonda after The Lady Eve.

― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 14 November 2011 19:26 (thirteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSbWTO4-byk

― buzza, Monday, 14 November 2011 19:31 (thirteen years ago)

five years pass...

There's a new book about his friendship with James Stewart, and an accompanying NY retro.

https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/10/27/hollywoods-original-bffs-jimmy-stewart-and-henry-fonda-share-the-screen-at-last-in-film-forums-essential-retro/

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 31 October 2017 15:09 (seven years ago)

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