Holy fuck what is it with these last few months and all the death. Now it's time for legendary director, writer, actor Dennis Hopper to bow out of life's little stage play. What can you say about Hopper, he was the fucking man, even when he made stupid career choices he still rocked the shit out of them. What I always dug about Hopper was he seemed like he was always having a good time, as if no matter what was happening around him he was cool. One of my dreams was to sit back and get incredibly baked with the man but now I'll just have to watch all his movies stoned.
I first came to Dennis Hopper as many of my age did with My Science Project, a stupid, stupid, stupid eighties movie where Hopper played a wacked out science teacher. From there I watched him duel chainsaws with Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw Massacre II and of course got all weirded out by him in Blue Velvet. It wasn't until much later that I saw Easy Rider and began to understand his impact on Hollywood back when movies were actually good. I decided to really look into the man's career and started with one his first drug influenced movies titled "The Trip". Hopper was a volatile actor and a man dedicated to doing whatever he wanted, something I can always respect.
Though most people remember him from Blue Velvet, Easy Rider, and Apocalypse Now, there are several other roles that moved me just as much as those. His turn as a drunken father in Hoosiers was the heart of that movie, and I loved him as Feck in River's Edge. He was one of the most enjoyable things about the Indian Runner and of course he nearly stole away True Romance in a ten minute scene with Christopher Walken that people still talk about. Hopper made some crappy choices later in life (Super Mario Brothers anybody) but it always seemed like they were his choices, not motivated for profit.
Of course as always the man's last days were festered with drama as his cunt bag wife tried to steal from him, forced him out of his home and then forced him to pay this worthless bitch $12,000 a month because of the fucking completely wacked out divorce laws of Los Angeles. It sucks that one of the greatest film heroes we had passed on in those circumstances but he left a legacy to be incredibly proud of.
My introduction to Dennis Hopper was "Blue Velvet" as Frank. I mean sure, I'd seen him in a slew of films before that but overlooked him until I saw him shout "Get ready to fuck!" From then on I was hooked.
ReplyDeleteFrom "Rebel Without A Cause", "Easy Rider", "River's Edge" to "Cool Hand Luke". Even "Land of the Dead" which I thought was crap(considering it was a George Romero film), I always found he wasn't a great actor but just a great character. He had a certain presence on screen that just made me smile.
RIP