Thousand-Yard Stare
Dennis Hopper has been getting a lot of respect and affection lately. I could write about him for days and never run out of material. He’s like some kind of Mt. Rushmore figure now, beloved for his hipster authenticity and storied wackness. With the exception of Frank in Blue Velvet and the wackjob villain in Speed, the crazier or more eccentric or self-destructive Hopper seemed to be on a personal basis, the better he seemed to be on-screen. The saner and healthier he got, the less he seemed to bring.
Dennnis Hopper a day or so ago at Mann’s Chinese, in Giant (’56), during his extra-bad period in the late ’70s, with Daria Halprin in the early ’70s.
I tried to interview him at a Manhattan hotel in ’80 about Out Of The Blue, and he kept me waiting for over two hours — guess why? But at least now I can say I blew off a Dennis Hopper interview, etc. I have that memory. He came down to the lobby at the last minute as I was walking out, and I remember that hyper look in his eyes.
I could write about Hopper’s degenerated, cowboy-hatted Tom Ripley in The American Friend (“I know less and less about who I am, or who anyone else is”) until I’m blue in the face. Or his jabbering photo-journalist in Apocalypse Now. I remember quite liking his direction of Colors (’88) and The Hot Spot (’94). I don’t know why a guy like Hopper would direct something like Chasers (’94) except for the money. I guess that was it.
I’ve never even seen The Last Movie (’71), which destroyed his cred as a serious/rational/trustable director. It screened at the Aero in January 2009. I’d buy it in a second if it came out on Bluray or DVD, even.
Always liked Hopper. Would love to track down a copy of The Last Movie…
For some reason my father has a copy of BOILING POINT on VHS, and I have watched it maybe twice in the last three years just for Hopper. Truly an original actor, and when he’s on he’s on. May he not suffer unnecessarily in this final phase, and may his stones be an inspiration to others.
IFC or the Sundance Channel used to show THE LAST MOVIE. it’s a hard sit, but somehow essential, if only once.
He really looks like Owen Wilson in all those 3 pix from the past. Who would play Frank if BV was made today? Cage?
Like the man said, “The Last Movie” is essential, in a crazy obsessive way. A double bill with “American Dreamer” (Hopper at his craziest) would be perfect,
THE LAST MOVIE rules. AMERICAN DREAMER is worth it for the scene where he tries to listen to the Playboy centerfold talk about art. I love this guy. I miss him already.
i was a friend of one of hopper’s old buddies and as a result, got to meet hopper and spend some time with him. those encounters were some of the best moments of my LA experience. when he spoke at my friend’s funeral it was surreal. hopper is obviously a legend, but why do I feel he never truly got the respect he deserved as an actor? maybe i’m wrong.
I watched River’s Edge again recently. That film lived in the shadow of the mighty Blue Velvet for awhile, but Hopper’s performance as the broken, secluded Feck is rather touching.
I’m a fan of his performance in Carried Away. A very atypical “straight” role for Hopper.
One of the great shameful academy snubs. He not only should have been nominated, but he outright should’ve won.
Newman took it for the Color of Money in ’86. But we’re not talking about Eddie Felson with the same fervor as we are with Frank Booth today.
I remember till this day how I felt after watching that movie around 2:00 in the morning on cable as a 12 year old which looking back on it was a mistake. Way too young to be exposed to that level of mania. Couldn’t sleep afterwards. I was scared shitless.
He really got under my skin. I did not want to be in the same room with this guy, but for some reason I could not turn away. It was mesmerizing. Sincerely one of the handful of cinematic performances that you could declare as legendary without thinking twice about it.
Likewise I would like to track down The Last Movie.
Makes me think of OC and Stiggs which is apparently available on DVD though I’ve never found it anywhere. I can’t remember how prominent Hopper’s role was other than giving them the excuse to come by heavy weaponry.
Hopper is just a lovable icon for me, someone who can always be counted on to whack out at hyper-speed or just cooly flip the bird at the guy with the goiter. I’m going to miss him.
Alboone, I’m pretty sure Frank Booth would be considered a Supporting role, in which case its all the stranger that he was nominated instead that year for HOOSIERS. Hopper himself has an anecdote about how surprised he was.
It should be the least surprising fact of all time Hopper was nominated for Hoosiers over Blue Velvet.
Massey, touche, but was being charitable.
My fave Hopper story, true or not, is that he was so out of his mind on AN that he and FFC would go through his scenes before he shot them and write down in the margins what drug he could take before the scene, so he was always properly stoned. A crazy motherfucker.
Dennis Hopper once epitomized the free-wheeling, freedom-loving, on-the-open-road, devil-may-care, 60′s mindset.
He was an icon for portraying the sort of fuck-the-man, fuck societal norms, fuck conservative values (is that an oxymoron?) archetypal guy. Unfortunately, he used that same status as Mr. 60′s radical to whore himself out, thereby eradicating anything and everything he once stood for.
Hopper has used his image to help sell junk products for the investment banking industry (among many others), hocking products to the very same baby boomers who once decried the tyranny of consumerism. And he did so with “Born to Be WIld” and “Spirit in the Sky” playing in the background. He sold his soul a long time ago. Even before he announced that he had officially turned Republican.
Dennis Hopper degenerated into that which he once despised. He’s a fraud. A huckster. And a rather despicable human being.
He’s beaten and threatened several women in his lifetime, and even tried to stab one of them several times. And, on top of this, months away from his certain and inevitable death. he cut his current wife out of his will (with whom he has a young child).
Sure, he has done some fine work as an actor, director, and fine artist, but he was also a psychopathic, wife-beating, lunatic who betrayed himself and has left a trail of tears in his wake that, if measured, would reach from New York to L.A.
Out of the Blue is one of the best of the ’80s, fact
I was at a craps table at the then MGM Grand in Las Vegas during a ShoWest convention in the late 80′s, and Dennis Hopper and David Lynch were standing next to me, with Hopper teaching Lynch the salient points of the game. THAT was a trip.
Some relative of mine (a second cousin, I think?) bumped into Hopper at a ski resort restaurant in the ’70s and was invited to a party. Said relative had a pretty good idea what kind of party it would be and wasn’t really that kind of person, so he declined. There’s my totally uninteresting third-hand brush with fame story, I also have one about Tim McGraw.
I saw THE LAST MOVIE a year or so ago at a cinefamily screening — and it was easily one of the most unpleasant sits of my life. Clearly the product of a man who was not functioning on any sort of workable level of rationality when it was produced. Hopper introduced the screening beforehand and did a Q&A — he was very quiet and soft spoken, maybe a little dull. I met him briefly in line for the bathroom, and got to shake his hand. At this late point in his life he seemed to have little connection with the man who had made THE LAST MOVIE.
Well, it took 17 comments for some asshole to inevitably contribute a screed about Hopper’s political beliefs. My money was on three, so cheers for the HE community.
Said the asshole, redneck, white-hat wearing southerner who claims that he’s close to anointing Chris Evans as his new favorite actor.
Well, Vinessa, point well taken…
These days we’re learning quite a lesson as to how the celebrated artist and their personal stuff is aired out in our culture. Where do we draw the line? From Tiger Woods/Jesse James to Polanski – beating your wife?… emotionally abusing your children? …beating your children? Serial cheating on your wife? How about knifing your wife and being instrumental in letting a killer go to kill again, like Mailer?
I feel for Hopper’s 7-yr old as I have one myself. He’ll never be more than a distant memory when she’s 20.
I hear ya, Viper. There’s a fine line in the there somewhere.
Bu leaving his young child without a dime (he’s even fighting paying child support) is beyond the pale.
And Mailer should have been put in jail. Just like Polanski.
V – I agree with you on his daughter. Whatever the beef is with with ex, alow a trust fund (or however they do it) solely for the kid then. If he isn’t doing that, it isn’t right.
As for Mailer, aside from biting Rip’s ear and stabbing his wife, I guess you could make excuse that he never thought Abbott would do that after being released
Thanks for reminding me about MAIDSTONE, Viper.
Classic stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AzmhorISf4&feature=geosearch
Thank for reminding me about MAIDSTONE, Viper.
Classic stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AzmhorISf4&feature=geosearch
good lord! thanks for that. I’ve only seen brief clips of that brawl until now. I have to say Mailer’s kids crying in the background is disturbing.
Guess Torn won the nuthouse longevity award with his latest antics in the news. Mailer’s out of the competition.
Hopper’s BACKTRACK (where he played a hit man who falls for Jodie Foster) is a rather gonzo guilty pleasure of a film with quite a supporting cast (ranging from Joe Pesci to Vincent Price to Bob Dylan).
Not that it matters, but obviously the dumbfuck needledick Vinessa Tati hadn’t heard the news. Hopper voted for Obama:
Bush-Supporter Dennis Hopper Switches His Vote: “I Pray” Obama Wins
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/14/bush-supporter-dennis-hop_n_134433.html
Being referred to as a “dumbfuck needledick” by the likes of a clymidia-ridden cunt like George Prager is quite a badge of honor.
So, he crossed party lines at the last minute? Big fucking deal. That doesn’t give him a pass for his decades worth of transgressions, bitch. For in the very same year he SUPPOSEDLY voted for Obama (something you can’t actually prove other than to take him at his word), he also starred in that masterpiece of satirical greatness know as An American Carol…with all his Con friends. Hmmm…that’s seems to suggest a pretty conflicted mindset, don’t ya think, you tool?
Oh, wait! Clearly, you DON’T THINK. Otherwise you wouldn’t have made such a huge ass of yourself by posting a link that states that he was in that film the very same year he apparently voted for Obama.
Douchebag is sort of over played on this site, Prager, so how about ASSHAT? Yeah, ASSHAT fits you just right.
I guess I touched a nerve with this hermaphrodite.
Nah, Prager. It’s all good.
I met Hopper in Las Vegas when he was promoting the video release of “River’s Edge.” He was with a young blonde ballet dancer from Pennsylvania, and during the interview seemed really intense and gave off lots of scary deer in the healdight looks, but was totally lucid. Then I saw Peter Fonda badmouthing him, his turn to being a Republican and his expensive suit son the Tom snyder show. Then I met Fonda who turns out to be a total jerk, consntantly talking about himselfself as if he were Brando/Welles and Robert Towne all rolled into one. Not sure what this excactly, but I think it has something to do with politics and the 1960s.
The fighting between Fonda and Hopper stems from credits and other issues surrounding both the both the original theatrical release and the DVD release of Easy Rider.
They’ve been fighting about it for years and fairly well-documented,
Though, I have heard some equally atrocious things about Fonda. But nothing in the realm of Hopper’s behavior.
By the way, thanks for reminding me about River’s Edge, Irving. I recall really enjoying that film. Lots of great performances from a lot of big names. And I believe it was written by the once great but long since forgotten, Neil Jimenez.
The commentary on the EASY RIDER lasterdisc is done by Fonda, the production mananger and Dennis Hopper (by phone). During the commune scene, Hopper identifies an extra as “Carrie Snodgress, Neil Young’s wife.” Fonda and the production manager say that it isn’t. They go back and forth on this for a couple of minutes and it seems like Hopper has lost the argument. On the DVD, Hopper goes it alone with the commentary and says “That’s Carrie Snodgress, Neil Young’s wife.”
Peter Fonda date-raped me
Funny, Bob.
And yes, George, I believe that’s a part of it, too.
I’ll have to pop it in and give it a listen. It certainly sounds familiar.
“He really looks like Owen Wilson in all those 3 pix from the past.”
First time I saw BOTTLE ROCKET, I kept thinking of Hopper. Always figured it was just me. I wish Wilson would go back to playing intense (or at least awake.) He’s obviously got it in him — seems he’s spend his entire career running away from that side of himself.
I try to see BV every time it plays nearby on a big screen, which is usually once every year or two. I may be forced to break out the DVD soon, though I consider small-screen viewing to be a last resort. One of the rare films I can watch as if I’ve never seen it before and have no idea what’s coming next; I step into the current and away we go.
When I was in my twenties, I worshipped Hopper because he was “on the edge.” He was a crazy man like Hunter S. Thompson, he did drugs and pointed guns at people and walked naked into the jungle. Wow, man.
Then I began to notice how bitter and pissy he seemed in interviews. I even remember him running down Blue Velvet once, in the same ungrateful way Burt Reynolds slammed Boogie Nights. (Wish I could find it, but it was an old print interview.) I could only assume it was out of jealousy — here Lynch was getting all this credit and attention for achieving what Hopper really wanted to be doing, which was directing highly-regarded films. He had destroyed his own career, and only managed to salvage it by becoming a stock villain for hire. He thought he was going to be Orson Wells, and became Vincent Price instead.
I eventually realized that guys like Lynch and Cronenberg, who never seem to have any drama in the real lives, were a million times cooler that than the meltdowners and act-outers. They take all their weirdness and dark impulses and channel it straight into their art rather than spraying all over like a firehose. That’s a lot harder, and a lot more productive. (I realize that there are some artists who live crazy lives AND do great work, but they’re usually genuinely tormented souls who don’t live long, and whose lives no one would envy.)
That being said, I’ll always treasure Hopper’s work in BV, which I consider one of the greatest film performances of all time, the perfect marriage of actor and role at the exact right moment. There’s something universal about Frank’s rage that elevates the character above similar wackjob villains, even those in other Lynch films. Bobby Peru is gross and funny, but there’s no real torment inside him. He’s just a grotesque; Frank is the demon inside all of us, the thing Jeffrey is trying not to become even as he’s drawn toward the darkness, and I give Hopper a big chunk of the credit for making that character so real and identifiable. (I always know I’m dealing with a half-alive, human-nature-denier when I mention the film to someone who says “yeah, weird, huh? What a crazy guy!”)
We’ll always have Frank and Tom Ripley, and OUT OF THE BLUE and TRACKS and TRUE ROMANCE, despite the wasted years and paycheck roles. It’s more than most accomplish in a lifetime, and maybe it’s enough. Immortality has been achieved.
“I don’t know why a guy like Hopper would direct something like Chasers (’94) except for the money. I guess that was it.”
There’s a two word answer, and one of them is “Erika”. I can’t remember her last name, though.
I bet there was a lot more sex in the script that Hopper signed on to direct than in the movie that he took his name off of.
Peter Fonda touched my peener
it made my underwear feel funny
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