Shotgun Superstar
My Rutger Hauer/Bloody Mary encounter this morning was cool, smooth and groovy. Hobo With A Shotgun, which I saw directly after, is a relentlessly low-rent Troma splatter film — another ’70s grindhouse flick in “quotes.” (You don’t mind the awful dialogue spoken by the bad guys, right? Of course you don’t!) But the title and the whatever-you-want-to-make-it metaphor are brilliant, and Hauer, 66, is reaping the benefits. His scumbag-blasting bum is the most iconic role he’s played since The Hitcher (’87), and before that Roy Batty in Blade Runner (’82).
Hobo With A Shotgun star Rutger Hauer — Wednesday, 1.26, 11:15 am.
If I was a director-writer, I’d write something for Hauer in which he plays the absolute opposite of an enraged, socially-avenging hobo. I would cast him as a rich, hip sculptor who lives in lower Manhattan and meditates and writes poetry and knows how to prepare Northern Italian cuisine and has his grandkids over on weekends. I would leave the hobo behind and never look back.
Hauer is gentle, polite, considerate. Being a famous actor he’s used to a certain amount of attention. And (I mean this in the most admiring way possible) he’s a bit of an eccentric. He talks about whatever mood he might be in. He goes outside to smoke. He politely declined to drink Bloody Marys with everyone else. (Discipline!) He wore black Converse lace-up sneakers — very cool.
When Jen Yamato seemed to indicate that her brief interview with him was starting to wind down, Hauer appeared to take mild offense — “What, is the fuckin’ interview over now?” I loved him for that. Actors put it right out there. They’re a particular breed. You need to keep the ball in the air and keep feeding the fire.
Hauer’s Converse sneakers
Falco Ink’s Steve Beeman got out a shotgun — a real one — for Hauer to pose with in photos. I snapped a couple in the hallway. And then Hauer and the shotgun charged into the room in which everyone has hanging out, playing the raging bad-ass and shouting, “You’ve seen your last movie!” Love any kind of playtime stuff. I’ll bet Hauer is great with kids.
We all drove up to the Egyptian for the 11:30 am showing in a Magnolia-rented SUV. On the way there I said to Hauer and Eisner with a grin, “I thought we were all going to walk up to the theatre with Rutger carrying the shotgun, and that maybe we might attract the attention of the Park City police.” Hauer, smoking again, was vaguely amused but said he was in the wrong mood for that kind of crap.
We pulled up to the theatre. I went in and sat down in the front, and Eisner and Hauer came on stage to rev the crowd. Hauer’s money quote: “We shoot fucking movies — we don’t shoot fucking people.”
Hah! This is really just too much awesome for one post.
Is that him pointing his shotgun at Yamato?
What a “Hauerful” overload of badassery!
I still find it fascinating that Anne Rice wanted Hauer to play Lestat, and in fact had him in mind while writing the books.
It’s plainly evident when he’s playing Roy Batty, but that Rutger is from so long ago. He still looks great, though.
What happened with this guy’s career? He was awesome in Dutch films, and he’s iconic in ‘Blade Runner,’ especially that monologue towards the end. Plus, ‘The Hitcher’ was scary. But then, what? Did that lousy ‘Wanted, Dead Or Alive’ flick kill his stardom?
JLC, I’d always thought Rice had wanted Gary Oldman. Hauer would have been fucking amazing. The places Cruise went with that are pretty interesting though.
the ultimate role – Rutger comes to America looking for his real father – a US soldier from WWII. He meets his half brother played by Harrison Ford and seduces Ford’s wife (Meryl Streep) while they battle over their late father’s estate.
btw we’ve got five posts without mentioning Wulfgar, we all fail.
Another “Machete”? The grindhouse knockoffs are always fun to think about, fun to discuss…..but actually watching them?…..just tedious, disheartening (even with the exploding hearts), and ultimately boring….after awhile, you’re wishing the filmmakers would channel their energy into making a REAL movie …one that would honestly
engage you….instead of relentlessly poking you in the arm, whispering “isn’t this awesomely cheesy
70′s crap the greatest??!!”
Disco, she might have asked for Oldman when they were producing the film, but her references to Hauer go back all the way to the writing of the novels. When you read her description of Lestat, it’s easy to see why.
Agreed, however, that Cruise was very good. One of his best roles in my opinion.
While I certainly agree with you on the whole, mm2002, I think Death Proof holds up surprisingly well on repeat viewings, even if it’s inarguably “lesser” Tarantino (if such a thing even exists…).
Jeff: But is it “zeitgeist-ey” the way you wanted it?
moviemaniac: Black Dynamite lived up to the hype for me, but that’s about it so far.
Jen Yamato getting humiliated by Rutger Hauer = gold. That chick is just too damn sunny… I’m sure she’s nice enough but when I see her palling around with all those Cinematical dudes in their low-budget videos, I always wonder why she’s not blogging about Vampire Diaries in between posting “BWAH HA HA HA LOVES ME SOME IAN SOMMERHALDER!” on Television Without Pity. Can’t BELIEVE she’s palling around with Rutger Hauer, and I work at a subtitling factory.
Anyone who’s never seen it and wants to see Rutger Hauer and Paul Verhoeven and a hot Dutch chick at the height mid-70s, pre-gym phyisiques nudity, bad body hair, bodily functions-ahoy insanity, is instructed to seek out TURKISH DELIGHT with the quickness. Hauer’s a lunatic in that.
I’m also pretty sure it came up once, and Wells INCONCEIVABLY ranks “Nighthawks” as one of Stallone’s duds, and not as the HOLY SHIT French Connection/Eddie Coyle/Dirty Harry-level grimy cop movie classic it is, one of the most awesome NYC movies ever, pretty much one of the last movies that really had that NYC disco/SNF vibe even though that scene had to have been long-dead at that point, filmed RIGHT THERE all over the packed, teeming streets of NYC in ever bombed-out neighborhood… Has that very specific Warriors, Maniac, Dressed to Kill, Fort Apache the Bronx, They All Laughed early-80s NYC location shoot look, with tons of awesome facial hair and gray skies and those GIANT YELLOW CABS…
Hey, maybe it’s one of those “It was on Cinemax 40 times a month in 1983 so it’s a classic” things that doesn’t hold up at ALL, or didn’t seem like much to a twenty-something who saw it ONE TIME in 1981 then never watched it again… But Nighthawks I’ve probably seen more times than fucking Star Wars.
Yet my talking it up is probably to Wells like some 25-year-old talking up Alec Baldwin in THE JUROR to me as some formative mainstay.
corey3rd that’s such a good idea I just got chills.
Hauer went through a Paul Newman lookalike phase for awhile.
Anyway, here he is on his greatest (and not-so-greatest) roles, for NY magazine’s Vulture blog: http://tinyurl.com/5wjt45z
He’s also in THE RITE, dropping this week.
YEP YEP.
Lex apparently NIGHTHAWKS was originally conceived as FRENCH CONNECTION III. Pretty awesome how it turned out but that might have been too good. Also I am exactly 25 that late 90s HBO age and will definitely talk up Baldwin’s performance in THE JUROR as one of his best.
Lex: Who is the young priest guy in The Rite? Before I saw that trailer, literally never set eyes on him. He’s so obscure, he doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page yet.
Holy shit, he is in The Rite, and the ads aren’t giving him any face time? If we’re talking a Hauer/Hopkins showdown at some point, that’s at least worth a rental.
And yeah the Rite co-star is totally unknown, Hopkins was talking about him on Kimmel last night.
He’s got quite a prestigiuous film coming up with Carice van Houten called “Black Butterflies” where he plays the father to van Houten’s famous South African poet Ingrid Jonker.
“Has that very specific Warriors, Maniac, Dressed to Kill, Fort Apache the Bronx, They All Laughed early-80s NYC location shoot look”
Two words: Killer Driller.
WTF, I so typed that the other way around.
What a fail dyslexic.
But Lex, why didn’t you say “Hauer Power”? I mean, it rhymes.
Too obvious?
Now I’m completely lost on Jeff’s shoes scale – a guy in his 60s wearing dirty old sneakers is cool? What if a hip 25 year old wore the same? That’d be bad and Eloi and stuff, right?
http://www.rutgerhauer.org/
Flash to all his roles.
The strange thing is to see him in a role that requires normalcy and compassion but he does that well, too.
and yup – he can look like Paul Newman. I continue to buy those salad dressings:
#1 they’re terrific
#2 all $$ goes to charity
#3 Paul believe in it and it’s a way to keep that alive
#4 Check out the image on Newman’s Own Caesar Dressing – and you’ll see both Paul and Rutger.
That shotgun photo is fierce and scary and tempered with that wonderful quote.
When Hauer was in Melbourne about a decade ago shooting I can’t remember what, he heard about one of the numerous local, low profile short / indie film festivals that happened to be occurring around the time of his visit (the sort that screened lots of student films, ‘quirky’ shorts, one-off joke skits, meaningful but deadly dramas, angry arty feminist tracts and the occasional rare, gory genre outing, all shot on either 16mm, Super 8 or whatever crappy video format was prevalent back around then) and he got in touch with the organizers. Hauer volunteered to be a judge, to meet with the filmmakers and to give a special talk midway though. Hauer did all this and more (Aussie director Philippe Mora popped in midway to mention wacko A BREED APART anecdotes) and Hauer’s loud passionate speech gained a funny reaction from some of the crowd: “To make a short film you need a big pair of balls!”. A very generous and unique guy, I hope HOBO does him well.
I think we can comfortably assume Anne Rice did not have Stuart Townsend in mind.
she clearly had Jonathan from Korn’s voice in her mind though.
Man… I’d love to attend this… but we’ve got our show at CBC that night.
home security systems
I haven’t seen it in a long time, but I remember him to be great in Ladyhawke.
He is great in Soldier of Orange (one of Verhoeven’s best). Pure leading man-type role.
The first time I saw Hauer was in Ladyhawke. My parents, especially my mother, loved that film. I still have quite a soft spot for it – 80s score and all.
Blade Runner is one of my all-time favourite films, and his short monologue at the end is one of the best ever. It’s a perfect scene.
I was really happy that Nolan cast him in Batman Begins. He would have made an excellent villain for Keaton’s Batman back in the day. I wonder how he would have handled Two-Face (I realize that it was Kilmer for BF).
Anyhow, looking forward to Hobo. Seems like it’s a lot of fun.
>Now I’m completely lost on Jeff’s shoes scale – a guy in his 60s wearing dirty old sneakers is cool? What if a hip 25 year old wore the same? That’d be bad and Eloi and stuff, right?
At 36 I thought I was too old for Converse, but if Hauer can wear them…
…or is the takeaway that movie stars can wear whatever the hell they want & therefore should not be emulated by normal folks?
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