Tag: ’The Candidate’

WHAT NOW?

Now what? asks grieving husband at the crossroads

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A WAY OUT OR A DEAD END?

I have reached the What do I do now? stage in my life.

Well, not me exactly, but a guy named Billy Boy, a creation of Renata de Dios, whose name, curiously enough, translates as Born again of God.

Billy Boy—I’ll just call him Bill—watches a lot of movies on TV. The other night he re-watched The Candidate with Robert Redford.

Bill is not comparing himself to Robert Redford of course, but that question he asks at the end of the movie — What do we do now? — is, in a different context, Bill’s question, and that empty hotel room in the last shot is the equivalent of his once-upon-a-time living room, now known as the dead room, and it is the equivalent of his wife’s empty armchair,

Empty chairs

and it is the equivalent of his empty house, and to stretch it to a melodramatic point, the equivalent of his life now, without his wife, who for thirty-four years was his life.

Renata de Dios tells Billy he’s at a Crossroads, and to take the road that leads to God, but his irreligious mind doesn’t even know where to start looking, and so he continues to drink and tells her in a late-night phone call, What has been lost is now found, but now found is lost.

To which Renata replies, Plato-like, I’m not sure I understand your meaning, Socrates.

There’s nothing to understand, of course, because the utterance is sheer 80-proof nonsense.

Last night Bill re-watched the movie The Verdict, and was particularly interested when Paul Newman gave his wonderful summation and spoke these words,

In my religion we say, act as if you have faith and faith will be given to you.

Okay, Bill will buy a ticket to that, but how exactly do you act as if you have faith? — pray, read C.S. Lewis and other spiritual literature, go to church, keep an open mind? He’s been doing all those things — and yet still nothing. He’s willing to try anything — suspension of belief, drugs, insanity, enlist the aid of the Silver Surfer — anything that will bring him closer to his wife.

So, the question remains, now what?

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John Lennon was best man at Peter Boyle’s wedding — who knew?

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REMEMBERING PETER BOYLE

Died on this day December 12, 2006 at the age of 71.

Not everybody knows that Boyle and fellow anti-war activist John Lennon were friends — such good friends that Lennon was best man at Boyle’s marriage to Loraine Alterman in 1977.

Loraine, who worked for Rolling Stone magazine, knew Yoko Ono and from that a friendship was forged. “We’d go to dinner and we’d talk about everything from gurus to music to politics,” said Boyle.

‘EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND’

Many people remember Peter Boyle as the cranky curmudgeon in the hit TV sitcom ‘Everybody Loves Raymond,’ and as the lovable monster in the movie ‘Young Frankenstein.’

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But I remember him most dramatically from the violent 1970 anti-hippie movie ‘Joe.’ The final scene blew me away — as it did, literally, the hippies Joe hated.

Synopsis

Wealthy businessman Bill Compton confronts his junkie daughter’s drug-dealing boyfriend and in a furious argument, kills him. Panic-stricken, he wanders the streets and ends up in a bar, where he meets a drunken factory worker named Joe, who hates hippies, blacks, and anyone who is “different.” The two start talking, and in the end, it leads to this scene:

PETER BOYLE BIO

Peter Boyle was born on October 18, 1935, in Norristown, Pennsylvania. He grew into a 6-foot-two prematurely bald young man and pursued an acting career while working at many jobs, from bouncer to waiter.

His first break came in 1965 when he joined the national company of ‘The Odd Couple.’ In the late 1960s he joined Chicago’s Second City improv group. He made his Broadway debut as a replacement for Peter Bonerz in the 1971 play ‘Story Theatre.’

‘THE CANDIDATE’

Boyle’s breakout film role, as the bigoted factory worker Joe, directed by John Avildsen, led to major supporting roles, including Robert Redford’s campaign manager in the 1972 film ‘The Candidate.’

Boyle joined ranks with Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland as a Vietnam War protester, which he brought to the screen in the 1973 anti-establishment picture ‘Steelyard Blues.’ 

It was at this time that he formed a strong friendship with John Lennon.

Seeking to avoid the stereotype of a violent character, Boyle played the lovable monster in the 1974 Mel Brooks spoof ‘Young Frankenstein.’ One of the most popular scenes was as the Fred Astaire-inspired dancer performing ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ with Gene Wilder.

’TAXI DRIVER’

Roles in the late 1970s included the self-absorbed cabbie in Martin Scorsese’s ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976) and a private investigator in Paul Schrader’s ’Hardcore’ (1979) with George C. Scott.

He acted in several TV mini-movie roles, including that of the stockade brute Fatso in the 1979 miniseries remake of ‘From Here to Eternity,’ and as right-wing Senator Joe McCarthy in ‘Tail Gunner Joe’ (1977), for which he received an Emmy nomination.

Despite a stroke in 1990 that impaired his speech for six months, Boyle was given the ‘Archie Bunker’-type role of Frank Barron in the long-running TV sitcom ‘Everybody Loves Raymond.’

He received seven Emmy nominations without a win, the only prime player on the show unhonored. In 1999, he survived a heart attack on the set but managed to return full time for the remainder of the series’ run through 2005.

‘MONSTER’S BALL’

He capped his career with an critically acclaimed turn as Billy Bob Thornton’s unrepentantly racist father in the 2001 Oscar-winner ‘Monster’s Ball.’

Boyle died of cancer at New York Presbyterian Hospital in 2006, and was survived by his wife Lorraine and two children. He was 71.

— With notes from IMDb  

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