The American Gigolo DVD caught my eye as I made a fortuitous last minute trip to my Seattle branch library just before it closed due to the coronavirus. As I am a movie buff, I vaguely remembered Pretty Woman and The Runaway Bride, but knew very little about Richard Gere otherwise and associated him with fluffy romances. Eventually I got around to watching American Gigolo and was riveted by his performance. My mesmerization was galvanizing, and I decided then and there to watch all of his movies and to write a short review of each to keep myself amused and to sharpen my critical thinking skills. Lest I be accused of hyperbole, watch the movie and decide for yourself.
In the heady, early days of the coronavirus lockdown, I was compulsively reading Scottish, English and Irish mystery series writers — Malcolm Mackay, Mick Herron, and Adrian McKinty — in addition to a heavy diet of covid-19 press, as well as nightly immersion in Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow in the constant Trump-horror-stories-purgatory, but now I had another much more diverting and enjoyable undertaking. Fortunately, Gere has been in many commercial movies*— 52 in fact — and I decided to watch all but four, in more or less chronological order.
I’ve always had a predilection for the great mood movies of the late 20th century where sex, death, and doomed love are the topic, where the dialogue, photography and music evoke and contribute to the creation of time and place so well that you can viscerally feel the despair, the atmosphere, and the physical attraction. Chinatown (’74), Body Heat (’81), the surreal Montenegro (’81), Choose Me (’84), Stormy Monday (’88), Sea of Love (’89), and The Fabulous Baker Boys (’89) are just some of the many atmospheric and sexually charged movies in that vein from the era. They are the movie equivalent of Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain, and American Gigolo epitomizes that genre. It was the movie that catapulted Gere to fame (along with Giorgio Armani), even though he had had major roles in four previous movies.
If you have ever wondered about the totality of Richard Gere’s oeuvre, look no further. Should we be caught up in another pandemic, or if you just have the time and inclination, here is my brief and personal take on his artistic efforts spanning the years between 1977 to 2019. It was not always possible to watch the movies in chronological order, but they are listed in order below. Rest assured that cinematic delights await.
Day 1 – Looking for Mr. Goodbar, 1977. It took me a long time to get a very bad copy of a copy on Ebay, which I finally received well into my Gere immersion. It is possible that the poor quality contributed to my lack of interest in this film. Based on Judith Rossner’s 1975 best seller (which I didn’t read) about a real murder case, the movie focuses on Diane Keaton’s dangerous hedonism — picking up strange men in seedy bars and bringing them home to have sex. Tuesday Weld as her wild sister, William Atherton as a good Catholic boy, and Tom Berenger as a bi-sexual escort also play significant roles. This is Gere’s first movie where he executes his manic, uninhibited bopping around the room/air drumming/counter top piano playing/edgy sexuality shtick, later refined in Breathless and Mr. Jones. Keaton is plausible as the teacher of deaf children by day and wanton wench at night, despite her already evident and annoying mannerisms as an actor.
Directed by Richard Brooks.
Day 2 – Bloodbrothers, 1978. This is Gere’s first movie in which he plays the central character and where he displays a career enduring quality — nervous energy, leashed sexuality and a sweet vulnerability and yearning. Adapted from a Richard Price novel about an extremely dysfunctional Italian-American family in the Bronx, Gere gives a sensitive performance as a young, inarticulate man who wants something beyond his parents’ life, and his current cultural limitations. There is a lot of macho male bonding and excessive stereotyping, but Gere delivers. Paul Sorvino as a sympathetic uncle and Marilu Henner as a wise barmaid add warmth to the plot, but Gere’s parents are beyond the pale with extreme over-acting.
Directed by Robert Mulligan.
Day 3 – Days of Heaven, 1978. This exceptional movie is a meditation on doomed love in the years before World War I. Beginning with the opening credits in front of photos by Lewis Hine and others, this masterpiece moves with measured pace as an inexorable wave towards tragedy. Gere’s younger sister, Linda Manz, narrates the story of their escape from Chicago along with his lover, Brooke Adams, to the Texas Panhandle to harvest the wheat crop of wealthy farmer, Sam Shepard. Cinematographers Nestor Almendros and Haskell Wexler paint an elegiac portrait of the migrant harvesters working against a vast Texas landscape (filmed in Alberta), illuminating their hardscrabble existence. Sweeping landscapes, the intense focus on insects and animals, the indelible images of threshers, locusts, fiddlers and tap dancers, a cataclysmic fire, and the minimal but incisive dialogue are unforgettable. Gere is a hot tempered, conniving-yet-sensitive soul who brokers a contract from which there is no return. Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard are expressive in their roles as a foil to Gere’s rage and desperation, and Linda Manz controls the narrative with her understated and poignant delivery.
Directed by Terrence Malick. RECOMMEND.
Day 4 – Yanks, 1979. Three American military men and three English women have affairs while the Americans are stationed in England awaiting combat during World War I. Gere, in an underwhelming performance, is a good guy mess sergeant whose budding affair with a nice English woman, Lisa Eichhorn (an American actor), stutters along to a hopeful ending. More interesting and realistic is the Vanessa Redgrave-William Devane encounter, and more entertaining is the Chick Venneral-Wendy Morgan couple.
Directed by John Schlesinger.
Day 5 – American Gigolo, 1980. Influenced by Bresson’s Pickpocket, this daring noirish thriller is all about mood, beauty, and style. Taken in the context of the times, this cinematic exploration of male vanity, gay undercurrents, and some frontal male nudity was daring, and was a perfect vehicle for Gere as Julian Kaye, a successful gigolo with a completely transactional, compartmentalized life. He is vain, lithe, beautiful, and vulnerable, with a slippery charm and nonchalant and slinky walk. (In fact, the “walk” is notably present in most of his movies.) Of course it depends on your taste in men, but as a sheer, physical presence, Gere is very compelling. A luminous Lauren Hutton becomes his lover and ultimately his deliverance. Nina van Pallandt is perfect as the striking, calculating madam, as is Hector Elizondo, the sartorially challenged and persistent detective determined to arrest Gere for a nasty crime. Gere’s restrained swagger is offset by a touch of dignity as he eventually becomes aware of his lonely and empty life. LANGUAGE NOTE: 1. Gere practices his Swedish. 2. Interestingly, there doesn’t seem to be a female equivalent for “gigolo.” There is “kept woman, whore, prostitute, courtesan, escort, call girl,” and the now antiquated French version —“gigolette,” but nothing exactly mirrors “gigolo.” EXERCISE NOTE: A scene with Gere hanging by his feet in moon boots started a minor exercise craze. FASHION NOTE: The alluring scene where Gere lays out an assortment of Armani shirts, ties, and jackets is performed with sultry assurance. MUSIC NOTE: Italian musician, Giorgio Moroder wrote and performed the soundtrack which was #1 on the Billboard album charts, and individual cuts went to #2. Blondie recorded Call Me which was a #1 hit and was named Billboards #1 hit for 1980.
Directed by Paul Shrader. RECOMMEND.
Day 6 – An Officer and a Gentleman, 1982. As the credits roll, the striking and almost silent opening scene (set in Seattle) shows Gere moving silently in a gritty hotel room, with flashbacks to his life in Subic Bay in the Philippines as a young, damaged boy living with his dissipated, uncaring Navy enlisted man father (Robert Loggia), giving us the background story. Initially he is selfish and friendless with a big attitude, but under the tutelage of a harsh drill sergeant (wonderfully acted by Louis Gossett, Jr.) at the Naval Flight School, he slowly learns about the responsibilities and pleasures of love, friendship, and team support, and the arduous path to responsibility. Gere’s portrayal of the character is well developed and emotional. In addition to the training rigors of boot camp and character building, this is a romance, and Debra Winger, the sweet working class woman with whom Gere becomes involved, handles the role with a deceptively relaxed realism and charm. They have an easy chemistry and there is a steamy love scene notable for its believability. David Keith as Gere’s friend is touching and expressive, as is Lisa Blunt, Keith’s brassy girlfriend. The excellent music score and the flashing white uniform flickering between the industrial machines as Gere strides toward Winger delivers, I think, one of the great romantic movie endings. As a love story, this movie feels so much more authentic and satisfying than, say, Pretty Woman, because the characters and plot are realistic. LOCATION NOTE: The Navy would not cooperate and allow the filming to be made at the actual flight school in Pensacola, so the crew moved production to the now-defunct Fort Worden in Port Townsend. Built 100 years ago to defend Puget Sound from foreign invaders, many of us in Seattle have had reason over the years to trek over to Fort Worden, which is now an arts and meetings center, to attend jazz and blues festivals, and to Port Townsend for film festivals, the Wooden Boat Festival and the like.
Directed by Taylor Hackford. RECOMMEND.
Day 7 – The Honorary Consul (aka Beyond the Limit), 1983. Another difficult-to-obtain movie that is only available on VHS tape, I learned to adjust the aspect ratio on my TV so that the actors didn’t look squat and elongated. This adaptation of the 1973 Graham Greene novel is a sweaty suspense thriller set in northern Argentina, but was effectively filmed in Mexico, and captured the atmosphere of time and place. Gere plays an arrogant, ironic, disaffected doctor who becomes a friend to the consul, Michael Caine, and lover of his wife, Elpidia Carrillo. Gere’s enigmatic performance illustrates the paradox of the character’s nature — a man unable to love, a man without an obvious cause or belief, but whose change of heart at the end is surprising. Caine is superb as the drunken yet perceptive consul, and Bob Hoskins plays the smart, corrupt police chief who is determined to catch the guerrillas in a botched kidnapping
attempt. The dialogue is sometimes stilted and tedious, and Gere assumes an English-Paraguayan accent (whatever that is). Caine, however, has most of the good lines. If you are a Graham Greene fan, you’ll be interested in the political and social moral issues, and how the book differs from the movie. MUSIC NOTE: Paul McCartney wrote the theme song which he and John Williams performed.
Directed by John Mackenzie. RECOMMEND.
Day 8 – Breathless, 1983. A remake of Godard’s doomed love epic with Belmondo and Seberg, Gere takes on the role with an altogether different interpretation. The movie opens with Gere driving a stolen Porsche from Las Vegas to LA with a vivid, red sunset in the background and Jerry Lee Lewis singing Breathless on the CD player. In this visually rich, campy version, Gere is a manic, seedy crook and accidental killer who is pretty unlikeable and none too bright, and fancies himself as Marvel Comic’s Silver Surfer. While in bed with the upper class French student played by Valerie Kaprisky, he reveals his sweet side along with a heavy dose of nervous energy. There are plenty of sex scenes in this movie — in the shower, in bed, in the pool, in the loft of a movie theater — but McBride has a knack for filming believable, tender sex with a sense of humor and style (see The Big Easy). The cinematographer, Richard Kline, uses background murals of scenery and people as cinematic references, and shoots scenes in dimly lit clubs, junk yards, and the boardwalk to enhance the atmospheric mood. A daring, risky role to take on for any actor, Gere shines as an unhinged, romantic, swaggering desperado, but Kaprisky as an immature architecture student who quotes Flaubert is less believable. When she says “I feel so free with you,” you want to make sure she doesn’t utter another sentence, but, unfortunately, she does. The movie alternates between bathos and pathos. Captivating.
Directed by Jim McBride. RECOMMEND.
Day 9 – The Cotton Club (ENCORE), 1984. There are two stories here: the club and the gangs. Gere is a jumpy, weak, morally conflicted jazz musician in this recently revised, improved and restored Coppola extravaganza and period piece. I attribute the lack of chemistry with Diane Lane, his implausible love interest, to his Erroll Flynn-like mustache, but it could also be because she seems to be playing a caricature of a caricature. The rest of the cast is great, however, with Gregory Hines and his brother performing in some dazzling dance numbers: Lonette McKee singing the best version of Stormy Weather since Lena Horne, a superb Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington performance, and appearances by Lawrence Fishburne, Bob Hoskins as the club owner, Joe Dallesandro (of Warhol fame), Nicholas Cage as Gere’s brother, Tom Waits, and Gwen Verdon, to mention a few. A great show. MUSIC NOTE: Gere plays the cornet and piano and does some rakish tap dancing.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. RECOMMEND.
Day 10 – King David, 1985. Not everyone loves a good biblical epic, and I include myself in that category. My unfamiliarity with I and II Samuel and I Chronicles didn’t help. My main quibble is that Gere’s American accent is jarring among all the British actors — Denis Quilley, Edward Woodward, Hurd Hatfield — and detracts from the overall effect. Otherwise, I did find much of it interesting; the sequence of events from Goliath to Absalom are accurate (according to those conversant with the Bible), and the period re-creation is as rugged and savage as it must have been around 1000 BC. Gere’s performance is strong and he looks the part. There is a lot of wandering in the wilderness, several decapitations, and bloody war scenes. The scene where he enters Jerusalem and performs an ecstatic dance up the long winding staircase to the top is eye-opening.
Directed by Bruce Beresford.
Day 11 – No Mercy, 1986. Mostly filmed in New Orleans and surrounding countryside, this lurid, atmospheric thriller is violent and disturbing. Gere is a Chicago cop with good hair and instincts who falls for Kim Basinger, an illiterate woman-child owned by Jeroen Krabbe, the pathological super villain. My favorite part is when Gere and Basinger are handcuffed together in a swamp in the bayou trying to escape some killers. It is preposterous, but tense and eery. If what interests you is brutality mixed with lust fulfilled, this is your kind of movie. Ray Sharkey, William Atherton, Gary Basaraba have solid roles.
Directed by Richard Pearce.
Day 12 – Power, 1986. Gere starts out as an intense, fidgety, mustachioed, less malevolent version of Lee Atwater, albeit more handsome and charming, and ends up like a rueful Gandhi. Julie Christie as his muckraking reporter ex-wife undergoes a similar transformation. Neither are fully believable, given how ruthless they were previously. Gene Hackman, Gere’s former guru as a campaign manager, but now an alcoholic shadow of himself, is excellent. Kate Capshaw as his secretary and Denzel Washington as a PR man for foreign interests play supporting roles. At the time, this must have been a more effective condemnation of tricky politics and sleazy politicians than it reads today, as we are all now mostly jaded, unsurprised and disillusioned by the political process.
Directed by Sidney Lumet.
Day 13 – Miles from Home, 1988. This compelling, hard-to-find movie opens with a black-andwhite re-enactment of Khruschev’s 1959 visit to an average Iowa farm and family. Somewhat reminiscent in style to Days of Heaven, the movie continues with the farm’s failure and foreclosure 20 years later as the two now adult sons of that farmer go on a non-lethal rampage that turns them into folk heroes. Gere is the angry, touchy, needy, domineering, and increasingly out-of-control older brother, who has always taken care of his younger, sweet natured brother (Kevin Anderson). Gere starts to disintegrate and the brothers’ relationship changes as the growing publicity from their exploits exacerbates his need for attention and confirmation. The various relationships between father and son, brother and brother, women and brothers are intuitively acted and explored thanks to the cast mostly taken from Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater. Brian Dennehy, Helen Hunt, John Malkovitch, Laurie Metcalf, Penelope Ann Miller and others have smaller but significant roles.
Directed by Gary Sinise. RECOMMEND.
Day 14 – Internal Affairs, 1990. This tense, grim thriller starts out as a test of wills between Andy Garcia as a smooth, quietly competent and tough cop in charge of investigating a suspicious drug arrest, and Gere, a brooding, manipulative, rogue cop. Gere’s svelte malevolence contrasts the wheedling, cajoling, persuasive pull and tug of the con man with the icy determination of a killer, and the unbalanced incomprehension of a child. Like many sociopaths, Gere’s character knows how to exploit a person’s particular weakness, and he focuses on Garcia and his very attractive contemporary art gallery-owner wife (Nancy Travis). Gere’s seductive ways with both women and men give cover to his personal peccadillos and his betrayals abound. He whispers calm admonitions, he laughs when he’s physically hurt, and knows how to trigger a response. He is a cold and sinister serial seducer and killer. The atmospheric setting, excellent dialogue and acting by Gere, Garcia, and supporting cast, particularly Laurie Metcalf, make this a fascinating psychiatric study.
Directed by Mike Figgis. RECOMMEND
Part 2 is here.