The Man, the Myth, the Legend: Mr. Morgan Freeman

In light of the releases of Wanted and The Dark Knight (movie reviews on the way!), let us pay homage to a Hollywood sage, the voice from the heavens, Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman. He was a Moor (Robin Hood Prince of Thieves), a mob boss (Lucky Number Slevin), a cancer patient (The Bucket List), a weapons specialist (Batman Begins), a boxing trainer (Million Dollar Baby), the President (Deep Impact) and the Alpha and the Omega (Bruce Almighty). Shame on Phil Alden Robinson for killing Freeman off in Sum of All Fears, but kudos to Edward Zwick for casting him in Glory, a film released in what is arguably the most successful year of Freeman's career (1989, the year of Glory, Driving Miss Daisy, and Lean on Me). Morgan Freeman could take over the world in lieu of his many cinematic conquests, a reign that poignantly began with his role as 'Man on the Street' in 1964's Pawnbroker. Without further ado, five films that fortified Morgan Freeman's career.



5. Driving Miss Daisy

The film that earned Freeman his first Academy Award nomination in a leading role. Throughout the course of his career, Freeman has been noted for the chemistry he develops with his on-screen colleagues, his performance with Jessica Tandy being no exception to his vaunted repertoire. Despite not winning the Oscar (that pesky Daniel Day-Lewis, starring in My Left Foot, is a fine actor in his own right), Freeman would go on to be nominated for two more Oscars beyond 1990 (Shawshank Redemption and Million Dollar Baby, the latter of which he won as a 'we finally have to give this guy credit' distinction of pity).



4. March of the Penguins

Face it: in biology class, penguin migration would have been the last topic you'd wish to write about, outside of glacial shift patterns and polar bear mating behavior. Morgan Freeman, lending his sonorous voice to the documentary March of the Penguins, took a topic that was seemingly lackluster and breathed life into it through first-class narration. As far as I am concerned, all major book publishing houses should collaborate on crafting a multi-billion dollar deal that allows Morgan Freeman to voice every book-on-tape ever, and yet to be, produced. Hands down, Freeman's voice is the most iconic in Hollywood (sorry, James Earl Jones). Even so (perhaps it wasn't written into his script), when it comes to Penguins, Freeman tended to glaze over moments in which a young penguin gets sacked by an albatross or a mother becomes porpoise fodder, instead allowing nature to run its awe-inspiring course. Hell, even Spielberg recruited Freeman's voice for a 30-second clip in War of the Worlds; now that's drawing power!

3. Seven
As one of the most spellbinding psychological thrillers of this era, Seven combined the accolades of Brad Pitt, Freeman, and Kevin Spacey, an ensemble cast that chilled countless fans of American cinema as they played out David Fincher's masterwork. As Detective William Somerset, a cop on the verge of retirement, Freeman portrayed a crime specialist with one last case left to lead, one that he'd regret signing up for. Freeman masterfully shows Pitt (David Mills) the ropes throughout the pursuit of a serial killer (Kevin Spacey's John Doe) obsessed with the seven deadly sins, only to watch all that he does for Mills come tumbling down. The anguish in Freeman's voice as the sins of Envy and Wrath are revealed to Mills and Somerset is absolutely haunting, leading one to believe that Freeman, just as he always has, fully embraced his role. In addition to Freeman's portrayal, Kevin Spacey's performance was Oscar-worthy, even in spite of appearing in the film for a mere twenty-five minutes.

2. Lean on Me
This film is a must-see for educators everywhere, as it shows that, even in the most dire of circumstances, an educator can rise above to instruct, lead, and inspire. As Eastside High's Principal Joe Clark, Freeman rid a Patterson, New Jersey high school of miscreants of all sorts, calling on even the not-so ably-minded to pass a mandatory state assessment. Freeman's passion and vigor jump off the screen through each and every scene of 1989's Lean on Me, one of a trio of films that surfaced in Freeman's most successful year in Hollywood. Clark got kids to quit drugs and rallied his staff to extend beyond the normal duties of an educator, harboring a renaissance at Eastside High. If Morgan Freeman were my principal, Lord only knows I'd rush to work on a daily basis, just to see what he would do next. Although unorthodox and outright bizarre from time to time, Clark constantly pulled out all the stops. Needless to say, Freeman's role was one for his career and the ages.

1. Shawshank Redemption
The film by which the TNT network based the phrase "TNT Knows Drama," Shawshank Redemption, at first a Stephen King short story, is one of the greatest films of all time, one that stands as the movie by which Freeman and Tim Robbins may define their careers. By coining the phrase, "Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'," Morgan Freeman's Ellis 'Red' Redding was Shawshank's moral barometer, gauging each and every inmate that left and entered the prison's walls with impartial judgment and compassionate eyes.

Film Review: Wanted

The term 'suspension of disbelief' was coined for a movie like Wanted, an adrenaline rush of a film that was highly entertaining, but rife with ludicrous visual effects normally associated with a graphic novel recreation (which Wanted just so happens to be: director Timur Bekmambetov's loose rendition of Mark Millar's comic book of the same name). Unless you are willing to toss your disbelief to the wayside, this will be a film you will not enjoy. Bekmambetov clearly pays homage to the work of the Wachowski Brothers, they of The Matrix fame, seeing as the vast majority of Wanted's visuals rely on stop-time motion to account for protagonist Wesley Gordon's insane ability to channel his 'anxiety' for the sake of mowing down targets with pinpoint precision. Wanted has the makings of a premier action film: a peon rises to hero status, explosions and gun claps pulse about the moviehouse from one jaw-dropping scene to the next, there is no romantic subplot to speak of, villains are killed in ways unimaginable, and the dialogue is uber-racy. What more could you want for the price of admission?



5. James McAvoy
James McAvoy (Wesley Gibson) was to Wanted as Gerard Butler was to 300: a rising, unknown Scottish thespian from Glasgow who can star in a major Hollywood production. McAvoy, a young talent starring opposite Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman, absolutely stole the show with some of the film's best dialogue and the ability to believably wield a gun and partake in various stunts a la Harrison Ford in the Indy series. His performance alone is worth the price of admission (and is far more substantial than Keanu Reeves's portrayal of Neo in The Matrix. Also, McAvoy has signed on to play Bilbo Baggins in Guillermo del Toro's The Hobbit, due out in December 2001. Score!).

4. Minor Characters and Catalysts
Some of the smaller roles in the film (the vast majority of the assassin league "The Fraternity") were cookie-cutter representations of rehashed action film personas. The smack-talking, machete-wielding Butcher with Latino flair (despite being played by an eastern European actor). The brooding Gunsmith with little to no dialogue (played by hip hop legend Common). The Repairman with no premise but to pound Wesley Gibson into submission. Each of them was incredibly bland and did little to convey the Fraternity's prowess as cold-blooded killers. The only small roles I cared about, super-assassin Cross (Thomas Kreschmann, who poignantly played Jewish sympathizer Wilm Hosenfeld in The Pianist) and munitions specialist Pekwarsky (Terence Stamp), were barely on screen long enough to build a character arc. And all I wanted was more from each of them; in short, their lack of screen-time was utterly disappointing. Then again, there is always the possibility of a sequel, a trend Hollywood will surely continue with Wanted's inevitable success.


3. Tongue-in-Cheek Narration
Many a great film (i.e. Casino, Memento, Goodfellas, 21, etc.) has been brilliantly accentuated by insightfully delightful narration; Wanted is no exception. Wesley Gibson's voice over was hilarious and did plenty to keep the plot moving, but was not so apparent that it took away from the juicy special effects and imagery. Wesley's core behavior and personality (from non-entity to swash-buckling hero) was well-conceived via the power of narration.

2. Action Film Homage or Rip-Off?
Fans of the Star Wars and Matrix series will groan over the amount of times Wanted blatantly rips off key scenes and ideas from the works of Lucas and the Wachowski's. The mythology of Star Wars and the premise of The Matrix (a nobody supplanted in a dead-end job is salvaged and rises to the top) is packaged into a film that barely measures up to the aforementioned pieces that came before it. Without giving too much of the plot away, I will say this: Wanted does very little to deem itself original the way a film like The Empire Strikes Back and the original Matrix did.


1. Action, Action, We Want Action!
Much like Michael Bay's Transformers, the Bourne series, the Italian Job, and the Transporter series, Wanted delivers potent action-packed sequences and serves as a hybrid of each of these outstanding films. Curving bullets, train-hopping, and high-octane car chases were actually quite amazing if one can look past the sheer farcicality of it all. Then again, the climactic train sequence in the Alps was pure nonsense, even by Wanted's standards. I blurted out, "That's absolutely ridiculous!" less throughout the course of Indiana Jones's latest than I did throughout Wanted, and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had ludicrous moments aplenty (is a floating boat-car really that indestructible?). Even so, every moviegoer purchasing a ticket to witness this film already knows what to expect: an edge-of-your-seat affair laced with some 'gimme a break' moments. All in all, Wanted was a worthwhile moviegoing experience--even better when you consider the treat of a Defiance trailer during the previews.