Robert Duvall could carry a film thunderously, yet also stand out in the subtlest of roles, David Sims writes.
Duvall died at 95, having never formally retired from acting. Even though he didn’t appear in a movie until he was 31, he made more than 140 of them. “He could carry a film thunderously, as in ‘The Apostle’ or ‘The Great Santini,’ but won an Oscar for his beautifully melancholic work in the low-key country-music drama ‘Tender Mercies,’” Sims writes.
“Most important to his extraordinary legacy as an actor, Duvall just didn’t stop working, putting in fabulous turns in notable movies, but never phoning it in in the smaller, sillier fill-in roles he took along the way,” Sims writes. “His filmography tells the story of a changing industry several times over. It includes sturdy ’60s classics such as ‘Mockingbird’ and ‘True Grit’; challenging ’70s movies like George Lucas’s ‘THX 1138’ and Robert Altman’s ‘M*A*S*H*’; the beloved ’80s TV adaptation of ‘Lonesome Dove’; ’90s action hits such as ‘Days of Thunder’ and ‘Deep Impact’; and fantastic 21st-century throwbacks like ‘Open Range’ and ‘We Own the Night.’ There are more than a dozen Duvall films you could plausibly pick as your favorite without being laughed out of the room, a truism that some of his best-known peers, such as Al Pacino or Robert De Niro, might struggle to replicate.”
— Mari Labbate, assistant editor, audience and engagement, *The Atlantic*
HotOne9364 on
Just like how nobody could portray intensity like Michael K. Williams could, nobody could portray anger like Robert Duvall did. When his character was mad, you legit felt it.
legion4it on
THX 1138.
ZealousWolf1994 on
Duvall was like Gene Hackman, a non traditional leading man, but his presence was so obvious everytime they were on screen. In real life they were friends and even roommates starting out and both recently passed.
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Robert Duvall could carry a film thunderously, yet also stand out in the subtlest of roles, David Sims writes.
Duvall died at 95, having never formally retired from acting. Even though he didn’t appear in a movie until he was 31, he made more than 140 of them. “He could carry a film thunderously, as in ‘The Apostle’ or ‘The Great Santini,’ but won an Oscar for his beautifully melancholic work in the low-key country-music drama ‘Tender Mercies,’” Sims writes.
“Most important to his extraordinary legacy as an actor, Duvall just didn’t stop working, putting in fabulous turns in notable movies, but never phoning it in in the smaller, sillier fill-in roles he took along the way,” Sims writes. “His filmography tells the story of a changing industry several times over. It includes sturdy ’60s classics such as ‘Mockingbird’ and ‘True Grit’; challenging ’70s movies like George Lucas’s ‘THX 1138’ and Robert Altman’s ‘M*A*S*H*’; the beloved ’80s TV adaptation of ‘Lonesome Dove’; ’90s action hits such as ‘Days of Thunder’ and ‘Deep Impact’; and fantastic 21st-century throwbacks like ‘Open Range’ and ‘We Own the Night.’ There are more than a dozen Duvall films you could plausibly pick as your favorite without being laughed out of the room, a truism that some of his best-known peers, such as Al Pacino or Robert De Niro, might struggle to replicate.”
Read more about Duvall’s life and work here: [https://theatln.tc/uNJcozyM](https://theatln.tc/uNJcozyM)
— Mari Labbate, assistant editor, audience and engagement, *The Atlantic*
Just like how nobody could portray intensity like Michael K. Williams could, nobody could portray anger like Robert Duvall did. When his character was mad, you legit felt it.
THX 1138.
Duvall was like Gene Hackman, a non traditional leading man, but his presence was so obvious everytime they were on screen. In real life they were friends and even roommates starting out and both recently passed.