I recently finished watching the third season of Slow Horses, so I thought I’d give a shout out to my favourite film actor of all time. A few of his finest performances are highlighted below.
Slow Horses
The art of the fart is a fine, uh…art. Generally, breaking wind on the big screen is crude and unnecessary, often played for laughs. And when Oldman’s bedraggled Jackson Lamb lets off the stinky steam, it’s certainly crude. Indeed, the former Cold War M15 agent is introduced by a fart when he is awoken by his own substantial flatulence in the series’ first episode. Lamb isn’t a big fan of exercise, either. He smokes a lot, and it’s fair to say he’s a bit of a hefty lad. Apparently that fat is all real, too, since Oldman didn’t don a fat suit like he did for Churchill biopic The Darkest Hour.
And that reminds me of that funny anecdote where a fairly chunkified Christian Bale, who was still in full Method physique after playing Dick Chaney in Vice, complimented Oldman on his own weight gain, only to learn that Oldman had just been wearing a fat suit. Here in Slow Horses though, that bulk’s the real deal. Impressive.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
‘It was the war, Connie’
I’ve watched this absolute gem many, many times, and I should be able to recite most of the screenplay by this point. Anyway, the above quote, spoken by Oldman’s George Smiley, is my mum’s favourite quote, and one the family likes to quote a fair bit in similarly grave tones. Every scene in this film is absolute genius, whether it involves Roy Bland providing me with minor heart palpitations when he lets Peter Guillam know he’s onto him with a few lines of song or Ricki Tarr being…Ricki Tarr. Definitely one of Tom Hardy’s best roles to date. And it’s got one of the best ending montage scenes in cinema, which helps. But it’s Oldman’s minimalist performance – the one that should’ve bagged him the Best Actor Oscar, imo – which really bolsters the film, expressing more with tired facial expressions than any amount of indulgent dialogue could convey.
The Fifth Element
Along with Silent Running, Luc Besson The Fifth Element was key in nurturing my early love of science fiction, and Oldman’s OTT baddie Zorg – or Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg, to give him his full name – was a big part of that. Sure, you could argue he’s a cheesy villain on one level (and sometimes cheese is good. That’s what made him my favourite part of Leon, a Besson film which I otherwise didn’t particularly appreciate), but his speech about chaos is pretty nifty, and may well have had a bit of influence on Mr Smith’s great monologue about viruses. Maybe, maybe not. But what could have been a fairly two-dimensional bad guy performance is given gravitas and style by Oldman, whose exaggerated southern US twang probably provided the groundwork for upcoming British born Benoit Blancs too. Oldman himself described the inspiration for the character as a combo of Bugs Bunny and U.S. presidential candidate Ross Perot. The more you know.
The Dark Knight Trilogy
Just about my favourite film trilogy of all time, and Oldman pops up in every one. Although Christian Bale plays the caped crusader, he’s usually one upped by the villains, whether it’s the Joker, Bane or Cillian Murphy’s deep blue eyes. Uh, I mean Cillian Murphy. Oldman’s Lieutenant Gordon remains a stalwart presence in every entry, providing a human touch to the narrative as a man in charge of a knowingly corrupt police department. He gets a decent amount of character development throughout, particularly in Dark Knight Rises, and like Batman (and general Christopher Nolan) regular, he’s a welcome presence in every entry, a warm light of hope in the chaotic darkness of Gotham.
The Firm
Nara is a lovely place. A peaceful area in Japan with loads of docile deer that love biscuits. Everything’s calm. So it seemed appropriate that when my brother and myself stayed here, we decided to watch an absolutely brutal film that didn’t vibe with the atmosphere at all. Don’t get me wrong, The Firm’s great, it’s just super intense. Great to watch one, but difficult to view again. That scene where Gary Oldman’s baby son finds one of his knives on the floor and…uh, yeah. That’s some disturbing stuff. Gotta admire Oldman’s dedication to his craft.
The Harry Potter Films
Oldman starred as Sirius Black in Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, which happen to comprise my top 3 Potter films. He’s probably a big part of that fact. His ascension from framed villain to unabashed hero is thoughtfully rendered, and even though he has more minor roles in the fourth and fifth roles, he still makes a big impact with minimal screen time.
Others
Oldman’s exhibited fantastic performances in a variety of films, I just thought I’d go into more detail about a few of my absolute highlights. Other shoutouts include: Nasty grumpy President Truman in Oppenheimer, whacky Drexl in True Romance, ott Dracula in, uh, Dracula, gangster dude in Lawless, and Russian dude in Child 44. There’s still a few GO films I need to see, but he’s the GOAT, IMO. 🙂