was Some Miscellaneous Mayhem! Bishop as M

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[hidden email] wrote:

To be quite honest, I think you might have a different point
of view on that if you were British. In Bernard Lee and
his successor, whose name I've forgotten, there's a kind
of ingrained Englishness that comes from the actor himself.
While Ed might be able to do an English accent better than
Dick Van Dyke, he would never get across the same sense of
gentlemen's club / establishment without which the portrayal
would be sorely lacking.

Judi Dench doesn't have it either, but then she's not supposed
to be Admiral Sir Miles Messervy.

[hidden email] wrote:
> In a message dated 1/6/03 11:00:18 AM Pacific Standard Time,
> [hidden email] writes:
>

> Tell me something. Does Ed come across as Straker well? Someone so by the
> book military that he seems to have come out of his womb with the uniform on,
> saluted his mother, slugged the doctor that hit him, and then crawled off in
> search of UFO's? The military is a whole gentleman's club/establishment race
> of its own. Ask anybody involved in it. (grins at a certain beta ) Ed come
> across that way? Hit the enemy and ask questions later?
>
> Normally, the answer is yes, right?

Yes, he does - but it's a different question. Military bearing
and attitude does not run nearly so deep as ingrained national
characteristics.

And don't get me wrong I wouldn't be offended by Ed playing a
British part, even the traditional, pipe-smoking crusty old
English Sir Miles Messervy of the older Bond films. I just
don't think for a minute that he could pull the latter off,
in fact I think the idea is absurd. That's not really a strong
criticism, for example I don't think even Laurence Olivier could
have pulled off (say) Jack Nicholson's part in Five Easy Pieces.

Geez, maybe I'm way off here, but Straker didn't strike me as the military
type when acting at all. He was quiet, reserved and intelligent. He was
cold and calculating, but not a G.I. Joe type at all. (my opinion) I guess
your description of the real man makes sense given the acting. I always got
the feeling that as Straker he disliked the military, the military's
influences and necessary protocols the military enforced on SHADO. Again,
your explanation of the real man make sense in this way...

Mary

Tell me something. Does Ed come across as Straker well? Someone so by the
book military that he seems to have come out of his womb with the uniform on,

saluted his mother, slugged the doctor that hit him, and then crawled off in
search of UFO's? The military is a whole gentleman's club/establishment race
of its own. Ask anybody involved in it. (grins at a certain beta ) Ed come
across that way? Hit the enemy and ask questions later?

Normally, the answer is yes, right?

Ed is a liberal, non violent, against nuclear weapons, tree hugging member of

Greenpeace and what he did in the army was be a DJ. As he says in the dvd,
someone slapped him one because he was talking when he should be listening.
He's a physical coward. He's the first one to tell you that. It was part of
why he went into acting. Mess with Straker, and Straker would kill you so
fast it would take a week before you realized you were dead. Ed's a pussycat.

How do I know this? He's said so. I've heard so.
Yet he is believable as Straker. It's called good acting. As an American
woman, I wouldn't be offended out of national pride by some British person
acting a uniquely American role that I believed only an American could carry

off with flair and accuracy. I wouldn't think the performance, any
performance, was sorely lacking because in truth it wasn't authentic. I'd
just marvel at their skill. Why would anyone believe the opposite? I
understand pride inherent in different cultures very well even though I am an

American born and raised in the San Francisco-Bay Area. More than most.  
Differences and national pride are cool.

But this is a issue of acting, too. It's why acting is so cool too. :-)

Amelia (defending her 'Bish' ) <g>
[hidden email]
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Founded: Jul 16, 1998
Amelia/moderator and owner


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