#mysummerofbowie

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My Summer of Bowie #9: The Last Temptation of Christ

Although Bowie’s role is rather small and perhaps insignificant in this film, it perfectly reflects the movie’s fascinating vision of 20th century Biblical revisionism through film. Far from your typical DeMille epic, Scorsese’s vision of Christ’s life takes great pains from the start to emphasize that it is not drawn from the New Testament, but rather from Nikos Kazantzakis’ 1953 novel. As such, the film’s characterizations of familiar Biblical figures are very distinct--Christ is prone to bouts of doubt and self-hatred, and Judas is portrayed as perhaps the most sympathetic character in the story. With this in mind, the casting of Bowie as Pontius Pilate is appropriate indeed, and perhaps remains more compelling in concept than execution. His role is incredibly minor, with only a few minutes of screentime, but what he represents is far more interesting. As a child, I always found the character of Pilate to be highly compelling--not an inherently evil man, but a politician who obeyed the will of the people even when his own conscience went in contrary to their decision. Choosing Bowie to represent this enigmatic figure was a very interesting choice, one that perhaps gets more interesting when one considers that he was a replacement for Sting. It would appear to me that Scorsese was trying to equate Roman politicians to rock stars, glamorous performers who ultimately placed little stock in morality...but that’s a whole other discussion for another time.

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My Summer of Bowie #8: Labyrinth

Finally, we get to a movie that needs no introduction. Labyrinth is easily the most iconic of Bowie’s film roles, with his character Jareth being arguably as iconic as any of his concert personas. The film also gives Bowie a satisfyingly larger role than most of his contemporary appearances, and although he is certainly a supporting character in the story, his presence is felt throughout. This is partly thanks to the original songs he contributed to the soundtrack, which manage to be memorable despite hardly being A-list Bowie material, but largely due to his captivating performance as a seductive representation of the pleasures and perils of the adult world. This is actually quite a sophisticated film about growing up and leaving childhood behind, and Bowie is perfectly cast as an embodiment of the hedonism that Jennifer Connelly’s Sarah must learn to reject in order to become a responsible adult. In my opinion, the most outstanding sequence would be the masked ball, a wordless musical dalliance with the forbidden pleasures of adulthood and ominous, somewhat grotesque sexuality. Here, Bowie is through and through a presence, representing so much more than just a character in a story. There’s a good reason this film is so beloved by so many--it has the simple appeal of a storybook or a fairytale, but the complex symbolic depth and aesthetic excellence that one would expect of Jim Henson and David Bowie working at their best.

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My Summer of Bowie #7: Absolute Beginners

Believe it or not, it’s taken us seven films to get to a role in which Bowie uses his musical talents (I’ve deliberately skipped concert films and movies where Bowie appears as himself, as the intention of this project is to highlight Bowie’s career as an actor). Absolute Beginners is apparently based on a very popular British novel, but the movie failed to make much of an impact on either side of the pond. It’s sort of a coming of age story, but it mutates into a story of turf war between inhabitants of a slum and white supremacists by the end, but I digress. The film is actually quite visually striking, with some very nice colors and impressive camerawork--the whole thing has a wonderfully artificial feel, like a stage play nicely transposed to the screen. It’s a shame, then, that the film itself isn’t terribly good. Tonally, it’s a bit of a mess, and the comedy is rather tone-deaf and even grotesque. The unevenness of the film unfortunately carries over to Bowie’s performance as a sleazy businessman who seduces the young protagonist into abandoning his ideals and selling out in the name of success. Bowie affects a very strange accent, and this is the first performance of his that I’d say feels unnatural. In a role like this, Bowie would’ve been better off coasting on his natural charm and charisma, but he unfortunately gets carried away along with the rest of the outlandishness of the film. He does, however, have one of the film’s most striking musical numbers, dancing on both a giant typewriter and a giant globe. Ultimately, Absolute Beginners is something of a noble failure. It’s an imaginative and quite good-looking film, but it never really gels together in a satisfying way.

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My Summer of Bowie #6: Into The Night

Into The Night is a tonally confusing comic thriller that is most noteworthy for having been directed by John Landis during the aftermath of his killing three people on the set of The Twilight Zone. It’s a movie that can’t quite seem to decide what it wants to be--at times it seems like it’s trying to be a screwball comedy, and at other times it takes its crime plot way too seriously, punctuated by scenes of gruesome violence. None of these tonal problems are alleviated by its cliquey, in-jokey casting, filled with cameos of contemporary directors and figures such as Jim Henson. Landis himself appears as part of a quartet of Iranian gangsters that the movie seems to find a lot funnier than I did...but I digress. Bowie fits in perfectly naturally as an English crime lord who alternates between charming and menacing. He only appears in two brief scenes, but his performance is one of the most natural and entertaining of the film. It’s a minor role in Bowie’s filmography for sure, but perhaps that’s what makes it noteworthy as well. Disregarding his uncredited cameos in Yellowbeard, this is the first supporting role of Bowie’s film career. It’s not a role that was necessarily tailored towards his skillset, but it’s a role he plays with charm and ease. The film may be a misfire overall, but it’s no blemish on Bowie’s career.

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My Summer of Bowie #5: Yellowbeard

Here’s where we get to the utterly disposable. As expected of this uncredited role, Bowie’s presence in this film is very brief, and he only appears for about a minute as a torturer aboard a pirate ship. There’s really not much to be said about this role or Bowie’s performance other than it’s an utterly inoffensive part of an absolutely dire comedy. This is one of the weakest post-Python efforts, featuring three members of the Flying Circus and a veritable who’s who of 70′s comedic talent, including Peter Boyle, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, and Cheech and Chong. Sadly, the movie itself is almost entirely devoid of laughs, supposedly due to interference from the American producers. Fans of Python and Bowie need not worry about this one.

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My Summer of Bowie #4: Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

Here’s where things start to get interesting. Bowie was at his best as an actor when working with iconoclastic directors or in distinctive supporting roles, and this film features both. Directed by controversial Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Oshima, Lawrence is a fascinating tale of culture clash, honor, and hidden passions set in a Japanese POW camp. Bowie shows unprecedented nuance as Major Jack Celliers, an outstanding soldier who becomes the object of fascination and perhaps obsession for Captain Yonoi, the commander of the camp. While Bowie was effective in both The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Hunger, this film requires significantly more than just his otherworldly presence, and he delivers in spades. As Celliers, Bowie embodies a rebellious attitude, and his natural charisma makes Yonoi’s obsession with him easy to understand. Speaking of Yonoi, Bowie isn’t the only bit of unconventional casting here; the captain is played by none other than Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also composed the film’s fantastic soundtrack, and the film also features legendary actor/filmmaker Takeshi Kitano in his first dramatic role.

While I’d seen this movie before and had a certain appreciation for it, this film is something of a treasure box that reveals hidden layers with each viewing. It’s a film of spectacular nuance and maturity that has a lot to say about differences between cultures and the human experience. While Celliers could easily have been a one-dimensional character, the hotshot G.I., he is given real pathos through an unsettling extended flashback sequence. While this portion initially feels out of place, with Bowie playing a teenager, upon revisiting it I found this part to hold the key to the movie. This is a very thoughtful film about why human beings make the decisions they do. This film remains one of the high points of Bowie’s career as an actor, and though he may not take the starring role, he is used far more effectively in the crucial, enigmatic role he is given.

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My Summer of Bowie #3: The Hunger

While 1983′s The Hunger may not be as bad as Just a Gigolo, it’s definitely not an artistic vision on the same level as The Man Who Fell To Earth. Noteworthy for being the directorial debut of Tony Scott, brother of Ridley, this film contains much of what would go on to be his trademarks, for better or for worse. The film has a very distinctive look,likely owing to Scott’s background as a commercial director, and that gotchic atmosphere is easily the film’s strongest quality. Here, Bowie’s casting is at least more inspired than in Just A Gigolo, playing an ageless vampire who haunts seedy New York nightclubs looking for young prey. Bowie does a fine job with the role, but he is given unfortunately little to do, as his character is locked up in a coffin and stored in the attic about a third of the way through the picture, and a significant chunk of the rest of his performance is spent in grotesque old man makeup. The rest of the film then revolves around his partner, played by Catherine Deneuve, in her attempts to seduce a scientist played by Susan Sarandon and turn her into her next vampire lover. Putting aside the dramatic and narrative issues with the rest of the film, it’s pretty disappointing that Bowie is given so little to do with the role, especially because the potential of him playing a vampire is so full of possibilities. Bowie’s slender, youthful appearance and ambiguous sexuality lend themselves perfectly to the role, and all of that goes wasted when he spends half his time made up to look like a crusty ghoul. The film is ulitmately a failure not for lack of ambition, but for lack of clear vision and questionable execution.

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My Summer of Bowie #2: Just a Gigolo

Bowie’s second big-screen outing, 1978′s Just a Gigolo, is a considerably more ignoble effort than The Man Who Fell To Earth, and a film that is noteworthy only for the presence of Bowie in the lead role. Put simply, the film is a mess, telling a terribly unfocused tale of a German war hero who returns home and has difficulty adapting, getting recruited by a proto-Nazi group before eventually becoming an escort for lonely old women. While The Man Who Fell To Earth was similarly meandering, its elliptical structure felt purposeful and served to enhance the dreamlike mood. Here, it just feels like bad storytelling. While Bowie is perfectly likable in this film, he never really seems to sink into the role like he did in Earth, perhaps partly due to his distinctive English accent clashing terribly with his supposedly German character. His performance isn’t at all bad, but it feels like a role that could have been played by any number of actors. As we will see, Bowie was at his big-screen best when playing icons or outsiders, and this role seems a bit too milquetoast and purposeless for one of Bowie’s stature.