Gentlemen's DisAgreement - August 23rd - 2014

Will Neville joins the pod this week to reflect on Robin Williams' career and the Ice Bucket Challenge.

0:00 - Robin Williams

35:00 - Ice Bucket Challenge

53:00 - Your Opinions!

Listen HERE!

Random Movie Review: Top Five Robin Williams Films

Hello all, a little bit different spin on Random Movie Review this week.  Now, I know what you're thinking... "this week"?  "different spin"?  That's right folks!  New weekly segment!

I couldn't help but notice in the days that have followed the death of Robin Williams many people have shared their feelings on depression and their collective grief at the passing of a prolific entertainer but not quite as many have taken a moment to celebrate his work.

It is with that in mind that I invite you to realize the five greatest accomplishments of Robin Wiliiams' career, as decided by me: The decider.

#5

Good Morning, Vietnam

Way back in 1987 America got a big screen sized helping of Robin Williams' stand-up style done as a radio play.  Good Morning, Vietnam, loosely based on the experience of actual radio personality Adrian Cronauer, is one of the first memorable performances by Williams' and also one of the funniest.  It loses a little bit of steam when it focuses on the drama aspects of story, but its irreverence and many quotable lines make it a classic.

#4

Dead Poets Society

Some might be surprised not to see this even higher on the list.  One of the most well regarded of Williams' dramatic performances is certainly memorable for the right reasons but the story itself is a bit tired and the student characters fail to develop into anything beyond archetypes.  This movie always reminds me of another coming of age film from the same era, Scent of a Woman; a film that might have been quickly forgotten if not for one majestic performance.

#3

The Birdcage

Not only is The Birdcage Robin Williams' funniest live action movie, but it happens to also be one of the best stage to screen adaptations Hollywood has pulled off in the last 30 years.  Williams shares the screen with a fantastic cast and another brilliant comedian in Nathan Lane allowing him to play off others and set up jokes for a change instead of the manic "one-man-show" performances he is more widely known for.

Aladdin

Number 2 on Rated Wrong's definitive list of Robin Williams' movies is what was probably the first exposure anyone under the age of 30 head to the funniest man on earth.  Aladdin was a part of Disney's pre-Pixar animation hot streak of the late 80s early 90s (Little Mermaid - Pocahontas) and Williams' wild man performance is THE reason why.  Williams picks up what very easily could have been a very forgettable animated tale and effortlessly carries it into the cannon of Disney classics.

#1

Good Will Hunting

After Good Will Hunting Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon could all bill themselves as Academy Award winners, but only Williams could boast the title of Academy Award winning actor.  Good Will Hunting is Williams' best movie, a great movie, and it earns that distinction in large part because of his masterfully understated performance.  With Good Will Hunting Robin Williams showed the world he was more than just a clown, he was an artist, and a damn good one.

What Robin Williams Was

With the passing of Robin Williams this week, there has been an outpouring of grief from social media we haven't seen in a while.  Williams' career was big enough that it would make literally anyone on the planet envious.  His passing (and the manner of his passing) is shocking and saddening.

With a career as long and as sucessful as Williams' he ended up meaning a lot of different things to different people.  For those old enough, he was the bafoonish alien Mork.  For most people under 30, he was a world class movie star of family comedies.

I remember seeing Aladdin in theaters when I was six.  For years afterward it was my favorite Disney film as it was for many other young boys of my generation.  Looking back, I suspect that was in no small part because Aladdin was (and still is) one of the only animated Disney films to feature a male protagonist but then and now everyone's favorite character was Robin Williams' Genie.  A character so transcendent that he has become a staple of the Disney brand featuring in many stories, games, attractions, and shows that have no connection to his source material.

Then came Hook and Jumanji and Mrs. Doubtfire.  Robin Williams blew by Tim Allen and Chevy Chase as the definitive schmuck for family comedies in the first half of the 90s.  He moved on from there to adult comedies (The Birdcage is probably my favorite Williams' comedy), more serious work and an Oscar for Good Will Hunting.  It was also during this time that young fans like myself began to grow and explore his earlier classics Good Morning, Vietnam, The Fisher King and Dead Poets Society.

In the 2000s Williams' film work became more sparse and more sporadic in quality.  For every Happy Feet there was an RV.  The most important work of Robin Williams late career was in his return to his beginning.  

Stand up.

His Broadway show in 2002 let Williams unleash his wildly energetic force on a live audience and gave the United States some of its very first 9/11 comedy.  In 2009, he returned on HBO for his raucous "Weapons of Self Destruction."

Robin Williams was one of the first people that made it okay to laugh about terrorism.

When you look at the sort of man Robin Williams was, the sheer manic nature of him, his death is no less tragic but perhaps not quite so shocking.  One that reaches the ceiling in a single leap will always hit the ground twice as hard.  But what he has left behind is a legacy of one man that told many great and varying stories.

Below is a video of a memorable scene from Dead Poets Society in which Williams' character John Keating explains to a class of impressionable young men the value of poetry and art.  In it he quotes Whitman, and inadvertently declares his own very potent self worth.

"O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless--of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse."