As Ellen Ripley in Aliens (Cameron, 1986), Sigourney Weaver conveys a wide range of believable emotions, from her taut suspicion of Burke (Paul Reiser) to her maternal tenderness toward Newt (Carrie Henn) to her reluctant bravery against the mother alien. As Morpheus in The Matrix (Wachowskis, 1999), Laurence Fishburne communicates the beatific confidence of the sage leader, but also, at times, the stumbling vulnerability of the over-invested zealot. As Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Verbinski , 2003), Johnny Depp plays a Rabelaisian roustabout who wavers unpredictably between clear-eyed command and irresponsible lunacy. As the Joker in The Dark Knight (Nolan , 2008), Heath Ledger performs recognizable dementia, ardent nihilism, and a certain free-flowing derangement that make the Jokerâs actions difficult for a first-time viewer to anticipate. Are performances like Weaverâs, Fishburneâs, Deppâs, and Ledgerâs incidental to the themes, meanings, and experiences of their films? To judge by most scholarship on blockbusters, the answer is yes; to judge by the book you are beginning, the answer is a firm no.
My argument counters decades of film criticism inside and outside academia, and anyone who has read such discourse could be forgiven for believing that âgreat actingâ is rare or even antithetical to big-budget films. Perhaps there is something about the formal strategies of popular and spectacle-heavy filmsâsay, the rapid-fire editing, or the importance of kinetic actionâthat prevents or diminishes opportunities for strong acting. Perhaps performing in front of a green screen reduces an actorâs chances to produce performative excellence.
Certainly, one gets this impression from leading scholars.
Thomas Austin writes that âhigh concept blockbustersâ are âfrequently regarded as a hostile environment in which to attempt, or look for ârealâ actingâ (
2002, 29).
Louis Giannetti and
Scott Eyman write, â[s]pecial effects extravaganzas, heavy on situation, light on character and theme, can be assimilated easily by any culture, in any languageâ (
2010, 364). They quote
Lawrence Bender, who says: âTent-pole movies rely on stories that incorporate large
action set-pieces, and the
emotions between the characters seem to be less complicated. When youâre dealing with drama you can explore the complexity between people, but a more commercial movie has to appeal to the lowest common denominatorâ (
2010, 407).
Timothy Corrigan and
Patricia White concur:
[T]wo trends dominate the contemporary period: (1) the elevation of image spectacles and special effects, and (2) the fragmentation and reflexivity of narrative constructions. On the one hand, contemporary movies frequently drift away from the traditional focus on narrative and instead emphasize sensational mise-en-scĂšnes or dramatic manipulations of the film image. In this context, conventional realism gives way to intentionally artificial, spectacular, or even cartoonish representations of characters, places, and actions. (2012, 370)
âArtificialâ and âcartoonishâ are not words we associate with strong acting, yet is there not
something compelling about
performances in big-budget films?
David Bordwell and
Kristin Thompson say: âTeenagers and twenty somethings ⊠want films featuring well-known performers in simple stories displaying humor, physical
action, and awesome
special effects.â
Bordwell and
Thompsonâs take is limited to the period after the 1970s: âLeaving risk-taking to the independent sector, Hollywood wanted movies to be dominated by stars,
special effects, and recognizable genre conventionsâ (
2002, 695). The hegemonic post-1970s blockbuster was not necessarily like its historical antecedents, as
Bruce Kawin explains:
Instead of the intellectual and emotional complexity of such previous big films as Lawrence of Arabia and The Godfather , the typical blockbuster became a wide-screen color ride, full of action and special effects, constructed for speed and thrills rather than contemplation, and with a simple, forceful, unthreatening message (for example, cheaters never prosper). (2012, 346, italics in original)
An emphasis on
action is directly related to a de-emphasis on acting. And this bias fits with conventional wisdom that holds that âstiltedâ or predictable performances in post-1970s blockbusters are common and regrettable elements comparable to lens hairs or obvious
anachronisms, aspects that
audiences simply look past on their way to enjoying other pleasures.
Are performances in blockbusters really as bad as we have heard? Do we really know what âbadâ means? What does a focus on acting in blockbusters reveal about longstanding debates surrounding screen performance? How do films, including blockbusters, use performances to explicate their meanings and themes? How does genre affect our perceptions of quality in a performance? If a blockbuster is edited for speed, thrills, and simplicity, would it make sense that its performances are edited that way as well? And that portrayals should be read by keeping that in mind? How do actors work in concert with their fellow performers, and how does âensemble actingâ affect blockbusters? Are female performers in blockbusters freighted with double standards, and if so, how can or do they transcend them? When it comes to studying blockbusters, performance has long been neglected, and this book means to perform something of an intervention.
Of course, definitions are an immediate concern. What are blockbusters, and what is great acting? We are no doubt stuck with both terms, as they permeate both popular and academic discourse. We know that both terms are historically contingent; definitions of blockbusters and great acting have changed over the decades. This book joins in conversation with other works, and is not meant to essentialize fungible terms, but instead to explore and re-evaluate popular perceptions. Let us begin with âthe blockbuster,â which is less a genre than a mode of considerable complexity. While the blockbuster mode has identifiable criteriaâfor example, big budgets, spectacle, special effects, amusement-park-ride/video-game-like aspects, the heroâs journey, and the three-act structureâthe mode is nonetheless flexible enough to integrate and elaborate aspects of more traditionally defined genres. In fact, the structure of this book asserts and elucidates this complexity: it shows that science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction films, among other types, contain âblockbuster performancesâ that often differ from one another because of genre-based choices. When the late Richard DeCordova suggested that performances and their reception tends to vary by genre (2001), he pointed to a world of research that has barely been undertaken, although Christine Corneaâs (2010) collection Genre and Performance: Film and Television is an admirable intervention.
That which scholars consider âgreat actingâ is even more subject to controversy and disagreement than definitions of blockbusters. It turns out that very few books about acting provide incontestable terms for âexcellent performances.â Some actors have written that their craft is difficult to teach, using words to the effect of âyou know it when you see itâ; some of that amorphousness bleeds over into the words that describe a convincing portrayal. And when it comes to unconvincing, âstiff,â âstilted,â âordinary,â ânormal,â âplain,â âbound,â âvanilla,â and âplasticâ are all problematic; herein I reluctantly lean toward âpredictable.â In her 2017 book about performances in big-budget Hollywood films, Making Believe, Lisa Bode uses the word âproteanâ to mean well performed without explaining the choice. Matt Zoller Seitz prefers the term âhonestyâ: âReal honesty in acting is a rare thing. It comes from a m...