Mirror/Mirror — “88 Miles Per Hour”
This past week, I revisited the Back to the Future trilogy, directed by Robert Zemeckis. These films essentially laid the groundwork for Michael J. Fox’s career — the man is synonymous with Marty McFly. The movies are a mad dash, guaranteed to raise your stress level and blood pressure no matter how many times you see them. I swear, I always think Dr. Emmett Brown and Marty are going to miss their one lighting quick chance to send Marty back to the future in the first film, despite watching it happen probably hundreds of times.
They got me thinking though — do we have any young actors like Fox in these films, frantic but cool, likeable but authoritative? Do any young guys have a role that’s so synonymous with their name that they’ll never be able to part from it?
Shia LeBeouf, for example, is probably most closely associated with the Transformers movies. As Sam Witwicky, he has the Spielbergian frantic nature of the young male role down pat. He’s aloof and certainly likeable (perhaps diminished by his off-screen personality, in some people’s opinions). But I never felt while watching those films that he was supposed to be anything but “cool.” Marty McFly was cool, but also in over his head, naive and fairly stupid. LeBeouf actually probably comes closer to resembling this in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a role that he was pretty hated for.
It seems that Hollywood has been unable to tether young actors to blockbuster roles the way Fox has forever been tied to McFly. Heath Ledger will obviously be legendary for his work as The Joker, but he was approaching his thirties, and certainly The Joker wasn’t a hero. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, despite turning in stunningly great performances, doesn’t conjure up a particular name other than his own.
Daniel Radcliffe is the only actor, in my mind, who has achieved this — he is the face of the Harry Potter franchise, and likely always will be. Perhaps Robert Pattinson in Twilight, as much as it hurts me to say, embodies this as well? Michael Cera still has a chance, as does Emile Hirsch, to become the face of a series or franchise that a generation can connect to.
Two notes before I’m out of here — first, this isn’t to say that young actors aren’t turning in good work. In fact, I’d argue that the shift from big blockbuster roles to more sophisticated character pieces is a great thing that’s happened. I’d much rather see Emile Hirsch turn in a wonderful performance in Milk than another Speed Racer, and Gordon-Levitt’s (500) Days of Summer was as relatable to me as a young man as any big blockbuster could hope to be.
Second: I’m not excluding female actors for any reason other than I intend to write more about their presence in big Hollywood films in the future. That, and I think the male dominance in pop culture-accessible roles like Marty McFly in Back to the Future has shifted to a female dominance in a big, big way.
Till next time, folks.
