Peter Fonda (1940-2019)

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Big Ben
Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2016 12:54 pm
Location: Great Falls, Montana

Peter Fonda (1940-2019)

#1 Post by Big Ben » Fri Aug 16, 2019 6:28 pm


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domino harvey
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Re: Passages

#2 Post by domino harvey » Fri Aug 16, 2019 6:30 pm

Damn, a legend. RIP

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Passages

#3 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Aug 16, 2019 7:06 pm

He had that great late role in The Limey too as the main villain with that late film introduction to his character scored to King Midas In Reverse.

I also really like that yuppies against devil worshipers action-horror film Race With The Devil. Though perhaps his best 70s film was the early Jonathan Demme revenge film Fighting Mad.
Last edited by colinr0380 on Fri Aug 16, 2019 7:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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domino harvey
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Re: Passages

#4 Post by domino harvey » Fri Aug 16, 2019 7:16 pm

He certainly came a long way from his start as the unlikely object of Sandra Dee’s affections in Tammy and the Doctor to his Hippie Icon days a few short years later! The less said about his icky Paper Moon cash-in Wanda Nevada, the better though— the 70s truly were a different time when instead of Fonda paying fatherly attention to Brooke Shields’ Addie Pray rip-off, the two end up romantically paired even though she’s like twelve

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Passages

#5 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Aug 17, 2019 4:59 am

Its interesting that his presence in Easy Rider (though Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson add to it as well) sort of emphasises that sense of hedonistic counterculture, as relatively privileged folks (played by kids from Hollywood backgrounds) with access to great bikes 'drop out' from the mainstream. There's a kind of conservatism to the hippie portrayal there, from the way that the whole trip is structured by a couple of drug mules (making them entrepreneurs rather than drop outs per se?) to the way that they eventually get targeted by the real caricature yokels at the end, in another 1969-set apocalyptic 'definitive end of the sixties' image.

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JSC
Joined: Thu May 16, 2013 9:17 am

Re: Passages

#6 Post by JSC » Sat Aug 17, 2019 9:34 am

Its interesting that his presence in Easy Rider (though Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson add to it as well) sort of emphasises that sense of hedonistic counterculture, as relatively privileged folks (played by kids from Hollywood backgrounds) with access to great bikes 'drop out' from the mainstream. There's a kind of conservatism to the hippie portrayal there, from the way that the whole trip is structured by a couple of drug mules (making them entrepreneurs rather than drop outs per se?) to the way that they eventually get targeted by the real caricature yokels at the end, in another 1969-set apocalyptic 'definitive end of the sixties' image.
There's some truth to that. But I think Fonda's character is on some level aware of the irony there.
I've always felt that the last campfire scene seems to indicate that. When Hopper is going on about
being 'retired in Florida' etc. To which Fonda replies "We blew it." I think that at that point at the
height of the counterculture there was already nagging doubts. A lot of that subtext in that scene is
due to Fonda's screen presence. Incidentally, I had another of those weird coincidences where
I was watching Easy Rider on the same day he passed away. The same thing happened on
the day Andrzej Zulwaski died, when I was watching The Third Part of the Night

Wilo
Joined: Sat Aug 13, 2016 4:15 pm

Re: Peter Fonda (1940-2019)

#7 Post by Wilo » Sat Aug 17, 2019 11:19 am

I think one of Fonda's strongest performances was in his self-directed effort The Hired Hand(1971), which is one of my favourite (revisionist) westerns of the period (although it probably ties with McCabe & Mrs Miller which also features cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond and was released the same year). Fonda could have used the film as a chance to showcase his acting range but instead delivers a performance that is extremely restrained and allows his co-stars, Warren Oates and Verna Bloom, to come to the fore. The character he plays, Harry, isn't the typical western hero but rather a passive presence who doesn't command respect, is no longer wanted by his wife and is not an especially adept gunslinger. By the end of the film there's no place left for him in his own life.

It's also interesting that both Fonda and Hopper would both continue to explore the myth of the western after Easy Rider but in very different ways: The myth is gently subverted in The Hired Hand by Fonda and radically exploded in The Last Movie (also 1971) by Hopper.

I watched it again recently, for the first time in years, and I think the elegiac atmosphere is even more melancholy knowing that the main players (not just Fonda, Bloom and Oates but also Zsigmond and composer Bruce Langhore) have all recently departed.

Also a fan of his performance as Van Helsing in Nadja but that felt more like Fonda goofing off and having fun!


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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Peter Fonda (1940-2019)

#9 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Aug 17, 2019 4:13 pm

Wilo wrote:
Sat Aug 17, 2019 11:19 am
Also a fan of his performance as Van Helsing in Nadja but that felt more like Fonda goofing off and having fun!
I had forgotten about his role in Nadja! Peter Fonda had a surprisingly great 1990s!

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Black Hat
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:34 pm
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Re: Peter Fonda (1940-2019)

#10 Post by Black Hat » Wed Aug 21, 2019 9:04 am

I have to second affection for The Hired Hand, there's something deeply human about that film.

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whaleallright
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:56 am

Re: Peter Fonda (1940-2019)

#11 Post by whaleallright » Sat Aug 24, 2019 11:21 am

In honor of the passing of Peter Fonda, here is his 1983 Japanese comedy “Daijōbu, My Friend” where he plays Gonzy, an exterterrestrial superhero who can blow things up by masturbating. The description of this film from Spy magazine has always haunted me https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3bT7bH8eVeA

https://twitter.com/jessehawken/status/ ... 4254655488

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colinr0380
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Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Peter Fonda (1940-2019)

#12 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Aug 25, 2019 11:15 am

A film directed by Ryu Murakami no less! He has directed a few films himself (1992's Tokyo Decadence (NSFW), released by Arrow on DVD a few years back, is the one that has received most distribution in the UK) but that particular one seems to have gone under the radar in the West.

Murakami is better known as a novelist (Coin Locker Babies and In The Miso Soup) than a filmmaker but of course most famously had Audition adapted into a film by Takashi Miike. There has also recently been another film based on a Murakami work, Piercing.

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filmyfan
Joined: Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:50 am

Re: Peter Fonda (1940-2019)

#13 Post by filmyfan » Sun Sep 22, 2019 4:05 am

Black Hat wrote:
Wed Aug 21, 2019 9:04 am
I have to second affection for The Hired Hand, there's something deeply human about that film.
When I saw that PF had passed i realised i hadn't got Hired Hand-so got the Arrow edition-and not having seen it for a years- it was fantastic to revisit it.

Really one of my favourite westerns-it won't be so long before I pay another visit.

Remember seeing it years ago on a late night BBC showing -when they used to show old films late at night-and you could catch an obscure film.

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