By Bruce C. Steele, Citizen-Times
For parents trying to explain to their children why it’s such a tragic loss that Robin Williams has died — or indeed for anyone older than 40 trying to explain to someone a generation younger — the first step is to get past “Night at the Museum.”
Robin Williams earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for playing an inspired teacher in “Dead Poets Society.” (Photo: Special to the Citizen-Times )
Children may know Williams best from those two Ben Stiller movies in which he portrayed a magically reanimated Teddy Roosevelt, and it appears the third “Museum” movie, due out at Christmas, may be his last film.
But a host of other, better — indeed, remarkable — film work remains to remind us that Williams excelled at both rich comedy and heartfelt tragedy. Sadly for a man who reportedly succumbed to severe depression, his movies frequently explore how people find joy in adversity.
Here follow just 10 movie recommendations (out of a possible two dozen or so) for remembering the man we first knew as Mork:
• Good Morning, Vietnam (1987): In the first film in which Williams was taken seriously as an actor by critics, he plays a military DJ (loosely based on a real person) whose irreverent humor and friendship with two young Vietnamese angers his superiors. With the DJ persona as a vehicle for his humor, Williams gives himself leave to be just a good guy much of the time, channeling his energy into richer emotion than he had generated before (despite the implausible fiction that structures the film), and he earned his first Academy Award nomination.
• Dead Poets Society (1989): A nearly perfect example of the “inspired teacher” genre, this film was the first to cast Williams as a mentor to the next generation (here including a teenage Ethan Hawke), and it turned out to be a perfect match. The movie’s first half, as Williams brings literature to life for his students, is a joy; melodrama takes over in the second half, but Williams weathers it well and earned a second Oscar nomination.
• Awakenings (1990): In this lyrical, bittersweet film, Williams plays passionate physician Dr. Sayer with none of his trademark comic craziness, and he’s completely credible, particularly in his relationship with Leonard (Robert De Niro), a patient Sayer is able to bring back to consciousness and the joys of life after decades of catatonia. The victory has its downside, but Williams and the film are heartfelt throughout. It provides an interesting contrast to “Patch Adams” (1998), in which Williams played a completely different kind of (almost) physician: a grinning striver whose clowning heals patients and maddens everyone else (including movie critics).
• The Fisher King (1991): Williams’ over-the-top turn as a delusional homeless man is actually overshadowed by Jeff Bridges’ more-grounded performance as the depressed radio host who befriends him, but Williams got a third Oscar for Best Actor nod nonetheless. The movie, the most straight-forward feature directed by Terry Gilliam, is unbalanced but sort of mesmerizing in its oddness. See it with friends for a good debate when it’s over.
• Aladdin (1992): No comedian has ever had an animated vehicle as perfectly suited to his schtick as Williams has with Genie, animated by Disney treasure Eric Goldberg. Every craziness Williams tosses out in the recording booth becomes a snappy visual gag, and each flows snappily and seamlessly into the next. No matter how well you think you remember this movie, a fresh viewing will surprise you. I can’t think of another Disney feature so shaped by one performer’s brilliance.
Read the full article by Bruce C. Steele from Citizen-Times.
