Morgan Freeman- Of Human Bonding
If ever Hollywood had a canonization process, surely Morgan Freeman would have been one of the leading candidates for sainthood. It is very rare, that you see him playing an out and out negative role. In fact a majority of his roles see him as a worldly wise, decent, honorable man, the kind of father figure whom we could look up to. Freeman generally radiates a calm and assuring presence on screen, he is the person who makes you feel confident everything is going to be fine. Probably the reason why director Tom Shadyac, found him the best choice for the role of God to Jim Carrey’s hyper active Bruce Almighty. Freeman was what maybe God would have been like- cool, composed, calm, a good listener, a wise mentor and no wonder he pulled it off with ease. It was poetic justice that Carrey acknowledged in the movie he could not be the God, having a God, who is too hyper, keeps playing around, would not be too good for its health. And so it went back to it its rightful owner.
Morgan Freeman is God , but not the standard Hollywood superstar God, who drives people crazy. He is not the drop dead handsome persona like Brad Pitt or George Clooney who makes females go weak in their knees. Nor is he the one army killing machine ala Stallone, Schwarznegger or Bruce Willis. In fact he is not the kind of God, who would step out of a flight, and have crazed fans waiting at the airport to throw themselves at him. But then he is the kind of God, who comes to the fore in other ways. So when you hear that deep bass voice of his narrating the March of Penguins, you feel something about it, something otherwordly about it. There is a depth, a reasonance, something that makes you sit up and listen to it. It was entirely fair, that the Indian version of March of Penguins, should have been voiced by Amitabh Bachan, whose voice again is legendary. Its no coincidence that both Freeman and AB have given the voice over narration, to many movies, both of their voice having that same deep, bass effect.
And yes one common thing is that both AB and Freeman have quite often rescued movies with utterly rubbish scripts. AB’s presence pulled through many totally mediocre stuff in the 80’s and even some in this decade, and likewise Freeman was the only saving grace, in quite a lot of crap movies. And nowhere more apparent than the 2 movies based on fictional detective Dr. Alex Cross- Kiss the Girls and Along Came A Spider. Kiss the Girls(1997) was the first of the movies, where Freeman played Dr. Cross, who comes to a North Carolina town, to look for his missing niece. He gets involved in a mystery involving a pyschotic named Cassanova who kidnaps young women. Cross teams up with a young intern Kate( Ashley Judd), who was kidnapped by Casannova but managed to escape his clutches, to track down the culprit. Compared to The Silence of the Lambs or Se7en, Kiss the Girls is not exactly a classic in the “serial killer, pyschological thriller” genre. But then its Freeman’s performance that just binds you to the screen. You are willing to overlook the loopholes in the script, you are willing to look beyond the loose plotting, simply because when you see Freeman on screen, deducing the mystery, working out the clues, getting into the plot, you just tend to forget everything and go along with him.
And that to me has been the greatest thing about Morgan Freeman, watching him on the screen, it just makes me say “Screw the plot, screw the screenplay, lemme think about the loopholes and all later, i am just going to watch this man on screen, belting out the dialogues in that inimitable voice of his”. Kiss the Girls, was elevated to a large extent by Morgan Freeman’s performance. And so were many movies in the 90’s. Chain Reaction was a typical Hollywood masala flick, and quite cheesy, Keanu Reeves escapes from a nuke blast, by just riding away on his bike. Again Freeman redeems the movie, playing an enigmatic, grey shaded character, who holds the key to the plot. Hard Rain, another masala heist flick, co starring Christian Slater, set against the backdrop of a flooded Indiana town, had Freeman as a crook, who later turns good.
Outbreak( not related to the Robin Cook novel) was however quite an interesting movie i felt, dont know why it was slammed by the critics. The movie was based on the 1989 outbreak of the Ebola virus in US. Freeman is Gen. Billy Ford, who is in charge of a military operation to clean up an American town, whose inhabitants have been afflicted with a mystery virus. Ford however has to face his junior, Col Sam Daniels( Dustin Hoffman), a virus expert, who feels a cure can be found for the virus. With an ensemble cast of Dustin Hoffman, Freeman himself, Kevin Spacey, Donald Sutherland, Cuba Gooding Jr, the movie had some fabulous dramatic scenes, especially the confrontation between Dustin Hoffman and Freeman. Though it did lose its way towards the ending, on the whole the movie is quite a decent watch.
Another not to great movie which he again made worth a watch was Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves, Kevin Costner made for a really dour and grumpy Robin Hood, though Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was charming as Maid Marian. But then the movie was enlivened, by Alan Rickman, suitably smarmy and nasty as the wicked Sheriff, and most importantly by Morgan Freeman as Azeem, a Moor, whose live was saved by Robin earlier, and who becomes his close friend. Having read most of the Robin Hood stories earlier, i dont recall this character though, and i guess it was made up only for the movie. Freeman’s character Azeem however seemed to set the template for most of his latter day characters. The hero’s close friend, his philosopher, his guide, the man who would be there to advise the hero.
One movie that really defined Morgan Freeman’s character was Glory, one of the finest war dramas i have seen. It was the only movie i guess where i got to see Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman together. Glory was based on a story of 54th Massachussets Regiment, made up totally of black soldiers, who fought in the Civil War for the Union. Mathew Broderick, plays Capt Robert Shaw, who heads the regiment, and who has the unenviable task of training these men, motivating them to fight the battles. The best part of the movie however is in the conflict between Freeman’s John Rawlin’s character and Washington’s Trip character. Trip is a rebellious, escaped slave, who has contempt for the white man, who feels they would never be accepted by the white dominated society no matter what they do. Rawlins on the other hand, feels that the blacks would have to put their past behind them, and integrate more with the mainstream society. Trip has no respect for Rawlins who he feels loves the “white man’s sh**t”, and that boils over in a memorable confrontation scene between both of them.
Trip: Oh, I see. White man give you some stripes, next thing you hollerin’ and orderin’ everybody around, huh! Like you the massa hisself? Nigger, you ain’t nothin’ but the white man’s dog! Shit.
Rawlins: And what are you? So full of hate you have to fight everybody because you’ve been whipped and chased by hounds. Well, that might not be living, but it sure as hell ain’t dying. And dying’s what these white boys been doin’ for going on three years now, dying by the thousands! Dying for you, fool! I know, ‘cuz I dug the graves. And all the time I keep askin’ myself, “When, O Lord, when gonna be our time?” Gonna come a time when we all gonna hafta ante up and kick in like men, LIKE MEN! You watch who you callin’ nigger. If there’s any niggers round here, it’s YOU! Smart-mouthed, stupid-ass, swamp-runnin’ nigger. And if you ain’t careful, that’s all you ever gonna be.
Though Denzel Washington, went on to win the Best Supporting Actor, Morgan Freeman showed to audiences in 1989, that here was one great actor, ready to hit the screens. And he did it with Driving Miss Daisy, a charming, heart warming movie, which dwells on the unlikely bonding between a black chaffeur played by Freeman and a 70 plus Jewish widow, Daisy Werthan, played by Jessica Tandy. Ms. Daisy, is the kind of independent woman who prefers to be on her own, and she does not take too kindly to her chaffeur. It is a movie that explores the relationship between two contrasting persons, a finicky, ex school teacher, and a chaffeur who can’t read. Though Daisy does not like him first, she slowly begins to appreciate him, and treat him as a friend. Again Freeman proves to be a perfect foil to Jessica Tandy, with his Southern accent, his calm demeanour. Watch him in the scene, where Ms.Daisy tells him “You are my best friend”, he tells her to go on, and she takes his hand and says “You are”. Freeman’s response is a simple “Yes ‘m”. Very simple, very understated, but so wonderfully conveying the friendship between the two characters, and the expressions of Freeman and Tandy in that scene, priceless.
And the other bonding he had was with Clint Eastwood in the classic 1992 Western, The Unforgiven. Freeman plays Ned Logan, friend of Eastwood’s character, Will Munny, who partners him for a bounty job. Both Ned and Will, had been former associates, who have given up their earlier life, for a more stable life as farmers. Ned is the more reluctant one, as he feels it would be hard for them to turn back to their old ways. And when he witnesses a shooting, he knows he no longer has the stomach for it, and turns back. Sadly his character meets a tragic end. Freeman has this ability to stand out, without making too much of an effort itself. Unforgiven was more dominated by Clint Eastwood, in a role that parodied his own gunslinger image, and Gene Hackmann, in an award winning turn, as a ruthless, sadistic sheriff. But Freeman still manages to make an impact, especially in that gruesome scene, where he is tortured to death.
Forrest Gump winning the Oscar over The Shawshank Redemption was hard enough for me. But Morgan Freeman not getting an Oscar for the movie was nothing short of criminal for me. Tom Hanks is one of my favorites, love his performances, but for me Freeman as Red in The Shawshank Redemption was exceptional. Shawshank of course is one of my all time favorites, Freeman’s deep bass narration giving me the goose bumps whenever i see the movie, and one of the factors that makes this movie a classic was of course Morgan Freeman. Freeman of course seems to be fantastic when it comes to movies involving human bonding, and the bonding between him and Andy( Tim Robbins) was the life of the movie. For me, its hard to single out any particular scene, to showcase Morgan Freeman’s exceptional performance. Red was the kind of person who hides his insecurity by pretending to be street smart, friendly. Watch his expressions in the scene when he tells Andy “Hope is always a dangerous thing”. Watch the sheer glee and joy on his face, when he gets to watch Rita Hayworth in Gilda, a kind of childish glee. And finally his expressions in the climactic scene, when he reads Andy’s letter, and slowly breaks down, just gives me the lump in the throat feeling. Shawshank is a great movie, but Morgan Freeman as Red pushes it up to memorable.
Again in Se7en, Morgan Freeman reprises his role as the worldly wise, intelligent, calm counterpoint to Brad Pitt’s more hot tempered persona. Trust me, if you ever wanted a partner to soothe your nerves, Morgan Freeman seems to be the best option ever. As William Somerset, an ageing detective on the verge of retirement, he is dragged into a case involving a series of murders, commited by a John Doe. Morgan Freeman, again slides perfectly into the character of the intelligent, calm minded person, who thinks with his brain, rather than his fists. Though Brad Pitt, was the major star of the movie, for me the movie belonged more to Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey. You end up paying more attention to Freeman’s character, especially everytime he goes around making his deductions or investigating the murders.
While he is not playing God or worldly, wise characters, Morgan Freeman also produces movies under his own movie production company, Revelations Entertainment, which mostly produces pretty much indie stuff. I have not seen Along Came a Spider, the other Dr. Alex Cross movie, which was produced by this firm. And have missed out on other too like Levity, Under Suspicion. I did watch one of movies, For 10 Items or Less, pretty much an indie kind of effort. It was the kind of human interest bonding story, which Freeman seems to revel in. Here in fact he plays himself, whose career is on a downward slide, and who decides to research for his new role of a super market manager. So he drops in at a supermarket in a working class Latino neighbourhood, and he strikes up a bonding with an attractive store clerk Scarlet, who hates her job. Again this was a typical human bonding kinda story, where Freeman discovers himself, while assisting Scarlet for a job interview. It was a pretty much okayish kinda movie, and i found it weird, that a star like him is not even recognized at all in the store, not even by the customers.
Human relationships and bonding seem to be second nature to Morgan Freeman. So in Bucket List, he is the working class mechanic who develops a bonding with a billionaire, played by Jack Nicholson, both of them suffering from terminal diseases. And in Million Dollar Baby, he is again Clint Eastwood’s best friend, “Scrap Iron” Dupris, who also narrates the story. Even in a dark thriller like Se7en, the bonding between him and Brad Pitt, was as prominent as the murders and the investigation. It is inconceivable that we could see him a pyschotic loner , he always seems to find some one to bond around with. And that i guess is the reason, why he has been able to bond so well with audiences, though he has never been a star in the conventional sense. He is the friend whom we could trust to fall back on, he is the philosopher who knows the ways of the world, and he is the guide always around to show us the right path.
Tags: Glory, Kiss the Girls, Morgan Freeman, Se7en, Shawshank Redemption, Unforgiven
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Nice post Ratnakar- I guess just in time before you leave from the U.S if I’m not wrong.
Yes Morgan Freeman ( MF ) is certainly someone who radiates so much of calm that one tends to feel a sense of security with him around.And yes he like AB like you mentioned is someone who can certainly turn around even a lousy/average script
( example Danny The Dog or The Contract )into a passable film.Some of the other efforts of his which I feel would be worth mentioning ( again ) not exhaustive-
1. Wanted- a slightly uncoventional role with negative/grey shade for MF.
2. The Dark Knight & Batman Begins- a strong part of the franchise
3. Lucky Number Slevin- again a role with grey shade
of course the list is rather long ( films like Amistad,Gone Baby Gone, Million Dollar Baby etc)
Here’s hoping to see lot many more interesting roles and characters from him.
Except I think for this film Dreamcatcher. MF, what was he doing in that. The movie itself was a weird hotch-potch but when MF comes on screen I thot there cud be more to it. But, alas…
Morgan Freeman has that lazy elegance that warms up the viewer to the scene makes even the simple mumbles sound like ‘all important’. An actor with trmendous presence and I am not all that disappointed for him playing ‘good guys’ only – for such a benevolent presence is hard to replicate by all actors. A token that I apply to Tom Hanks as well. I dont want to see these two greats essay a blood curdling villain role ever.
Ahh,Been missing your posts Ratnakarbhai! Good to see you back at your best
nice detailed post.
A well deserved post on Morgan.
Great post.
Anna, welcome back!! Ela undindi trip…..
Loved Freeman in the ‘famous’ Bruce Almighty…wonderful read all through….Dont kick me if I say I dint see ‘SR’ yet, will do that sooooon
Bucket List is one of Freeman’s finest performances and the on screen equation with Jack Nicholson is outstanding.
Wish you could write more on that.
Good post. Hope to see your take on
Forest Whitaker, Samuel Jackson,
Laurence Fishburne,
Don Cheadle, Cuba Gooding too.
wht abt million dollor baby?..