With the revelation of Malcolm McDowell as Linderman on Heroes, it occurred to me that McDowell has done enough scifi to justify a little retrospective. He's had a ridiculously rich career, starting on tv in 1964 and working on various British shows through the '60s, as well as making a handful of movies. He gained international recognition with his awesome portrayal of Alex de Large, the ultracool sociopath in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange [1971]. I guess if Clockwork made him famous, 1979's Caligula made him infamous.
Anyway, I don't want to list all his work, just the scifi he's done. This isn't a comprehensive list and I haven't seen everything on it, but it's substantially representative.
A Clockwork Orange (1971) McDowell utterly ruled in this. If somehow you haven't seen this, go watch it, now.
Time After Time (1979) He starred in this along with another actor who's done a good bit of scifi, David Warner. Warner plays Jack the Ripper, chased into the future by McDowell's H.G. Wells. It's entertaining enough, if only to cringe at all the polyester.
Cat People (1982) Freaky movie, featuring human sacrifice, bestiality, incest, and hot people turning into big cats.
Tales from the Crypt - "The Reluctant Vampire" (1991) This was clever & cheesy and fun to watch.
Star Trek: Generations (1994) Not the best ST movie, but then, even the best one isn't really exceptional. McDowell, at least, was a dandy bad guy.
Tank Girl (1995) I threw this in to show a little comics appreciation, though I don't remember McDowell's character much at all.
Lexx - "Giga Shadow" & "The Dark Zone" miniseries (1997) Haven't watched any Lexx. If anyone has an opinion about it, let me know your thoughts.
Fantasy Island - multiple eps (1998-'99) This was the attempted remake of the 1970s series starring Ricardo Montalban ["KHHAAANN!!!"]. McDowell, who stepped into the role of island host Mr. Roarke, was adequately creepy and accomodating, and sprung fantasies on unsuspecting guests for 13 episodes.
The Outer Limits - "The Human Operators" (1999) Don't think I've seen this one.
Heroes - "Parasite" (2007) Though we've been led to believe throughout the series that Linderman is a stone cold asshole, McDowell's refined grandfatherly gentleman, bustling in the kitchen baking a pot pie, punches a hole in that percepion and reveals a new layer of complexity to a mysterious character. Of course, we've only seen him briefly; there's still time for further revelation.
That about wraps up our journey. If we're lucky we'll see McDowell again very soon, when new Heroes episodes pick up April 23.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
there's 2 more of malcolm's flicks that deserve mention, in my humple opinion. neither is strictly scifi, though both have fantastic elements to them. both are loaded with gratuitous sex; one has lots of gratuitous violence in addition, the other has lots of gratuitous drugs. the first is the gore-vidal-penned, penthouse-magazine-produced softcore porn historical fantasy Caligula, in which Malcolm plays the decadent emperor in question. the second is the teenager-aimed sex comedy Get Crazy, where Malcom plays fictional rock and roll icon Reggie Wanker, who flies around in a personal jet painted to look like a giant phallus. did i mention there's a lot of drugs in that one too?
neither of these movies is *good*, per se, but you included the trek movie above so i figured that wasn't a dealbreaker. i enjoyed both of them tremendously as a callow, horny youth. as a callow, horny middle-aged man i suspect i still would.
love,
slappy
Caligula definitely falls into the category of fantastical. It also features the awesomely hot Helen Mirren.
Your recommendation for Get Crazy intrigues me and I shall seek it out. The phallus-jet rings a bell, so perhaps I've seen it but forgotten...or perhaps I just have Freudian imprints of jets, and phalluses with massive roaring engines, masters of the sky, soaring with white hot flames and shaking the very heavens.
Uh.
--erica
I loved "Get Crazy", even though it's really a dreadful 80's movie, featuring Hollywood punks. I hate Hollywood punks. Sray the hair into a mohawk, put garish makeup on them, rip up some crazy looking clothes, viola, it's a punk. Blow me. Still, Malcolm McDowell as a Mick Jagger-esque buffoon is delightful, and Lou Reed plays...well..himself. It's a lousy movie with a lousy plot and poorly executed to boot. It's a guilty pleasure. Netflickable!
The Outer Limits episode, "The Human Operators", is a wonderful gem lost amidst the sea of formulaic cheese that polluted this series. Malcom McDowell plays a disembodied computer voice (imagine HAL 9000 with feelings) and delivers a marvelously subtle performance that mixes gentle hints of empathy into overwhelming cruelty as it tries to both raise and subjugate its only crewmember.
Post a Comment