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Thursday, May 17, 2007

Lee Marvin Kicked Ronald Reagan’s Ass

posted by on May 17 at 12:31 PM

This story over at the New York Times has been a long time coming. It’s a heartfelt appreciation of the films of Lee Marvin, who’s also the subject of a long-overdue film festival in New York right now.
Lee Marvin, in case you didn’t know, is the motherfucking man. Unlike countless other overrated action stars who try to come off like badasses, Lee Marvin moves like a panther and his voice sounds like he just ate a death sandwich and he loved the taste. If you’ve never seen any of his movies, or if you only know him from The Dirty Dozen, I’ve summarized four of his best movies after the jump. These four movies, applied properly to your Netflix queue, will serve as an apartment-sized Lee Marvin film festival, blissfully free from annoying NYC film snobs.

In Point Blank, Lee Marvin is a (possibly dead) man out for revenge. This movie was the inspiration for The Limey, and the way it plays with time was, and kind of remains, revolutionary for American film, especially something that could've been a bland revenge flick.

Prime Cut is Death Wish meets Fast Food Nation. Lee Marvin plays a hitman named Nick Devlin (!) who goes to a Kansas City meat processing plant that doubles as a white slavery ring (!!) owned by Gene Hackman, (!!!) playing a man named Mary Ann (!!!!). After freeing a very naked Sissy Spacek (!!!!!), Lee Marvin goes after Mary Ann for turning his mob buddy into sausage (!!!!!!).

Lee Marvin, Ronald Reagan, John Cassavetes, and the astonishing Clu Gulager are all in The Killers, which has almost nothing to do with the Ernest Hemingway story it claims to be based on. Lee Marvin is teaching young buck Gulager the ropes, and the two of them are pretty amazing to watch. Gulager was a Method actor along the lines of Brando and James Dean, and Marvin's natural cool against Gulager's fussiness is a match made in heaven. Plus, it's Ronald Reagan's only (on-screen) turn as a villain.

In my personal favorite, Emperor of the North Pole, Lee Marvin plays A Number One, the king of the hobos. Keith Carradine plays Cigaret, a young upstart hobo who's trying to steal Lee Marvin's rep. The two hobos wind up on the train of hobo-killer train cop Shack, played by a positively chilling Ernest Borgnine. In an early scene, Lee Marvin strikes a child with a live chicken, because, as I've mentioned before, he is the motherfucking man. What else could you possibly ask for in a movie?


RSS icon Comments

1

And for pure 60's spy campiness... In Like Flint! Imagine Clint Eastwood as Austin Powers... enjoy.

Posted by monkey | May 17, 2007 12:49 PM
2

Oh yeah, The Last of Sheila is also fucking great, too!

Posted by monkey | May 17, 2007 12:54 PM
3

Sorry, Monkey but James Coburn starred in the Flint movies, not Marvin. Although he definitely had some comic chops, as evinced by his double-turn in "Cat Ballou".

Posted by COMTE | May 17, 2007 12:57 PM
4

"point blank" is amazing, and i've always enjoyed him in sam fuller's "the big red one."

Posted by marvinmaven | May 17, 2007 12:58 PM
5

Oh, hehe, oops. That's not the first time I've mixed the two up.

STILL my statments stand!

Posted by monkey | May 17, 2007 1:02 PM
6

This pretty much says it all:

Plot keywords for
Prime Cut (1972)

* Female Nudity
* Meat Grinder
* Hot Dog
* Corruption
* Cornfield
* Female Full Frontal Nudity
* Meatpacking
* County Fair
* Fairground
* Female Frontal Nudity
* Business
* Chase
* Collector
* Drug Dealing
* Extortion
* Farm
* Gangster
* Murder
* Prostitution
* Revenge
* Small Community
* Violence
* Slaughterhouse
* Nudity
* Independent Film

I don't know why I haven't seen any of these movies. Thanks for the tip, Paul!

Posted by Levislade | May 17, 2007 1:10 PM
7

You're neither the first nor the last to mix up Coburn and Marvin, Monkey. Don't feel bad.

Lee Marvin was the real deal. Personally, I like "Cat Ballou" and I really like "Paint Your Wagon", which in addition to Marvin chewing up the scenery, features Clint Eastwood singing "I Talk To the Trees" in wide-wale cords and a flowered shirt. He, Marvin, and Jean Seberg have a three-way marriage, dammit; what else do you need to know? Marvin sings too, like an alcoholic frog.

Posted by Fnarf | May 17, 2007 2:04 PM
8

Does anybody know if the crotch punch they keep flashing back to in Point Blank was real? I always got the impression that he improvised that, and really punched the poor bastard in the nuts.

And how 'bout the TV as weapon in Prime Cut.

Outstanding films, they really are classics.

Posted by 20threeskidoo | May 17, 2007 2:38 PM
9

Hey wait! What about Hell in the Pacific? You get Lee Marvin vs. Toshiro Mifune under the skillful direction of John Boorman! It's like Enemy Mine with less alien babies.

Posted by Jonah S | May 17, 2007 3:25 PM
10

Hey Monkey, i think you just stumbled upon the original hollywood dopplegangers, before Nick Nolte and Gary Busey there was Lee Marvin and James Coburn. There's no way you are the first to mix them up.

Posted by longball | May 17, 2007 3:52 PM
11

"his voice sounds like he just ate a death sandwich and he loved the taste."

Damn, Mr. Cosntant you nailed that like Christ to the cross. that is exactly what his voice sounds like.

Posted by longball | May 17, 2007 3:54 PM
12


That's 'cause James Coburn is a motherfuckin' badass too!

One of the best.

Coburn was still making movies not that long ago too.


Posted by K X One | May 17, 2007 7:26 PM
13

Yeah, but could Coburn sing? Lee Marvin had a number one hit, knocked the Beatles out of the top spot.

Posted by Fnarf | May 17, 2007 7:31 PM
14

Ditto Hell in the Pacific and Point Blank (which was remade as Payback with Mel Gibson, not the great film The Limey.)

Add:

Bad Day at Black Rock
The Big Heat
The Professionals
Paint You Wagon
The Big Red One
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Posted by elswinger | May 17, 2007 7:46 PM
15

Elswinger, your point is well taken, but I'm pretty sure Constant's correct since he describes Point Blank as "the inspiration for The Limey." Point Blank and Payback were both adapted from the novel The Hunter. Also, if anyone hasn't seen John Boorman's Marvin doc, I'd recommend it.

Posted by Kathy Fennessy | May 17, 2007 10:27 PM
16

Fnarf or anybody: if you can direct me to an mp3 of that Lee Marvin song, I will be forever in your debt.
And thank you to everyone else for recommending those other Lee Marvin movies, which I will definitely check out starting immediately. I had no idea he was so well-loved; Maybe we should have the second annual Lee Marvin film festival in Seattle. How about it, Central Cinema?

Posted by Paul Constant | May 17, 2007 11:57 PM
17

Lee Marvin was the real deal in another way, too - he was a genuine Marine combat veteran, not a Hollywood wannabe like Ronnie Raygun.

I adore Lee Marvin. I still blame the movie Paint Your Wagon for giving me an unrealistic idea of what I could reasonably expect out of marriage (two husbands). Of course, he and Clint took turns with Jean Seberg, and my preference would be a true triangle, not a V, since I dig bisexual guys. But each to their own.

Posted by Geni | May 18, 2007 2:30 PM
18

Thanks for the clarification Kathy. Tonight I am going to kick back and watch my copies of Point Blank and The Limey.

Posted by elswinger | May 18, 2007 4:36 PM
19


"The Limey" is very different from "Point Blank". In "Point Blank", Marvin is just trying to get his money back, and kills his way up a criminal syndicate. In "The Limey", General Zod is seeking revenge for his dead daughter, and wanders through a maze of hollywood whackjobs.

_"Payback"_ is the remake of "Point Blank", and for bonus points it co-stars... James Coburn!


Posted by Big Sven | May 19, 2007 3:07 AM

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