 | Why Richard Gere is so veraciously credible in cop thrillers? |
Richard Gere is an amazing and terrific actor, unquestionably one of my favorites. Having started his career in theater in the late sixties, in the mid-seventies the actor started doing films. His first movie was the 1975 cop thriller Report to the Commissioner, on which Gere had a small role. The actor started to gain profile and fame in the eighties, with romantic and dramatic movies, that would ultimately consolidate his reputation as a viable leading actor in Hollywood and a seductive gentleman, somewhat appellative to female audiences. From then on, the actor became a major star in the American movie industry.
His better-known movies in the romantic and drama genres are American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman, Mr. Jones, Runaway Bride, Unfaithful and Nights in Rodanthe, amongst others. 1982 An Officer and a Gentleman increased Gere’s profile as a Hollywood star. 1990 Pretty Woman – on which Gere shared the screen with a then rising Julia Roberts –, significantly consolidated his place of honor in the industry, besides propelling Julia Roberts to Hollywood stardom. Richard Gere and Julia Roberts would again play a romantic couple in the fabulous 1999 movie Runaway Bride.
In 2002, Gere shared the screen with the marvelous actress Diane Lane, on the brilliant drama film Unfaithful, a remake of 1969 La Femme infidèle, by notorious French filmmaker Claude Chabrol. On this movie, Gere plays Edward, a man that discovers his wife Connie (Diane Lane) is cheating on him with another man, Paul (played by French actor Olivier Martinez). When he acknowledges his wife’s infidelity, he decides to meet under a false prerogative his wife’s lover. When he sees in the man’s home a snow globe – which he gave as a gift to his wife –, Edward kills Paul in a mortifying explosion of rage.
This is a formidable drama film, that puts all the correct elements into place to deliver to audiences a solid and drastic panorama of marital infidelity. An impeccable, cohesive and intense drama, Unfaithful is a marvelous movie, with a very involving, consistent and dense story. The movie was a box office success, that generated seventy million dollars in profit. Richard Gere and Diane Lane are radiant together. They had previously collaborated in the 1984 movie The Cotton Club. In 2008, they again played a couple, in the film Nights in Rodanthe.
His better-known movies in the romantic and drama genres are American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman, Mr. Jones, Runaway Bride, Unfaithful and Nights in Rodanthe, amongst others. 1982 An Officer and a Gentleman increased Gere’s profile as a Hollywood star. 1990 Pretty Woman – on which Gere shared the screen with a then rising Julia Roberts –, significantly consolidated his place of honor in the industry, besides propelling Julia Roberts to Hollywood stardom. Richard Gere and Julia Roberts would again play a romantic couple in the fabulous 1999 movie Runaway Bride.
In 2002, Gere shared the screen with the marvelous actress Diane Lane, on the brilliant drama film Unfaithful, a remake of 1969 La Femme infidèle, by notorious French filmmaker Claude Chabrol. On this movie, Gere plays Edward, a man that discovers his wife Connie (Diane Lane) is cheating on him with another man, Paul (played by French actor Olivier Martinez). When he acknowledges his wife’s infidelity, he decides to meet under a false prerogative his wife’s lover. When he sees in the man’s home a snow globe – which he gave as a gift to his wife –, Edward kills Paul in a mortifying explosion of rage.
This is a formidable drama film, that puts all the correct elements into place to deliver to audiences a solid and drastic panorama of marital infidelity. An impeccable, cohesive and intense drama, Unfaithful is a marvelous movie, with a very involving, consistent and dense story. The movie was a box office success, that generated seventy million dollars in profit. Richard Gere and Diane Lane are radiant together. They had previously collaborated in the 1984 movie The Cotton Club. In 2008, they again played a couple, in the film Nights in Rodanthe.
Richard Gere is also a humanitarian activist Despite some romantic and drama movies that are astoundingly marvelous, in my modest opinion, what Richard Gere really does best, with exceptional capabilities – and with exceedingly proverbial acting skills – is to play law enforcement agents, government investigators and police officers, whether they be morally sensible or depravedly corrupt. Like Al Pacino, Richard Gere really knows how to perfectly play a cop by all means. On this genre, his most significant movies are Internal Affairs, The Jackal, The Flock, Brooklyn's Finest and The Double.
On the 1990 movie Internal Affairs, Richard Gere’s character is Dennis Peck, a corrupt police officer, who built a misguided façade of impeccable conduct and role model for the Los Angeles Police Department. Nevertheless, he falls into the radar of Raymond Avilla (played by Andy Garcia), an Internal Affairs detective, who is willing to hunt and to eliminate police officers that are evil and corrupt. On The Jackal, Richard Gere played Declan Mulqueen, a former Provisional IRA member, that has to hunt a professional assassin known only as the Jackal, played by Bruce Willis.
One of the best movies I have seen with Richard Gere was 2007 The Flock, on which he played Erroll Babbage, an astute, but brutal employee of the Department of Public Safety, responsible for monitoring registered sex offenders. He is about to retire, so he has to train his replacement, the somewhat idealistic, but persistent Allison Lowry (played by Claire Danes), on how to deal with violent abusers. Initially distrustful of the young woman's potential and determination, Babbage eventually becomes aware of her competence and dedication, and the two cross together professional challenges, upon which both learn a lot about themselves and the human nature in the process. Babbage’s approach to his job is one of deep commitment; he regularly visits a family whose daughter is a missing person, and her case was never solved, something that leads him to a feeling of failure and debt.
This movie is absolutely amazing; people who love relentless thrillers – with a lot of fear, demise and suspense –, will definitely appreciate this one. With an incisive and coherent plot, as well as impeccable performances by both Richard Gere and Claire Danes, The Flock is one of those movies that you definitely doesn’t wish to end; its marvelous qualities were all perfectly arranged in a dramatic, sensible and cohesive structure, that undoubtedly extracts the best storyline ever for this genre of movie.
On the 1990 movie Internal Affairs, Richard Gere’s character is Dennis Peck, a corrupt police officer, who built a misguided façade of impeccable conduct and role model for the Los Angeles Police Department. Nevertheless, he falls into the radar of Raymond Avilla (played by Andy Garcia), an Internal Affairs detective, who is willing to hunt and to eliminate police officers that are evil and corrupt. On The Jackal, Richard Gere played Declan Mulqueen, a former Provisional IRA member, that has to hunt a professional assassin known only as the Jackal, played by Bruce Willis.
One of the best movies I have seen with Richard Gere was 2007 The Flock, on which he played Erroll Babbage, an astute, but brutal employee of the Department of Public Safety, responsible for monitoring registered sex offenders. He is about to retire, so he has to train his replacement, the somewhat idealistic, but persistent Allison Lowry (played by Claire Danes), on how to deal with violent abusers. Initially distrustful of the young woman's potential and determination, Babbage eventually becomes aware of her competence and dedication, and the two cross together professional challenges, upon which both learn a lot about themselves and the human nature in the process. Babbage’s approach to his job is one of deep commitment; he regularly visits a family whose daughter is a missing person, and her case was never solved, something that leads him to a feeling of failure and debt.
This movie is absolutely amazing; people who love relentless thrillers – with a lot of fear, demise and suspense –, will definitely appreciate this one. With an incisive and coherent plot, as well as impeccable performances by both Richard Gere and Claire Danes, The Flock is one of those movies that you definitely doesn’t wish to end; its marvelous qualities were all perfectly arranged in a dramatic, sensible and cohesive structure, that undoubtedly extracts the best storyline ever for this genre of movie.
Richard Gere as his character, Robert Miller, in the 2012 movie Arbitrage In 2009, Richard Gere played New York City police officer Eddie Dugan, in the Antoine Fuqua directed cop thriller Brooklyn's Finest. On this excellent movie – the very best in Gere’s career, in my opinion – the actor played a cop about to retire (yes, in a similar vein to his character Erroll Babbage in The Flock); he has only one week left of service, so he is designated to oversee newly hired police officers. He executes a relatively mediocre work, and his first partner, after a coward attitude on the part of Dugan, that refused to interfere in a couple’s argument – upon which the husband became violent – under the pretext that they were in another police district zone, asked his superiors to change the mentor. In the next day, he was killed in action. Then Dugan, with a new partner, was implicated in a store discussion, over an attempted robbery. His partner had fired his gun, leaving the supposed assailant, a teenage boy, deaf, which puts Dugan in a controversial position, in direct conflict against his superiors. His only comfort in life is a prostitute whom he regularly visits, and he plans to ask her to run away with him when his retirement begins.
This awesome movie also stars Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle as police officers. All of them cultivates a very different relation to their jobs. The storyline has no central plot, and keeps interchanging between the major characters. Wesley Snipes also stars in the movie, as a notorious criminal, that has a somewhat close relationship with Clarence Butler, Don Cheadle’s character. Vincent D'Onofrio does a small part in the beginning of the movie.
A formidable movie, one of the best cop thrillers that I have seen, Brooklyn's Finest has a spectacular and exceptional storyline that revolves around human dilemmas, the general uneasiness of life and the problems brought about by police corruption. A great work of art that definitely delivers a sensational and suspenseful color of density, apprehension and drama into the plot, this astoundingly marvelous movie has everything to please enthusiasts of the genre.
In 2011, Gere played retired CIA agent Paul Shepherdson, in The Double. The plot concerns a dangerous mission that requires consistent investigation. Shepherdson is summoned by his former superior, Tom Highland (played by Martin Sheen) to investigate the homicide of Dennis Darden, a politician, whose M.O. resembles a professional assassin he tried to catch in the Cold War, but failed – a mysterious soviet agent known only as Cassius. After positively assuring to Highland and his former co-workers that the killing was done by a copycat murderer, Shepherdson is assigned to work with a young and skilled agent, Ben Geary (played by Topher Grace), an enthusiastic and intelligent professional exceedingly determined to catch the killer, to bring light to the homicide. Geary is also a talented criminologist, and has done research and written a dissertation about Cassius.
This awesome movie also stars Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle as police officers. All of them cultivates a very different relation to their jobs. The storyline has no central plot, and keeps interchanging between the major characters. Wesley Snipes also stars in the movie, as a notorious criminal, that has a somewhat close relationship with Clarence Butler, Don Cheadle’s character. Vincent D'Onofrio does a small part in the beginning of the movie.
A formidable movie, one of the best cop thrillers that I have seen, Brooklyn's Finest has a spectacular and exceptional storyline that revolves around human dilemmas, the general uneasiness of life and the problems brought about by police corruption. A great work of art that definitely delivers a sensational and suspenseful color of density, apprehension and drama into the plot, this astoundingly marvelous movie has everything to please enthusiasts of the genre.
In 2011, Gere played retired CIA agent Paul Shepherdson, in The Double. The plot concerns a dangerous mission that requires consistent investigation. Shepherdson is summoned by his former superior, Tom Highland (played by Martin Sheen) to investigate the homicide of Dennis Darden, a politician, whose M.O. resembles a professional assassin he tried to catch in the Cold War, but failed – a mysterious soviet agent known only as Cassius. After positively assuring to Highland and his former co-workers that the killing was done by a copycat murderer, Shepherdson is assigned to work with a young and skilled agent, Ben Geary (played by Topher Grace), an enthusiastic and intelligent professional exceedingly determined to catch the killer, to bring light to the homicide. Geary is also a talented criminologist, and has done research and written a dissertation about Cassius.
After the proper investigations, Geary eventually discovers, and reveals what he already suspected from a long time: that Shepherdson was in fact Cassius. In the end, when confronted by Geary with the information, Shepherdson confirms, and reveals that, likewise, he discovered Geary to be himself a double agent, a Russian spy, who was carefully chosen and led to this precise circumstance by his superiors in the Kremlin, to capture him and to put a definitive end to the Cassius dossier. He even killed Dennis Darden using his M.O. to attract his attention. In the end, they unite forces to capture a dangerous criminal named Bozlovski, a long personal feud of Shepherdson, who later dies from injuries sustained in the resulting confrontation, after killing Bozlovski using his typical M.O. as Cassius, slicing the throat with a wire hidden in his wristwatch. When authorities arrive, to protect Shepherdson’s reputation, Geary lies, and says that Bozlovski was Cassius. He also decides to stay in the U.S., with his wife and son, abandoning the idea to return to Russia.
A great movie that definitely fulfills the expectations for a decent spy thriller, some things in the storyline where relatively obvious, given to the title of the film, that already delivers a clue. Nevertheless, the “double” to which the title refers is ambiguous, as can refer to either Shepherdson or Geary, the two main characters.
On these three final movies that I want to comment, Richard Gere haven’t played cops or law related roles, but likewise, they were all morally deficient and cynical characters, aggressive to some extent. In 2007, Richard Gere played unscrupulous and egocentric journalist Simon Hunt, in the movie The Hunting Party. On this movie, his character reunites with a former partner, known only as “Duck” (played by Terrence Howard) to catch war criminal Dragoslav Bogdanovi
, nicknamed “The Fox”, a depraved villain loosely inspired by real life Bosnian Serb politician Radovan Karadži
. Together with freshman Benjamin Strauss (played by Jesse Eisenberg), they embark on a sinister journey, to find the most dangerous men in the Balkans.
Somewhere in the movie, the plot reveals the motivation behind Simon’s obsession for Bogdanovi
. Several years previously, Simon and Duck were work colleagues covering the Bosnian War. Simon in the capacity of a reporter, and Duck as a camera operator. Eventually, Simon became enamored with a local woman, and began a relationship with her. She got pregnant, and they were seeking a future together. Nevertheless, she died when the armed militias commanded by Bogdanovi
completely destroyed the town where she lived. When Simon saw Bogdanovi
for the first time, enraged, he felt tempted to attack him, but was prevented by Duck, as it was too dangerous, given the fact that Bogdanovi
was surrounded by armed men. Therefore, Simon, fulfilled by hatred and bitterness, swore to track him down someday. From then on, because of his depression, Simon’s career as a journalist started to sink, and he never properly recovered. Simon was in fact seeking personal revenge.
On their way to catch the criminal – beloved and considered a national hero among the people in Republika Srpska, inside Bosnia and Herzegovina –, they encounter several problems and nefarious obstacles in the pursue of their objective. They even make their way into a UN office, who suspects them to be CIA agents, and eventually, they act like they were, when this proves to be a smart move. As the local villagers’ gossip spread, Bogdanovi
discovers that he was being sought after by a group of foreigners, and, in anticipation, orders his henchmen to capture the three individuals. They are eventually captured, and when Srdjan, one of the most ruthless of Bogdanovi
’s bodyguards, is about to start killing them, he is surprisingly shot by a member of a CIA squad team, who arrives to save Simon, Duck and Benjamin in the last minute.
After being severely reprimanded by authorities later, Simon, Duck and Benjamin are ordered to leave the country immediately. When they are in a hangar to board a plane to the US, they decide to run away, to track down Bogdanovi
for once and for all. Having investigated his habits, they eventually discover his whereabouts, and find him hunting without his bodyguards in a forest (he had earned the nickname the Fox due to his habit of hunting foxes). They capture him, and leave him completely unarmed and helpless in the busiest area of a village full of people related to the victims of his cruelty, leaving them to do justice with their own hands. They recognize him, and Bogdanovi
fruitlessly try to run.
The movie ends with Simon and Duck reaffirming their friendship. In the closing credits, real life information about the characters based on real war criminals – Radovan Karadži
and Ratko Mladi
– are displayed, though they are now outdated. Both war criminals are serving life sentences for crimes against humanity. The movie also greatly espouses the hypocrisy of both the US and the UN about their attempts to catch war criminals in the Balkan Peninsula, since they in fact knew where they were, and openly engaged in exchange and negotiations with them in shady, immoral and obscure political interests.
The Hunting Party is a formidably great and spectacular movie, full of action, suspense and drama, as well as elements of apprehension and anxiety. With a tremendously great and sensational storyline, this movie is an awesome tip for everyone who enjoys an impeccable and fabulously conceived international thriller. Certainly, this is a masterpiece, that can be included among Gere’s best movies.
In 2012, Richard Gere played Robert Miller, a respected and successful business executive, in Arbitrage. Nevertheless, things are not what they appear to be. Miller’s company has been involved in fraud by his own initiative, and he has an affair with a woman. He has been leading a double life, and concealing it from his family.
In a certain occasion, he gets involved in a car crash when he was with his mistress, and she dies. Miller becomes desperate to leave, and disappear from the scene. He then calls Jimmy Grant (played by Nate Parker) the son of an employee – that is somewhat indebted to Miller, since he helped him in the past with the authorities, when he got involved in illicit activities – to pick him up on the spot and take him home. He arrives late to his residence, and his wife (played by Susan Sarandon), unbeknownst to him, was awake in bed, and starts to get suspicious of him.
When investigations about the accident starts, police detective Bryer (played by Tim Roth) rapidly becomes distrustful of Miller, especially after discovering a connection between him and Grant. Meanwhile, Brooke (played by Brit Marling), Miller’s daughter and his business associate, discovers the fraud, and confronts her father.
Bryer eventually takes forward the case against Grant, while trying to arrange evidence against Miller. Facing the possibility of jail, Grant begins to press Miller to confess the crime to the police. Staring at the moral and ethical consequences of his actions, Miller knows that turn himself in is the right thing to do. Nevertheless, Miller is about to sell his company in a multimillion dollar deal. He cannot confess the crime in the moment, because he will lose the deal, provoking a major scandal in the financial market, ruining himself, his family and all his group of investors. He tells Grant that they have to wait, until the deal is properly closed.
Nevertheless, Miller manages to arrange circumstances on his behalf to avoid prosecution, and accuses detective Bryer of falsifying evidence to implicate him in the accident, which is believable enough to convince authorities. Subsequently, the law official is forbidden to get near Miller. Even the case against Grant is dismantled. But things are not going as well as Miller thinks. His wife knows everything and wants the divorce; she openly tells him that she was awake the day he arrived late at home, and will tell everything to the police if he doesn’t sign the papers. In the end of the movie, Miller is seen receiving a homage in a luxury social dinner.
This is a spectacular and unforgettable movie, that highly exposes the hypocrisy, so normal in the society of appearances that we live in. With a decent, intelligent and cohesive plot, the storyline departs and evolves from the axial point of a debatable and suspicious circumstance, questioning what really hides behind the façade of a respectable man. All the four major characters in the movie were marvelously displayed by the dynamic, gracious and vivid performances of Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Brit Marling and Tim Roth.
The Dinner, released in 2017, is one of Gere’s most recent films. He had done only one other movie after this, titled Three Christs, that was released in the same year. On The Dinner, the plot is very simple. Two couples, Stan and Katelyn Lohman (Richard Gere and Rebecca Hall), and Paul and Claire Lohman (Steve Coogan and Laura Linney) meet at an exclusive restaurant. Initially, everything is unclear, and things develop gradually and surprisingly. Stan and Paul are brothers. Stan is running for political office, and Paul did not wanted to go. It’s difficult to understand what they have to discuss so urgently, as tensions are clear, especially between Paul and Stan, although Paul is hostile and exceptionally rude to everyone.
As the movie develops, we learn that their teenage offspring, Michael Lohman, son of Paul and Claire, Rick Lohman, son of Stan and his ex-wife Barbara (played by Chloë Sevigny) and Beau Lohman, adopted son of Stan and Barbara, had committed a vicious, sadistic and brutal crime together: they had burnt to death a homeless person inside an ATM. Therefore, the couples have to decide together what they will do. Stan favors telling the truth to the authorities, while Claire refuses to surrender her son, and to accept that they did what they did on purpose, trying to convince herself, as well as the others, that everything was a terrible accident. Which evidences left clear, wasn’t at all. Nevertheless, Claire do everything in her power to protect her son, and prevent him from facing the consequences of the horrendous ordeal he committed, and for which he was the major responsible.
Although this movie is much more frozen and slow – predictable and monotonous to a moderate degree – compared to the other movies mentioned above, even so The Dinner has strong qualities. The plot is cohesive, afflictive and dense, the dialogues are intelligently displayed, and the general storyline is very apprehensive, credible and genuine. The fragile relationship between the characters alludes to the difficult and complex dramas of reality, and the hostility that arises among them expresses the natural conflicts that exists within a family. Definitely, The Dinner is an interesting movie, competently directed by the exceedingly talented Israeli-American filmmaker Oren Moverman.
With more than fifty films in his curriculum, Richard Gere has conquered his place of honor in the American movie industry. In the current year, he stars as Max Finch in the BBC television series MotherFatherSon (written exactly as it is, altogether), which marks a drastic shift in Gere’s career. This is the first time he stars in a television series. Gere has scarcely done any television work in the past.
Observing his career attentively, we learn that it is possible to see two different versions of Richard Gere. One that is more charismatic and serene – almost fun, depending on the film –, present in romantic and drama movies, and the other that is more brutal, hostile and ferocious, that is possible to see in cop thrillers, although more aggressive, serious and dense characters share these same features in movies that are not necessarily police-related tragedies, but delves deeply into the dark underground of the nihilistic and obscure paths of the human nature, like the last movie mentioned, as well as several others.
Richard Gere, who is sixty-nine years old, is deeply involved in humanitarian causes throughout the world. He is a practicing Buddhist, and supports the Tibetan Independence Movement. As to what concerns his professional career, he will certainly continue his memorable contributions to cinema, the big screen and the dramatic arts, as audiences surely expect to see him in many more movies and roles in the future.
Wagner
A great movie that definitely fulfills the expectations for a decent spy thriller, some things in the storyline where relatively obvious, given to the title of the film, that already delivers a clue. Nevertheless, the “double” to which the title refers is ambiguous, as can refer to either Shepherdson or Geary, the two main characters.
On these three final movies that I want to comment, Richard Gere haven’t played cops or law related roles, but likewise, they were all morally deficient and cynical characters, aggressive to some extent. In 2007, Richard Gere played unscrupulous and egocentric journalist Simon Hunt, in the movie The Hunting Party. On this movie, his character reunites with a former partner, known only as “Duck” (played by Terrence Howard) to catch war criminal Dragoslav Bogdanovi
, nicknamed “The Fox”, a depraved villain loosely inspired by real life Bosnian Serb politician Radovan Karadži
. Together with freshman Benjamin Strauss (played by Jesse Eisenberg), they embark on a sinister journey, to find the most dangerous men in the Balkans.
Somewhere in the movie, the plot reveals the motivation behind Simon’s obsession for Bogdanovi
. Several years previously, Simon and Duck were work colleagues covering the Bosnian War. Simon in the capacity of a reporter, and Duck as a camera operator. Eventually, Simon became enamored with a local woman, and began a relationship with her. She got pregnant, and they were seeking a future together. Nevertheless, she died when the armed militias commanded by Bogdanovi
completely destroyed the town where she lived. When Simon saw Bogdanovi
for the first time, enraged, he felt tempted to attack him, but was prevented by Duck, as it was too dangerous, given the fact that Bogdanovi
was surrounded by armed men. Therefore, Simon, fulfilled by hatred and bitterness, swore to track him down someday. From then on, because of his depression, Simon’s career as a journalist started to sink, and he never properly recovered. Simon was in fact seeking personal revenge.
On their way to catch the criminal – beloved and considered a national hero among the people in Republika Srpska, inside Bosnia and Herzegovina –, they encounter several problems and nefarious obstacles in the pursue of their objective. They even make their way into a UN office, who suspects them to be CIA agents, and eventually, they act like they were, when this proves to be a smart move. As the local villagers’ gossip spread, Bogdanovi
discovers that he was being sought after by a group of foreigners, and, in anticipation, orders his henchmen to capture the three individuals. They are eventually captured, and when Srdjan, one of the most ruthless of Bogdanovi
’s bodyguards, is about to start killing them, he is surprisingly shot by a member of a CIA squad team, who arrives to save Simon, Duck and Benjamin in the last minute.
After being severely reprimanded by authorities later, Simon, Duck and Benjamin are ordered to leave the country immediately. When they are in a hangar to board a plane to the US, they decide to run away, to track down Bogdanovi
for once and for all. Having investigated his habits, they eventually discover his whereabouts, and find him hunting without his bodyguards in a forest (he had earned the nickname the Fox due to his habit of hunting foxes). They capture him, and leave him completely unarmed and helpless in the busiest area of a village full of people related to the victims of his cruelty, leaving them to do justice with their own hands. They recognize him, and Bogdanovi
fruitlessly try to run.
The movie ends with Simon and Duck reaffirming their friendship. In the closing credits, real life information about the characters based on real war criminals – Radovan Karadži
and Ratko Mladi
– are displayed, though they are now outdated. Both war criminals are serving life sentences for crimes against humanity. The movie also greatly espouses the hypocrisy of both the US and the UN about their attempts to catch war criminals in the Balkan Peninsula, since they in fact knew where they were, and openly engaged in exchange and negotiations with them in shady, immoral and obscure political interests.
The Hunting Party is a formidably great and spectacular movie, full of action, suspense and drama, as well as elements of apprehension and anxiety. With a tremendously great and sensational storyline, this movie is an awesome tip for everyone who enjoys an impeccable and fabulously conceived international thriller. Certainly, this is a masterpiece, that can be included among Gere’s best movies.
In 2012, Richard Gere played Robert Miller, a respected and successful business executive, in Arbitrage. Nevertheless, things are not what they appear to be. Miller’s company has been involved in fraud by his own initiative, and he has an affair with a woman. He has been leading a double life, and concealing it from his family.
In a certain occasion, he gets involved in a car crash when he was with his mistress, and she dies. Miller becomes desperate to leave, and disappear from the scene. He then calls Jimmy Grant (played by Nate Parker) the son of an employee – that is somewhat indebted to Miller, since he helped him in the past with the authorities, when he got involved in illicit activities – to pick him up on the spot and take him home. He arrives late to his residence, and his wife (played by Susan Sarandon), unbeknownst to him, was awake in bed, and starts to get suspicious of him.
When investigations about the accident starts, police detective Bryer (played by Tim Roth) rapidly becomes distrustful of Miller, especially after discovering a connection between him and Grant. Meanwhile, Brooke (played by Brit Marling), Miller’s daughter and his business associate, discovers the fraud, and confronts her father.
Bryer eventually takes forward the case against Grant, while trying to arrange evidence against Miller. Facing the possibility of jail, Grant begins to press Miller to confess the crime to the police. Staring at the moral and ethical consequences of his actions, Miller knows that turn himself in is the right thing to do. Nevertheless, Miller is about to sell his company in a multimillion dollar deal. He cannot confess the crime in the moment, because he will lose the deal, provoking a major scandal in the financial market, ruining himself, his family and all his group of investors. He tells Grant that they have to wait, until the deal is properly closed.
Nevertheless, Miller manages to arrange circumstances on his behalf to avoid prosecution, and accuses detective Bryer of falsifying evidence to implicate him in the accident, which is believable enough to convince authorities. Subsequently, the law official is forbidden to get near Miller. Even the case against Grant is dismantled. But things are not going as well as Miller thinks. His wife knows everything and wants the divorce; she openly tells him that she was awake the day he arrived late at home, and will tell everything to the police if he doesn’t sign the papers. In the end of the movie, Miller is seen receiving a homage in a luxury social dinner.
This is a spectacular and unforgettable movie, that highly exposes the hypocrisy, so normal in the society of appearances that we live in. With a decent, intelligent and cohesive plot, the storyline departs and evolves from the axial point of a debatable and suspicious circumstance, questioning what really hides behind the façade of a respectable man. All the four major characters in the movie were marvelously displayed by the dynamic, gracious and vivid performances of Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Brit Marling and Tim Roth.
The Dinner, released in 2017, is one of Gere’s most recent films. He had done only one other movie after this, titled Three Christs, that was released in the same year. On The Dinner, the plot is very simple. Two couples, Stan and Katelyn Lohman (Richard Gere and Rebecca Hall), and Paul and Claire Lohman (Steve Coogan and Laura Linney) meet at an exclusive restaurant. Initially, everything is unclear, and things develop gradually and surprisingly. Stan and Paul are brothers. Stan is running for political office, and Paul did not wanted to go. It’s difficult to understand what they have to discuss so urgently, as tensions are clear, especially between Paul and Stan, although Paul is hostile and exceptionally rude to everyone.
As the movie develops, we learn that their teenage offspring, Michael Lohman, son of Paul and Claire, Rick Lohman, son of Stan and his ex-wife Barbara (played by Chloë Sevigny) and Beau Lohman, adopted son of Stan and Barbara, had committed a vicious, sadistic and brutal crime together: they had burnt to death a homeless person inside an ATM. Therefore, the couples have to decide together what they will do. Stan favors telling the truth to the authorities, while Claire refuses to surrender her son, and to accept that they did what they did on purpose, trying to convince herself, as well as the others, that everything was a terrible accident. Which evidences left clear, wasn’t at all. Nevertheless, Claire do everything in her power to protect her son, and prevent him from facing the consequences of the horrendous ordeal he committed, and for which he was the major responsible.
Although this movie is much more frozen and slow – predictable and monotonous to a moderate degree – compared to the other movies mentioned above, even so The Dinner has strong qualities. The plot is cohesive, afflictive and dense, the dialogues are intelligently displayed, and the general storyline is very apprehensive, credible and genuine. The fragile relationship between the characters alludes to the difficult and complex dramas of reality, and the hostility that arises among them expresses the natural conflicts that exists within a family. Definitely, The Dinner is an interesting movie, competently directed by the exceedingly talented Israeli-American filmmaker Oren Moverman.
With more than fifty films in his curriculum, Richard Gere has conquered his place of honor in the American movie industry. In the current year, he stars as Max Finch in the BBC television series MotherFatherSon (written exactly as it is, altogether), which marks a drastic shift in Gere’s career. This is the first time he stars in a television series. Gere has scarcely done any television work in the past.
Observing his career attentively, we learn that it is possible to see two different versions of Richard Gere. One that is more charismatic and serene – almost fun, depending on the film –, present in romantic and drama movies, and the other that is more brutal, hostile and ferocious, that is possible to see in cop thrillers, although more aggressive, serious and dense characters share these same features in movies that are not necessarily police-related tragedies, but delves deeply into the dark underground of the nihilistic and obscure paths of the human nature, like the last movie mentioned, as well as several others.
Richard Gere, who is sixty-nine years old, is deeply involved in humanitarian causes throughout the world. He is a practicing Buddhist, and supports the Tibetan Independence Movement. As to what concerns his professional career, he will certainly continue his memorable contributions to cinema, the big screen and the dramatic arts, as audiences surely expect to see him in many more movies and roles in the future.
Wagner
