Costner's accent - Gibson's accent

[Theresa F.M. Muir]

First of all, neither of them are Olivier, but Costner isn't 1/100 the actor
that Gibson is. This may seem an odd thing to say about a guy who seems to
spend most of his time getting blown up, shot, run over, etc. I think the
worst thing Mel Gibson did for himself was to do the "Lethal Weapon" movies.
He played the wound-up cop like falling off a log; but he became so
identifiable with the "action" (AKA car chase, automatic weapons, dopey sex,
things getting blown up, etc.) genre, that he forfeited his
credibility in other roles. For example, WHY does he always have to
be a "hero"? After I saw "Hamlet", I came to the conclusion that he'd probably
make a terrific villain. If he wanted to do a Shakespeare role, a better one
for him might be Edmund in "Lear"! Is there some law that says the villain
can't be a handsome, sexy man?

As for accents, it seems to me that Gibson is good, but lazy. The generic, all
purpose Shakespeare English accent held up well enough in "Hamlet"-- it's his
American accents that get spotty. My SO is Australian, and we've giggled
through plenty of 'ol Mel's movies, when he was being very Amurrrrican, and
then suddenly a nice broad Aussie vowel would issue forth. But if you've ever
seen "Mrs. Soffel" (I think maybe eight other people did), his midwestern
accent was just flawless. If you closed your eyes, you thought it was Henry
Fonda.

*******************************************************************************
"Of course, long before you mature, most of you will be eaten".

Theresa F.M. Muir Ph.D. Program in Musicology
t...@cunyvms1.bitnet Graduate School of the City University
t...@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu of New York
********************************************************************************

[Michael L. Kaufman]

In article <1991Jun26.0...@timessqr.gc.cuny.edu> t...@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu writes:
>First of all, neither of them are Olivier, but Costner isn't 1/100 the actor
>that Gibson is.

Sorry to have to disagree with you, but Costner is at least 1/97 the actor
that Gibson is, possibly higher. ;-)

Michael

--
Michael Kaufman | I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on
kaufman | fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in
@eecs.nwu.edu | the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be
| lost in time - like tears in rain. Time to die. Roy Batty

[Michel Hafner]

In article <1991Jun26.0...@timessqr.gc.cuny.edu> t...@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu writes:

>As for accents, it seems to me that Gibson is good, but lazy. The generic, all
>purpose Shakespeare English accent held up well enough in "Hamlet"-- it's his
>American accents that get spotty. My SO is Australian, and we've giggled
>through plenty of 'ol Mel's movies, when he was being very Amurrrrican, and
>then suddenly a nice broad Aussie vowel would issue forth. But if you've ever
>seen "Mrs. Soffel" (I think maybe eight other people did), his midwestern

Nine

>accent was just flawless. If you closed your eyes, you thought it was Henry
>Fonda.

Dou you have this, by chance, taken from the review in "Village Voice"? :-)

[John Oswalt]

In article <1991Jun26.0...@timessqr.gc.cuny.edu>, t...@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu (Theresa F.M. Muir) writes:

> American accents that get spotty. My SO is Australian, and we've giggled
> through plenty of 'ol Mel's movies, when he was being very Amurrrrican, and
> then suddenly a nice broad Aussie vowel would issue forth. But if you've ever
> seen "Mrs. Soffel" (I think maybe eight other people did), his midwestern
> accent was just flawless. If you closed your eyes, you thought it was Henry
> Fonda.

Mel Gibson's mixed accent is not suprising. He was born in the USA,
lived here until he was 12, moved to Australia, lived there 20
years or so, and now is back in the USA.
--

John Oswalt megatest!j...@sun.UUCP ..!sun!megatest!jao

[Sandy Grossmann]

In article <19...@megatest.UUCP> j...@megatest.UUCP (John Oswalt) writes:
>
>Mel Gibson's mixed accent is not suprising. He was born in the USA,
>lived here until he was 12, moved to Australia, lived there 20
>years or so, and now is back in the USA.

Almost right. He moved to Australia when he was 12, yes, but STILL
lives there--most of the time. He also owns property in both
California and Montana. (And Gibson has retained his American
citizenship.) Patrick Swayze said in an interview that
he (Swayze) was proud of his 5-acre farm in California and was
flamboozled (probably not his exact words :-)) when he heard that
Gibson had bought *17,000* acres in Montana. Ah well.

Anyway, Gibson owns and runs a cattle ranch in Australia outside of
Victoria. Strings fences and everything. If you saw THE RIVER,
you saw him more or less at home ('cept that was a farm, not a ranch...)

S.J.G.

[Theresa F.M. Muir]

In article <1991Jun26.1...@eecs.nwu.edu>, kau...@eecs.nwu.edu (Michael L. Kaufman) writes:
>In article <1991Jun26.0...@timessqr.gc.cuny.edu> t...@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu writes:
>>First of all, neither of them are Olivier, but Costner isn't 1/100 the actor
>>that Gibson is.
>
>Sorry to have to disagree with you, but Costner is at least 1/97 the actor
>that Gibson is, possibly higher

OK, I give.

[Theresa F.M. Muir]

I didn't see the movie when it came out (like the rest of the population at
large), but rented it, so the only reviews I ever saw were the !!!!!!!'s and
!!!!!!!!!!!'s on the video box. He DID sound like Henry Fonda-- and he looked
a little like a young Fonda then, too.