MovieChat Forums > Rough Riders (1997) Discussion > Tom Berenger

Tom Berenger

posted 18 years ago by mockdog1
3 replies | jump to latest

Good Lord, who would have thought that Tom Berenger could turn in such a performance!!! No disrespect to him, but historical drama isn't the first genre which springs to mind when his name is mentioned. In any event, he absolutely inhabited the role of TR.
As a veteran, I can say that the jungle scenes were just spot-on. A line of men marching single file hear a soft whispery thwap, and one man clutches his chest and falls to his knees. The rest of the column begin firing, but they never really see anything, they just shoot towards the sound of gunfire.
Bonus Trivia Question: The only actor to play both President and Vice President of the same administration: Brian Keith. This movie, where he played McKinley; and The Wind And The Lion, where he played TR. If this wins you money in a trivia contest, I expect 1/3 :)

"And remember: future events such as these will affect you in the future"

[–] MadTom 18 years ago

Actually, Berenger first broke into the serious historical drama genre four years before Rough Riders, playing General James "Pete" Longstreet in Gettysburg. You might even argue that he broke into historical drama earlier in Butch and Sundance: The Early Years, but as I stress, that wasn't a serious historical drama.

Bonus Trivia Question: The only actor to play both President and Vice President of the same administration: Brian Keith. This movie, where he played McKinley; and The Wind And The Lion, where he played TR. If this wins you money in a trivia contest, I expect 1/3 :)

Any John Milius fan worth his salt already knew that!

Milius gave Brian Keith the part of McKinley as a tribute to an old and dying friend; McKinley was only 55 and in very good health during the Spanish-Amrican War (keep in mind he didn't die of natural causes but was shot in the chest and lived for over a week, and was thought to be on the mend until the last day). Brian Keith was 75, dying of emphysema, and looked both older and very sickly. (McKinley was also about six years younger than Joe Wheeler who at the time was 62 and was played by a then-53 year old Gary Busey.) It was a nice gesture and I'm glad Milius did it, but it does distract a little and is sad to see.

[–] julden99 18 years ago

I must say that Berenger did an excellent job as Roosevelt. I watched the whole movie marveling at the performance but I did NOT know it was Berenger as I was watching. After the film, my husband kept saying he loved Berenger's performance and I was like "Who did he play?". When he said Roosevelt, I did not believe him and had to go online to check it out. AMAZING performance.

[–] 18 years ago

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