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A "Lucky" Final Film for Harry Dean Stanton(Great cast, good script and direction)

posted 2 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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I watched Lucky knowing little about the plot or its critical reception. The key thing I did NOT know as I watched it(in 2022) is that its star, Harry Dean Stanton, died only a few weeks before the film's release in 2017. I haven't checked imdb to see if he had any films released after it, but it stands as a very "lucky" film indeed: a rare leading man role for a guy who spent decades supporting others. But always memorably.

I also thought a bit about Clint Eastwood's "very old man" films -- his last two, The Mule(made when Clint was 88 , just under 90) and Cry Macho(made when Clint was 91, just OVER 90...and history was made: a major star over the title in the lead at 90.)

Harry Dean Stanton died at 91, it looks like Clint will last somewhat longer (go for 100, big man!) But both men in these recent films give some of us older folks hope -- these guys are showing us that a few decades more MIGHT be possible.

I say: keep these movies with 90 year old stars coming!

And I'll also say this: Harry Dean Stanton in "Lucky" gave us a more entertaining movie than Clint Eastwood in either The Mule or Cry Macho for a key reason: unlike Clint, who rather in accord with his self-reliant superstar years, did NOT give himself many name co-stars in HIS old man movies-- Mr. Stanton is surrounded by recognizable faces, great voices, and the personal history of the castmates joining him for his "old man's final voyage."

For instance, in a scene in which Stanton catches up with his nightly late night bar crowd, seated there looking suave and thin and ALMOST unaged (dyed hair helped) was -- James Darren! I'm sure Mr. Darren has worked steadily in recent decades, but I forever tag him back to the days of "Gidget" and teen singing idol status and his serious role in "The Guns of Navarone." In close ups, Mr. Darren betrays a certain frailty, but the "young man" is still right there, unaged in spirit and handsomeness. And he plays a very nice character, too -- whose wife owns the bar and seems to have both a continuing love AND lust for this man so long in her life. (The wife is played well and feistily by less novelty casting in Beth Grant.)

Also in the bar: an imposing elegant man with white hair played by ...David Lynch. The famous art film maker(who has directed Stanton), here given yet another nice role (with a flare of anger) as a man deeply distressed by the recent carefully planned "escape" of his pet tortoise, President Roosevelt. (Of whom someone asks: "Which one?")

When Stanton makes the mistake of calling President Roosevelt "a turtle," Lynch rises to his surprisingly full height and corrects him: "He is a TORTOISE." Lynch then partakes of a long, eloquent and ultimately quite moving speech about his awe of the tortoise as a creature and his love of this particular tortoise who has deserted him. Lynch's reading of the words: "He AFFECTED me" are something to hear and consider.

And there is a "coup de grace" among these familiar but suprising actors. Fairly late in the film, a white haired but handsome and macho man enters Stanton's morning breakfast diner. He's a US Marine; Stanton's a Navy sailor -- they bond. "You guys gave us a lift to the fights," jokes the Marine.

And the Marine is: Tom Skerritt. And in an instant we realize: Its (Captain) Dallas and Brett. An Alien reunion, almost 40 years after the fact(and neither Stanton nor Skerritt was young when they made Alien in 1979.)

Skeritt's one-scene role in "Lucky" is important and moving(and perhaps, in the indie film tradition, a bit too overwritten for "impact") but it allows these two fine character actors to do something of meaning, late in their careers. Only one still lives as I post this.

There are a few other familiar faces. Ed Begley Jr. is on hand as the local doctor who examines Lucky after a fall -- memories of "St. Elsewhere" arrive along with a sense of Begley's style of talking and acting -- very accessible. And the owner of Stanton's breakfast diner is played by Barry Shabaka Henley, a black actor of many roles who is most memorable to me as the saddest of assassin Tom Cruise's victims in "Collateral"(Cruise amicably befriends the jazz club owner and then reveals that he has come to execute him; cruel on Cruises part --he could have shot him without warning) I like the morning mutual greeting of Lucky and the diner owner: "You're nothing." "YOU'RE nothing."

Ron Livingston shows up as "the young man" in the story. Which is funny because he's been playing "the young man" in the story for about 25 years now(like in The Cooler as a newbie casino boss.)

The story is set in one of those five-building towns in the middle of the Southwest desert nowhere, and this allows for a diverse cast of Hispanic and African Americans in support to the actors above to reflect the town and its people.

But the tale is ultimately all about Harry Dean.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

There's a funny concept at the center of the story: we learn that Stanton is "lucky" for a very important reason: He's 90 and he is still alive, still ambulatory, still llmber (five Yoga exercises every morning) and still has a mind of his own.

And he smokes like a chimney. I think we've all known heavy smokers who made it to their 80s and 90's. Luck? Genetics? Who knows? It is hardly guaranteed that the other 90 something percent of smokers will ever reach such an age, but...some people are just lucky. (As Lucky's Dr. Begley Jr says, "I could order you to stop smoking , but at this point that might cause something bad to happen, so I won't." Or something like that.

The movie makes a very good case (in the beginning, at least) for the contentment of the solitary old person(whether man or woman) in their last years. We are shown Lucky's daily ritual a couple of times: wake up. Brush teeth. Shave(important when not working anymore). Five morning Yoga exercises. Drink some milk(that's all that is in his refrigerator.) Walk(more exercise) to town. Breakfast at the diner(well, coffee at least.) To the bodega to chat with the pleasant female Mexican-American owner -- buy milk and cigarettes(three packs, in one case.)

Back home to watch TV game shows(one realizes that afternoon TV programming of ANY sort is the lifeblood of an entire generation of American elderly, whether shut in or not.) Then out to the bar for a nightcap with various friends -- and possible foe (Stanton's non-committal demeanor surprisingly explodes into anger against Livingston's estate lawyer -- Stanton sees him as a leech upon the old and challenges him to a fistfight.) Then home to bed. Another day ahead.

And as is said at that age by many: "Another day above ground is a good day."

That Stanton's character has never been married and has no children is sort of sad, but sort of not. Here is how a person can still "live a life": have some rituals. Have a few at least conversational friends. Breathe. (Others in this world may have hobbies, or possibly the internet, but Lucky shows you that you don't even need that.)

I will note in passing that in the scenes among friends at the bar, "Lucky" reminded me of ANOTHER movie about a solitatry old man(though more 60-ish than 90-ish): Nobody's Fool with Paul Newman from back in 1994. THAT movie was set in a freezing cold snowy upstate New York village, but at the end of the day, its not much different in ambiance than the blazing Southwest desert town of "Lucky." Both films make a case for living your best life as long as you can...no matter how "small." (Newman's character had a grown son and grandchildren to win over, however, not the same exact story.)

The director of "Lucky" is an actor named John Carroll Lynch, who has carved out a surprising multi-decade character career since starting out(to most of us) as Frances McDormand's plain but loving "cop's husband" in Fargo. Lynch is bald and his face is rather non-descript, but doggone if he hasn't used things like his voice and his manner to essay both good guys(Chicago 7) and bad(the chief suspect in Zodiac, on the TV show Blue Sky) over the years.

One figures that Lynch could have played several of the roles in Lucky, but elected to stay behind the camera(and, I think, as the unseen voice of a game show host on Lucky's TV.) Kudos go to Lynch for keeping "Lucky" interesting and moving it along at a nice pace.

The screenplay by Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja -- written specifically to attract Stanton as the lead -- is good indie film stuff. The movie got a lot of four-star reviews that I could find, obviously they succeeded even as the script sometimes tries to "overreach" on meaningful speeches for most of the characters, even the usually laconic Stanton.

There are some spoilery surprises to the tale I won't reveal here, but not all that many. In the end, as with movies like "Nobody's Fool," and "Junior Bonner"(a mellow 1972 Sam Peckinpah dramedy about rodeo life and family ties, with "old" Robert Preston and young Steve McQueen as his son)....this is a movie about a few days in the ordinary lives of ordinary people.

But also something special. As with John Wayne in The Shootist, Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond, and William Holden in SOB....Harry Dean Stanton got himself a perfect final movie and pretty much around the time(less Wayne) of his death.

[–] Lucia2016 (612) 2 years ago

I don't always click on the trending movies at the top but i had to click when i saw that old HDS pic because my reaction was very similar to when i found Lucky on my Amazon prime for the first time.
One of amazement and genuine affection.

I remember coming across it couple of years ago and being shocked he was still alive thinking he had died years ago, then saw the directors surname and knew immediately this film was going to be a little silent gem.

I wrote a comment about 2 below this about the parallels between this film and a Straight Story TWO years ago and this board is still empty. So was genuinely happy somebody seen it and thought enough to comment lol.

Really well wrote out piece btw your sentiments were similar to mine but you went a bit deeper

I am going to re watch it now

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

I wrote a comment about 2 below this about the parallels between this film and a Straight Story TWO years ago and this board is still empty. So was genuinely happy somebody seen it and thought enough to comment lol.

---

I read your comment about The Straight Story and I certainly agree with that and the two movies DO have that tie of David Lynch.

Its been a long time since I've seen The Straight Story but I certainly remember how it, too, took up the importance of "ordinary events for ordinary people" -- but in that case with a very EXTRA ORDINARY premise(true?): An old man driving hundreds of miles on a John Deere to make amends. And Richard Farnsworth ended up with a good final (?) film, too. (I put in question marks where I'm only guessing.)

As I noted above, i elected to watch "Lucky" without reading any reviews, so I didn't know if it was well received, I wasn't sure how long Stanton lived after making it, or where the plot would go (I did watch the trailer and it did hook me in .) Reading up afterwards, I learned that it was VERY well reviewed(what I could find), that Stanton died before its release. And the story was a nice one.

I suppose The Straight Story will forever stand apart because of its "gimmick" (the John Deere drive) and its role in the David Lynch catalog(surprisingly "straight" and non-surreal), but that movie does nonetheless fit in nicely with other movies about older men (and women, I know there are some out there) making the quiet most of their lives "late in the third act."

As should we all.