Plenty O'Toole

Terrible pun, I know, but it's Peter O'Toole's 75th birthday. TCM is running a full day of O'Toole movies ("No prisoners!") and while not all of them are classics, they all highlight one thing about Peter O'Toole.

The man went for it. His famous full-tilt-boogie love of life offscreen steps directly onto the celluloid. When he was on The Daily Show a few months ago, his physical condition was shocking, but the light in those famous blue eyes was undimmed. He radiated vigor in spite of his body's frailty. O'Toole's film resume is all over the map; watch a few of his movies at random and something coalesces in your consciousness. Peter O'Toole may have been in some bad movies, but he's never condescended to the material. Man of La Mancha is pretty terrible, but O'Toole throws himself into his performance in a way that makes you wonder if he wasn't willing to be in a movie that he knew (or suspected) might be awful just so that he could play a part so unlike any other he had attempted. He never winks at the camera, never flags in his commitment. Unlike James Coco as Sancho Panza, O'Toole is never theatrical. When he meets Sophia Loren, it's like watching a thunderstorm forming; two titanic screen presences and underrated actors creating a magnetic field that threatens to suck everything around them into the vortex.

Watch him in Goodbye, Mr. Chips. The songs in the movie are crap, and Petula Clark is, well, pleasant, I guess. Sian Phillips' supporting performances is terrible in a late '60s "with-it" way. The story is, to be charitable, bathetic, manipulative, and cliched. But watch O'Toole; see how Herbert Ross uses the actor's great physical beauty (and Peter O'Toole is not handsome. He is a beautiful man.) to clarify the character's asceticism. Just like T.E. Lawrence, Arthur Chipping's commitment to his cause burns away what is common; it is his oblivious dedication that elevates him to near sainthood, while simultaneously making him baffling and impossible. The greatest strength contains the greatest flaw. Watch Chipping's final speech. See how O'Toole flawlessly navigates the possible pitfalls of treacle and modulates his performance in a flawless arc from the beginning of the speech to the conclusion.

Peter O'Toole is never thinking about the next movie, or the next deal, or how this particular film will affect his bankability. He is, in the best possible way, lost in the moment and going for it. High-brow, low-brow, action-adventure, art film, doesn't matter. Peter O'Toole always gives you everything he's got.

In My Favorite Year, O'Toole's Alan Swann declares, "I am not an actor, I'm a movie star!" He's both. Enjoy.

PS

When the first Harry Potter movie was being cast, I fiercely wanted O'Toole as Dumbledore. Tell me that wouldn't have improved the films. Also, acknowledgment is due the Shamus for his much better appreciation of O'Toole.