Edward Woodward. RIP

[poliphilo]

Edward Woodward deserved better material. He played a couple of TV hard-nuts and that branded him- and made it difficult for him to be accepted in other roles. I never watched Callan, but I remember it going down well in the playground. The Equalizer - an infantile fantasy about a good man with a gun- went down well in the playground too.

His reputation will rest on two very good, small films- the Wicker Man (obviously) and Breaker Morant- in which he plays a soldier who is left to carry the can for a war crime that is condoned from on high. If the dice had fallen right he could have been a major film star.

There's one more film to come- A Congregation of Ghosts- in which he plays a spectral vicar. It sounds promising.

Comments

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Callan is well worth watching - he's the anti-Bond. In Callan, the Cold War was horrible and brutish, and there was no glamour at all.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I might like Callan. I've always detested Bond- and everything he stands for.

[sovay]

I've always detested Bond- and everything he stands for.

I hope you read John le Carré?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I do. I haven't read everything. I think my favourite is The Honourable Schoolboy.