Review by Richard Kirkham Originally Published in the Fall of 2014
This
summer has been a cruel one for fans of "Get Shorty". In June, James
Gandolfini who played Bear the enforcer for Bo the Drug Dealer/wanna be
movie producer, passed away at a relatively young 51. Last month, Dennis
Farina who played Ray "Bones" Barboni left us at 69. This last week,
Elmore Leonard the novelist and screenwriter responsible for the story
and characters in the first place, left us at age 87. I'm not suggesting
there is a curse or anything, but if this film does not get included
before anyone else from the cast dies, I will feel terrible. "Get
Shorty" is a star vehicle, and it featured John Travolta in a great part
immediately after his comeback role in "Pulp Fiction". In spite of the
obvious star driven nature of the film, there is a great ensemble cast
that adds to the quality of the movie and makes it something I think
everyone will be glad to have seen.
For
movie fans, this is a film that should give them a warm feeling in
their dreams. This is a gangster movie about gangsters who want to make a
gangster movie. There are dozens of colorful characters both in the
crime world and in Hollywood as the story gets told. The crime stuff may
be accurate, someone with a better sense of that can judge for us, but
the movie end of the story cuts incredibly close to the bone that is the
film making process. Last year in the movie "Argo", John Goodman's
character summed it up this way:John Chambers: [after hearing of the plan to get the hostages out] So you want to come to Hollywood, act like a big shot...
Tony Mendez: Yeah.
John Chambers: ...without actually doing anything?
Tony Mendez: Yeah.
John Chambers: [smiles] You'll fit right in!
That is the plot of this movie. Everyone thinks they can be in the movie business and they are right. Yet being in the movie business does not always mean making a movie, sometimes it is about talking about making a movie. Our lead character Chili Palmer, played by John Travolta is good at talking.
- Look At Me
Chili
is a loan shark from Miami, who ends up in Hollywood while running down
a customer who has tried to outsmart the mob. He is not a thug but he
is not a pushover by any stretch of the imagination. Chili is the kind
of guy who is usually too smart for everyone else in the room. He is
also a movie fan and like many other fans of film, he thinks he can do
better than the people who are currently making it in "Tinseltown". The
plot involves him trying to find financing and a star for the movie he
has in his head. That's right, the movie in his head. There is a
screenplay for another movie that is pivotal to the plot, but most of
what we see on the screen is the movie that Chili sees turning into his
own film. It's a movie about a loan shark who comes to Hollywood in
pursuit of a bad debt. He is making up the movie out of his life story
as he is living it. That is a pretty awesome way of creating a screen
story, if only all of us could lead an interesting enough life to do
that, we would be able to get rid of all the remakes and sequels that
come out of the film world today.
Travolta
is a walking advertisement of "cool" in this film. He dresses in a
sharp manner that doesn't seem ostentatious, he looks great in
sunglasses and finally, he may be able to set the anti-smoking cause
back by ten years. When he lights up and stares down an adversary, it is
a moment everyone in the business will want to emulate. Travolta was at
the top of his game in the moment this film was made. He was natural,
charismatic and he had an everyman touch despite the fact that it was
clear he was not everyone. Warren Beatty was apparently offered the
role, and from the looks department and the cool factor you can
understand why he seemed a good fit, but Travolta has a sense of humor
in his eye that makes the part work, and when he drops the veneer of
friendliness he feels dangerous in a way that I think Beatty would not
have been able to match.
In
addition to Chili Palmer, there are a dozen other characters that
flicker around the flame of Hollywood success. Delroy Lindo, a
charismatic presence himself, plays Bo the drug dealer. Bo wants into
the business of movies and sees an opportunity to leverage himself in
because a director owes him a large sum of cash. Another
debt that Chili is trying to recover is owed by that director and Chili
manages to insert himself into the process of making movies ( or more
accurately movie deals) by trying to extricate the director from his
entanglement with the drug dealer. Bo has a partner and an enforcer. The
enforcer is a giant of a man who was once a stunt guy in the movie
business. "Bear" is played by the late James Gandolfini as a menacing
but ultimately ineffective threat. Muscle alone will not be sufficient
to put Chili Palmer out of the deal. This is the first time I remember
Gandolfini from a movie role. He had a sweet disposition for a thug and
his wardrobe was California casual to the max. The big beard and long
pony tail he came equipped with was authentic for the times, I know because I saw it in the mirror every day in the 1990s.
Every
comedy has to have a fool somewhere, otherwise everyone would just act
in their best interests and reason would dominate rather than laughter.
"Get Shorty" has the biggest self deluded fool in Hollywood; low budget
exploitation director/producer Harry Zimm. Harry wants to play with the
big boys but we know he doesn't have what it takes from the beginning.
Harry owes a Vegas casino, he owes a drug dealer, he has a script he
can't quite get control over and a girlfriend who is way too smart for
him. Casting gives this movie another secret weapon, Gene Hackman.
Pound for pound, movie for movie, I would put Hackman up against any
other actor of any time, but he was not always thought of as a comedian.
That makes no sense in light of the Superman movies where he was the
antagonist and the comic relief at the same time. His three minutes in
"Young Frankenstein" may be the highlight of one of the greatest
comedies ever made. He turned down the part originally because he did
not usually do comedies. Zimm is a funny character not because he makes
jokes but because he is a parody of the movie business itself. Hackman
just had to play a character who was so clueless and yet so certain that
he could really be a Hollywood figure. He nailed it.
One of his funniest lines comes when he can't even speak because of a
beating that he took. Crawling out of the hospital to make it to a lunch
with the potential star of his breakthrough quality picture, Chili and
Karen, Harry's girlfriend, wonder what the hell he is doing at the lunch
meeting at "The Ivy" in his condition. Harry can only croak out the
phrase "My project" through his jaws that have been wired shut. That is
a true sense of commitment from a producer protecting his interests.
So
far our focus has been on the Hollywood element, let's not neglect the
gangster part of the story. Bo and his partners have problems of their
own, a South American drug lord has come in search of money and a lost
nephew. The FBI is watching money that has been stored in an airport
locker, and Bo tries to trick Chili into exposing himself to get at the
cash. Harry's big mistake in addition to not listening to Chili earlier
and getting more deeply involved with Bo, is that he thinks he can big
shot his way around the mob.
Harry makes the mistake of trying to go it alone and contacts Chili's
gangland connection in Miami, hoping to shake loose some cash for his
film. Enter Ray "Bones", played with the usual gusto by Dennis Farina.
Farina played gangsters in dozens of projects (he also played cops
pretty well being a former Chicago cop himself). Farina had a poetic way
of delivering a line with complete disdain and superiority. His
conversations with just about everyone in this film suggest a barely
contained rage at how idiotic he thought everyone else was. From the
start of the film, he was the east Coast version of Harry Zimm, too big
for his britches and not able to really stand toe to toe with Chili
despite his elevated position of power. The scene where he and Harry
meet is a high point of comedy in the movie. It is violent and abusive
in the way that modern gangster films are wont to be. It is also
hysterical.
Rene
Russo is Karen, a b-movie scream queen, and Harry's girlfriend. It
doesn't take long for Chili and Karen to connect because they are the
two most intelligent characters in the movie. Whenever Chili is
confounded by some stupidity in Hollywood, Karen is right there to to
interpret for him. Russo is completely believable as a working actress
who should know better and has greater ambition than originally seems.
As the ex-wife of movie star Martin Weir, she connects Chili and Harry
to some real power in Hollywood, a major star. Danny Devito seems like
an odd candidate for the role but he channels his friend Jack Nicholson
and creates an actor who is serious about his work but indifferent to
how it effects others. In the film "The Player" Tim Robbins' character
orders a different kind of fashionable water at every meeting, and then
he never drinks. Martin Weir special orders food and then never takes a
bite. It is one of the irritating ways that the pecking order in
Hollywood might be measured.
In
the background of the story are several other perfectly cast
characters. David Paymer does nervous and combative at the same time.
Bette Midler, who was unbilled in the film, does sexy and smart ass.
Miguel Sandoval has made a living playing drug lords and government
officials. Here he is menacing as he discusses taking in the Universal
Tour and then maybe murdering some of the other characters in the movie.
There is a long line of character actors who all bring this movie some
realism and personality.
The
director Barry Sonnenfield should get a lot of credit for making the
movie play so well. There are great tracking shots that don't call
attention to themselves but make the movie feel even more movie like.
The look of all the locations is also important. Martin Weir's arrival
for lunch at "The Ivy" is staged like a red carpet moment for an every
day Hollywood activity. Harry's office looks rundown, over stuffed and
heavenly to a movie fan who would love to have those kinds of film
mementos on the walls and bookshelves. Bo's house in the Hollywood Hills
is both pretentious and strangely attractive.
The real hero of the movie though is the creator of all of these characters, the late Elmore Leonard.
His book is really the script for the movie. Scott Frank is credited
with the screenplay and he and Leonard shared the same relationship on
another project "Out of Sight" a couple of years later. Leonard's
plotting and dialogue keep us involved. The actors bring the characters
to life and it all comes off as a good natured poke in the eye to the
movie business that is responsible for putting this out in the first
place. In light of all the recent passings, it is a good time to embrace
the quality of this film and remember how much a talented cast of
professionals can do to entertain us. "Get Shorty" may have been a star
vehicle for John Travolta, but it was a project that showed us that real
stars are found in every well cast part.
Richard
Kirkham is a lifelong movie enthusiast from Southern California. While
embracing all genres of film making, he is especially moved to write
about and share his memories of movies from his formative years, the
glorious 1970s. His personal blog, featuring current film reviews as
well as his Summers of the 1970s movie project, can be found at Kirkham A Movie A Day.
