Three titles which could mean completely different things!
I suppose what brought this to mind was recently getting my telly reattached to an aerial and being able to watch live TV for the first time in several years. I hadn't really missed it but was glad to be able to watch the rugby international game between Wales and New Zealand, especially the sheer excitement of a player running to get a try, the physicality of the hard tackles (surely that has to hurt?), the eyeball-to-eyeball contact of the scrum, and the ruck and maul. I don't pretend to understand the rules, but I can't help but watch if it's on.
Richard Widmark played football at college, as any biography with any detail will tell you. Most will also add that at 5'10" and with a slight build, he certainly wasn't one of the biggest guys on the team and indeed must have had to be pretty persistent - and tough - to get there at all. The thought behind the Wales/NZ analogy is that American football seems closer to rugby than it does to what we usually call football (soccer) - which is supposed to be relatively contactless. You certainly don't expect the head-on tackles there that you see in American football and in rugby.
But even in our national game of good old rugby football, there's a place for the smaller and lighter guys who are quick on their feet, so I suppose it must be the same for the game they play on the other side of the pond, even if they do get to wear a lot more body armour when they do it. (Though you have to wonder if that makes the game tougher. If you think you are protected, would you not tackle a lot harder than if you just have a couple of bits of electrical tape holding your ears in place, or your knee together? Maybe.)
This is a pretty circuitous way of saying that Richard Widmark was quick on his feet. Well watch any of his early films and you know that. In a lot of them, there's often an awful lot of running, most famously of course in 'Night and the City' where near the end, there's that long shot of him running across a bridge and along the Embankment - all filmed in one shot with several cameras, a first for its time. And since he often played the bad guy, he must have had a lot of hard falls too as his character got his come-uppance and was gunned down by the law.
But what came to mind most was a certain scene from Warlock, rather than all that running around. You know the one; where Johnny Gannon visits San Pablo at incredible personal risk to himself in order to warn off McQuown and to stop him coming into town. (This scene, incidentally, is lifted almost verbatim from the Oakley Hall novel which I can't recommend highly enough even though some characters got changed (most notably Dad McQuown) and their words were given to others . If you like this film but haven't read the novel, I seriously recommend it - it adds so very much.)
This scene works better in the film version actually, as it's less wordy but keeps the essential action. And the bit I always bring to mind is when Gannon (Widmark) sees where things are going, takes the initiative to attack, puts his head down and just charges at McQuown. In one sense it looks like what small boys do in fights at school - and apparently both Widmark brothers had plenty of those too, whilst growing up. But it also looks like a classic rugby football tackle, head down, all the power and strength behind the shoulders. It's hard and fast and certainly effective and it throws McQuown nearly off balance, right back into the kitchen and against the stove. You can imagine Widmark taking himself back to his football days with that move.
Yep, given that time machine, I'd like to have seen Richard Widmark play football. I have absolutely less than zero per cent interest in American football, but I'd have gone to watch him.
And by the way, Wales lost, 10-33, losing it in the second 40 mins after an extremely close and hard-fought first half. That's the way it goes, sometimes. In Real Life, sadly the underdog doesn't always come good.
I suppose what brought this to mind was recently getting my telly reattached to an aerial and being able to watch live TV for the first time in several years. I hadn't really missed it but was glad to be able to watch the rugby international game between Wales and New Zealand, especially the sheer excitement of a player running to get a try, the physicality of the hard tackles (surely that has to hurt?), the eyeball-to-eyeball contact of the scrum, and the ruck and maul. I don't pretend to understand the rules, but I can't help but watch if it's on.
Richard Widmark played football at college, as any biography with any detail will tell you. Most will also add that at 5'10" and with a slight build, he certainly wasn't one of the biggest guys on the team and indeed must have had to be pretty persistent - and tough - to get there at all. The thought behind the Wales/NZ analogy is that American football seems closer to rugby than it does to what we usually call football (soccer) - which is supposed to be relatively contactless. You certainly don't expect the head-on tackles there that you see in American football and in rugby.
But even in our national game of good old rugby football, there's a place for the smaller and lighter guys who are quick on their feet, so I suppose it must be the same for the game they play on the other side of the pond, even if they do get to wear a lot more body armour when they do it. (Though you have to wonder if that makes the game tougher. If you think you are protected, would you not tackle a lot harder than if you just have a couple of bits of electrical tape holding your ears in place, or your knee together? Maybe.)
This is a pretty circuitous way of saying that Richard Widmark was quick on his feet. Well watch any of his early films and you know that. In a lot of them, there's often an awful lot of running, most famously of course in 'Night and the City' where near the end, there's that long shot of him running across a bridge and along the Embankment - all filmed in one shot with several cameras, a first for its time. And since he often played the bad guy, he must have had a lot of hard falls too as his character got his come-uppance and was gunned down by the law.
But what came to mind most was a certain scene from Warlock, rather than all that running around. You know the one; where Johnny Gannon visits San Pablo at incredible personal risk to himself in order to warn off McQuown and to stop him coming into town. (This scene, incidentally, is lifted almost verbatim from the Oakley Hall novel which I can't recommend highly enough even though some characters got changed (most notably Dad McQuown) and their words were given to others . If you like this film but haven't read the novel, I seriously recommend it - it adds so very much.)
This scene works better in the film version actually, as it's less wordy but keeps the essential action. And the bit I always bring to mind is when Gannon (Widmark) sees where things are going, takes the initiative to attack, puts his head down and just charges at McQuown. In one sense it looks like what small boys do in fights at school - and apparently both Widmark brothers had plenty of those too, whilst growing up. But it also looks like a classic rugby football tackle, head down, all the power and strength behind the shoulders. It's hard and fast and certainly effective and it throws McQuown nearly off balance, right back into the kitchen and against the stove. You can imagine Widmark taking himself back to his football days with that move.
Yep, given that time machine, I'd like to have seen Richard Widmark play football. I have absolutely less than zero per cent interest in American football, but I'd have gone to watch him.
And by the way, Wales lost, 10-33, losing it in the second 40 mins after an extremely close and hard-fought first half. That's the way it goes, sometimes. In Real Life, sadly the underdog doesn't always come good.
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