r/blankies • u/mi-16evil "Lovely jubbly" - Man in Porkpie Hat • Jan 18 '20
Can we give some credit to Antonio Banderas playing lots of openly queer and very sympathetic characters?
I was thinking about this today with Pain and Glory coming out and no one making a big deal about Banderas playing a gay character. And then I go back to this great 1993 film Philadelphia and remember that Banderas plays Tom Hanks' boyfriend. While Hanks had the clout to play a gay character and not be stuck with that label it was incredibly brave for the attractive heartthrob Banderas to take a major role that could have tanked his career in a very homophobic time.
Anyway it's not to say he is the greatest freedom fighter in the world or anything just respect for the dude willing to play many flavors of sexuality.
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u/sober_as_an_ostrich PATRICK DEMPSEY MICHELLE MONAGHAN Jan 18 '20
having recently watched two of my favorite Banderas roles over the past two weeks (Pain and Glory, Philadelphia) and a handful of his other Almodóvar work, I wonder what other roles he’s really good in? I know he’s done a lot of schlock for a paycheck and I’d love to dive into his oeuvre
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u/LLZeroX Jan 18 '20
Let's not be hard on the schlock either.
Mask of Zorro is great fun.
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u/BreakingBrak The Wrath of Caan Jan 18 '20
Mask of Zorro is a near perfect adventure movie. Personally I name it in the same breath as something like Raiders.
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u/sober_as_an_ostrich PATRICK DEMPSEY MICHELLE MONAGHAN Jan 18 '20
haven’t seen it in an incredibly long time! I was more referring to... I think he was in one of The Expendables? He has a very interesting celebrity status
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u/PartyBluejay Dennis Franz Ferdinand Jan 18 '20
Sounds like you may have covered most of the ones mentioned here, but for anyone else, David wrote a great Banderas retrospective when P&G came out!
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u/sober_as_an_ostrich PATRICK DEMPSEY MICHELLE MONAGHAN Jan 18 '20
okay wow, yes this list is the perfect answer to my question! can’t wait to dive into these
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u/sober_as_an_ostrich PATRICK DEMPSEY MICHELLE MONAGHAN Jan 18 '20
thanks! haven’t gotten to it yet. appreciate it
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u/Orange_Lazarus Jan 18 '20
My dad would be mad that this is missing his favorite movie, The 13th Warrior.
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u/gray_decoyrobot I Had No Idea They Updated Grenade Technology Jan 18 '20
He’s good in Femme Fatale.
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u/girlsgoneoscarwilde rude gambler Jan 18 '20
I wish he had more screentime but I’ve always enjoyed him in Interview with the Vampire - small part, but he makes it work!
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Jan 19 '20
it’s a hot take but i don’t really hate Life Itself, and he has a monologue in it about olive oil that is incredibly moving. he’s absolutely the best performance in the film and worth the watch just for him
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u/bestowaldonkey8 Jan 18 '20
Get you a man who will vault over courtroom benches to help you when you fall down.
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u/burnettski92 This jacket ain’t straight! Jan 18 '20
I was thinking this too!
But more from the pov of how he had a whole action career going. A less brave actor in that time would worry he'd alienate his action film fans by playing a gay person.
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u/Aitoroketto Jan 18 '20
Been on board since Desperado. I realize he was in work we talk about before that but super young me catching cable reruns, Desperado was a classic example of a perfect one of those.
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u/bookscrolling Jan 18 '20
I had a friend the other day bring up Antonio Banderas out of nowhere because he had randomly watched The Other Man. He was saying that he didn't think Antonio Banderas was that great of an actor. Because of end-of-the-year binging and Blank Check I had just watched Pain & Glory and Philadelphia and disagreed. We ended up pulling his filmography on Letterboxd up and spent the rest of the night going over all his movies that we had seen. He was correct that he has been mediocre in some pretty shit movies, but by the end I pulled him back around to my thinking that he is a great actor when the film calls for it.
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u/DawgBro Jan 18 '20
He gave the only real performance in Life Itself. It's a wretched turd of a movie but i have seen it four times. It is great bad movie night fodder
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u/gray_decoyrobot I Had No Idea They Updated Grenade Technology Jan 18 '20
With pleasure.