What do a Mythical Italian Rural Circus Strongman, a Santa Monica Beach Boy and a Self-loathing Sociapathic Jazz Guitar Virtuoso have in Common?
By Tony Ballejos
Sea2theD.com
Sandancefilm.com
Tony_Ballejos@yahoo.com
The two beautiful, thought provoking things, to me, about the film Sweet and Low Down, were the parallels between Fellini's La Strada and the apparently fictitious Emmet Ray character and our very own (I am a So Cal beach towns life-time resident and chronological peer of Penn) whiz kid, Sean baby. Often called the most gifted actor of his generation, his genius, instinctive, intrinsic and effortless grasp of the art (trained in method) of acting is astonishing to most of us. As Leo and Eileen's middle boy, the unconventionally attractive California Kid's bloodline guaranteed unblocked access to the industry; his breathtaking talent insured his success thereof. Penn's innate, old school, old soul persona, with its sometime anachronistic, chauvinistic, self destructive, pugnacious behavior, is very much like our hero's, Emmet Ray. One of the only key differences between the mythic Strada or the prodigious Emmett Ray's story and Penn's is Penn kept his Princess Bride, Robin Wright, whereas the other two did not. But Penn always has been lucky beyond his nature's karmic marker; everything eventually just flows his way, just look at Into the Wild. Literally, the only Brat Packer to win the loyal camaraderie of Brando, De Niro and Nicholson, these giant icons immediately recognized his immense talent and sweetly accepted him into their legends only ultra- private club as one of their own. (No Matt Dillon, no Judd Nelson, no Emilio, no Anthony Michael Hall, not even Cruise or Cage invited in.) Somewhat shunned by the academy because of his outspoken, sometimes half-baked and impulsive politics, innate un-likeability and lack of charm, only lately has he been more recognized and not, what amounted to being black balled of sorts, as he was for Falcon and The Snow Man in 1984. Quite frankly, one of the things that makes Penn so absorbing in certain roles is his self-loathing, just bubbling right below the surface. This of-course was true with Emmet Ray and macho-wacho Strada. I doubt whether Woody Allen was conscious of these drastic parallels when Penn signed on, but when Penn delivered a colossal performance and was nominated for an academy award, he must have thought of it. Strada and Emmet Ray were both sociopathic scoundrels, is Penn a scoundrel? I personally viewed Sean Penn say to James Lipton on the Actor's Studio's Workshop interview that heaven to him was "an ounce of blow and two hookers," with the serious-tongue in cheek glint in his eye and with his lovely and hugely talented in her own right wife and partner of 18 years, Robin Wright Penn sitting front row with a mortified and Samantha Mortonesqe, dumb look in her eyes, as the gah-gah'd crowd and the ass kissing Lipton let it slide. I was watching on cable and felt bad for poor Robin, who I don't even know. Is Sean Penn a scoundrel? He once put a lighted cigarette out in a young man's hand who was attempting to shake his. Is Sean Penn a scoundrel? He once, according to a subsequentially retracted account by his ex-wife, Madonna, kidnapped, tied up, tortured and interrogated her over a 24 hour period. What kind of brass balled scoundrel does it take to do this to the most powerful woman in the world, next to Oprah? Who, besides OJ (even OJ, I think, as the coward he really is, would be smart enough to inflict his dementia only on the weak and helpless, like Nicole, not on anyone powerful, more less the most powerful woman in the world), could possibly think that they would get away with multiple felonious crimes inflicted on such an icon? Sean Penn, that's who. Is Sean Penn a scoundrel? I once heard a second hand reliable description of a substance altered Penn psychotically flipping out, much like the Emmet Ray character at the end of the film, on a little known 26 year old stunning Bulgarian Model by the name of Antonia, who was terrified and completely convinced he was going to kill her. Now please don't misinterpret, I am Sean Penn's biggest fan, but like Strada, Emmett Ray or even Michelangelo, he is a tortured, sociopathic, ungrateful for all his gifts, and self-absorbed scoundrel. I think that this is part of what we love about him so much. His real persona is a primeval, active, studied emulation of a Hemingwayesqe comically flawed and distorted idealist swordsman protagonist, who has enough talent and or charisma that we forgive him for being such an incredible boor. In the mean time we, (Penn most of all) forget about the fact that this archetype loser hero is Hemingway's own cathartic self loathing nod and a wink and not to be taken too seriously.
The movie, Sweet and Lowdown, of course is a near masterpiece, that is a given, but for me, it instigated the mythic examination of the home grown, surfing and tennis playing, anti-all American, street fightin' and scrappy Penn, the swashbuckling Errol Flynn, or John Reed of my generation and a true scoundrel of a rogue poet. Call me geo-centrically bias because we both grew up in the same coast-line waters and the same former Chumash inhabited mystical mountain region, but there is something about this, head and shoulder above most of the rest, unconventional talent, that make me gasp, laugh and ultimately entertained and inspired.
Tony Ballejos
Sandancefilm.com
Sea2theD.com
Tony _Ballejos@yahoo.com
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