Patrick Swayze

So in January I declared during my resolutions for 2008 that I was planning to write a tribute to Patrick Swayze, it's under resolution 7. It was actually something I had planned to write as far back as when Splice started but for whatever reasons I never got around to it. Now with recent news I've been motivated into knocking this out.

The thing is with Swayze is it could have been very easy for me to have hated him. He's good looking, women go all gooey over him, and he was in Dirty Dancing. Yet I don't. You see Swayze's one of what I would call a "Hero of Cheese". Those actors who are very likeable but keep turning up in piles of shite bigger than the one the sick Triceratops plopped out in Jurassic Park. No matter how bad the movie, they are great in it and as a result the movie actually becomes enjoyable.

Of course there are degrees of enjoyability. In Dirty Dancing the man dances like a motherfucker to a killer soundtrack, but the film itself is exactly the sort of tripe apparently sensible women like. Ghost is another that tugs on a women's heartstrings by being filled with those sort of cloying emotional moments that make them greet, yet they can't understand why a scene like Merrick going to sleep in The Elephant Man's actually genuinely sad. Yet Swayze's great and the movie has enough other stuff to like.

Roadhouse is the daddy though. Remember this is a movie who's logic states that a bouncer in some backwater can become World reknowned. It's bad but for all the right reasons and is almost a work of genius, falling short because I doubt anyone involved actually meant it. But you've got so much that's great, from Ben Gazzara's wonderfully over the top baddie, to Kelly Lynch being really hot in that 80's film way, to Jeff Healy, who died himself recently, playing the guitar on his lap while being all kinds of blind, to big, bad Sam Elliott in his coolest role outside of the Big Lebowski. Then there's the logic that I don't even want to go into as this piece will end up dissertation length but just watch it for yourself if you haven't. Topping all of this is Swayze. He's cool as in this and it's pretty clear that after Dirty Dancing proved he'd hump you in a dance contest, he'd also batter you senseless if you attempted a square go to restore some manly pride afterwords.



There are others worth seeing. Point Break is a decent stab at an actioner, elevated by Swayze's method performance as a zen surfer/bank robber/Steven Pressley look-a-like. Christ the poor sod had to drag Keanu Reeves through the thing so I'd say he deserves a retroactive Oscar for that alone.

What's great about Swayze in all of these is that he throws himself into the roles. He's clearly having a bawl as well. And at all times he remains likeable, a guy who's clearly a bit awrite if you bumped into him. You actually want his characters to succeed because he's playing them. The best part is he never stoops to smarm for smarm's sake. Even when he popped up in Donnie Darko. His performance is only smarmy because that's the character. And when he appeared I for one was delighted to see him. His casting may have been some nudge, nudge, wink, wink nostalgic 80's reference but he was perfect for the role and gave a pretty damn good performance, maybe his best.

So as I've said, likeable. He seems to be a genuinely nice guy in an industry filled with arseholes. When I heard the news of his illness I was saddened because of the nature of what's happening to him. Too many Hollywood types go out having partied so hard their bodies couldn't keep up, or whined about the pressure of what would be most people's dream job to the point that they took the coward's way out. Judging by his performances in the aforementioned films Swayze enjoys his craft. Maybe he's not the greatest at it, but sometimes a hamburger's more enjoyable than a steak.

My hat is off to the first of Splice's "Heroes of Cheese".