One of the greatest character actors
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Slim Pickens
robastyk — 18 years ago(June 23, 2007 06:00 PM)
Slim Pickens never really played anyone but Slim Pickens but that was enough and then some. For an actor who was constantly cast in "good ol' boy" and cowboy roles there was no one better. Leaving aside the great role of Major King Kong in Dr Strangelove, consider for a moment two minor roles in two minor movies, both from Sam Peckinpah when he wasn't in his best form.
In The Getaway(1972), despite the best efforts of Steve McQueen, a collection of great character actors like Al Lettieri, Dub Taylor and Ben Johnson and possibly Sally Struthers' best performance of her lifetime, the movie can't escape the terrible vortex created by the excessively low-key performance of McQueen and the horrible black hole that is the talentless Ali McGraw. I have seen that movies perhaps 40 times having managed a movie theatre when it was released and run it for a couple of weeks as a projectionist. Pickens appears in the last 10 to 15 minutes of the movie and suddenly makes it shine. In the final dialogue between Pickens and McQueen, Slim raises McQueen and the movie itself above the mundane and even gets it close to the realm of Peckinpah's great films like Ride the High Country, The Wild Bunch and Cross of Iron.
I am a great fan of James Coburn just as I was a great fan of Steve McQueen. I'm a Peckinpah fan and I even rather like Kris Kristofferson (Heaven's Gate isn't nearly as bad a movie as its reputation makes it) but Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid(1973) is as close to unwatchable as any film that any of those folks ever made. It lurches along as if Peckinpah were phoning in his direction. But, about a third of the way into the film comes an all-too short sequence with Slim Pickens that keeps me coming back to that movies again and again. Slim's brief time on screen raises the whole mess out of the gutter for a moment. The final long shot of him with the sheriff's Mexican wife on the river bank is sublime and worthy of Peckinpah's great theme of men who have survived into a world in which they have become alien.
Pickens, Sterling Hayden, George C. Scott (rehearsing for Patton) and Peter Sellers ARE Dr. Strangelove. Take any one of them away and the movie would not have been the magnificent film it is despite all of Stanley Kubrick's genius. No one could have replaced Pickens in Blazing Saddles. And no one could have replaced him in One-Eyed Jacks either.
Slim Pickens is up in that great pantheon of character actors that includes Boris Karloff, Howard Da Silva, James Gleason, Thomas Mitchell, Edward Arnold, Lionel Stander, Harry Andrews, Jack Elam and Roy Kinnear among others. I still wish he were around to class-up a lot of contemporary movies. -
flairhawaii2 — 18 years ago(September 25, 2007 08:04 PM)
I totally agree! Even though he was typecast due to his accent and style, whatever role he played he always stood out. From Dr. Strangelove to In Harms Way, he was always a stand out. Even in a non-serious role, such5b4 as Tagert in Blazzing Saddles, he was hilarious and made the movie better by just playing his role.
P.S. My fave: In Strangelove when he authenticates the code, puts on his cowboy hat and says "well boys I reckon this is it, nuclear combat toe to toe with the rooskies" and 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home' starts playing. Awesome! -
jrhappy — 9 years ago(December 29, 2016 11:39 AM)
I will break with IMDB tradition of rash contradiction and say 'Yes, I fully agree"!!!!
Slim was a rare larger than life man who's character shone through every role. I will draw a parallel with Sean Connery. Sean would play any role, masterfully as just himself and the audience would just roll with it and cede, 'He's Sean Connery' and if he were to walk on stage in a cardboard tube and tell you he is a can of soup, he'd do so as Sean Connery, speak in his normal voice and say "I am a can of soup". We would all accept it and marvel at his performance. The very powerful stage presence makes you accept and relish their performance. Slim was very much the same. Although the Texas accent Interestingly, he's Californian) did reduce the roles he was ideal for, he still commanded the stage in that rare wonderful manner. He is an actor with a commanding presence even when it's not a commanding role. Your attention is drawn to them.
This is all quite different than actors like Charleze Theron or Gary Oldman who are superb actors but very chamelion like in their ability to become completely different people on screen. Their characters are so complete in their transformations that even after you find out, it's hard to believe it was the same person.
Getting back to Slim, he is the type that is always himself even in different roles and you just love the performance. They make the character fit themselves.