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Authors: Mark Browning
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(in Clooneyâs absurd running style in racing to the elevator to talk to her), a sexually aggressive female seeking a closer form of equality in the battle of the sexes, and some snappy banter. However, there are several missing elements, which hamstring the emotional power of the narrative. Classic screwball heroines are defined in relation to their work, or at least want recognition in relation to it. Marilynâs relation to work is to seek to avoid it altogether by freeloading from rich husbands. In this, she is a reflection of changing social values, but it is questionable what proportion of the female audience would really want to aspire to her vacuous lifestyle here. Also conventionally, there is an element of reversal in that hero and heroine learn something from each other. It could be argued that Miles learns the value of true love over cynicism, but Marilyn seems unworthy of his adulation, weakening his status further, and as her motivation remains questionable right up to the end, what she might learn is open to question. Unlike in
O Brother
, where the generosity of spirit is emphasized, here it is emotional mean-spiritedness that prevails. By choosing to close on the TV show, which may be intended as a parody but probably exists somewhere, it is Petchâs slogan and the notion of marriage as material for cheap television that endures.
Leatherheads
(George Clooney, 2008)
For Clooneyâs second directing experience, he gathered around him personnel with whom he had worked before, most particularly Thomas Sigel as cinematographer, Grant Heslov as producer (as well as playing minor part, Saul Keller), and Stephen Mirrione as editor. Clooney plays Jimmy âDodgeâ Connelly, based very loosely on the career of Johnny âBloodâ McNally of the Green Bay Packers, and the situation of Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski) is reminiscent of George Halas, coach of the Chicago Bears and his signing of halfback Harold âRedâ Grange from the University of Illinois. Critical reaction to
Leatherheads
is typically lukewarm, which in retrospect is a little unfair. If there are weaknesses in the film, they lie in its underlying structure rather than its execution.
Like the preceding films in this chapter,
Leatherheads
is related to screwball comedy, particularly the way it displaces explicit portrayal of sexual matters into highly charged dialogue, as seen in the verbal sparringbetween Lexie Littleton (Renée Zellweger) and Dodge, in their first meeting in the hotel foyer and later in the train cabin, mistakenly taken by them both. The film provides the opportunity for Clooney to indulge in his passions for motorbikes and sports and plays to his strengths in terms of comic timing and romantic entanglements requiring charm from the hero. His age, perhaps a growing impediment to gaining leading roles, becomes an asset in screwball, where the quintessential screwball actors, like Clarke Gable, were at least a decade older than the average leading man today.
There are some similarities with
A League of Their Own
(Penny Marshall, 1992) in the portrayal of a fledgling professional sport in the early part of the twentieth century. There is a social element as we see the itinerant and fragile nature of the team, which travels to games only for them to be canceled when teams go into liquidation. Teams are rapidly built and dissolved, which is particularly hard on individuals who, according to Dodge, âare not exactly the cream of Americaâs workforce.â A montage of working locations (a factory, a mine, and a field) stands for the lives that the team have escaped from and to which they must return if Dodge cannot conjure up a deal to make professional football turn a profit.
Part of the empathy that we might feel for Dodge is that with hindsight we know that he is right, whatever the wisdom prevailing at the time. C. C. Frazier (Jonathan Pryce, based on the real C. C. Pyle), symptomatic of
O Brother
, where the generosity of spirit is emphasized, here it is emotional mean-spiritedness that prevails. By choosing to close on the TV show, which may be intended as a parody but probably exists somewhere, it is Petchâs slogan and the notion of marriage as material for cheap television that endures.
Leatherheads
(George Clooney, 2008)
For Clooneyâs second directing experience, he gathered around him personnel with whom he had worked before, most particularly Thomas Sigel as cinematographer, Grant Heslov as producer (as well as playing minor part, Saul Keller), and Stephen Mirrione as editor. Clooney plays Jimmy âDodgeâ Connelly, based very loosely on the career of Johnny âBloodâ McNally of the Green Bay Packers, and the situation of Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski) is reminiscent of George Halas, coach of the Chicago Bears and his signing of halfback Harold âRedâ Grange from the University of Illinois. Critical reaction to
Leatherheads
is typically lukewarm, which in retrospect is a little unfair. If there are weaknesses in the film, they lie in its underlying structure rather than its execution.
Like the preceding films in this chapter,
Leatherheads
is related to screwball comedy, particularly the way it displaces explicit portrayal of sexual matters into highly charged dialogue, as seen in the verbal sparringbetween Lexie Littleton (Renée Zellweger) and Dodge, in their first meeting in the hotel foyer and later in the train cabin, mistakenly taken by them both. The film provides the opportunity for Clooney to indulge in his passions for motorbikes and sports and plays to his strengths in terms of comic timing and romantic entanglements requiring charm from the hero. His age, perhaps a growing impediment to gaining leading roles, becomes an asset in screwball, where the quintessential screwball actors, like Clarke Gable, were at least a decade older than the average leading man today.
There are some similarities with
A League of Their Own
(Penny Marshall, 1992) in the portrayal of a fledgling professional sport in the early part of the twentieth century. There is a social element as we see the itinerant and fragile nature of the team, which travels to games only for them to be canceled when teams go into liquidation. Teams are rapidly built and dissolved, which is particularly hard on individuals who, according to Dodge, âare not exactly the cream of Americaâs workforce.â A montage of working locations (a factory, a mine, and a field) stands for the lives that the team have escaped from and to which they must return if Dodge cannot conjure up a deal to make professional football turn a profit.
Part of the empathy that we might feel for Dodge is that with hindsight we know that he is right, whatever the wisdom prevailing at the time. C. C. Frazier (Jonathan Pryce, based on the real C. C. Pyle), symptomatic of
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