I go pretty in-depth on Star Wars, Indy and Blade Runner here, here and here. These iconic roles in seemingly unkillable franchises would dominate any Harrison Ford Top 10. Leaving room pretty much only for Witness and The Fugitive in your personal rankings. Yet the gruffly handsome All American has a rich and varied career. Sure, like other childhood faves Arnie, Eddie and Costner, the shine started to erode from his box office assuredness and ability to pick a hit around the late 90s. But he kept churning them out… and if anyone can see the irony of brands trumping star power out there in the general public tastes, it should be the man who broke more IPs than any. In the 21st century, he is more infamous for his terse attitude towards his back catalogue, his family Halloween outfits and telling Sasha Baron-Cohen’s Bruno to “FUCK OFF” with that trademark Jack Ryan point of the finger. He has starred in more out-and-out entertainments than anyone in my lifetime, always adding class and a world weary dignity to even the ropiest studio projects. Here are some outliers from his enviable Hollywood career.

Air Force One (1997)

Wolfgang Petersen directs Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman and Wendy Crewson in this action thriller where the President’s plane is hijacked and he has to go all Die Hard on the terrorists.

Summer of ‘97, this was the big one. A multiplex splash that had full houses the world over whooping and hollering. “Get Off My Plane!” Popcorn everywhere. Ford as the President who kicks Russian separatists butt (oh…). Take my money. 25 years later and it diminishes with every revisit. The High Concept is pretty much the whole deal. Oldman’s baddie is, of course, delightfully hammy but you can see that done better throughout his Nineties filmography. It is also as an action flick so stodgy and fixed. As much a boardroom thriller as a bullet fuelled game of cat and mouse. The First Executive rather than a White House Die Hard. The sneaking around baggage areas and conference calls aren’t exactly a bus ploughing through LA at top Speed. It can all feel a little po-faced and lacking self awareness. The gun toting patriotism of a 24 episodic double bill mired with the walking and talking of a lacklustre West Wing spin-off. All perfectly fine. But hard to see now what that fuss was about? The blocky CGI stinks. Ford notes: he’d make a great figurehead prez and it is nice to see how his wives are always cast age appropriate in this kinda fare.

6

Morning Glory (2010)

Roger Michell directs Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton in this comedy drama where a struggling young producer takes over a glossy but failing morning news show.

A sweet enough Devil Wears Prada rip-off that showcases McAdams well. Ford plays a principled but ornery serious journalist who McAdams has to soften and hand hold into his new unwanted role as anchor of a magazine show. And he’s really quite wonderful in the part. The mandatory romcom aspects feel secondary, and a distant second, to the fading star and the hungry go-getter’s love/hate professional thawing. It is very easy to read this as Ford playing a heightened version of himself… the former big deal having to slowly realign his talents to dumbed down products that want to capitalise on his mature standing but fail to exploit those strengths with any understanding.

6

The Conversation (1974)

Francis Ford Coppola directs Gene Hackman, Frederic Forrest and Harrison Ford in this sparse thriller where a surveillance expert for hire records a private conversation with deadly import.

Dry as a bone. Essentially a character study with paranoia melted over every surface of the drama. The opening set piece of trying to capture the conversation on hidden tape recorders, sniper targeted radio mics and a surveillance van is sequence of genuine thrall and education. Then later we have the oily conference and its depressing after party. The putting together of three recordings into a viable document pretty much recreates Coppola and Walter Murch’s painstakingly methodical process. But as often as it gripping and revealing as a mystery, The Conversation really is just putting a sad, lonely, broken man through a microscopic interrogation. And he is so obstinately private that this is torture. The passion of the snoop.

Hackman’s Harry Caul turns 44 the day we meet him. Exactly the same age as me watching this for the fifth or so time. The usually masculine, twinkling character actor who became a sure thing lead in the late 20th century here downplays all his bullish charisma and becomes a background man. His raincoat is weakly transparent, his voice a whisper, even the business circles he is an infamous star within don’t recognise him on first meetings. He is a man full of guilt, a man who wouldn’t know what a decisive action is, he has closed himself off from the world and his ultimate realisation of his role within that world leaves him with nowhere to hide. A baby sucking on a brass dummy. The cast is uniformly fantastic. Teri Garr’s sad girl in waiting, Cazale’s sad protege and Allen Garfield’s sad, jealous and destructively competitive competitor. Ford is low down in the credits but has, to my mind, the third biggest role. The slightly camp, preppy assistant to a very powerful man. It is a proper acting turn with a few small but telling choices. Interesting to note that Ford, once he became the biggest name in the movie stratosphere, adopted a persona much similar to Hackman’s default settings in big budget entertainments. Confident, somewhat grumpy and smartly invincible. Neither of them play into that powerful type here.

The Conversation is a juicy film to unpack. You can read many different meanings into Coppola’s deep well of soulful bleakness. This watch, on seeing that birthday card with my own age on it, I walked away noticing something new. This is a story about the old guard realising their day is over and the next generation is grabbing power or moving on from their value system. The ultimate conspiracy sees the fresh faced “victims” of the plot pulling the rug out from everyone. Caul loses his two most meaningful relationships as he won’t let his protege or younger lover in. He is too stuck in his ways, too beaten by the world to allow either of the people who truly care from into his life fully. That’s understandable but the young need to make their own mistakes and the old need to listen more closely to the conversation if they want to understand what’s coming next. New Hollywood to corporate takeovers. The Conversation is a movie documenting an insidious but needed generational shift.

10

*42 (2013)

Brian Helgeland directs Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford and Alan Tudyk in the sports biography of Jackie Robinson’s difficult but revolutionary first year breaking into the all white major baseball league.

Surprised how hard and heavy the scenes of overt racism are here. Feels like it pulls no punches for such a glossy crowd pleaser. Boseman is solid, Ford plays against type and tries an accent. A decent one-watcher.

6

K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)

Kathryn Bigelow directs Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson and Peter Sarsgaardd in this Cold War nuclear submarine thriller based on the true story of a Soviet crew who had to stop their reactor from going thermonuclear at sea with minimal resources.

A grim tragedy from the history books is recreated with little of the director’s trademark flair for immersive action. The catalogue of errors over the first half can feel almost comical. Every scene brings a new bureaucratic or human fuck up. There’s no downtime from impending calamity. It can to often feel like a post-mortem enquiry or a spoof Health & Safety video. Ford and Neeson mostly bicker rather than get to do anything particularly heroic. Noteworthy only now as it marked the start of Bigelow’s cinematic fascination with recent history. Far better movies within this mode were to come from her.

5

Random Hearts (1999)

Sydney Pollack directs Harrison Ford, Kristin Scott Thomas and himself in this romantic drama where two people discover in their grief that their respective dead spouses were cheating with each other.

Strange one this. Features Ford’s most committed acting turn but he plays an ugly character in spite of himself. A cuckolded Internal Affairs cop whose obsessive grief poisons his chance at new happiness and leads him to extremes of stalking. Complex but often unattractive, I’m not sure that’s what anyone was aiming for. This is a cold, cynical anti- romance. Well made but ponderous. Kristin Scott Thomas is luminous as the widowed congressional candidate thrown together with this dogged disruptor. She looks fantastic but I’m not sure her character’s political subplot has the same care as Ford’s dirty cop case. Random Hearts is a more mature, digestible take on the themes of Eyes Wide Shut. Just as frosty, just as snail paced though. Kubrick gave us glacial camp, this somehow makes Miami look drab. Both films share Pollack. I will say the finished product does have “something” about it, I can definitely see me trying it again another twenty years down the line. I can also imagine an alternative reality where this was one of the biggest releases of its year. Oscars, sleeper box office, the works. It’s airport novel shape and deep, deep quality cast just feel like it needs to catch you in the right mood. Maybe 64 years old will be “the right mood”?

5

My wife and I do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/