Born in New Zealand and bred in Australia, Russell Crowe has been makin’ movies, singin’ songs and delightin’ ’round the world for almost four decades. He’s portrayed generals and goof-offs, cops who sing and sting, demons and diviners, pastors and priests, gladiators, reporters, whistleblowers and more than his fair share of murderers (in reality and virtual reality).
In honor of Crowe’s 60th birthday this month, Midwest Film Journal is celebrating the actor. We’ll look at the lightning-rod controversy of his 1992 Australian breakout, the genre pictures with which he broke out in Hollywood circa 1995, his early-2000s ascent into a leading man with consecutive Oscar nominations, his occasional zags into unexpected genres like comedy, musicals and exploitative schlock, and many things in between. This April, MFJ truly has A Murder of Crowes.
For his towering performance as General Maximus in 2000’s Gladiator, Russell Crowe received the Academy Award for Best Actor. His Maximus was an imposing figure who seemed to tower — physically and mentally — over those around him. Maximus stood straight and tall, looking the world directly in the eye.
The next year, Crowe presented a very different character — one so striking that, at first, you can hardly believe it is the same actor.
In A Beautiful Mind, Crowe portrayed Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash, an asocial, awkward genius.
The contrast between the two performances is astounding. While Maximus exudes confidence and solicits respect from those around him, Nash, on the other hand, suffers from schizophrenia — seeing people who do not exist and taking on an imaginary covert assignment for a shadowy Department of Defense agent, William Parcher (another hallucination).
Crowe’s physical transformation as Nash is most impressive, a polar opposite of his Roman general. Nash has trouble looking directly at people, only displaying a self-confident arrogance when explaining the economic theories he creates. In many public encounters, Nash is shy and sometimes socially inept and even paranoid.
Crowe throws himself into Nash with a very physical performance through his unsteady, shuffling-like gait, his speech pattern and other mannerisms that, at first, offer hints that something is off about the man before we even realize it is true. At the outset, Crowe does not make Nash a likable character. He is conceited and abrasive, with a smug superiority — knowing he is the smartest man in the room. But after his malady is revealed, your feelings for him change. You come to sympathize with Nash, knowing his behavior is the result of a mental disorder.
As the movie progresses, you come to hope Nash can use his intellect to overcome his illness. You root for his recovery — even during his setbacks. Not only do you worry about Nash, but Crowe’s portrayal makes you also fret about how his illness affects and may even threaten his wife and son.
Coming on the heels of Gladiator, Crowe’s polar-opposite depiction of an unstable genius is such a contrast that it takes a while to accept that this is the same actor who was such a pillar of strength and resolve the year before.
It is a tribute to the extensive range of talent Crowe was able to master and impressive how, in so short of a time, he was able to represent two such diverse people.
Bob Bloom is a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. He reviews movies, 4K UHD Blu-rays and Blu-rays / DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. He can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow him on Twitter (@ReelBobBloom) and on Facebook (ReelBobBloom) or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. His movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes, http://www.rottentomatoes.com.