Owen Wilson as Dignan in “Bottle Rocket”
“He’s not innocent in the eyes of the law, but he’s truly an innocent,” Martin Scorsese said of Dignan, the inept, cocky, but loveable lead underachiever of Wes Anderson’s debut feature “Bottle Rocket.” “You know, Johnathan, the world needs dreamers,” James Caan’s crime boss says to Dignan’s older brother Future Man. And this petty thief will soon rip-off Dignan and his friends played by Luke Wilson and Robert Musgrave, because he can, and because it’s just in his DNA to do so. But you know he also has a deep affection and love for Dignan’s naively idealist notions. As played by Owen Wilson, in what still is one of his finest roles, Dignan is a completely fully-realized character. He’s a complex and complicated individual; a romantic fantasist, a would-be visionary, a liar, a true-blue spirit and perhaps to make up for the deficiencies and smarts he knows he lacks, a showman as well. “Bottle Rocket” is about a crew of clumsy would-be criminals who botch a heist to hilariously hopeless levels, but it’s also a story of friendship and exceeding your grasp. Dignan is perhaps the true, less-reductive version of the man-child: he’s making a 5, 10, 15 year plan and yet simply refuses to grow-up perhaps because the real world outside there is just too damn uncertain. Fragile, insecure, larger than life, Dignan is one of Wes Anderson’s quintessential (and at this point, deeply underrated characters), and this is in no small part due to the writer/performer Owen Wilson. In the wrong hands, perhaps a director and actor that didn’t know the material as deeply, “Bottle Rocket” could have been misread and crammed with buffoons. But the affection and tenderness shines through in the direction and performances even if someone like Dignan only has fleeting moment to sparkle while chasing after the impossible dream.
Gene Hackman as Royal Tenenbaum in “The Royal Tenenbaums”
“It was written for him against his wishes,” Wes Anderson told Matt Zoller Seitz about Gene Hackman‘s title role in “The Royal Tenenbaums.” “I don’t know the last time he had done a movie where he had to be there for the whole movie and the money was not good… But eventually, his agent wanted him to do it. He was close to his agent. And he came around, and he did a great job, I thought.” It’s no secret that Gene Hackman took some cajoling to sign on to Anderson’s third movie (Michael Caine was a mooted replacement at one stage), and wasn’t easy to be around on set once he was on board (“He called you a cunt, didn’t he?” related Noah Baumbach at a recent NYFF anniversary screening, and Bill Murray would come to set on his days off to help protect Anderson from the star). But for all the difficulties, it was worth it, as the great actor was gifted one last great performance before he disappeared into retirement. Like the hero of Anderson’s latest film (see below), Royal Tenenbaum is a man out of time, a sort of wildly insensitive, non-PC Hemingway-ish type who stands out like a sore thumb among the perfectly managed art direction of his surroundings and bohemian lifestyles of his children, a trickster god introducing a little chaos into their lives. It’s a great example of using difficulty to your benefit: Hackman’s prickliness and suffer-no-fools vibe translates beautifully on screen, never courting audience sympathy. And that means the sympathy feels truly earned when it comes—the moment when he saves his grandchildren, and reconciles with Ben Stiller‘s Chas, might be the most moving in all of Anderson’s films.
