JCVD
When I reminisce on my youth as a movie watcher, I tend to think of the certain comedies that helped mold my wit and sarcasm, but more than those, I usually veer towards movies that I saw that were Rated R, even though I was not yet of legal age. Anytime I went to the theaters to see an ‘R’ movie, it felt taboo, and I completely loved it! They were almost always action movies that portrayed blood, guns, drugs, and women as commonplace.
You all know the usual cast of leading men in these types of flicks: The Governator, Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Sly Stallone, Steven Segal, and maybe the most underrated of them all, Jean-Claude Van Damme. Each of them brought a different method to their madness while on screen, but to me, the only one I would feel completely safe with if I were in such a hostile situation, would be JCVD. He seemed more real than the rest. I am not sure if it was his physique, which truly seemed sculpted from stone as opposed to certain others’ bodies which were enhanced via steroids, but that sure had something to do with it. More impressive, though, were his fighting skills (as seen in such films as THIS and THIS). He was a martial arts technician who actually took pride in his craft, as well as offered genuine respect for his opponents. He could keep me safe, I would tell myself. The others were great at blowing up oil tankers, shooting machine guns, and saying their catch phrases. Van Damme was the only guy who was different then the rest, in my mind. He was unique.
You are probably asking yourself why you are reading about my apparent bro-mance with an actor that most of us have not heard from since he was kicking ass with Dennis Rodman (HERE) in the late 1990’s. Good question. Really, it is. I’d feel the same way.
But then I came across a DVD while perusing the shelves at Blockbuster that I had heard great things about ever since it hit the independent film circuit last year. It was being touted, by some critics, as the best movie this actor had since – well, EVER! So I had to see for myself, if the same artist who gave us such exhilaration while hanging from a scoreboard (HERE) and even fought his twin self (HERE) could have done his best work in his late 40’s, all the while he was treating us to witnessing perennial beat downs in his 20’s.
Well, I could not have been happier with the outcome. “JCVD” is a wonderful movie that merges comedy, action, and thoughtfulness into one package.
Jean-Claude may in fact give the performance of his career, as an aging action star, whose real life turmoil has lead him down a path of despair and sadness. Never has he been more engaging or felt more human than here. He is broken down to his core. The façade is gone.
There was a tipping point in the series finale of “Extras” that took the viewer from laughing AT the helplessly star-crossed Andy Millman, to empathizing WITH a lost soul who realizes the mistakes he has made as well as the people he has harmed in his path of ignorance and hubris. (HERE)
The same type of emotion is stirred up by Jean-Claude in the most poignant
monologue in the movie. He speaks from his heart, in a scene that you can tell really hit home with him, and he completely opens up. He realizes that the image of him that people see, until today, ‘The Muscles from Brussels’, was merely a tool to aid his career, his dream. But at the same time, that representation has become somewhat of a deterrent to his life outside of the film world. The raw emotion he exudes even leads to tears. These are tears of a man desperately pleading to correct the wrongs in his life.
You will see this man in a new light, for the better I hope, and realize that no matter who the actor we see before us on the silver screen is, they are all just like us. Regular people with slightly irregular jobs. We should take that to heart the next time we read some juicy tabloid headline, and realize that the individual depicted in this magazine, is not the entirety of this person, but merely a piece of them, if them at all.
