Christopher Plummer: Five Films for Newcomers
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
On Friday, February 5th, the world lost an acting legend. Christopher Plummer was a man of the stage and the screen (both big and small), with the golden voice that helped him dominate animated works later on. Either the gentlest soul or the devilish presence of any film he was in (as well as being anything and everything in between), Plummer knew what to bring to every single performance, great (epics, classics) or small (independent pictures, family films). He is arguably the finest actor to come from Canada as well (he is a Stratford veteran, too), so he is a local icon as well here at Films Fatale. It’s impossible to narrow down his work to just five films, but I tried to select a film from a number of different parts of his life. I won’t rank these in order like I usually do, since I think these five films are representative of his career, but not strictly the best work he did (there’s just too many to pick from, and narrowing the list down right now feels difficult). Here are five films for newcomers to the works of Christopher Plummer. May he rest in peace.
The Sound of Music
A great starting point is his earliest breakthrough as Captain Von Trapp in the Best Picture winning musical The Sound of Music. He himself didn’t seem too pleased with the film, having gone on record to describe how sugary the film is. Nonetheless, it was the first major film of his to put him on the map for the world to see. Plummer as Von Trapp is so stern, but you believe his change-of-heart as time goes on. You get a wide spectrum of his capabilities even in this early role.
The Man Who Would Be King
John Huston lucked out with the trio of acting legends that fronted this war classic: Sean Connery, Michael Caine, and Christopher Plummer; the latter played real life journalist Rudyard Kipling. Considering that the film is based on historical recounts by Kipling in his 1888 story of the same name, this meta role was an important one to nail in Huston’s layered vision. Luckily, Plummer was the right man for the job, and is absolutely unrecognizable underneath that moustache; his acting, however, is as great as ever.
Inside Man
Later on in his career, Plummer became a go-to for dominating on-screen presences, especially from the ‘90s onward. These include The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 12 Monkeys, and more. One great example is his collaboration with Spike Lee during Inside Man (they also worked together on Malcolm X). It almost feels like each scene with Plummer in this heist thriller steals the entire picture; there was clearly no better person to play the founder of the compromised bank at the heart of the picture. Plummer is a force to be reckoned with here, as was the case in many films.
Up
As I stated before, Plummer was also quite a frequent voice actor. He played characters in animated works like An American Tail, lent his voice to documentaries, shorts and advertisements, and also narrated family films (I love The Velveteen Rabbit mostly for his telling of the story, in all honesty). I think it’s safe to say his most recognizable work in this department is as the childhood-hero-turned-villain Charles Muntz in Up: an explorer who turns on lead character Carl. If anyone could make this jerk somehow likeable in the most deliciously evil sense, it’s Plummer.
Beginners
Believe it or not, Christopher Plummer was only ever nominated for three Academy Awards, and they were all towards the last thirteen-or-so years of his career: The Last Station, and All the Money in the World (the latter was the oldest nominee for an acting award ever, and Plummer did all of his parts for the film in literal days as a quick-fix solution to replace previously shot footage). The film he did win for was Mike Mills’ Beginners, as he played a character based on Mills’ own father who came out a few years before his death (similar to his oldest nomination, Plummer’s win is currently the oldest acting winner). Plummer is tender, loveable, and at his possible best here. His acceptance speech starts off with one of my all time favourite Oscar moments: Plummer addressing the statue by stating it is only two years older than him, so “Where have you been all my life?”. I’ll share that lovely moment below.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.