DC Film Society: Adam's Rib March 2025

Gene Hackman and Me

In the late 80s on “Saturday Night Live” Dennis Miller joked that “Gene Hackman and Michael Caine have agreed to star in every movie this year.” When I was in high school Gene Hackman did seem to be everywhere. Maybe that’s because he could do it all. Heroes and Villains. Comedy and Drama. Lead and Supporting. Hackman made it all look so easy. It’s paradoxical to say that an actor who won two Oscars was underrated, but that term applies here. Like his close friend and former roommate Robert Duvall, Hackman never became a generational icon like Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Al Pacino or Robert De Niro. But his filmography stacks up well against any of those, or any star from any era.

Many Hackman appreciations will cover his long and storied career, so I will just stick with his films that meant the most to me. Like many kids my age, I first discovered Hackman as Lex Luthor in the first two Superman movies (yes, he was also in the fourth, but I’m ignoring it). With the Christopher Reeve and John Williams documentaries last year, I’ve been thinking a lot about Superman: The Movie. Luthor was a flesh-and-blood human so the actor playing him had to bring the inner strength so we could believe him as a worthy adversary to the Man of Steel. Hackman’s sly, witty menace contrasted well with Reeve’s earnestness. Hackman displayed perfect comic timing and inflection with Valerie Perrine, but especially with Ned Beatty. I don’t know whether Hackman enjoyed himself making the film, but he imbued Luthor with a sense of fun that made him all the more dangerous. Look how coldly Luthor shows his girlfriend that her mother’s town will be incinerated. With just of a cold shaking of the head, Hackman illustrates that for Luthor even hurting those closest to him is barely an afterthought. While he’s not the main villain in Superman II, Hackman gets laughs playing off the Kryptonian criminals’ pompous arrogance.

As a young man in the 90s, I enjoyed Hackman’s current output, particularly Crimson Tide. By 1995, Denzel Washington had become a top-tier movie star after Malcolm X and Philadelphia. Him and Hackman facing off in Tide was two titans from different generations in a heavyweight clash. Our sympathies lie with Washington, but Hackman has such conviction that it’s truly a thrilling, equal fight. While I was enjoying Hackman in theaters, I discovered many of his earlier performances on video. These included his breakout role as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde, and his Oscar-winning turn as Popeye Doyle in The French Connection.

My greatest early Hackman discovery was his subtle, nuanced work in The Conversation. For much of his time as surveillance expert Harry Caul, Hackman is by himself hearing tapes. By seemingly just listening, Hackman does so much with little movements and expressions. Editor Walter Murch described how he used Hackman’s precise performance as a guide in cutting the film. Hackman described himself as a shy person growing up, and I wonder if he used that experience to inform Caul’s reserve and awkwardness. As a shy man myself, I could identify with Caul’s uneasiness with other people. Hackman’s Caul builds up a wall that’s needed for his work but also keeps him from getting hurt. In an early scene with the late, great Teri Garr as Caul’s girlfriend, Hackman intricately dramatizes Caul’s internal conflict between loving this woman and staying hidden. When Caul finally does let his guard down, only for that to humiliate him. Hackman plays the scene with such dexterity in showing Caul’s hurt that we feel for him even if we don’t always like him. Hackman’s empathy and humanity make Caul’s unraveling not just tragic but heartbreaking.

Perhaps the best showcase for Hackman’s many talents was his career-capping work in The Royal Tenenbaums. The film never disguises that family patriarch Royal Tenenbaum is a bad father. He’s undependable, insensitive and hurtful. So we really shouldn’t be rooting for him to reconnect with his family. That we do pull for him hard is thanks in part to the brilliant script but also largely due to Hackman. On the surface Tenenbaum’s rakish charm makes us like him. Hackman portrays Tenenbaum to us that way but gradually peels away the layers so that we see Tenenbaum’s genuine longing for his family. Look at the joy in Hackman’s face when Tenenbaum cuts loose with his grandchildren. Wouldn’t we have all loved a day like that? When he’s about to get kicked out of the family’s house Royal says “Look, I know I'm going to be the bad guy on this one, but I just want to say the last six days have been the best six days of probably my whole life.” Then the narrator adds “Immediately after making this statement, Royal realized that it was true.” Hackman convinces us to accept that line. I cannot think of any other actor who could have nailed that part like Hackman did. Towards the end of the film Royal helps his estranged son Chas (Ben Stiller), and Hackman plays it so sweetly, so tenderly. A lesser actor could have gone broad in trying to sell this reconciliation, but Hackman does just enough and no more. That scene and Hackman in that film are truly a master at work.

As a young man Hackman served his country in the Marines, so maybe he will have a military funeral. In my mind though, it will be the wordless service for Royal Tenenbaum. The tombstone read that Royal “Died Tragically Rescuing His Family From a Sinking Battleship.” This was not true but it was a fitting piece of showmanship to go along with a BB gun salute. Hackman had been retired for 20 years and was 95 years old, but that doesn’t make the loss sting any less. Thankfully we have so many films of his to enjoy and admire. As Lex Luthor, Hackman once said “Doesn’t it give you kind of a shudder of electricity through you to be in the same room with me?” I was never in the same room as Gene Hackman, but I felt that shudder.

Adam Spector
March 1, 2025