"Burt Lancaster: An American Life" by Kate Buford | page 1, 2
According to Buford, Lancaster probed the important personal and political themes of his life and era through his films. Sometimes he took the position he believed in; at other times he played his own devil's advocate. The following movies, which contain some of his most important performances, also mark key points in his on- and off-camera biography:
The Killers (1946)
The "Citizen Kane" of film noir, which takes off from the story by Ernest Hemingway, recounts the circumstances leading up to the murder of Ole "Swede" Anderson (Lancaster), a lug double-crossed by Ava Gardner and a male confederate in a payroll heist. It was one of several early roles in which the actor played a fool for love.
Criss Cross (1949)
Yvonne De Carlo double-crosses Lancaster so many times he gets dizzy in this silly but effective noir with a bushel of atmospheric Los Angeles location shots. As an actor he's still inexperienced, but when he flashes his dazzling teeth or gets in the clinch with De Carlo, he's unmistakably a Hollywood star.
From Here to Eternity (1953)
Lancaster, as Sgt. Milton Warden, plays with fire in the form of Deborah Kerr, the wife of his commanding officer, in the film version of James Jones' bestselling novel. It's set on the eve of the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor, and foamy white waves bathe Kerr and Lancaster as they make love on the beach in one of 1950s cinema's most torrid (and most famous) scenes.
Vera Cruz (1954)
A sneering, leering, swaggering Lancaster bonds with Gary Cooper as they attempt to highjack gold in Robert Aldrich's wry western. The satire had disaster written all over it during production but turned out, deservedly, to be a hit.
Trapeze (1956)
Lancaster pays tribute to his days in the circus. As a broken-down trapeze artist, he trains Tony Curtis in a difficult routine. A '50s-style misogyny infuses this film, in which a woman (Gina Lollobrigida) comes between the two male stars.
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
They don't come any meaner than J.J. Hunsecker, a gossip columnist who preys on publicist Tony Curtis' lust for fame and money. Lancaster's company produced "Sweet Smell," a bomb when it was released but now considered a classic.
Elmer Gantry (1960)
Lancaster won a best-actor Oscar for his performance as Sinclair Lewis' jive-talking religious revivalist. He's a little over the top, but the film still packs a mild punch as a cautionary tale about cynics who manipulate people's religious faith to make a buck.
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
This film about a convict who becomes an expert on birds, writes Buford, is "Lancaster's great expression of hope and freedom of the spirit, his secular bow to the Christian idea of redemption he had been brought up with."
The Leopard (Il Gattopardo, 1963)
Lancaster plays the aristocratic Prince Salina in Luchino Visconti's pageant about the unification of Italy. Part history, part timeless visual poetry, this is one of the finest postwar Italian films. The actor and director got off to a rocky start as collaborators but eventually came to respect each other greatly.
The Swimmer (1968)
Middle-aged and conflicted, Lancaster swims home via his New England neighbors' swimming pools in a de facto prequel to "The Ice Storm," based on a John Cheever story. Cheever wrote of Lancaster, "He's very sexy and commanding in the girl scenes but half the time he looks as if he were going to cry which is just right for the part."
Ulzana's Raid (1972)
Lancaster portrays an experienced scout who advises a greenhorn cavalry leader on a mission to capture a bloodthirsty Apache chief, in a western that contemplated America's past to shed light on the Vietnam War, then still in progress.
Go Tell the Spartans (1978)
This subtle, troubling drama, set just before the mid-1960s troop buildup began, is among the best Vietnam War pictures ever made. The subject is how America got into Vietnam; this time Lancaster plays a world-weary military advisor. As in "Ulzana's Raid," blind imperialism and an inability to perceive the world on any but American terms doom a small, isolated combat force.
Atlantic City (1980)
Lancaster was never more endearing than in Malle's film about an aging, two-bit gangster who gets involved in a drug caper and falls for Sarandon. He's so superb as a man desperate to believe in a past he was too ineffectual to make happen that he's convincing even when he recites lines as preposterous as "The Atlantic Ocean was something then. Yeah, you should have seen the Atlantic Ocean in those days."
salon.com | March 10, 2000
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