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Mortensen delves into America's cowboy mentality

Co-star of Appaloosa sees classic archetype disappearing amidst shift in politics, values

Katherine Monk, Canwest News Service

Published: Sunday, September 07, 2008

TORONTO - Just how fearless is Viggo Mortensen? Forget his naked fight scene in the movie Eastern Promises. The man is wearing a Habs T-shirt in the middle of Leaf Nation.

"Yeah. I've been booed on the street," says the man with the now-famous chiseled face as he speaks, barefooted, from a plush stage in Toronto's Royal York hotel.

"The press has been on me ... but I don't care. I love the team as a team -- not for any single player."

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Font:****Mortensen says the concept of teamwork is important in any effort involving more than one person, which is why he sees professional sport and acting endeavours in the same light.

It's also why he wanted to work on Appaloosa, Ed Harris's revisionist western based on Robert B. Parker's novel about two gunslingers who clean up a frontier town riddled with bad guys and bullet holes.

"There isn't much difference between sport and drama -- except in sport, you don't know what's going to happen. But otherwise, it's about conflict and rising to the challenge before you. Both have props. Both have a stage, whether it's ice or a field. In a lot of ways, they're the same."

Right now, however, Mortensen is a little more articulate than your average jock in front of a microphone as he talks about his time with Harris on the Santa Fe set of Appaloosa, as well as the most recent turns in American politics.

In the film, Harris and Mortensen play Marshall and loyal sidekick, respectively. Both men carry guns, squint into the open plain and communicate with long, almost loving silences. They're the archetypal cowboys and the base layer of the American psyche that believes in riding into the sunset and heroic endings.

Mortensen says he loves the cowboy ideal as well as the cowboy esthetic, but the classic old codes are fast becoming obsolete as the western world faces a looming geopolitical shift as well as a climate crisis.

"We're going to hell in a handbasket. And just watching the recent (political) conventions, I'm amazed at how the very lack of discussion about certain issues is actually defining each candidate," he says, tucking his bare feet under one of the sofa cushions and nibbling on a chocolate bar.

"I made a disparaging remark recently about Sarah Palin -- and I won't repeat it -- but the thing that really bothered me about watching the Republicans was how they're trying to sell this idea of country first. It's the same thing Bush did. F--- the rest of the world, and I find that so weak. There's no real policy. They're philosophically bankrupt."

Mortensen acknowledges that most people don't like hearing bad news about the future, or the idea that change often demands personal sacrifice. He also acknowledges an affinity for dreaming big, and emphasizing the idea of possibility instead of pragmatics are particularly American obsessions -- beliefs forged in the red-hot crucible of the formula western.

Appaloosa revises that western code by offering up a few simple, but important, changes such as a complex female character played by Renee Zellweger, as well as a somewhat warped notion of justice that allows the lawmen to overlook certain parts of the law when it gets inconvenient.

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the viggo thing seems to get posted hear about once a year.

Really? This is the first time I hear about this!

NIce to hear that Viggo is a Habs Fan!!

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Funny, I'd have though Viggo was a Rangers fan!

(wow, what a dorky joke...)

:)

I'm re-reading the series, I finished The Hobbit and now I'm at Khazad-dûm.

Sam and Tom Bombadil are my favourites but I also love Gandalf, Aragorn/Strider (the name seems to suit him better), Boromir and Bilbo.

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now, see, I didn't know about Gilmour. That's cool.

There's a photograph from the '70s of him performing in a Habs jersey. I think it was a sop to the punters (as a Brit might say), as he is more of a soccer fan (Arsenal, specifically) than anything.

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In all fairness, during that tour she wore clothes from the team of whatever city she was in. The first time I came across those pics, they were together with a bunch from when she was wearing other teams.

she is a fan though, SI had an interview with her a few years ago when they asked her if she was a Leafs fan growing up in Ontario, but she set em straight.

Is Gilmour actually a fan or are we just saying that because he wore a jersey once at a concert? Would be pretty cool since Gilmour is, in my opinion, the best.

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I did some searching.... Add these to the list

Colin Farrell

Ethan Hawke

John Travolta

George Stromboulopoulos

Georges St. Pierre (UFC God !!)

Norm Mcdonald

There were others but not confirmed ;)

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I did some searching.... Add these to the list

Colin Farrell

Ethan Hawke

John Travolta

George Stromboulopoulos

Georges St. Pierre (UFC God !!)

Norm Mcdonald

There were others but not confirmed ;)

that is just an awful list. Outside of St. Pierre and Stomboulopoulos, this is frankly embarrassing.

It is quite funny that Hawke counts himself a fan... I remember the other thing he liked in Montreal :lol:

Norm MacDonald is somewhat weird in that he would have grown up in Quebec City while the Nordique were there, but I guess as a pissy English kid it makes sense that he would go with the Tricolore.

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It is quite funny that Hawke counts himself a fan... I remember the other thing he liked in Montreal

What was that?

that is just an awful list. Outside of St. Pierre and Stomboulopoulos, this is frankly embarrassing.

Hey! What's wrong with John Travolta? He was amazing in Pulp Fiction!

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What was that?

The girl with whom he had the affair that wrecked his marriage.

Hey! What's wrong with John Travolta? He was amazing in Pulp Fiction!

go watch Battlefield Earth, Phenomenon and Look Who's Talking Too and come back to me.

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The girl with whom he had the affair that wrecked his marriage.

go watch Battlefield Earth, Phenomenon and Look Who's Talking Too and come back to me.

That's it blow up a career for taking huge paying JOBS :wacko:

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That's it blow up a career for taking huge paying JOBS :wacko:

I'd generally agree with you, though in the case of Battlefield Earth, Travolta forwent money in order to make his magnum opus. That was the film in which he has the biggest stake and the most control.

As to Phenomenon and the Look Who's Talking movies, I would argue that Travolta was cast to type - and what a type!

He has been the weak link in so many of his movies - even his better films, like Get Shorty.

Bottom line, I think he is a mediocre actor and, by all appearances, a nutjob.

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I'd generally agree with you, though in the case of Battlefield Earth, Travolta forwent money in order to make his magnum opus. That was the film in which he has the biggest stake and the most control.

As to Phenomenon and the Look Who's Talking movies, I would argue that Travolta was cast to type - and what a type!

He has been the weak link in so many of his movies - even his better films, like Get Shorty.

Bottom line, I think he is a mediocre actor and, by all appearances, a nutjob.

Seriously, i thought he is VERY good in Face/Off, Basic, Pulp Fiction and Swordfish. He pulled some great performances along with a few flops. Everybody has his.

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The girl with whom he had the affair that wrecked his marriage.

I didn't know that! Now I know...and knowing is half the Battle! G.I JOE!!!! ;)

go watch Battlefield Earth, Phenomenon and Look Who's Talking Too and come back to me.

I haven't seen Battlefield Earth as well as Phenomenon. So i can't really comment on them. AS far as Look who's talking is concerned, can we really blame him? It was the 80's...when everything sucked!

Edited by Habsfan
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