Actor Spotlight: Sean Connery
From 007 to Indy's dad to escaping Alcatraz, we survey the career of a legend
A couple weeks ago we lost one of the iconic actors of his generation. Sir Sean Connery was the OG James Bond, an Oscar winner, and a welcome presence whenever he appeared on screen. Truly, who among us hasn’t attempted a Sean Connery impression before?
His breakthrough as a young Scottish actor came when he stepped into the role of British secret agent James Bond in 1962 with Dr. No. He went on to play Bond in seven movies over the next 20 years. Post-Bond, in the middle part of his career, he won an Oscar for The Untouchables, played Indiana Jones’ father, and continued to cement his legendary status with movies like The Hunt for Red October. Even late in his career, he impressed in Entrapment and Finding Forrester.
If you think of Connery’s career in three sections -- the Bond years, the 80s classics, and the “he’s still got it” late period performances -- we have movies to recommend from all three today. There aren’t many actors that have inspired the kind of reverence and praise that Sean Connery did throughout his career. The man was a one of a kind legend. RIP.
Drew recommends…
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (streaming on Netflix)
I was first introduced to Sean Connery in this movie, where he plays Indiana Jones’ obsessive academic father. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that Indy’s scholar dad was the immaculately suave original James Bond back in the day! Even after seeing him in many other movies over the years, this remains one of my favorite Connery performances.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the third movie in the franchise, is Billy’s favorite. While I don’t think it can touch Raiders of the Lost Ark, this movie is an incredibly fun ride. After the darker Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (a movie that totally freaked me out as a kid), The Last Crusade returned the franchise to its carefree adventure roots. The plot loosely retraces the steps of Raiders, and there are several callbacks to the original scattered throughout. Still, director Steven Spielberg delivers the breezy and humorous thrill ride that fans were aching for.
READ: Four 1980s Classics Streaming Now
Even though he doesn’t show up until about 45 minutes in, Connery provides much of the movie’s humor, as well as its emotional thrust. It was surprising to see that he had true comedic chops, since most of what he was known for before and after did not involve much comedy. And yet, Connery is hilarious as Professor Henry Jones, Indy’s absent father that disappears during his search for the Holy Grail. When Indy finds him, the interplay between Harrison Ford and Connery is something to behold. All of the fondness and frustration of the father-son dynamic is present in every scene. Their similarities and differences make for nonstop entertainment, and it’s all due to the chemistry between Ford and Connery.
Once I had seen Connery as 1960s Bond, his performance in The Last Crusade became even more delightful in retrospect. It was pretty funny to see a former action spy star play an eccentric academic in a tweed suit and bucket hat. It’s a casting stroke of genius by Spielberg, of course, but Connery makes it so memorable by livening up his typical brusque demeanor in this 1989 adventure epic. He looks like he’s having more fun than ever on screen.
From Russia with Love (streaming on Amazon Prime and Hulu)
Everyone has their own personal favorite Bond. Hint: It’s probably whoever was playing 007 when you were growing up. But I think we can all agree the most iconic actor to ever take a martini “shaken, not stirred” was Sean Connery. As the original iteration, everybody that follows in his footsteps is responding to the template he set before them. The quality and tone of the Bond movies has ebbed and flowed over the years, but no one will ever be more synonymous with 007.
After the success of the first Bond movie, Dr. No, in 1962, Connery immediately reprised the role the next year in From Russia with Love. Apparently audiences were primed for this type of escapist spy fantasy because this movie made $79 million on just a $2 million budget, surpassing the first film’s receipts. It’s not hard to see why when Connery comes swaggering onto the scene. His combination of sophistication, vigor, intelligence, and self-assurance was a perfect match for the character he came to embody. Whether he’s sweet-talking Miss Moneypenny or fighting a man in brutal hand-to-hand combat aboard a train, Connery looked convincing doing it.
From Russia with Love is more of a Cold War espionage thriller than the more action-heavy Bond movies that the franchise would turn toward later. There’s a lot more international intrigue and back-and-forth dialogue than over-the-top set pieces, so if you like the spy parts of Bond more than the shootouts and chase scenes, then this may be up your alley. However, there are still a few show-stopping scenes, as well as the previously mentioned physical battle in a train car that the Daniel Craig Bond movies seemed to have used as inspiration. As I said before, everything in this franchise comes back to Connery’s portrayal of 007.
Billy recommends…
The Rock (streaming on Hulu)
Sean Connery is first and foremost a leading man, but is extremely comfortable being the character that elevates a movie as the 3rd or 4th person on the call sheet. In Michael Bay’s incredibly ridiculous The Rock we have Gen. Francis X. Hummel (Ed Harris) taking hostage the infamous Alcatraz. He is threatening to launch chemical weapons on San Francisco unless he gets 100 million dollars in war reparations for the families of fallen soldiers. The only way to defeat this mad man? Send in chemical warfare expert Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage). The problem is how do they break into a place that no one has broken out of? Well, they thought no one had broken out. That is why they are bringing in the professional escape artist John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery).
I think my favorite part of Michael Bay movies are how he makes seemingly simple premises incomprehensible. The Rock is pure exploitative gold and bringing in the king of exploitative gold, Sean Connery, was a brilliant choice. Bay taps into the suave side of Connery, but focuses on the brooding nature he possesses. From his first moment on screen we realize Mason is not someone to mess with. He is either the perfect man for the job if you can get him to comply. He is smarter and more sly than everyone in this movie, so reining him in will be difficult.
His presence sets the perfect tone for this absurd movie. Movies like this only work one of two ways. There is either a heavy wink to the audience most of the time or the movie takes everything completely seriously. Bay decides to take the story seriously the whole time and it is all the better for it. The action, performances, premise, and attempts at emotion are all big.
Connery proves why he is such an iconic actor. Upstaging actors like Cage and Harris is not an easy task. Both are attractive and loud actors, yet the suave/brooding mood that Connery brings allows The Rock to thrive. The Rock is a near perfect 90s action movie. Pour yourself a martini and witness one of the most iconic actors of all time at the top of his game.
New to streaming in November 2020
Netflix
A Clockwork Orange
Boyz n the Hood
Casper
Easy A
Ocean’s Eleven
Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Platoon
Fruitvale Station
V for Vendetta (November 15th)
Amazon Prime
28 Days Later
Country Strong
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dead Poets Society
Deja Vu
Me, Myself & Irene
Romancing The Stone
Thank You For Smoking
The Expendables
The Insider
Bombshell (November 26th)
Hulu
Big Daddy
The Blair Witch Project
The Jason Bourne movies
Broadcast News
Knocked Up
The Prestige
Slumdog Millionaire
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street
The Waterboy
Working Girl
The Nice Guys
Bombshell (November 26th)
HBO and HBO Max
13 Going On 30
Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Billy Madison
The Fast And The Furious
Free Willy
Happy Gilmore
High Fidelity
The Hobbit movies
The Iron Giant
The Lego Movie
Magic Mike
The Mask
Menace II Society
Mystic River
Old School
Popstar
Swingers
Terms Of Endearment
Wild Wild West