B-Movies and Couch Classics: Traveller • Die Hard

B-Movies and Couch Classics
By Dan Dumbauld, Movie Merchants

Once an actor stars in a blockbuster film everyone expects their next effort to be as big, if not bigger than the last. Bill Paxton decided to go a different route. After starring in Twister, one of the highest grossing films of last year, Paxton’s next role was in the small independent film Traveller.

The film is about a group of migrant Irish-Americans in the South known as the Travellers. The group is so tightly knit that if someone marries outside of the group they are no longer considered Travellers.

Pat (Mark Walhberg) is an outsider whose father married out of the Travellers. When he goes to his father’s funeral he is surprised to see no one is grieving for him. Pat feels like he has a birthright to be a member of the group and is soon taken in by Bokky (played by Paxton). Pat and Bokky go on the road together and Bokky shows Pat how the Travellers earn a wage as small time con-artists.

Along the way the two con several people out of their hard-earned money and cross paths with a mysterious con man named Double D. As Pat becomes better at the cons, Bokky becomes increasingly dissatisfied with his life on the road. Bokky eventually falls in love with a pretty barmaid (E.R.’s Julianna Margulies) who he does not have the heart to con. As he starts a relationship with her, he decides he needs one big con to start a new life. So Bokky, Pat, and Double D get together for one final score.

Traveller is a kindler, gentler, and more rural version of Stephen Frears’ film, The Grifters. In both films the focus is on the con games, but the most important aspects are the con artists themselves. It is interesting to watch the various cons play; however, the growth of the characters is far more compelling.

Oscar-award winning cinematographer (The Unforgiven and The Bridges of Madison County) Jack Green makes his debut calling all the shots. Green still has a great eye for rural landscapes but shows confidence in directing a strong cast. Paxton gives his best and most heartfelt performance since 1992’s One False Move. Mark Wahlberg, the rapper formerly known as Marky Mark, takes a departure from his brash roles in Fear and Basketball Diaries to play the more restrained Pat. Wahlberg is currently receiving Oscar talk for his role in Boogie Nights and is quickly becoming the next Sean Penn.

Bill Paxton gets back on the Hollywood treadmill with his next role in November’s $200 million production Titanic, but it is nice to see an actor who is willing to balance special effects extravaganzas with small interesting character studies.

One of the most difficult transitions in the entertainment world is the one from television to movies. Often times the qualities that make someone a star on TV, like David Caruso’s simmering intensity or David Duchovney’s brooding intelligence, does not translate well on film. One actor who has successfully made the jump from the small screen to the big screen is Bruce Willis.

In 1985, Bruce Willis began his stint as David Addison, the brash private eye on TV’s Moonlighting. After a forgettable film debut in 1987’s Blind Date, his sophomore effort in Diehard made him a certifiable movie star.

Willis stars as John McClane a New York cop who is coming to Los Angeles to spend the Christmas holidays with his estranged wife and family. Soon after arriving at his wife’s company Christmas party, the building is taken under siege by a group of foreign terrorists headed by Alan Rickman. Willis then takes on the persona of a sheriff fighting the bad guys in the old west as he virtually single handedly takes out each terrorist leading up to a memorable confrontation with Rickman.

Diehard is one of the best action films ever. Director John McTiernan, who also directed Predator, The Hunt for Red October, The Last Action Hero, and Diehard with a Vengeance, choreographs some fantastic action sequences. The film’s most famous scene has Willis jumping off of the high rise building’s roof as it explodes. As he dangles on a fire hose he then has to shoot through a window and kick it in before he falls to his death.

Despite the spectacular action, what really makes Diehard a classic is Bruce Willis. The film’s rapid fire, think on your feet pacing is a perfect compliment for his quick wit and macho attitude. Willis spends much of the film isolated from everyone else; however, his interaction with the rest of the cast, specifically Rickman and his wife played by Bonnie Bedillia, is superb.

With this film Bruce Willis proved that he had what it takes to be a movie star and Moonlighting is a distant memory. Now David Caruso and David Duchovney need to find scripts that showcase their talents to breakthrough like Bruce.

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