The Critical Ed Harris Filmography - Part 1
The Critical Ed Harris Filmography - Part 1
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You just can't watch movies without seeing Ed somewhere! Here's a list of his roles. I've seen nearly all of these movies, but I haven't seen the ones with about a line or less of information. If you've seen any of the movies that I haven't torn to shreds and know where to get them, please let me know . Click on the title to go to the Internet Movie Database entry for the film. For your further information/enjoyment/torture, I'm giving a general plot summary as well as my personal critique of the movie and/or Ed's performance.
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THE AMAZING HOWARD HUGHES (1977)
THE PLOT... Basically the movie is a biography of the eccentric millionaire, Howard Hughes; it stars Tommy Lee Jones.
THE QUALITY... No idea.
THE PLOT... Based on Robin Cook's novel of the same name, Genevieve Bujold and Michael Douglas star as romantically-involved doctors who become obsessed with a series of inexplicable deaths. Eventually Bujold discovers that the deaths are linked to a black-market organ-selling company...but what she doesn't know is who's in charge of the conspiracy.
THE QUALITY... Pretty good. Ed makes a very limited appearance (65 seconds) as a pathologist carving up a cow lung. And he has hair, believe it or not! Of course the movie doesn't belong to him at all - it belongs to Bujold and Douglas. It's a pretty freaky and good movie, especially for a 70s flick.
THE PLOT... No clue, and...
THE QUALITY... No clue! I can't even find this movie at a video store.
THE PLOT... One of those 80s Charles Bronson vehicles with Ed as his
enemy. Charles Bronson plays a border patrol officer, and Ed is the mastermind
behind a major illegal immigrant operation. When Ed kills Bronson's pal
(briefly played by Wilford Brimley)...well, Ed's in for it, of course.
THE QUALITY... Well, what do you expect from a Charles Bronson movie?
A fair amount of violence, a lot of shooting, a lot of Charles Bronson being
pissed, and not a whole lot plot-wise - pretty much what you would get from
any action movie, really. Ed plays Hotchkiss, the "brainy cold-blooded killer" who also
happens to have a hot car in this movie. He doesn't appear very much even
though he's the villain, but at the beginning it clearly says, "Introducing ED
HARRIS," like it's his first major role or something. Well, I guess it is.
The things I pay attention to. If you've
seen THE ROCK, you might recall that there's a
black-and-white photo of Ed as Hummel, supposedly back in the 60s in
Vietnam. I think that photo is a clip from this movie
because Ed gets to wear cool camouflage and big black boots and carry an Uzi. Too bad he doesn't use it quite as well as he should.
THE PLOT... Boy, this looks promising just from the title. Presumably
the aliens are coming!
THE QUALITY... And this looks like a quality flick too! Okay, so I
don't know anything about this movie either because I can't find it.
THE PLOT... Getting to be a disturbing pattern here...I don't know
anything about this movie either.
THE QUALITY... No idea.
KNIGHTRIDERS (1981)
THE PLOT... Okay, so here's one I can tell you about. Basically
Ed plays Billy Davis, the "king" of a very strange Camelot where people drive
around on motorcycles and joust against/with each other. It's sort of like
a traveling carnival, because that's basically how the people in this group
make money. A rift begins to develop between Ed and the second-in-command
because the second-in-command would like to go public and make lots of money
through endorsements and a tv show, while Ed just wants to live "his" way.
THE QUALITY... Well, if you can't tell from the plot, this movie is
just plain weird. It is so out there, with the premise and everything. I'm
not sure who came up with the idea for this movie, but I assume it's some
sort of statement against society. And Ed, well, he got to ride around with
a cool helmet and really tight...tights. I kind of wonder why the
only other outfit he had was a white shirt and jeans. I mean, if he was the
king, couldn't he at least have had one more set of clothes?
Oh well. The ending is really nifty/funny/sad too, but I won't spoil it
for anyone. Let's just say it's comparable to about the 2nd minute of
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. :^) The movie, however, is most
certainly NOT comparable to LAWRENCE....
THE PLOT... Based on the book by Stephen King, it's a group of four or
five (can't remember offhand) horror stories reminiscent of the 50s.
THE QUALITY... Hey, how can you complain when you've got class actors
like Ted Danson, Leslie Nielsen, and Hal Holbrook (my
personal favorite) in this movie? Needless to say, the movie is pretty darn
cheesy. There's a lot of gore and blood and gross effects but none of it
is particularly believable...probably because it's got that 50ish flavor to
it. Ed plays Hank Blaine, who's married to Kat Blaine, pretty much a rotten
whining woman. He gets to disco (really funny and cool) and he can light a
match anywhere! Off the wall, just by snapping his fingers, off of
gravestones...Ed is so suave and slick in this movie it's unbelievable.
Too bad he kind of gets crushed by a tombstone (oops, spoiled the ending to
his little ten minute role)...but when he does he makes this really funny
sound. I guess I might make that sound too if I were crushed by a 50-pound
piece of rock. SPLUT!
THE RIGHT STUFF (1983)
THE PLOT... This film is based on the book of the same name by Tom
Wolfe. It is a chronicle of the early years of the space program, through
Project Mercury, and also covers Chuck Yeager's trials and tribulations in his
quest to break the sound barrier.
THE QUALITY... This film won four Academy Awards and
probably deserved more. The acting is superb, and although the story is true,
it's still very interesting to see how these people interact. There's
also a lot of funny scenes that keep the action going. The movie does get a
bit tedious, especially in the beginning. Well, it did for me because I
wasn't that interested in Yeager. Ed played John Glenn, good guy astronaut
who gets to be more famous than Alan Shepard (played by Scott Glenn).
He is such a fantastic person in this movie - so faithful to his wife and
his morals it's amazing. So what if he was a goody two-shoes, at least
someone still is/was! If you haven't seen
it you definitely should...but then I've probably seen it enough (probably
20+ times) to make up
for everyone else in the WORLD. I love Ed's hair short and it's
pretty darn short in this movie. :^)
THE PLOT... Well, I've finally seen this movie, so I can finally tell
you what it's about! Gene Hackman, Nick Nolte, and Joanna
Cassidy play three journalists involved in a love triangle and an
employment triangle. The three of them head to Nicaragua to cover the
rebellion. Cassidy and Nolte are swept away by the rebels'
cause, while Hackman just treats it as another job. Eventually, because of
his sympathy, Nolte undertakes an act on behalf of the rebels which results
in some extremely unpleasant ramifications.
THE QUALITY... Actually, for a movie with Nick Nolte in it, it wasn't
bad. No offense but I just can't take him that seriously. And Gene Hackman
wasn't a bad guy, amazingly enough! The movie was pretty interesting, and the
acting and plot were both good. Ed has a fairly minor part as Oates, who
seems to be an American mercenary and amazingly never gets shot or killed. He
was also a druggie or something in this movie, not that that's all that
important. Short hair and a uniform, though - those are pretty key. :^)
THE PLOT... Edna Spaulding (Sally Field) struggles to keep
her farm after her husband is killed in a freak accident. Because she is a woman in the early
part of the century, no one takes her seriously, so she is forced to scrape
and fight for her land and her way of life. There is also a running subplot
involving a love triangle between Edna's sister, Margaret Lomax; her husband, Wayne
Lomax (Ed); and Viola Kelsey (Amy Madigan), Margaret's best friend.
THE QUALITY... This movie has quite a set of
fine actors including Sally Field, John Malkovich, Danny Glover, Amy
Madigan, and of course Ed. I thought the story was pretty moving
and really quite depressing at times. Ed was basically a rotten person; he doesn't
get shot or anything, but he might as well have for the stuff he was pulling
on his wife and mistress. He looked good, though (as if that's any excuse!).
Sally Field turns in a great performance, and John Malkovich is pretty convincing
as a blind man. This movie is on the Disney Channel an awful lot, probably
because it's supposed to be inspirational or something.
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© 1998
Sue Wang
This page was last updated 22 August 1998. 
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