The movie Morgan Freeman called an “all-time favourite”
Alongside the likes of Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman stands as one of Hollywood’s most decorated surviving veterans. With a career spanning over five decades, his voice of smooth velvet has enhanced acclaimed movies by some of our most cherished directors, including Christopher Nolan, David Fincher and Steven Spielberg.
“For the most part, I’ve played good guys, wise, shit like that,” Freeman said in 2023. He hastened to add that he “doesn’t have a thing about playing a bad guy”. Freeman’s soothing voice and affable charm seem to place him in a similar drawer to Tom Hanks as particularly well-suited to such roles. This doesn’t, however, detract from Freeman’s versatility and command as an actor.
Despite his humble demeanour, Freeman seems to have performance in his blood. If Freeman hadn’t followed his nose into the movie industry in the 1960s, he likely would have found a foothold in the music industry, specifically as a blues musician.
On the side of his acting career, Freeman owns and runs Ground Zero, a blues club in Clarksdale, Mississippi. “We’re going to run the blues into the ground until two o’clock in the morning,” he told ABC News shortly after establishing the venue in 2001. “And we’re going to have an in-house band, and of course, we’re going to have guest groups come whenever.”
Despite revealing a strong affinity with the blues, Freeman described his musical taste as “pretty much eclectic”. As a cinema buff above all else, Freeman has a soft spot for musical movies. Granted, you rarely see Freeman kicking about like Fred Astaire or airing his lungs like Don Ameche, but he certainly likes to behold such antics.
In a feature with Rotten Tomatoes, Freeman revealed his taste for musicals, picking out Moulin Rouge as one of the most consummate examples from the genre. “It is probably one of the best overall conceived and executed films,” he praised. “It’s got the best everything: cinematography, acting, singing, dancing. It’s just all there, really a feast for the eyes and the ears.”
Elsewhere in the feature, the veteran actor discussed the 1952 western High Noon as a favourite encompassing all genres and spanning the ages. “This, with Gary Cooper, is one of my all-time favourites,” he beamed. “I’ve always been a big fan of Gary Cooper’s, and this was a very interesting story of a man finding himself alone to face a man who hates him.”
High Noon, directed by the legendary Fred Zinnemann, follows the story of Cooper’s hero, Marshal Will Kane, who is preparing to retire and leave the small town of Hadleyville when he learns that a man he sent to prison, Frank Miller, is returning to town seeking revenge.
Shot to play out in real time, the movie is regarded as an innovative classic and has inspired countless subsequent film stars and directors, including Clint Eastwood, who idolised Cooper from a young age. Watch the trailer for High Noon below.
