The two movies Hugh Jackman calls “game changers”
When considering actor Hugh Jackman, his portrayal of Logan/Wolverine in the Marvel X-Men film series first springs to mind. Jackman played the clawed superhero between 2000 and 2017, which actually makes him the longest-serving Marvel actor playing a single character.
Jackman is, of course, much more than just Wolverine. He’s also played in a number of significant features, including Van Helsing, The Prestige, Australia, Les Miserables, Prisoners and The Greatest Showman, some of which feature the actor singing, going to show he’s several strings to his professional bow.
During a feature with Rotten Tomatoes, Jackman once named his five favourite movies of all time and drew attention to two movies in particular that he considers “game changers”. The first is Michael Cimino’s 1978 Vietnam War movie The Deer Hunter, starring Robert De Niro, John Savage, Meryl Streep and Christopher Walken.
Jackman first saw Cimino’s film when he was still a teenager, and it opened his eyes to what one could achieve in the acting profession. “I saw that when I was 15, and that blew my mind about what was possible with acting,” the actor said. “Yeah, that was a game changer.”
The Deer Hunter tells of three steelworkers who previously served in the Vietnam War. After returning from the conflict, they struggle to assimilate themselves back into civilian life. The movie shows the trauma that was inflicted on Vietnam servicemen and the dire consequences it caused.
Jackman then pointed out another “game-changing” movie, the film that began the Indiana Jones franchise, Steven Spielberg’s Raider of the Lost Ark, released in 1981, starring Harrison Ford in the lead role. Again, it’s another film that had a big effect on Jackman after he saw it as a child.
“It’s another game changer for me. I saw it when I was 12, I think. 11 or 12,” he said. “I just remember saying to my brother, ‘I didn’t know movies could make me feel like this.’ So it transported me. I believed in it.”
“It was fun, it was funny,” the actor continued. “I was on the edge of my seat — everything about it. I remember saying to him, ‘I didn’t know movies could make me feel like this.'” Raiders of the Lost Ark takes place in 1936 and sees the archaeologist Indiana Jones battle with Nazi forces to try and find the Ark of the Covenant, an artefact which is rumoured to have the power to make any army invincible.
