The two movies Richard Gere cherishes the most: “We were so well-received”
A lot of people, the folk who aren’t really too fussed about films and just want something decent to watch every now and then (which is fine) probably only think about one movie when someone mentions Richard Gere, and that film is Pretty Woman.
Again, there’s no judgement here, even though films are amazing and everyone should be as obsessed with them as we are, it’s just that once you venture outside of the Julia Roberts blockbuster about a very fortunate prostitute and begin to look at the rest of Gere’s career, you’ll inevitably stumble upon Internal Affairs. And Richard Gere is really good in Internal Affairs.
Released around six months before Pretty Woman made Gere a global heartthrob, Internal Affairs is a dark, sweaty, Los Angeles-based police thriller featuring all kinds of back stabbing and corruption and cover-ups. At its core are a couple of great performances, firstly from Andy Garcia as investigator Raymond Avilla, and secondly, importantly, from Gere, who is absolutely psychopathic as the bent cop Dennis Peck.
Directed by British filmmaker Mike Figgis, Internal Affairs was a moderate hit at the box office but fared better on home video and is made all the better by the rumours that Garcia and Gere didn’t get on at all well on set, with the punches thrown being rather less stunt-like than usually expected.
Surprisingly, though, it doesn’t register with Gere as one of his two favourite film roles he’s taken on in a long career stretching back to the mid-1970s. Instead, Gere went with a movie from this century and one of his earliest roles, telling Backstage: “In recent years I’d have to say Chicago. We all had such a great time, and (director) Rob Marshall was such a joy. And we were so well-received. All the way around, it was a great experience.”
2002’s Chicago earned Gere a Golden Globe Award for ‘Best Actor’ – the musical black comedy bringing in more than six times its budget at the box office and landing co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones with that year’s Oscar for ‘Best Supporting Actress’.
Gere’s other choice was the 1979 romance that also won Gere an award for Best Foreign Actor. As he explains: “From the early period, one of my favorites was definitely Days of Heaven. It was the first one that I made, and there was an amazing amount of talent involved. Terry Malick wrote and directed it. Nestor Almendros shot it, with Haskell Wexler doing some additional shooting. Sam Shepard and Brooke Adams were wonderful actors to perform with.”
Malick’s film tells the story of a couple of young Texan gold-seekers in the early 1900s who try to trick a farmer into bequeathing them his fortune by way of a sham marriage. Malick was on a high after directing the 1973 Martin Sheen hit Badlands but despite Gere’s warm words in hindsight, the production of Days of Heaven was beset by issues.
Farm equipment broke, the cinematographer wasn’t allowed to work the camera due to union regulations (although somehow managed to still win an Oscar), filming helicopters sat unused, the script was discarded halfway through and many of the crew ended up quitting.
The film was well received by critics, however, with an Academy Award-nominated score by the legendary Ennio Morricone and a ‘Best Director’ award at Cannes for Malick. Although it didn’t do well at the box office, it has since been viewed as a classic.
Gere has most recently been seen with Michael Fassbender in the CIA action thriller series The Agency, which has been renewed for a second season expected to air next year.
