JamesGarner Tagged Articles at Cinematical

In 1964's The Americanization of Emily, James Garner plays Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Madison, a "dog robber" serving under a Navy general. His job is to procure whatever his boss needs, be it booze, food, cigarettes, or female companionship, and he's very good at what he does. A proud coward, Madison's figured out that the best way to avoid being killed in a war is to stay as far away from the fighting as possible. Until, that is, he ends up at Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion as part of a PR stunt, and ends up an inadvertent hero.

Written by Paddy Chayevsky (Network, Altered States) and directed by Arthur Hiller, the story focuses on Charlie's love affair with a London war widow (Julie Andrews) who's lost her husband, brother and father in the war and finds Charlie's avowed cowardice encouraging -- she can't bear the thought of losing another loved one, and she thinks his attitude is sensible.

In one of the film's best scenes (you'll find it after the jump), Garner uses his considerable charm to make what could have been a preachy, heavy-handed scene into something memorably moving. When Charlie meets Emily's mother, a proud patriot who lives in denial that her husband and sons have been killed, he tells her how he came to his philosophy about war. After enlisting in the Marines, Charlie found himself in a unit invading the Solomon Islands: "There I was, splashing away in the shoals of Guadalcanal. It suddenly occurred to me -- a man could get killed doing this kind of thing. Fact is, most of the men splashing along with me were screaming in agony and dying like flies."

The problem, Charlie explains, is that war makes men brave, while the sensible attitude, the survival-oriented approach, is to be a coward.

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If you expected Mel Gibson to stick firmly behind the camera following his well-known and drunken tirade, guess again. Looks like the statute of limitations has worn off our collective distaste for the actor, and he's planning to celebrate by mounting a sequel to the 1994 flick Maverick. Word is that James Garner is interested in coming back -- but nothing on the participation of Jodie Foster has been offered thus far. (Which is a shame because Jodie, playing it light for a change, was one of the true highlights of Richard Donner's Maverick.)

According to Hollywood.com, Mr. Gibson is overstuffed with nifty new ideas for Maverick 2: "I think audiences will enjoy what we've got in mind. It won't be happening immediately, but I dare say, it'll happen." He then goes on to say that there'll be no more Mad Max or Lethal Weapon sequels because "there's nowhere to move with those characters." Right, but the characters in a sequel to a remake of an old Western series ... tons of latitude there. Kinda funny that he'd deride sequels with one breath while also floating teasers on a different sequel, but hey, Mel's always been a bit eccentric.

(For the record, this (Jewish) writer holds nothing against Mel Gibson for his nasty remarks. The guy said some stupid things, apologized for them, and moved on. Happens to "normal people" every day -- but it's still kinda tough to forget about it completely, you know? Having said that ... Maverick 2? The first one was cute enough, but ... nah.)