He’s an award-winning actor, formerly declared “the sexiest man alive.” He’s a romantic lead who has made hearts swoon for decades. He is Richard Gere, and this weekend he’s back as a mentally ill homeless man in Time Out of Mind, the latest drama from acclaimed filmmaker Oren Moverman (The Messenger).
With over 50 movies to his credit, Gere has undeniably made his stamp on Hollywood. But what, for the record, is the best Richard Gere movie ever? Our panel of experts – William Bibbiani, Witney Seibold and Brian Formo – are back and, as always, they each only get to pick one film to hold up as the gold standard.
Find out what they picked, and come back next Wednesday for another highly debatable installment of Crave’s The Best Movie Ever!
Previously: The Best Movie Ever | Robert Redford
William Bibbiani’s Pick: Days of Heaven (1978)
Paramount Pictures
The best Richard Gere movie ever? Days of Heaven. Wow, that was an easy one. Can I leave early this week?
Richard Gere is one of those movie stars whose talent and charisma are undeniable, but who somehow rarely winds up in a movie that actually knows what to do with him. He’s a real charmer in Pretty Woman (a movie I find rather despicable, but that’s a topic for another time), and a fascinating shyster in Primal Fear. He’s creepy as hell in Internal Affairs. There are some impressive moments in an otherwise mostly nondescript career, scattered throughout the decades, but none more impressive or powerful than Terrence Malick’s poetic melodrama about cruel deception in the turn of the century Texas Panhandle.
Gere plays Bill, Brooke Adams plays Abby, and together they decide to swindle out a dying millionaire (Sam Shepard) out of his fortune by tricking him into a sham marriage. But the damned thing is, their mark refuses to die. And so Bill and Abby, now posing as brother and sister, are trapped and unable to love each other. And then the locusts come…
Nearly 40 years later, Days of Heaven remains Malick’s finest work, combining his rich nature photography with a vicious drama and watching them play into each other, vying for dominance. It’s a rapturous film that uses Gere’s romantic persona to skillfully dramatize a classic downfall. It’s one of the best movies ever made.
Brian Formo’s Pick: Days of Heaven (1978)
Paramount Pictures
When you are a beautiful leading man and you star in the most beautifully shot film of all time it makes for a damn easy choice for “Best Movie Ever” for said leading man. Terrance Malick’s Days of Heaven uses all natural light and a child’s precocious narration, but—despite all the beautiful wheat shots—it is a classic love triangle. And for the film to register outside of prettiness and become one of the best films of all time, the principal duo’s love must be felt. Thanks to Richard Gere, Days of Heaven does have heartbreak.
To give a Malick film heartbreak the two leads (Gere and Brooke Adams) must be able to look at each other in ways that convey their attachment through prolonged attention rather than dialogue. In the case of Days of Heaven, a third man—the rich man (Sam Shepard)—must be able to do the same thing, but also show suspicion. Gere deceives Shepard when he observes those glances at Adams, and he convinces his lover to stay in the big house for a while, so that she can marry the sickly man, and eventually she could receive and share his fortune.
We first meet Gere working as a laborer in a Chicago mill. He gets into an altercation with the foreman and immediately leaves town. At the farm their deception is cruel, but their deception actually doesn’t begin with malice. Gere and Adams pose as brother and sister as soon as they venture to the Texas panhandle to find work. They pose as brother and sister because they are not married, and non-married men and women who travel together should be kin, otherwise they’d be perceived as immoral. Gere is able to convey the pride that he has, and we know that he’d marry if he could provide a house to live in. So, his extra-deception is to provide her that much, whether he’s there or not.
Now, that’s heartbreak.
Witney Seibold’s Pick: An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
Paramount Pictures
Ever since Pretty Woman, Richard Gere – while having played a wide variety of roles – seems to be cast on his approachability alone. He has a warm smile, a handsome face, and a friendly demeanor that lands him romantic leads with a startling frequency. Even when he’s in non-notable thrillers like The Jackal or Red Corner he is still serving the same function: that of the approachable, friendly, often loving guy. He is always stretching himself as an actor, but I feel that directors rarely give him a chance to showcase his talents properly. At last, with Oren Moverman’s Time Out of Mind, we get to see him outside of his prescribed comfort zone, and finally performing.
Hence, a lot of Gere’s best work comes from decades ago. He is rather good in Terrence Malick’s astonishing Days of Heaven, and not enough credit goes to Gere for Sidney Lumet’s rarely-talked-about political condemnation Power. His best performance, however, and his most iconic role easily comes from Taylor Hackford’s 1982 Oscar darling An Officer and a Gentleman. The early 1980s were still a time of cinematic darkness in many ways (this was before lighthearted fare like Back to the Future asserted itself as the identity of the decade), and An Officer and a Gentleman still bears a naturalistic ’70s tone, paired with what I see as a gentle analysis of the way the military functions on a day-to-day, non-wartime basis. Gere plays Zack Mayo, an impetuous young thing raised by a hard-line military father (Robert Loggia) who gives him the one path he can follow: that of a military man.
Mayo must live or die by whether or not he can become an officer in a Naval flight academy, under the terrifying tutelage of Louis Gossett, Jr. Gere is convincing as an acerbic and naughty youth, but you can see and hear his desperation; there’s a reason why his now-famous “I got nowhere else to go!” speech is still quoted. Gere has also never hammered himself so hard physically for a role either, looking sinewy and tough. The military is the only hope for this man, as it is for so many. It’s not much, but it can be a deep solace.
