Take the greatest movie of all time, at least in my humble opion, and single out the greatest performance of all the characters. What do you get? Reverend Shaw Moore. John Lithgow. Footloose.
Oh, you aren’t down with Footloose? You aren’t particular fond of the greatest tale of teen angst and religious opression and small town morals run amok and the power of dance to show off your frustration PLUS randomnly placed scenes of teen drug use, warehouse gymnastics, domestic violence and Chris Penn dancing? And did I mention full-on tractor chicken races?
Like I was saying, in the greatest movie, the totally bad-ass Lithgow steals the show as Shaw Moore, preacher man and daddy dearest, humble husband and grieving father. First he brings down the fire, and then when it gets too hot, he cools it all back down. He is the straw that stirs the drink in Bomont, Reggie Jackson ain’t got nothing on him. “No dancing!” he says, and people are all like, “yeah!” Then he’s like “Well okay, dancing” and people are all like “um, sure.” That is some serious baller attitude people. And you know how he got those skills, practice (sorry A.I. it’s true) You want people hanging on your every word you need to make your “whoahs” sound as convincing as possible when preaching from the pulpit.
Plus, he’s doing it all while dealing with an absolute slut of a daughter. Some double word score for him.
And in the end, how is he repaid, how does a group of his peers reward J-Lith for his tour-de-force (always wanted to write that) performance? They don’t. They snub his ass in 1984 in the Best Supporting Actor Race? Maybe they thought his nominations for “According to Garp” and “Terms of Endearment” were enough. But he didn’t win either of those, and clearly he was just rounding into shape for his 1984 role of Rev. Moore. I mean, look at who was nominated in ‘85 (the year he was eligable) for that award.
http://www.filmsite.org/aa85.html
Not to go all Seth and Amy on you, but “Really? Eric Roberts and Robert Loggia? Really?”
I say let’s correct a wrong and stand up and cheer. Reverend Shaw Moore, you were awesome!
Tags: Chris Penn, Footloose, John Lithgow
