The Travolta Principle

If I were to tell you that I believe John Travolta is one of the greatest actors of all time you would think I was an idiot.  And to be fair, if you look at the totality of his career you will see not just a few, but a lot of really shitty career choices.  (I’m not talking about Battlefield Earth here, a forgivable mistake, but more so the entire ouvre of “Look Who’s Talking”).  Thrown in the scientology factor, the ill-fated foray into pop music and the whole obsession with airplanes and things start stacking up against John.  But that’s before you apply the “Travolta Principle” to the equation and see how it shakes everything up.

The “Travolta Principle” can be explained thusly.  If an individual at any point in their career creates an iconic figure that is eternally revered then whatever choices they make from that point on are null and void of discussion.  It is so named after John Travolta due to the reason that despite his many, many, many bad career choices, the fact that he played both Tony Manero AND Danny Zuko (in succesive fashion no less, achieving him status in the “Credence-Wonder Pantheon”; another classification for another time) has automatically isolated from any future critical commentary.

Tony Manero and Danny Zuko, two iconic, gigantic, masterful thespianic performances, from the same man, completed back to back.  Do you know hard that is?  Some actors go their whole lives trying to get just one role that lives forever and Johnny boy did them consecutively.  Throw in his roles in “Welcome Back Kotter”, “Pulp Fiction” (aswesome if overrated) and the hugely underrated “Face/Off” and “The Experts” and the man has a CV chockful of awesome parts.

But back to Tony and Danny, these are the roles that made him, that transformed him into an icon for the ages.  The dancing, the attitude, the ridiculous line readings whether done intentionally or not, that continue to captivate movie-goers all these years later.  And if you think I’m being hyperbolic I challenge you to not think of Travolta in the White Suite as Tony Manero or in singing “Grease Lightin’” while dancing in front of the suped up hot rod and taking not one, BUT TWO COMBS, to slick back his hair in the middle of the song.  You can’t do it, because those images are seared into our collective brains for eternity.  Now, it takes real talent to do that, and Travolta had it with room to spare.

Sure, you may laugh at what Travolta has become, the fact his head has reached gargantuan proportions over the years and his losing battle with his receding hairline has reduced to him spraying his hair on with a can for most movies.  It doesn’t matter.  He has achieved eternal glory from his previous efforts. 

Now, the “Travolta Principle” can be applied to all walks of life, but applies strongest to areas of entertainment and sports.  Robert Carlyle hasn’t done dick since “The Full Monty” but his role as Begbie in “Trainspotting” has earned him enough good will to last a lifetime.  Mike Scott may have been nothing more than an above average pitcher but his 1986 season and split-finger fastball still haunts the dreams of those whose faced him and Mets fan everywhere. 

Of course, there are those who try to abuse the principle for their own benefits when they are clearly not worthy of it’s bestowing.  Consider one Vincent Pastore, who played Big Pussy on the first two seasons of “The Sopranos” before being shot down for being a FBI stool pigeon.  He has tried to ride that particularly gravy train for almost ten years now, and still manages to pop up from time to time.  The problem however is that his role wasn’t that big, his character wasn’t that memorable and his trying to parlay his little bit of fame comes across as just sad and pathetic.  Conversely, Gandolfini never has to do anything ever again, he was Tony Soprano and always will be Tony Soprano.

As time goes by on this blog and my interest remains manageable I will look to celebrate others who have achieved this lofty status.  But for today, the praise goes solely to the man whose name adorns the title of this post and for whom the idea was sprung.  John Travolta, you are the man, no matter what atrocities you might subject us to in the future.

 

Tags: Grease, James Gandolfini, John Travolta, The Sopranos