By Nicholas Stix
Tom Sizemore, Saving Private Ryan actor, dies at 61
https://www.audacy.com/krld/entertainment/tom-sizemore-saving-private-ryan-actor-dies-at-61
In Ryan (1998), Sizemore was fantastic as Hungarian Sgt. Mike Horvath, and should have been up for Best Supporting Actor.
Sizemore was a notorious, violent, junkie. He had to promise Steven Spielberg to stay clean the entire shoot, and somehow managed to make good on his word.
In 2002, Sizemore got his own tv series, L.A. Robbery-Homicide, where he played the detective lieutenant who was the supervising officer. The producer was Michael Mann (Miami Vice, Heat, Collateral, etc.). The show, which I watched religiously, was excellent. Sizemore was an intense, dynamic actor, with a visceral power reminiscent of The Bum, when the latter was young. And while Mann engaged in some affirmative casting, he found some talented people (e.g., Klea Scott and Barry Shabaka Henley), in contrast to Dick Wolf, who destroyed his L.A. Dragnet re-make by burying the brilliant Ed O’Neill in a cast full of talentless aa hires (e.g., Eva Longoria, who isn’t even physically attractive, without gobs and gobs of makeup and a push-up bra).
Yesterday, I was reading Anna Magnani’s imdb.com bio page. Magnani’s sometime director/lover, Roberto Rossellini said of her, “She was born with her liver in her teeth.”
Unfortunately, the downside of Sizemore’s visceral personality was his drug abuse.
After 10 episodes of L.A. Robbery-Homicide, Sizemore’s girlfriend had him arrested, charging him with having brutally beaten her. He was reportedly already on probation. ABC immediately cancelled the series, no questions asked, and I figured, Well, it was nice knowing you.
imdb.com has gotten increasingly unreliable. It says of L.A. Robbery-Homicide, “CBS cancelled the series after 10 episodes despite decent ratings. The remaining three unaired episodes premiered on the USA Network in April 2003,” without giving any of the backstory. And when it gives supposed backstory on the show, some of what it says is completely dishonest.
“The character of Officer Alton Davis, played by Mario Van Peebles in the episodes ‘A Life of its own’ and ‘Alton Davis Redux,’ is based on famous Rampart Scandal whistle blower Rafael Antonio Perez. Just like Rafael Perez, Alton Davis got the same police background and occupation : Field Enforcement Section Undercover operations in the Rampart Division and moonlighting as a bodyguard for a famous Gangsta Rap Music Company.”
Rafael Perez wasn’t a “whistleblower,” he was a heinous criminal, who was the central figure (all of whom were black, affirmative action cops) of the lapd ramparts scandal. L.A. da Gil Garcetti issued Perez a host of free felonies, in exchange for testimony of dubious value. (Gil Garcetti was the same, racially corrupt da, who had issued O.J. Simpson two free murders by his choice to have Simpson’s trial in downtown L.A., before an overwhelmingly minority jury, rather than in Brentwood, where the Butcher had committed his atrocity.
Perez was portrayed by Denzel Washington in black supremacist Antoine Fuqua’s movie Training Day (2001). In the movie, Perez’ character experiences street justice, when associates of a Russian mobster he had casually murdered exact revenge.
A year or two ago, I checked Sizemore’s imdb.com page, and whaddaya know? I found tons of credits since L.A. Robbery-Homicide (imdb.com claims the show was called, Robbery Homicide Division. But they were all for stuff I’d never heard of.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Sgt. Horvath: [after Miller sends Jackson out under fire from German machine guns] Captain, if your mother saw you do that, she’d be very upset.
Captain Miller: I thought you were my mother.
[After letting German POW “Steamboat Willie” go, Pvt. Reiben confronts Miller. “Willie” would later kill Capt. Miller, surrender, and Cpl. Upham would, in turn, kill him.]
Pvt. Reiben: I guess that was the, uh, decent thing to do, huh, Captain? [Pause]
Capt Miller: Get your gear. Let’s go.
Sgt. Horvath: [At Reiben] You heard him. Gear up. [Pause] The captain just gave you an order.
Pvt. Reiben: Yeah...Like the one he gave to take this machine gun. That was a real doozy, wasn’t it Sergeant?
Sgt. Horvath: Soldier, you are way out of line.
Pvt. Reiben: [At Miller] Yes, sir. That was one hell of a call coming to take this nest, but...The hell, we lost one of our guys going for it. I swear, I hope Mama Ryan’s real fucking happy, knowing that little Jimmy’s life is a little bit more important than two of our guys! But then again, we haven’t even found him yet, have we?! HAVE WE?! [Sgt. Horvath grabs Reiben and throws him to the ground and attempts to grab him again.] Get the hell off me.
Sgt. Horvath: Reiben, get up. [Reiben gets off the ground] Gear up. Fall in.
Pvt. Reiben: I’m done with this mission. [Reiben walks away, and Horvath runs toward him.]
Sgt. Horvath: Hey! Hey!
Cpl. Upham: [At Horvath] Sir...
Sgt. Horvath: [At Reiben] Don’t you walk away from your captain. Reiben, get back in line!
Pvt. Reiben: No, sir. I’ll spend the rest of my life in the stockade if I have to, but I’m done with this. [Horvath pulls out a pistol on him]
Sgt. Horvath: [Aims the pistol at Reiben] I’m not gonna ask you again, soldier. Fall in!
Cpl. Upham: Captain!
Pvt. Jackson: Aw, now this is bullshit.
Sgt. Horvath: FALL IN.
Pvt. Reiben: You gonna shoot me over Ryan? Sgt. Horvath: No, I’m gonna shoot you ‘cause I don’t like ya.
Pvt. Jackson: Sarge, if he wants to go, just let him go!
Cpl. Upham: [At Miller] Are you letting this happen?! Captain! You see this?!
Pvt. Mellish: Captain, sir. Sir, Ryan’s dead.
Cpl. Upham: Bullshit!
Pvt. Jackson: Sir, we have a situation you might…
Cpl. Upham: That is Bullshit!
Pvt. Mellish: Captain, I have a sixth sense about these things. I know it in my bones.
Pvt. Reiben: [At Horvath] You didn’t kill that son-of-a-bitch Kraut, now you’re gonna shoot me?
Sgt. Horvath: He’s better than you.
Pvt. Reiben: Then why don’t you just do it, Sarge? Do it, man. Put one in my leg and give me that million-dollar-wound!
Sgt. Horvath: I’M GONNA SHOOT YOU IN YOUR BIG GODDAMN MOUTH!
Pvt. Reiben: Well, put your money where your mouth is, and do it, then! Do it! Pull the trigger already!
Sgt. Horvath: You don’t know when to shut up. You don’t know how to shut up.
Cpl. Upham: [At Miller] Captain, please!
Capt. Miller: [At Upham] What’s the pool on me up to?
Sgt. Horvath: [At Reiben] YOU ARE A COWARD SON-OF-A-BITCH!
Pvt. Reiben: [At Horvath] I’m waiting, Sarge.
Capt Miller: [At Horvath; breaks up argument] Mike, what’s the pool on me up to? Wha-Wha-What it is up to? Wh-What is it up to? 300? 300 dollars? 300? Is that it?
I’m a schoolteacher. [Pause] I teach English composition in this little town called Addley, Pennsylvania. It’s uh...Last 11 years, I’ve been at Thomas Alva Edison High School. I was a coach of a baseball team in the springtime.
Sgt. Horvath: I’ll be doggone.
Capt Miller: Back home, I tell people what I do for a living, they think, “Well, that figures.” But over here, it’s a...a big...a big mystery. So, I guess I changed some. Sometimes, I wonder if I changed so much, if my wife is gonna even recognize me, whenever it is I get back to her. And how I’ll ever be able to...to tell her about days like today. Ah, Ryan...I don’t know anything about Ryan. I don’t care. The man means nothing to me. He’s just a name. But if...you know, if going to Ramelle and...finding him so he can go home, if that earns me the right to get back to my wife, well then, that’s my mission. [At Reiben] You wanna leave? You wanna go off and fight the war? All right. All right, I won’t stop you. I’ll even put in the paperwork. Just know, every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel.
Not to speak ill of the dead, but by many accounts he was a troubled, abusive individual -- however, because he played make believe while being filmed, he's publicly mourned like some kind of hero -- seems a bit odd, honestly -- another aspect of tabloid celebrity culture -- the country could do with less of that.
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree,this is the problem with the new celebrity era and obit(post 1980?)where we know everything about the actor's lives and habits(good and bad).Previous to the late 1960s,we judged people like this only on acting skills and the movies they were in--we knew nothing of their personal dark sides(which,looking back,was fine.)
DeleteSo now,this is what we get with the year 2023,and the reader must decide if the acting or musical skills by the deceased,make up for the personal shortcomings they had as a person,and are enough to elevate them to hero status.
As with black rappers,I would say,not.
--GRA