Despite our obnoxious teasing about bad movies, we're serious when we say we consider Jürgen to be a great actor. Actually, we like the fact that he's not snobby about scripts, because if he were snobby, there'd be fewer movies to watch him in...and the body of his work wouldn't be nearly as much fun...and we'd be somebody else's fan club instead of his. But you don't get to have an international 30-year career as a character actor with over 70 credits to your name without being one of the best, and don't you forget it.
Why do we like Jürgen?
For one thing he's darn subtle, the quality which made most of the scenes described in "The Best of Jürgen Prochnow" some of our favorites. Despite the fuss about his eyes that comes up so often when he's mentioned anywhere, it isn't just that. The fuss, in case you still don't know what's going on, is that Jürgen knows how to use eyes in a way that almost no other actor does. He can have no expression on his face at all and still convey any emotion there is - or any combination of emotions - through his eyes alone. It's awesome.
By the way, this makes it very difficult to choose shots from the movies to illustrate a particular point. Look at how {fill in the emotional adjective} he is here! WHERE? I don't see anything - he's just standing there. Well, no, he's not; sometimes what you get from Jürgen at a moment like that is impossible to represent in a single frame taken out of context. See the guy in action, and you'll be convinced in a heartbeat. His eyes are the windows of his soul, or at least of his characters' souls.
This is not to say that he doesn't use real facial expressions. Happens all the time. He's just amazing with those too, which is why it ticks us off so much when he gets a director who makes him play a cartoon character. (John Irvin! John Frankenheimer! Front and center, and confess to your guilt like men!) We like the real stuff. Good guy or bad, there's the raised eyebrow; the lifted head and the glare from under half-closed lids; the tightening of the corners of the mouth; the quick, self-deprecating smile; the sigh; the pass with the hand over the face or hair. Jürgen makes a lot of little moves that always seem entirely unselfconscious and convey everything they're supposed to.
We refer you to the Great Slow Burn in DAS BOOT. True, the camerawork is designed to draw your attention to him; even so, with that vacuous officer right next to him the whole time, in full view, gabbing incessantly, it's Jürgen's job to MAKE you focus on the Captain without doing a darn thing - and boy, does he ever!
He has an enormous capacity for scene-stealing. No matter what's going on or who else is on camera, if Jürgen's in sight and so much as twitches, you almost have to look at him. So it's much to his credit that he never twitches when your attention is supposed to be on someone else. He never upstages another actor even when when the other actor is begging for it. He's darn good at that too. You can find any number of scenes where he's right in the middle of the picture and just makes himself invisible until it's time for you to notice his character again. Now there's a hallmark of a real pro.
Then there's the voice, which he also uses expertly. Wonderful expression, wonderful cadence. Two of the best examples of voice use that spring to mind are THE MAN INSIDE, where Wallraff pushes his way into Tina's house with authority and then teases her; and a line from THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS: "Meg?...Meg, I'm gonna find you." If Jürgen didn't invent the seductive threat (and he may have), then he certainly perfected it.
Jürgen is also a treat onscreen because he can move. You rarely see actors running in a movie who can - or do - really run. Jürgen runs hell-for-leather when he runs, and we appreciate that. We also appreciate the hopping across hoods of cars, jumping from heights, vaulting over fences, and all the things he does so well to put action into the action pictures. He dashes around better'n anybody.
Athletics aside, he just moves with extraordinary masculine grace all the time. Everybody else always looks a little bit klutzy next to him. It's no coincidence that he's played so many military roles - he has both the authority and the bearing for it. He knows how to use that too. He carries himself so well that any time you see him slumping or slouching or hanging his head in a scene, he gets more across by it than most actors can.
He's also very, very good with women, children, and animals - when he's not playing a villain, of course - and we don't care how talented an actor you are, you just can't fake that. It's awfully appealing.
All taken, this makes Jürgen Prochnow a great actor who's a darn nice guy (we insist), and that makes him our favorite. He gets all our thumbs up, and we hope he gets yours too.
Go watch some movies!
| HOME PAGE | INFO PAGE |
All original written material is copyrighted ©1999-2001 by Swine Flew Publications. All rights are reserved. If you like the writing that much, you can copy it, repost it, use it in your term paper, whatever. We don't care. But if you take credit for it or sell it, we're comin' to get ya.