Tag: True Romance

Dennis hopper man!

It’s been nearly 13 years since the late Dennis Hopper’s death and I still haven’t gotten over it. Obviously the greatest actor who ever lived, Hopper’s career spanned six decades.

I was laughing to myself the other day thinking about Hopper as a man who dedicated his entire life to the Army, even becoming a general, only to regret everything. “Hey man! This is bullshit! The Army’s bullshit man! Fuck you and fuck my life!”he yelled. Maybe you have to have served to find that funny. But then I remembered: Dennis Hopper DID play an Army Colonel in some shitty TV show called the E-Ring.

It’s a shame though that 90% of the Dennis Hopper clips on YouTube are of him being racist in True Romance. There’s so much more to his performances; from being a cartoonish villain in Super Mario Bros. to being another cartoonish villain in Waterworld. People never appreciated the subtlety to his acting. That’s why I’m disappointed that no one has made a smash cut of his best scenes in E-Ring.

That being said, you can get entire episodes of the E-Ring on YouTube but I don’t want to watch that shit again. Nevertheless, here’s the first episode from the series:

Dennis Hopper: GOAT

Phil Spector, Carrie Fisher, Stevie Nicks, and the greatest of all, Dennis Hopper, are all on the Mount Rushmore of cocaine addicts.

In case you forgot, Mr. Hopper was the star in over 104,000 films

Dennis Hopper brought an intensity to his craft that has yet to be matched. In addition to his acting, his talents also extended behind the camera as director of such unforgettable classics like The Last Movie, Colors, Out of the Blue, and Chasers (starring a peak form Tom Berenger).

The 1969 film, Easy Rider, Hopper’s directorial debut, kickstarted the “auteur” fad in Hollywood that extended throughout the 1970’s (which ended in 1983 when, again, three people were killed. And again, RIP). Sadly, the 70s saw Dennis Hopper’s acting career more or less flatline, which was likely due to his aforementioned cocaine addiction (which is unfortunate. The decline of his acting career that is. Not his crippling cocaine addiction).

However, there was a Dennis Hopper renaissance in the 1980s, with the height of his success coming in 1986 as the sadistic Frank Booth in Blue Velvet and the alcoholic Shooter in Hoosiers.

Hopper rode this newfound fame on into the 90s and 2000s, saying ‘yes’ to any script that was handed to him. Who can forget the time he fought Keanu Reeves on top of a train in Speed? Or taught Kevin Costner how to act in a bad movie for Waterworld? Or gave the greatest racist monologue in the history of film (written by Quentin Tarantino) in True Romance?

Dennis Hopper passed away in 2010.

No matter the script (remember, he was in Super Mario Bros.), no matter the personal dramas in his life, Dennis Hopper always gave it his all.

He was an actor’s actor.

He was the GOAT.