This might just be the best submarine movie ever made. Loosely based on real events from the Cuban Missile Crisis, the film sees Denzel Washington’s First Officer Ron Hunter locked in a tense and claustrophobic battle with his superior, the cigar-toting Captain Frank Ramsay (Hackman), when the latter plans to enact a nuclear strike on a Russian sub without confirming orders from higher up. When his authority is questioned, Ramsay goes full Mad King—Hackman’s Cold War King Lear is frankly terrifying. There’s a lot of sweating and shouting in confined spaces, and it’s the kind of film that could have felt a little schlocky had it not been for having two of the greatest actors of all time at its core, who elevate it to masterpiece territory. And, not for nothing, it has excellent supporting performances from a pre-Lord of the Rings Viggo Mortensen and a pre-Tony-Soprano James Gandolfini.
The Birdcage (1996)
Everett Collection
Hackman perfectly parodied retrograde cultural conservatism in The Birdcage, portraying the Pat Buchanan-style Republican Senator Kevin Keeley, who is invited to Miami to meet his daughter’s fiancée and his parents. The twist is a classic take on the Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner domestic culture-clash: unbeknownst to Keeley, said parents are the gay owners of a popular drag bar, Armand (Robin Williams) and Albert (Nathan Lane), the latter being the joint’s premiere act. And so Armand and Albert do their best to pass as everyday heterosexuals—the brilliant, bizarre gag being that Keeley and his wife (Dianne West) so easily buy into their ruse. And, at the end, Hackman himself drags up: a bold choice for any actor of note in the mid-’90s, not least such an embodiment of everyman machismo.
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Buena Vista Pictures/Everett Collection
Ah, Royal Tenenbaum. The patriarch of Wes Anderson’s iconically fucked-up family (they did light incest before The White Lotus made it cool) is one of the greatest film characters of the 21st century: Unreliable, insecure, petty, deceitful, but simultaneously capable of real warmth and growth. In the film, Tenenbaum, played by Hackman in one of his last film roles, attempts to reconnect with his estranged wife Etheline (Anjelica Huston) and his three kids (played by Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow and Luke Wilson) after he finds himself destitute. When they rebuff him, he pretends he is dying to provoke sympathy, which works until it doesn’t. In the latter half of his career, Hackman excelled at portraying men from the silent generation with layers and layers of emotional complexity under their gruff exteriors. Royal Tenenbaum is that, plus a staggering amount of charisma. Stick it in the Mount Rushmore of Divorced Dad cinema alongside Mrs Doubtfire and Marriage Story.
This story originally appeared in British GQ.
