WILLIAM HURT

                                                     Part 2

        The late William Hurt just had too many good films to fit into one article. So here are five more movies he made before his death at 71.

        Hurt continued his run of good parts in good movies when he appeared as Tom Grunick in Broadcast News (1987). Grunick is handsome and witty but not terribly bright. He is hired to perk up the ratings of a TV network. His boss is Jane Craig (Holly Hunter) and she is less than thrilled that Tom is replacing the much more seasoned and capable Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks). This film is a tongue-in-cheek look at TV news. It was nominated for seven Oscars, and didn’t win a one. Hurt was nominated but lost to Michael Douglas for Wall Street. 

        The Accidental Tourist (1988) is faithfully taken from one of Anne Tyler’s whimsical novels. William Hurt is spot on as Macon Leary, who writes travel guides to help tourists avoid problems. Macon is married to Sarah (Kathleen Turner) but becomes attached to Muriel (Geena Davis) and juggles his relationships with the two back and forth from the USA to Paris. 

        Now I’m not going to try to convince you that William Hurt is in the same league as Olivier. But his Rochester is really not bad in one of the latest incarnations of Jane Eyre (1996). Hurt could stretch pretty well and this part requires it. Anna Pacquin is Jane in this one. I admit I’m in love with the 2011 version with Mia Wasikowska as Jane. Her speech with Rochester just breaks my heart every time.  But all of the versions I’ve seen were good. 

        William Hurt portrays Angus Tuck, the patriarch of a blessed (cursed?) family. They have drunk from a secret spring and cannot die or be hurt. Sounds great, right? Well, it’s not. And Angus spends most of the movie trying to convince others to keep the spring a secret and that living forever is not all it’s cracked up to be. Tuck Everlasting (2002) is taken from Natalie Babbitt’s fine book. This unusual film also features Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, and Ben Kingsley as the mystical Man In The Yellow Suit.

        Hurt appears as Richie Cusak in A History Of Violence (2005). He is the hoodlum brother of Tom Stall (Vigo Mortensen), hiding in plain sight from his violent history as Joey Cusak. Joey/Tom is trying to put the past behind him but his brother won’t let him and tries to have him taken out by his hirelings. William Hurt was nominated for Oscar in this movie. He lost this time to George Clooney for Syriana. And guess what? Hurt shows up in Syriana also. He was everywhere!

        William Hurt can also be seen to good effect in the film of Anna Quindlen’s  One True Thing (1998). 

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD.  All are for adults. And BTW the dead guy you never see in The Big Chill is Kevin Costner.