Gene Hackman, 1930 - 2025

There are six performers who I consider the titans of modern American acting, all of whom emerged in the New Hollywood films of the 1960s and 1970s - Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Duvall, and the late, great Gene Hackman. It's been hard watching my heroes get old, particularly when their performances are among the most alive and energetic ever put on film. I knew it was only a matter of time before these legends began to leave us, and in February, Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Hackman tragically passed away in their New Mexico home.

Truth be told, my earliest memories of Hackman are from the 1998 DreamWorks Animation film Antz (where he voiced the villain, Mandible) and The Replacements (2000), a football comedy co-starring Keanu Reeves. It wasn't until 2001 that I became exposed to the full range of what the great man could do onscreen: in David Mamet's Heist, he was the essence of cool alongside Danny DeVito and Delroy Lindo; in Behind Enemy Lines, he was rock solid as a commanding officer opposite Owen Wilson; in Heartbreakers, he was the wily comic relief; in The Mexican, his one scene was the high point of the film; and in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, he gave (in my opinion) the best performance of his entire career. I saw each of these films in cinemas in 2001, and Hackman made a strong impression - one that was about to be expanded when I started watching his earlier work.

The Royal Tenenbaums holds a particular significance for me. In the months leading up to its release, I was anxiously awaiting the film after reading about it in Entertainment Weekly's fall movie preview issue (I ended up cutting out the film's poster from the magazine and putting it on my mom's fridge - where it remains to this day). I remember adoring Tenenbaums when I saw it opening weekend in Austin (at the original Arbor Cinema location, which became a Cheesecake Factory not long after) - but it was my second viewing experience that remains among my most cherished.

I spent some time in late 2001 and early 2002 at my grandmother's house in East Texas, where my father, a struggling alcoholic, was also staying at the time. After numerous stints in rehabs over the prior few years, he was attempting to start over, working as a clerk at a local courthouse. I hadn't seen much of him that year, as he wasn't living in Austin, but we got to be with each other for a little while over the winter break. That trip turned out to be the last time I ever saw him, as he passed away on April 29th, 2002 from a heart attack brought on by excessive drinking.

Having already seen The Royal Tenenbaums and knowing my father's affinity for Wes Anderson's prior movie, Rushmore (1998), I was insistent that he and I see the film together. The only problem is that it wasn't playing anywhere in East Texas. The closest cinema playing Tenenbaums was in Shreveport, Louisiana, which is about an hour drive from Hallsville. That didn't deter us - we took a father-son road trip to see the movie, listening to a newly-purchased Bryan Adams cassette tape on the way.

As we watched The Royal Tenenbaums in that Shreveport cinema, I'd like to think it wasn't lost on me that this film I so desperately wanted my dad to see was itself about a neglectful father trying to make amends with his children before his death. It wasn't an exact parallel to our relationship, but the film touched on enough resonant themes that it felt like the right movie to see at that particular moment. I wish I remembered my dad's full reaction to the film, but I do remember he found one of Hackman's lines very funny: "Well, we'll have to swing by her grave, too."

With Royal Tenenbaum, Gene Hackman gave us a character with a wicked sense of humor and a self-destructive bent - but one who also genuinely desires to make amends to those he's hurt. The character felt real, particularly in the heightened world for which Wes Anderson has become so well known. I don't know if my dad saw anything of himself in Hackman's performance, but it's a character I've held close ever since his death. And it's partly why I consider it the most moving, full-bodied performance Gene Hackman ever gave.

In the years following my dad's passing, I dove headfirst into movies as a necessary distraction, with a particular interest in the films of the 60s, 70s and 80s. This sent me on a collision course with many of Hackman's seminal films, including Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde (1967), William Friedkin's The French Connection (1971), Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974), Alan Parker's Mississippi Burning (1988), and Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992). These were movies that I cherished, and I count all of them among my favorite films. It was clear that not only was Gene Hackman still giving powerhouse performances in new releases (as evidenced by his five screen performances in 2001 alone), but that he was at the forefront of many of the great American films of the 20th century.

During my early teenage years, I saw a number of grief counselors, and I remember one of them told me his favorite movie was Jerry Schatzberg's Scarecrow (1973), starring Hackman and Al Pacino as two vagabonds. Hackman himself considered this his best performance, and it's a remarkably moving buddy comedy that remains underseen (despite having won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival). Another unheralded gem from this era is Arthur Penn's Night Moves (1975), which is about to get a 4K release from The Criterion Collection. I always cite this movie as having one of my favorite taglines: "Maybe he would find the girl... maybe he would find himself."

In 2010, while studying at NYU, I became friends with Grant Rosenmeyer, who played Ari Tenenbaum in The Royal Tenenbaums. I was (and still am) in awe of him - here is somebody who went toe-to-toe with Gene Hackman at ten years old (and in his first movie, no less)! Needless to say, I relished the behind-the-scenes stories Grant told me about working on that film. It's heartwarming to hear how gentle Hackman was with the child actors on set, making sure they were safe during stunts, had enough to eat at lunch, and were treated as equals to their adult counterparts by the cast and crew.

In writing this admittedly meandering tribute, I haven't even touched on Hackman's extraordinary work in films as varied as Reds (1981), Hoosiers (1986), The Firm (1993), Get Shorty (1995), The Birdcage (1996), Young Frankenstein (1974), Superman (1978), and Runaway Jury (2003). I'm grateful that there are still dozens of Hackman films I've never seen - it feels like there's a treasure trove of great performances awaiting me. Gene Hackman's warm, familiar screen presence and mirthless chuckle will live on forever through his tremendous body of work. We're lucky to have had him as long as we did.

The Top 100 Movies of the Decade

I’ve seen many movies in the past decade – an almost embarrassing number, actually – and now, at the end of the decade, I have compiled what I believe are the 100 best movies, in preferential order. Of course, the rankings are fairly trivial – I can’t really argue that #36 is superior to #37 – but the list gives you an idea, anyway, of the movies that resonate with me, the ones that have made an impact on my life.

This is my list. Some people may laugh at some of the choices, but no matter – I believe in the greatness of these films and, in one way or another, each of the movies on the list has changed me. Inevitably, this list will change in the years to come, as I will certainly come to appreciate some films in a different way, and my opinions of others will fall.

But for today, at the very least, here are the 100 best movies of the decade, 2000-2009. By Jack Kyser.

1. The Departed (2006; Martin Scorsese)

2. Mystic River (2003; Clint Eastwood)

3. No Country for Old Men (2007; Joel and Ethan Coen)

4. The Aviator (2004; Martin Scorsese)

5. Lost in Translation (2003; Sofia Coppola)

6. Gangs of New York (2002; Martin Scorsese)

7. There Will Be Blood (2007; Paul Thomas Anderson)

8. Minority Report (2002; Steven Spielberg)

9. Brokeback Mountain (2005; Ang Lee)

10. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001; Wes Anderson)

11. Adaptation (2002; Spike Jonze)

12. About Schmidt (2002; Alexander Payne)

13. Zodiac (2007; David Fincher)

14. Munich (2005; Steven Spielberg)

15. Almost Famous (2000; Cameron Crowe)

16. Wonder Boys (2000; Curtis Hanson)

17. Into the Wild (2007; Sean Penn)

18. I’m Not There (2007; Todd Haynes)

19. The Wrestler (2008; Darren Aronofsky)

20. A Serious Man (2009; Joel and Ethan Coen)

21. Million Dollar Baby (2004; Clint Eastwood)

22. Sideways (2004; Alexander Payne)

23. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004; Michel Gondry)

24. Inglourious Basterds (2009; Quentin Tarantino)

25. 21 Grams (2003; Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu)

26. Milk (2008; Gus Van Sant)

27. Memento (2001; Christopher Nolan)

28. City of God (2002; Fernando Meirelles)

29. The Dark Knight (2008; Christopher Nolan)

30. Children of Men (2006; Alfonso Cuaron)

31. Up in the Air (2009; Jason Reitman)

32. Collateral (2004; Michael Mann)

33. Mulholland Drive (2001; David Lynch)

34. Slumdog Millionaire (2008; Danny Boyle)

35. 25th Hour (2002; Spike Lee)

36. Michael Clayton (2007; Tony Gilroy)

37. Capote (2005; Bennett Miller)

38. Syriana (2005; Stephen Gaghan)

39. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006; Clint Eastwood)

40. Babel (2006; Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu)

41. Synecdoche, New York (2008; Charlie Kaufman)

42. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007; Andrew Dominik)

43. The Good Shepherd (2006; Robert De Niro)

44. Black Hawk Down (2001; Ridley Scott)

45. American Splendor (2003; Robert and Sheri Springer Bergman)

46. Crazy Heart (2009; Scott Cooper)

47. Revolutionary Road (2008; Sam Mendes)

48. The Hurt Locker (2009; Kathryn Bigelow)

49. Road to Perdition (2002; Sam Mendes)

50. House of Sand and Fog (2003; Vadim Perelman)

51. Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 (2003 and 2004; Quentin Tarantino)

52. Traffic (2000; Steven Soderbergh)

53. Shattered Glass (2003; Billy Ray)

54. Far From Heaven (2002; Todd Haynes)

55. Little Children (2006; Todd Field)

56. United 93 (2006; Paul Greengrass)

57. Before Sunset (2004; Richard Linklater)

58. Match Point (2005; Woody Allen)

59. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007; Sidney Lumet)

60. Monster (2003; Patty Jenkins)

61. The Quiet American (2002; Philip Noyce)

62. The Pianist (2002; Roman Polanski)

63. Matchstick Men (2003; Ridley Scott)

64. Little Miss Sunshine (2006; Jonathan Davis and Valerie Faris)

65. Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005; George Clooney)

66. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008; David Fincher)

67. Walk the Line (2005; James Mangold)

68. Rachel Getting Married (2008; Jonathan Demme)

69. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000; Joel and Ethan Coen)

70. Ghost World (2001; Terry Zwigoff)

71. The White Ribbon (2009; Michael Haneke)

72. Passing Strange: The Movie (2009; Spike Lee)

73. Gosford Park (2001; Robert Altman)

74. Precious (2009; Lee Daniels)

75. A Beautiful Mind (2001; Ron Howard)

76. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003; Peter Weir)

77. Punch Drunk Love (2002; Paul Thomas Anderson)

78. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2006; Tommy Lee Jones)

79. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009; Wes Anderson)

80. Finding Neverland (2004; Marc Forster)

81. The Fog of War (2003; Errol Morris)

82. Hotel Rwanda (2004; Terry George)

83. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001; Joel and Ethan Coen)

84. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007; Julian Schnabel)

85. Frost/ Nixon (2008; Ron Howard)

86. Sin City (2005; Robert Rodriguez)

87. American Gangster (2007; Ridley Scott)

88. This is England (2007; Shane Meadows)

89. The Squid and the Whale (2005; Noah Baumbach)

90. The Pledge (2001; Sean Penn)

91. (500) Days of Summer (2009; Marc Webb)

92. Shine a Light (2008; Martin Scorsese)

93. A Single Man (2009; Tom Ford)

94. About a Boy (2002; Paul Weitz)

95. Public Enemies (2009; Michael Mann)

96. Insomnia (2002; Christopher Nolan)

97. Burn After Reading (2008; Joel and Ethan Coen)

98. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005; Shane Black)

99. The Last King of Scotland (2006; Kevin MacDonald)

100. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004; Wes Anderson)

The Best Films of the Decade: #10

10. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001; Wes Anderson)

Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) wasn’t the last movie my father and I saw together before he died – in fact, we actually saw quite a few movies together over the New Year's holiday in January 2002 at my grandmother’s house in Hallsville, Texas. I vividly recall the night of January fourth – my dad was extremely excited to take me to see the weekend’s new movie, Imposter (2002; Gary Fleder) that night in Longview. The movie was merely okay, but his joy and excitement – to go out for pizza with his boy and then head to the Longview movie theater – was endearing.

It was only a few weeks earlier in Austin that I had first seen The Royal Tenenbaums at the Arbor cinema with my mother, my good friend Manny Munoz and his mother Beverly. At eleven years old, I was already claiming that I had seen “the best film of the year.” As it turns out, I was right.

While staying at my grandmother’s house that January, I wanted more than anything else for my father to see The Royal Tenenbaums with me. I knew he would love the movie and appreciate its dry sense of humor. Alas, the nearest theater showing The Royal Tenenbaums was over an hour away – in Shreveport, Louisiana. But my father – sharing my love for movies and, more than anything, wanting his son to have a good time – decided to make a road trip out of the situation. And so one morning we drove out of Hallsville and stopped in Marshall on the way, and he bought a cassette tape of the Bryan Adams album So Far So Good at the Marshall mall, and I bought a cassette tape of Bruce Willis and his band performing live (my father’s car still only played cassette tapes – and his two favorite tapes, bar none, were the Adams recording and the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?).

When we arrived in Shreveport, we bought tickets to The Royal Tenenbaums, and then my father drove me around the city and showed me the casinos of Shreveport. Eventually, we got to the theater and watched the movie. I can’t really recall exactly what he thought of it – I’d love to say that my dad loved Anderson’s movie as much as I did, but I really don’t know. All I remember is that he never laughed as hard as I did at the movie’s dark humor.

My father and I would see a few other movies together in January, including The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001; Peter Jackson), In the Bedroom (2001; Todd Field), The Shipping News (2001; Lasse Hallstrom) and Black Hawk Down (2001; Ridley Scott) along with my mother in Austin, but it’s The Royal Tenenbaums that provides the most powerful and interesting memories. I wish, more than anything, I could be back in that Shreveport movie theater and watch the movie all over again with my dad.

Only in the years since my father’s death have I truly been able to appreciate The Royal Tenenbaums on an entirely different level. When I was eleven years old, I believe I was drawn to the movie because of its incredible cast and its note-perfect melancholic balance between absurd comedy and devastating tragedy. I don’t think I need to mention the incredible style of the film – it goes without saying that Anderson is the finest example of a modern-day auteur filmmaker, and every one of his films are exquisitely shot.

But after watching Anderson’s story of an eccentric New York family countless times in the past decade, I can’t help but look at the character of Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) without thinking of my father. No, my father was certainly not estranged from the rest of his family, nor did he fake having stomach cancer in order to get back into the good graces of his family. But the humor, the wit, the possibilities of redemption, the reconnection between father and son, the reuniting of a family of oddballs, and the lasting impressions made before death – these are the aspects of Royal Tenenbaum that speak to how I remember my father.

The Royal Tenenbaums is a very funny movie, and it is also a very sad movie. When I was eleven, I was enamored by the droll and heartfelt performances from Hackman, Angelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson and Danny Glover. I immediately bought a copy of the film’s soundtrack, one of the hallmarks of any Wes Anderson movie – Tenenbaums alone brilliantly uses Ruby Tuesday by The Rolling Stones, These Days by Nico, Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard by Paul Simon, Judy is a Punk by The Ramones and a cover of Hey Jude in joyous and cathartic ways that only Wes Anderson can achieve. But I believe I was aware and appreciative of the tragic themes in The Royal Tenenbaums without ever being able to relate to them on a personal level until after my father's death.

I wonder if perhaps my dad didn’t laugh as much as I did at the movie because he recognized the sadness of the film, the melancholy of Royal Tenenbaum and his desperate efforts to make his family love him again before he dies. Neither my father nor I could possibly know that in four months, John Kyser would be dead. But only after my father died and my perception of the movie changed dramatically was I truly able to start wondering what he may have seen in the movie - as a father - that has taken years of repeated viewings for me to understand. My only regret is that in order to understand The Royal Tenenbaums on a deeper, more personal level, I had to lose my father.