Robert Forster, who died in 2019, was a character actor for the ages. He had a couple of lead roles. He got noticed in 1969's cinema verite classic "Medium Cool." And we are forever fond of the campy monster movie "Alligator," which was written by noted director John Sayles. Let's revisit them both.
MEDIUM COOL (1969) (A) - Haskell Wexler, the celebrated cinematographer and documentarian, stepped up as a director to be noticed with his mix of fact and fiction that resulted from his fortuitous decision to make a movie on the streets of Chicago in the fateful year 1968. He took the germ of an idea from a novel (about a boy fascinated by the critters of the city) and turned it into the tale of a TV news cameraman/reporter, John Cassellis (Robert Forster), who befriends an Appalachian single mother and her son, who keeps a homing pigeon.
An early scene is shot outside Kennedy headquarters shortly before RFK's assassination, setting the tone for the unfolding of events that would culminate in the protests and police brutality outside the Democratic National convention at the Amphitheater and in Grant Park across from the Conrad Hilton hotel. Wexler, wielding one of the cameras himself, shoots guerrilla-style, absorbing the actual events while his actors pass through the scenes, Zelig-like.
Borrowing from the playbook of Jean-Luc Godard, Wexler expends much real estate on documentary-type subjects -- National Guard drills, an up-close romp at the Roller Derby, street scenes of poor transplants in the Uptown neighborhood. He knits his narrative throughout, including Cassellis' visit to a black household, hoping to do a follow-up story about a man who turned in $10,000 that he found, only to be confronted by the hosts who object to the white perspective the news channel perpetuates at the expense of minorities. The movie is peppered with polemical speeches.
Wexler (who would go on to work on such films as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Bound for Glory" and "Coming Home") has a natural eye for both mayhem and beauty. A shot of the release of hundreds of pigeons is probably used in film-school classes. Cassellis holds the center as a restless foe of the system in his own right, bucking the bosses who are sympathetic to the police and the Man. Forster has a low-key charm that works especially well on the women around him, without coming off as a cad. He is tempered by Peter Bonerz (from the original "Bob Newhart Show") as the timid sound-man who partners with Cassellis. Also on hand is a raw Peter Boyle as a regular joe who runs a pistol range.
The ringer here is Harold Blankenship as the 13-year-old boywho embodies the hardships and the hopes of the youth of the day. In Wexler's hands, this all comes together as compelling and urgent, and the Criterion restoration is bright and crisp. The visuals can be a distraction from the subversive tactics Wexler uses here as he not only toys with fact and fiction but also fictionalizes the facts he is given, creating meta moments that induce a heady swirl.
ALLIGATOR (1980) (B+) - This one is still a hoot. Forster stars as a beleaguered police detective who is convinced he saw a giant alligator in the city's sewer system. Turns out, a baby alligator had been flushed down the toilet years earlier (remember the urban legend?) and grew to massive size on a diet of pets disposed of by a pharmaceutical company testing a synthetic growth hormone.
The prolific John Sayles cut his teeth as a screenwriter for this and another post-"Jaws" cash-in ("Piranha") while trying to establish indie cred as a director of such touchstones as "The Return of the Secaucus Seven," "Matewan" and "Eight Men Out." His humor is dark, and his dialogue crackles -- especially the banter between Forster's David Madison and the scientist who becomes his love interest, Marisa Kendall (a droll Robin Riker). Toss in Michael Gazzo ("The Godfather Part II") as the harried police chief, and you've got an ace team going all-in on a silly, gruesome tale.
My favorite part of the movie continues to be the running commentary on Madison's thinning hair, a topic he is particularly sensitive to. Sayles finesses such smart comic elements with a good measure of bloody gore, all mixed to camp perfection. Other character actors -- Bart Braverman, Henry Silva, comedian Jack Carter -- sink their teeth into broad roles as various adversaries for the monster.
The cliches get ticked off here -- Madison lost a partner at his last job, and here the chief is going to ask for his gun and badge -- and the story glides along amid the mayhem. Forster is an engaging leading man, and he leads this crew with a wink and a sly grin. It's raunchy fun.
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