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Thursday, March 4, 2010

Appreciating Reeves by Lisa Alzada Black

Lisa Alzada Black March 4 at 11:33am
Here are some thoughts I quickly wrote up. If you want to post them on a blog great. I think Keanu is great. I'm in the middle of writing a book, should be at work, but oh well. When you get the urge to write, go for it.
Thanks,
Lisa

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We all love our heroes. We love action, romance, mystery and intrigue. We become lost in the book or the movie that we are absorbed in at the time, but then reality strikes, the book ends and we are just…us again. Sometimes that special feeling that we gain from the work, stays with us for a day, and sometimes for a week. We’ve all felt that magic. It’s called a catharsis.
Now on the other end of the spectrum is the writer that writes the story. Add to the author the actors who take on the role they are given. The actor must make the characters come to life. How deeply must an actor commit to a character to bring life to it? I believe that actors, who are committed to the craft, actually become the character for a time.
Keanu Reeves is a good example of this. I love Keanu Reeves for the characters he has brought to life. In one article I read about Keanu he was tagged as the ‘most inscrutable actor ever’. The article went on to say that Reeves had been adored, reviled and grudgingly respected. Well…that’s a compliment to his acting in my eyes. Popular sentiment about Keanu seems to mirror whatever character he is most known for at the time. How many actors can you say that about? Not many. Bravo Keanu!!!


Ted Theodore Logan Esq. made me laugh, and at Ted’s expense. After completing that movie and its sequel, Keanu became affectionately known to America as the lame brained surfer dude. Ted was a national icon and Keanu was the vessel by which we adored him.
But then, Ted surprised some of us. With most of us barely noticing, a guy named Jonathan Harker stole Ted’s body. Suddenly Ted was a lawyer, and quiet, and smart. What? Many of us missed this transition because the shift was so great, and if you ask someone who played Jonathan in that Dracula movie, they’ll say – I don’t know.

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Then came another transition. The action hero. We were glad to see Neo and Johnny and Jack. We forgot all about Ted, and we didn’t miss Jonathan - it hadn’t dawned on us that the same guy that was Jonathan was also Ted. Well anyway, we couldn’t get enough of our hero and we waited for more action movies to make it on the scene. They did in record numbers. Now Keanu was a hero in all of our minds.
Later more movies came along. Romance blossomed. Keanu played the perfect boyfriend, as only he can, and some of us started to question ourselves as to whether we were settling for less than we deserved. Thank you Keanu.
Then suddenly our hero-boyfriend was gone and in his place was a remote, distant, non-emotional and oddly intelligent alien, Klaatu. Klaatu killed a lot of people, but he finally righted himself in the end - we knew a little of that hero still lingered in our vessel, and we were right. Our vessel though, took some heat for convincing us he was an alien. Some columnists still get Keanu and Klaatu mixed up.
Imagine that. Imagine bringing a character to life and then having people adore you, or berate you, because they think you are him. Where does the actor end and his role begin? Funny question, it sounds wrong any way it is asked. Only the actor himself could tell us that. Maybe he will someday.
I will say this. If anybody ever deserved an Oscar, it’s Keanu Reeves. Thanks Keanu for all that you do.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you so much Lisa for the write up. It's always nice to take a moment and read the opinions of individual fans. Keanu is a talented person. Seems fearless in trying new things.

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  2. I am the biggest fan of him. Always dieing to have info about his great movies .I am gona pay thank to lisa for her Appreciating Reeves And this article.

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