Jon Voight is persuasive when his shifting gaze lets us see the unease inside a damaged man. We value that watchfulness, but the later run of criminals and authority figures has too often given him less to do.
Fi1m perspective
In Megalopolis (2024), Jon Voight's banker Hamilton Crassus III looks mildly puzzled throughout. Francis Ford Coppola gives him an eccentric authority figure, a kind of part that has become familiar territory. Beside Aubrey Plaza, who plays Wow Platinum as though she has decided exactly how much fun to have, he seems uncertain how to proceed. We were disappointed by him here, because the same puzzled expression gives us little to follow. The casting promises more than the performance provides.
The early leading roles asked for men under more immediate strain. His breakthrough was the naive Texan hustler Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy (1969), followed by the city man Ed Gentry facing wilderness violence in Deliverance (1972). Luke Martin in Coming Home (1978) drew on his gift for making damaged men convincing; Runaway Train (1985) gave him the ruthless escaped convict Manny. The shifting eye contact is useful in such company: it can suggest several feelings without requiring him to announce each one. Changes of voice and physical manner give him more than one way into a part.
From the mid-1990s, he worked steadily in supporting character parts, and Heat (1995) is the film we would reach for first. Michael Mann casts him as Nate within a crime story that makes room for loneliness as well as frightening violence. Its patient character work is a substantial virtue, even when the characters explain themselves too much. Voight need not be the centre of attention for this to be rewarding work to seek out. The difference between this and Megalopolis is a reason to follow the director as carefully as the actor.
Mission: Impossible (1996), in which he plays Jim Phelps, belongs to the later run of authority figures that has sometimes restricted what he is asked to do. Ali (2001) offers another example of his willingness to change his appearance and manner, though transformation alone is not what makes him interesting. We want those altered voices and watchful eyes to tell us something about the person in front of us. Megalopolis gives us too little of that to recommend it for him. A director casting him for eccentricity should have something more precise in mind.
Biography
Jon Voight is an American actor. Born in Yonkers, New York, he began his career on Broadway before making his film debut in the mid-1960s.
He came to prominence with his role in Midnight Cowboy (1969), for which he received an Academy Award nomination. Voight won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Coming Home (1978). His other notable films include Deliverance (1972), Runaway Train (1985), Heat (1995), Mission: Impossible (1996) and Ali (2001). He has also appeared in National Treasure (2004), Transformers (2007) and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016).
Voight received the National Medal of Arts in 2019. He is the father of actress Angelina Jolie. In 2024 he played Hamilton Crassus III in Megalopolis.
