Sam Shepard could make a man seem worth listening to before he had said much. We value the restraint most in The Right Stuff, though the repeated casting as stoic authority figures could leave him too little to do.
Fi1m perspective
Sam Shepard’s Chuck Yeager makes a dangerous occupation look like work that someone has taken the trouble to learn. In The Right Stuff (1983), his self-possession gives us confidence in the pilot without making a display of courage. We found him stirring because he lets us see the skill in Yeager’s work without insisting that we admire the man. There is enough assurance in the performance that we want Philip Kaufman to stay with him, even with that lively astronaut ensemble waiting.
As the Farmer in Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven (1978), Shepard had already established how much he could convey through physical presence and economy. Wider recognition came with The Right Stuff, which gave that restraint a particularly persuasive use. Kaufman lets him supply the authority while Ed Harris, Scott Glenn and Dennis Quaid keep the astronaut ensemble from becoming too solemn. The satire can be heavy-handed, but Shepard never seems to be pressing a point.
Later roles often called on the same authority, from Garrison in Black Hawk Down (2001) to Frank James in Andrew Dominik’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007). His weathered presence is an apt choice for Dominik’s western, where hero worship becomes uncomfortable to watch. The film rewards patience, though some scenes repeat the point and its pace will not suit every evening.
The reservation is the repeated casting as stoic men in supporting parts. A farmer, a general and an outlaw have different work to do, but asking an actor merely to look seasoned can leave too little for him to play. Yeager gives that quiet a practical purpose: we believe he knows his job, and that belief keeps us watching. Start with The Right Stuff, allowing for Kaufman’s heavier comedy elsewhere.
Biography
Sam Shepard (born Samuel Shepard Rogers III) was an American actor and playwright. He appeared as William F. Garrison in Black Hawk Down (2001) and as Frank James in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007). His other film roles include Frank Calhoun in The Notebook (2004), Hank Cahill in Brothers (2009), Tom in Mud (2013) and Gerald 'Red' Baze in Out of the Furnace (2013).
Shepard wrote numerous plays and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for Buried Child. He won ten Obie Awards and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (1983). He was born in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, on 5 November 1943 and died on 27 July 2017.
