Spectrum of Bale

I didn’t plan it, but I almost watched two Christian Bale movies that came out 27 years apart from each other on consecutive nights this week.

It was only “almost” because I had to bail (pun not intended, and only noticed when proofreading) on my screening of Newsies on Tuesday night, as it succumbed to the same kind of erratic playback I described in this post. No more streaming rented movies through iTunes for me. At least not on this four-year-old computer.

But I completed the Newsies watch on Wednesday night, having inserted Knock Down the House as an unexpected buffer between it and Ford v. Ferrari.

Why the hell was I watching Newsies, you ask? Simple: It was randomly drawn for me in Flickchart Fiends Favorites Fiesta, a series where you draw the highest ranked movie you haven’t from another member’s chart every month. And yes, Newsies was somebody’s #3 movie. No judgment.

As for Ford v. Ferrari, I finally watched it and was super glad I did, because it’s awesome.

It was really interesting to see Bale in two very different roles nearly three decades apart from each other. Which is even more of a significant period of time when you consider that those 27 years spanned ages 18 through 45 (sounds like a demographic) for him.

I had a similar experience last year when I saw one of Ethan Hawke’s earliest films, Explorers, for this same series. Then as now, I found myself charmed by the realization that this is the same person, so of course, the various tics and twitches and core acting instincts are all the same, even when there’s a separation of, in that case, 33 years. The Bale I saw in Newsies was the same Bale I saw in Ford v. Ferrari, only with the mannerisms honed and perfected over the years.

I wish I had more profound insight into specific things that I was surprised had not changed, or maybe that had changed, but I guess I don’t have anything further on that topic.

What, you thought you came to this blog to be enlightened?