But now that he really has, I see that he had a "colourful" life, continuing into old age:
In 2010 he was arrested after breaking into a bank branch in Connecticut and was charged with carrying an unlicensed firearm, burglary, trespass and carrying a firearm while intoxicated. Police said Torn had broken into the bank thinking it was his home.I have a feeling I probably read about the 2010 incident at the time, but it sure didn't stick in my memory.
After pleading guilty to a number of charges surrounding his possession of a loaded weapon while drunk, he was given a two-and-a-half-year suspended jail sentence in 2010.
Torn also infamously fought director Norman Mailer during the filming of counterculture film Maidstone. In an improvised on-camera scene, Torn — playing Mailer's brother — attacked Mailer with a hammer and attempted to strangle him. Mailer bit Torn's ear in response.
The scene made it into Maidstone's final cut and was apparently planned, but the blood shed by both actors was very real. Torn was reportedly angered by Mailer's direction.
He was wonderful in The Larry Sanders Show, a classic comedy. I've seen him play many different roles in movies. He was the lead in the movie about Henry Miller(Tropic of Cancer).
ReplyDeleteNever got into Larry Sanders. I guess I am a very "hard sell" when it comes to darker comedies.
ReplyDeleteThe great writer was a little fellow. But he learned to box well. José Torres rated him as up to golden gloves level. Jose Torres was from the Constantine D'Amato peekaboo camp. Seldom got hit hard in his entire career.
ReplyDeleteWe have to give credit where credit is due. And to my mind the Jew Mailer is the best prose artist in the English language, in the modern era, except for Cormac McCarthy. But Mailer has more universal facility with the language. McCarthy may be stronger in pure power, but his facility is with antiquated and even more antiquated southern border United States lingo. He hasn't ranged outside of that. McCarthy even wrote a novel in the first person with Jesus Christ the narrator. And he pulled that language caper off flawlessly. You really have to take your hat off to Norman on that basis.
ReplyDeleteNot really helpful to the culture but exemplary in terms of a prose artist. He completely spoiled me in this department to where I became a kind of literary snob. I used to like action novels but I'd go to read them and the wording was so dreary I could no longer take it. For example this novel that I would have otherwise liked was called "The Corsican" Fine novel. In the tradition of The Godfather. Everything I liked in the good story. But being a Mailer-Junkie I simply couldn't enjoy it and I was lost for modern novels until Cormac McCarthy emerged. Prior to that I had to go back and read a bunch of classics.
So when we note that there is some grave and corrosive problem with the leadership of the Jewish community this is not to say that we ought to disregard extreme talent in some of the individuals.
Yeah great taste Graeme. You put me on to Mailer and McCarty. Though before that I loved mailers book on Ali vs Foreman. It seems among the literary writers the best ones are the ones who are not just effete literati but have other interests. Hemingway being another example
ReplyDeleteThe other interesting thing about Mailer was that Rothbard endorsed his campaign for Mayor!https://www.lewrockwell.com/1970/01/murray-n-rothbard/mailer-for-mayor/
ReplyDeleteGood Lord. Now it's like I am hosting the Jason and Graeme Book Club (for Real Men).
ReplyDeleteYour appreciation of the "too much testerone" type authors of the 20th century, jason, must make it hard for u to find any equivalent in the 21st
century.
testosterone
ReplyDeleteI did say literary authors, steve, Genre authors (e.g sci fi) don't need to be Hemingways.
ReplyDeleteI've read Mailer, Hemingway, and Miller. From high school til my early 30's I read novels all the time. Then I lost interest but don't know why. What made me give up all hope is the odd occasion I dared to watch "The Book Club" on the ABC. Pretentious pontificating political correctness obsessed nonsense seems to have taken over the literary world.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I must admit that I did quite like the not infrequent disagreements between the panelists on the show, though. But it never made me want to read the books, because, like you, I don't find much appeal in the themes of modern literature. (Although really, I might like some if I tried it, I suppose...)
ReplyDeleteSteve I'd rate Hesse far above the authors mentioned here. Russian authors should not be read without antidepressants and Victorian era literature is tedious. The only Tolkien novel I liked was The Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings was boring. At time of Hemingway etc novelists were a principle form of entertainment but today there are so many more options to choose from. Perhaps the literary genre has passed its zenith, there is nothing new.
ReplyDeleteYou could have a point there. Art forms wax and wane, and not much sense in complaining about, for example, why epic poetry is no longer popular.
ReplyDelete(I couldn't even get into the Hobbit, and tried twice! I have an allergy to Tolkien.)
In terms of prose stylists, incidentally, I really loved early to mid career Ray Bradbury. He did become boring and of no interest later, though.
Sci-Fi was my preference and perhaps I'm biased against the literary world because it is biased against Sci-Fi. I remember Bradbury.Hesse in his native language was a renowned poet.
ReplyDeleteThe macho stuff is dead and buried. It isn't macho men that make the world what is today. It is nerds. Even movies and TV programs have for the most part abandoned the macho stuff. Be it macho or LGBTQi I don't understand the obsession with sexual identity and no doubt many on both sides would be furious if they knew I equate both dispositions being the same silly preoccupation.