Viggo Mortensen in role as professor corrupted by the Nazis in 'Good'
Viggo Mortensen's starring role in his new film Good is being hailed by its distributors as an extraordinary change of pace – a fact that makes him sigh resignedly.
One can see why. In Good, adapted from the acclaimed 1981 stage play by C P Taylor, Mortensen plays John Halder, a mild-mannered German literature professor in the Thirties who writes a novel that advocates compassionate euthanasia. The book is seized on eagerly by senior figures in the Third Reich, who use it for propaganda purposes, and Halder is flattered by the attention the Nazis bestow upon him. Soon he is corrupted by their blandishments, and starts to lose his moral compass.
Certainly it's a long way from his dashing, almost swashbuckling turn as the sword-wielding horseman Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But it's not as if Mortensen has never played complex roles before.
His last two films for David Cronenberg prove the point. In A History of Violence, he was a decent, Midwestern family man who had a dark, hitherto unsuspected past. In Eastern Promises, set in London, he played Nikolai Luzhin, a ruthless tattooed Russian gangster who again was not what he seemed.
"I think on a surface level people are surprised to see me playing such a passive role in Good," Mortensen concedes. "But Halder's passivity only lasts a certain amount of time. Still, it's true, in this film I don't pull out a gun and shoot people." He sighs again: "People like to pigeonhole you. It's easier."
The film is unusual, says Mortensen, "because Holocaust-related stories generally have some sort of catharsis – a heroic or tragic conclusion, with something big or extraordinary happening at the end. But what that does is to allow you a safe distance. This movie doesn't allow you that safe place. This story is not just about Germans. It's about when people don't pay attention to what they know to be true. Anyone can identify with those moments in life where circumstances or people inform us that we've strayed from the path of our better nature and intentions. We know what that's like, and we resist it – so as not to feel like we're bad people. But finally Halder is confronted with the decisions and compromises he has made."..
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
One can see why. In Good, adapted from the acclaimed 1981 stage play by C P Taylor, Mortensen plays John Halder, a mild-mannered German literature professor in the Thirties who writes a novel that advocates compassionate euthanasia. The book is seized on eagerly by senior figures in the Third Reich, who use it for propaganda purposes, and Halder is flattered by the attention the Nazis bestow upon him. Soon he is corrupted by their blandishments, and starts to lose his moral compass.
Certainly it's a long way from his dashing, almost swashbuckling turn as the sword-wielding horseman Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But it's not as if Mortensen has never played complex roles before.
His last two films for David Cronenberg prove the point. In A History of Violence, he was a decent, Midwestern family man who had a dark, hitherto unsuspected past. In Eastern Promises, set in London, he played Nikolai Luzhin, a ruthless tattooed Russian gangster who again was not what he seemed.
"I think on a surface level people are surprised to see me playing such a passive role in Good," Mortensen concedes. "But Halder's passivity only lasts a certain amount of time. Still, it's true, in this film I don't pull out a gun and shoot people." He sighs again: "People like to pigeonhole you. It's easier."
The film is unusual, says Mortensen, "because Holocaust-related stories generally have some sort of catharsis – a heroic or tragic conclusion, with something big or extraordinary happening at the end. But what that does is to allow you a safe distance. This movie doesn't allow you that safe place. This story is not just about Germans. It's about when people don't pay attention to what they know to be true. Anyone can identify with those moments in life where circumstances or people inform us that we've strayed from the path of our better nature and intentions. We know what that's like, and we resist it – so as not to feel like we're bad people. But finally Halder is confronted with the decisions and compromises he has made."..