16 thoughts on “MCM: Rutger Hauer

  1. I guess Blade Runner doesn’t really count as a Frock Flick…but you can’t really say it wasn’t a costume drama. He had some great costumes in that film…sigh.

    Not asking you to expand your remit here. This comment applies to Rutger Hauer, not sci-fi movies.

  2. I have seen The Mill and the Cross. It is a bit odd, but worth seeing. The way the Brueghel paintings come to life is fascinating for anyone who loves that artist’s works as I do. And I love Rutger – he always looks to me like a medieval knight (although I first became aware of him in the wonderful “Soldier of Orange”)

  3. I really would have loved to see him as Lestat! Seems to me that Anne Rice wrote the character with him in mind, but by the time they got around to filming, he was too old.

  4. Can confirm that Bloodhounds of Broadway is a lackluster film; it’s made up of a bunch of unrelated stories by Damon Runyan and relies on a narrator and characters happening to turn up in the same location as other characters to string together all the various plots. Madonna plays a showgirl named Hortense – who gets called Horty by a lot of the other characters – and whose whole plot is to sing one slow ballad with Jennifer Gray and fall in love with Randy Quaid.

  5. Rutger Hauer is one of those actors who, growing up, I disliked for no good reason. Just… didn’t like his face I guess? We all have those and it’s fine as long as you acknowledge it’s irrational. Then I saw his amazing performance in Blade Runner (1982) and 100% reversed my opinion. Now I love his work haha.

    Of course he’s perfect for Flesh+Blood and Ladyhawke.

    I’ve seen Eureka (1983) and even though the plot is, in theory, straightforward, it’s honestly one of the weirder movies I’ve seen. Just the tone… it feels like fever dream logic. And the “climax” is downright ghoulish.

    I’ve also seen The Mill and the Cross (2011). I remember it’s a gorgeous film but very slow and contemplative so set your expectations accordingly. Worth at least one watch, though.

    As for the dancing shot that piqued your curiosity in Soldier of Orange (1977): [Non-historical] MINOR SPOILERS.

    It may diminish the impact if you plan on seeing it, but if you’re that curious: read on. So as you pointed out, it’s about Dutch students and some defect to the Fascists. Rutger Hauer’s character Erik (based on the real-life Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema) sides with the Dutch resistance and eventually the [British] RAF. The Waffen-SS officer is Alex, Erik’s former friend and classmate. Erik brazenly infiltrates a Nazi ball so he can see his former friend face-to-face. The two tango while subtly, politely confronting each other. The director said it symbolizes “the fragile balance between good and evil”. It’s a great, poignant scene.

    I highly recommend Soldier of Orange. It’s not a typical WWII movie. It has some tropes of one, of course, but it’s more of a morality play that uses WWII as its catalyst. Great film.

    [/rant]

  6. I’m interested in seeing Eureka now that I know it’s based on the murder of Sir Harry Oakes and Rutger Hauer plays a fictionalized version of Alfred de Marigny. I remember seeing Inside the Third Reich on TV in high school and I think the grey-haired guy in The Scorpion King IV photo is Barry Bostwick not Rutger Hauer.

    1. Eureka is impeccably made, but unsurprisingly it is a dark, mean-spirited movie. The murder scene is harrowing.

      Worth seeing, though.

  7. Is it me, or that last picture of Rutger in the Chanel Solitaire very PRB adjacent?

    I’m trying to decide exactly which one of the models it remind me most of – Fanny Cornforth? Alexa Wilding? Touch of Jane Morris?

    I don’t know whether it was deliberate or not (not having seen the film to know the context!), but it’s the eyes, jawline and lips that really caught my eye and made me think along those lines…

  8. About Flesh+Blood: they are matching because he stole from noble, wealthy traveling people, and he wears the son wedding garb. And she, well, she’s the bride. So she was supposed to match her future husband at the altar ^^

  9. It speaks volumes about the Dario Argento DRACULA that Mr Hauer’s portrait from MATA HARI is whole orders of magnitude more ‘Van Helsing’ (It is, in fact, quite scarily perfect for my mental image of the character … even if he was not a ginger, which the Good Professor canonically is).

    Amusingly, the film’s Dracula (Mr Thomas Kretschmann, doubtless relieved to get a shot at playing someone who isn’t associated with the Third Reich for once) actually played Can Helsing himself – though sadly in another candidate for ‘Worst Adaptation in the History of Dracula’.

    Clearly when it comes to vampires Mr Kretschmann should have quit while he was ahead after BLADE II.

    1. Ed, I haven’t seen Argento’s Dracula, so I can’t comment on its quality. I can add, though, that Thomas Kretschmann also played Van Helsing on an American TV show called Dracula back in 2013. That show was…I can’t even find the words… But I can say that Kretschmann, who I was also relieved to see in a non WWII role, was doing the best that he could with the role…

  10. Not a huge fan of him in general, but I do love LadyHawke. It’s cheesy and yet so funny and romantic. He’s also in The 10th Kingdom, which is set in a fairy tale world.

  11. I am not ashamed to say that I loved Gallivant (it didn’t hurt that the male lead was dreamy) but I don’t actually remember Rutger in that.

    The matching costumes in Flesh and Blood has something to do with after Rutger and his band of pillaging mercernaries (and the sex workers who love them) kidnap the virginal Jennifer Jason Leigh, they manage to storm a wealthy aristocrat’s stronghold and then they have access to to the wardrobe of the lord and his family which they dress up in and have sex and wine. Also, we see Roger in a medieval g-string which had a lot of things to do with my becoming a woman.

    Ladyhawke is an 80’s-tastic masterpiece. The costimes are blah, but Rutger and Michelle are supernaturally beautiful and the soundtrack is wonderful.

  12. I might have seen Blade Runner first, but I remember Hauer best from Ladyhawke. One of those movies that could have been forgettable or so-bad-it’s-good but ended up being neither because of the really strong lead performances.

  13. Oh, Rutger Hauer definitely had his moments of hotness, throughout his entire career. But, all I can say is that this post was a delightful part of my day. Thank you! GREAT MCM choice!

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