"He’s a much better actor than critics normally allow"
With The Italian Job restored and re-released in cinemas for its 55th anniversary, revisit this RT column from film critic Barry Norman in 2000, originally headlined "Praising Caine"…
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This piece was originally published in RT in December 2000, just after Michael Caine had been honoured with a lifetime achievement award, a second Oscar and a knighthood.
I reckon that about one in seven of Michael Caine’s 100-odd films is really worth seeing. I mentioned this to him once and he took it as an acceptable average. "Nobody wants to make bad movies," he said, philosophically, "but sometimes they don’t turn out right."
Against that, however, Caine’s own performances, no matter how disappointing the movie, usually do turn out right because he’s a much better actor than critics normally allow. Give or take a dodgy upper-class accent, he was excellent in Zulu, better still in Alfie and best of all in Get Carter, these being the films that, early on, earned him a cult following that continues to this day among young cinemagoers.
Caine's first major film role was as Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead in 1964's Zulu. SEAC
Right there you have three very different roles, all certainly underlaid with the distinctive Caine charisma but equally all very well played. Anyone who still doubts his acting ability should watch Sleuth, a two-hander in which he held his own with Laurence Olivier, whereupon I rest my case.
That he has had five Oscar nominations and won twice (for Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules) proves little — some truly lousy actors have won Oscars — except the respect which he is accorded by his peers. That I don’t think he deserved the award for The Cider House Rules is strictly a personal judgement and doesn’t alter the fact that, like his peers, I hold him in high regard. His versatility, if more examples are needed, is clear from such disparate films as The Ipcress File, The Man Who Would Be King and Educating Rita.
He can, as occasion demands, be the hero, a passable light comedian or downright sleazy. And somehow even his really bad films — The Swarm, Ashanti and Jaws the Revenge spring gloriously to mind — are often bad on such a grand scale as to be rather enjoyable, partly because, as a consummate professional, he always gives his material (however unworthy of him) his best shot.
Barry Norman remained a columnist for RT until his death in 2017. Getty
Because he is so dependable and is always careful to keep his salary demands reasonable, Caine is rarely out of work, arguing that frequency of screen appearances is vitally important. His role model is Clark Gable. "I bet hardly anyone can name even ten films Gable was in," he said. "But because he made a lot of movies everyone knows who he was."
That he has two Oscars proves little — some truly lousy actors have won Oscars — except the respect which he is accorded by his peers
During the 90s Caine had a brief crisis of confidence and made a couple of TV films to sort himself out. The therapy seems to have worked: since his return to the cinema he has made two of his most successful pictures (Little Voice and The Cider House Rules) and could be in line for another Oscar nomination with his latest effort, the costume drama Quills, wherein he plays the medical director of a mental asylum who is even more sadistic than its most notable inmate, the Marquis de Sade (Geoffrey Rush).
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All of which seems to suggest that Michael Caine, 67 now, will be around for a long time yet.
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