Mr. Baldwin,
According to the recent issue of Men’s Journal, you’re contemplating retirement. “I consider my entire movie career a complete failure,” you said. “The goal of movie-making is to star in a film where your performance drives the film, and the film is either a soaring critical or commercial success, and I never had that.” You then go on to say you’ll announce your retirement in 2012, at what you assume will be the wrap party for “30 Rock,” the show that earned you a well-deserved Emmy.
What is this shame over your career? Need we remind you of the highlights? Not only were you a suave motherfucker in “Miami Blues,” but in an alternate reality, you turned down $15 million a decade ago to be in “The Shadow III.” Don’t blame yourself for those mis-steps, blame marketing. Marketing is also to blame for what obscured your role as the best Jack Ryan in “The Hunt For Red October.” You shouldn’t be surprised they centered ads around Sean Connery instead, it’s kinda hard to compete with James Bond.
And what of your work with David Mamet? Guy wrote your entire role in “Glengarry Glen Ross,” in which you just ANNIHILATE a murderer’s row of co-stars! No one will EVER assemble a superstar cast like that again, and centuries later, when people pull that movie out looking for an actor’s showcase, the first impression will be made by YOU. No one could deliver Mamet’s material like you could. And speaking of Mamet, no one could deliver profanity like you. Owning the sole “fuck” in a PG-13 rated movie like “The Aviator,” delivered on the wings of a dove, brought the house down. And don’t get us started on “The Departed,” because when we all quote that movie, we quote you mostly.
And oh, that voice. It could be soothing and warm, like the narration of “The Royal Tenenbaums” providing the right dollop of sugar for that often-sour movie at the right times. It could be tough but paternal, like your Oscar-nominated turn in “The Cooler” as a superstitious casino owner with an eye on the clock. And then, standing alongside giants like you did in “The Edge” with Mamet, Anthony Hopkins, and Bart the Bear, it could be lacerating, creating a full-color character in an otherwise hokey adventure story.
Don’t retire, Alec. We don’t want to give you a God complex, but we think you ARE a god.
