Apologies for Saturday evening's disorderly, disorganized effort - hopefully this will explain all.
So now, if at long last (and admittedly over half a month ago now - (1) on August the first, to be precise), a light has clicked on for me; i.e. the remaining, long-missing pieces of the puzzle that was Robin Williams (and his life on earth) have finally come together for me...c/o a (2) radio interview on RNZ National's weekday Nine to Noon show. And so everything makes sense, after all...
And though this small tribute of mine is awfully, tremendously, inexcusably late - yes, belated to a fault - what a weird thing I've just experienced. Just a minute or two ago, on Freeview's TV1 +, and also Freeview's TV3 + (6 p.m. Evening News-es one hour on), guess who's 'mugshot' was gracing the screen? From a place called Ubadella (or suchlike) in Aussie, a brave kiwi firefighter apparently just lost his life in an heroic last-ditch stand against the unseasonable winter fires presently ravaging New South Wales.
So what, you may well ask,
has that to do with anything? I'm glad you asked. I don't believe I happened to mention said firefighter's name. It's Al(l)an Tull (I think), but what's pertinent here is that the recurring main screenshot displayed
struck me as the veritable spitting-image of Robin Williams (whose memorable, gravelly and toilworn, yet goodness-permeated face was not easily 'reproducible' by anyone).
Yes, on the very night I finally sit down to write this belated piece!
A person whose own name is ever intertwined with the dearest associations of my lifetime's movie viewing. Though admittedly I've only ever been familiar with three of his major acting efforts: as a teenager with his TV comedy 'Mork and Mindy' (rather corny - at the time; (3) but not to me now - hindsight's benefit and viewing RW with rather rosy-tinted glasses over recent decades - and especially post-mortem - has pretty well changed everything for me); later in life (probably from the mid-later nineteen-nineties on) with his role (as English Professor John Keating) in 'Dead Poets Society'; and only a year or so ago I literally stumbled upon (one later Saturday eve) his inimitably brilliant tragic-comedic role as a major actor in 'Mrs Doubtfire'.
Yet strangely enough I've thus far no great desire to see his other major roles, such as Williams' oft-cited 'Good Morning, Vietnam' (I believe it's called). But DPS ever retains a place in memory's hallowed halls and corridors for me, as it essentially sums up for me the tragic genius of Robin Williams: hysterically hilarious in his seriousness, and deadly in earnest in his deadpan humour.
He never needed to try - as so many do - to be 'funny', he simply - ever - was; he just couldn't help himself. Yet simultaneously he was as emotionally 'sober' and in the moment as one might desire - and moreover with an uncanny, instinctual understanding of both the seriousness and urgency of the hour and what the particular moment required.
So what of my sudden realization - my recent 'epiphany' - 'of the puzzle that was Robin Williams? Well, for that we must return to that classic (apparently late 1980s') film, 'Dead Poets Society'.
The unsettling conclusion to the film - or rather the all-important final third or quarter - is one in which one of the college kids, having put his very heart and soul into his one supreme desire - of becoming an actor - finally achieves a much-coveted main role in the college's rendition of Shakespeare's
The Midsummer Night's Dream. However, immediately thereafter - no-one misses a beat in this tension-packed tragic-dramatic masterpiece -
the youth is led to commit suicide by a stoic, inflexible, callous and frankly (9) evil father's simple unwillingness to even countenance his cherished only son's engaging in such a (10) [low-life] career...; let alone thus decidedly spurning
his own favoured life-course of law (or 'the professions' generally).
The reason -
in this particular instance - for my dwelling in such graphic detail upon such intricacies of a film I've ever admittedly been in love with? As you 've doubtless already guessed,
this young fellow's character study, life trajectory and son-father relationship apparently pretty well reflected Robin Williams' own. Which was doubtless why he considered it his (11) best or at least most favourite film/and/or filmic performance (when later in life reflecting upon his various acting roles throughout a long and (effectively, if formally unrecognized) star-studded career).
You see,
that acting-obsessed youth represented Robin Williams himself in a hauntingly uncanny kind of a way: for both had dads who disapproved of their choosing acting as their life's career, and both eventually chose suicide as their means of dealing with withholding of parental approval of the same.
But I exaggerate, no, even fabricate a cosy little parallel(ism) here. For unlike the DPS youth, Williams' own - probable, at least generally-suspected - suicide (through alcohol/drug overdose) happened long - years and decades - after his acting career finally began, and eventually flourished. And no doubt his own father eventually reconciled himself to his son's native (acting) genius. And even if he didn't, unlike the tragic youth of DPS, Robin Williams was not ultimately thwarted by the limitations of parental or familial short-sightedness, but went right on, pursuing the career of his own dreams.
(1) Indeed this almost instantaneous 'insight' hit me the very moment Kathryn Ryan began her interview - the long-lost mystery all-of-a-sudden resolved itself (to my complete satisfaction), as I almost automatically saw how all the missing pieces of the puzzle that was Robin Williams' life on earth (4) fit together beautifully, like the proverbial hand-in-a-glove.
There was a reason why 'Dead Poets Society' was indeed (6) Robin Williams' most inimitable, seminal work. It wasn't just for the obvious fact that therein Williams, as Professor Keating, turned in one of his all-time best performances,
but rather and far more importantly, in some respects, that another major character in the story - yes, one moulded and shaped and formed by Keating's unique pedagogical methods, most assuredly - himself represented Robin Williams' own troubled and problematic life-story and trajectory...
It was thankfully one however which Williams himself 'came through with flying colours'; and yet was unable to completely shake off throughout his life, and that perhaps even caught up with him in the end...as who can say how that withholding of parental approval may still haunt one and manage to not only unsettle but ultimately undo one even into one's later years...?
(2) With writer David Ipscroft, author of
Robin Williams: A Biography.
(3) And actually, from my own perspective, for very good reason - not only, as bereaved folk so often do, only seeing the good and pleasing and none of the bad and defective in the wake of a dearly beloved's departure. For though no real fan of 'Mork and Mindy', as a teenage TV addict I nevertheless, alongside siblings, viewed it often; perhaps the time-slot was simply conducive to this?
Nevertheless, despite one's impressionable early teenage years' recollections (of so many things), nowadays - cf 'the World According to Garth'(?!?!?) -
I can actually see just how Robin Williams' unique personality and temperament fit this particular role like a hand in a glove. How acting as some kind of a mediator between aliens visiting Earth and earthlings might've come naturally to him...why, Williams' own 'talking to and with his animals' (like Dr Doolittle et al) as a kid - "
treating them like separate, individual persons/beings" - even reminds me not only of one close relative in particular, but moreover even myself in those halcyon years of life...
(4) I also well realize that Robin Williams himself wouldn't put things as crudely, bluntly or simplistically as I do here, he being an intuitive, instinctual, lateral-thinking sort of a person, rather than el usual left-brain type of character...
which archetype modern Western Civilization regales to the rafters - alongside athletes and sportspeople of every description ((5) much as Ancient Greece, the originator of the Olympics and their ancient 'predecessor', extolled and exalted the mind (psyche) and body (physique) over the spirit (pneuma) and emotions/emotional makeup).
(5) This 'profound insight' came to me - whether as a varsity student or over subsequent years - on one occasion while traversing the grounds of my old 'Alma Mater', the University of Otago, as my eyes gravitated up towards the various shapes and sculptured figurines (of either Greek musculature in the abstract, or of specific Greek athletes of yesteryear) engraved upon the lovely Oamaru stone building known as the Arts and Humanities Burns theatre(tte).
(6) Sure, I realize he didn't personally either direct or produce this feat of insight into the human condition, but his was an - arguably the film's most - exquisite performance...
and the fact that he has never - even (7)
posthumously - been awarded best (or best supporting) actor by the Hollywood moguls...quite frankly, says a whole lot more about them (and what they consider good and great) than (8)
anything else ever could...
(7) Yes, I considered doing something along the lines of an internet campaign to get Robin Williams 'recognized' thus officially (if posthumously) soon after his death, but never followed up on it.
Though that admittedly might seem lazy,
out of principle I've never joined either facebook or twitter - and in fact never intend to...
unashamedly seeing both as symptomatic of the scourge that modern digital technology has become throughout the Western World in particular...and especially among the 'up-and-coming' generation...which sadly is thus going down-and-down...if not out!
(8) Likewise the utter sidelining of the reputedly excellent Selma, starring Oprah Winfrey, a couple years ago...following it being extolled to the rafters previously, was a curious - and frankly, cowardly - 'touch' in that year's Academy Awards (by selfsame Hollywood establishment).
(9) For a brilliant and inimitable treatment of this oddly much-neglected yet all-important subject - i.e. human evil - see M Scott Peck's
People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil.
(10) Though these days acting's an unduly celebrated career option and lawyers have been - no doubt justly, in many respects - 'given the short shrift'/the short end of the stick (or whatever the saying is)...regularly appearing at the bottom of the public-at-large's frequently-surveyed list of most disreputable careers...alongside their (often alter ego) politicians; a little below media and used car salesmen if I remember rightly...
(11) Which makes me personally quite gratified, as not only was 'Dead Poets Society' a favourite of mine - one out of one for a very long time (as I never really bothered with 'Mork and Mindy' as a youngster (or thereafter), and only came across 'Mrs Doubtfire' a little while ago) - but I'd ever felt it'd been inexplicably bypassed and neglected for proper note even, much less for justly-deserved fame and recognition, plaudits and awards.
