Open Happy Birthday Thread: Rutger Hauer

Should have had a Walken like career. He has an awesome screen presence. Plus one time Tom Brokaw told a story about feeling really uncomfortable interviewing him. I liked that.

What impressed me most about Hauer was how he dropped his accent. In his early work, his Dutch accent was pronounced, though everything he said was clear. Then, when he did "Ladyhawke," the accent was suddenly gone. He sounded like Kirk Douglas. It was great to have a new guy sounding like Kirk and doing Kirk stuff. He must have done some hard work with the speech coaches.

One of my favorite actors. If he has a fault, as an actor, it would be that he apparently never says no to anything and consequently has been in some really, really bad movies. I always enjoy his performances, even if the movie stinks. Blind Fury is one of my favorite guilty pleasures.

Rutger is like a leather coat from Territory Ahead, you can wear the hell out of it but it never wears out. He sticks every movie, even bad ones. He's the Chipper Jones of Hollywood. Happy birthday Rutger. How did they forget to include you in "The Expendables"?

Anyone that can make Brokejaw uncomfortable can come to my house for dinner anytime!

Don't forget his small, warped, and twisted part in Sin City. Golden.

Was a fine Albert Speer in "Inside the Third Reich"… Interesting Actor.

Can't forget Split Second! Oh, well, maybe you should, but it was an example of one of those movies he didn't turn down. A VHS classic. Happy Birthday!

Blind Fury, Buffy the Vampire Slayer… not serious movies by any stretch but fun.

Oh and Batman Begins.

Happy B-day Rutger

Amen. Beautiful cinematography and brilliant direction to boot. The "truck scene" is endlessly clever in its execution.

One of my absolute favorites is "Split Second". Yes a "B" movie but how can you not love Rutger Hauer playing an unstable cop who lives off of cigars, chocolate and coffee. If you can find a copy I highly recommend it.

Happy Birthday Mr. Hauer!

Happy Birthday! Revel in your time.

I have forgotten it. What was it?

yes, it has been sucking hard for a few days now

Today was the first day I didn't have to re-login to post a comment in a few days.

I'll add another recommendation for Split Second. The plot and creature are fairly silly but the characters and dialog are great. "We need bigger guns!"

"If you could see what I have seen with your eyes."

Happy birthday Hauer! Vastly underrated actor. Last thing I recall seeing him in is Batman Begins.

That was the best line in the film and Hauer improvised it.

Lets not forget Wanted: Dead or Alive. As usual Mr. Hauer plays a true badass and Gene Simmons plays an actual mid-eastern Islamic terrorist. That film has more than its share of salty dialogue, but the one liners are killer. "F–k the bonus!"

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Blind Fury is one of Hauer's best movies. It's one of those direct to video gems people never heard of.

Well, you never see the two nations together so they must be one and the same!

Hauer was always a star, at least of direct-to-video/DVDs. He never seemed to meet a film he wouldn't make or a paycheck he wouldn't take. He's in good company as the same could be said for James Mason and Michael Caine.

Rutger Hauer was great in all the films mentioned — especially 'Blade Runner' and 'Night Hawks.'

I'd like to add the guilty pleasure 'Wanted: Dead or Alive', and his stint on Smallville.

I get the feeling Hauer's best work may be yet to come.

He must have said something positive about the military.

YES! "The Blood of Heroes" is the very best post-apocalyptic sports movie. Rutger Hauer, Joan Chen, Delroy Lindo, Vincent D'Onofrio, and that guy who played The Dog Boy.

Dutch = The Netherlands, Danes = Denmark, but you're spot on – Both are Socialist countries which allow only a certain amount of monetary success. Socialism is the new feudalism (neofeudalism) in which the State (king) rules through Politicians (nobles) using confiscatory taxes on the upper income earner to elevate the lower income earner and non-worker to a the same median as the upper income earner rendering them all "equal" in outcome, thereby serfs in the old language. It works for the non-ambitious and incompetent, preventing them from sinking but so low, but then it hampers the ambitions and competent keeping them from reaching their potential. This is "Atlas Shrugged" in a paragraph. It's also "The Road to Serfdom" by F. A. Hayek.

Gene Simmons is one of the most underrated villains of all time. He should have had a bigger career. Just imagine him and Hauer as a pair of villains in the same film. Viewers wouldn't sleep for a week.

I met Gene Simmons once. I'm 6'2" and he towered over me. Must be at least 6'5". I had no idea before that he was so tall. Just a huge dude, and like you say, a GREAT villain.

I am replying to you. I hope you get the email!

David

Gotcha. The only thing slower is when i try to access the site on my iPhone. Glacial! They need an app!!

He was great in the "Billy Idol Story."

Happy Birth day, Blade Runner is my favorite movie of yours. You showed a lot of Humanity in that movie.

Ladyhawke might have worked…. minus the annoying Matthew Broderick.

I also read that Ann Rice based her Lestat on Rutger Hauer. Interestingly enough, even before I read that, I always pictured Hauer as Lestat. He clearly fit the bill – much better than Tom Cruise.

Yeah, but by the time it was filmed, he WAS too old for the part. And let's face it, back then (and still) Tom Cruise is a much huger movie star–in terms of box office draw, not talent– than Hauer ever was/is. And so Anne Rice drank the Kool Aid and declared the movie was the bestest thing ever.

Oh, that expression on his face when the spell was broken!!! I can see it now,

He do look like him in this photo. He just needs the sneer.

Whatever happened to Wings Hauser?

Great actor. First saw him in Bladerunner. He may have been the only actor who could outact Harrison ford- and Ford is the best actor of our time. Loved Soldier of the Orange, Escape from Soribon is one of the best escape films. This genre is a favorite of mine. If you are in a nazi death camp, you don't wait for Schinlier to put you on a list, you break out yourself! Can't forget Flesh and blood.
He has been very popular in the direct to video group. I have rented films that he was in, because he was in them. I feel like buying Turkish delight, one of his first films. There are so many good films with him in them.

Rutger Hauer turned Blade Runner from a movie showing a well designed set into one of the greatest existentialist movies ever. He did a lot to change the flavor of the film from a heavy slow sci fi into a thoughtful exploration of individuals coming to terms with their humanity through the discovery of the all important knowledge of empathy.

The movie began with a cop and a replicant giving and taking an empathy test, the scene concludes with the cop getting blown away. Empathy tests are important because they separate the humans from the non human imitations. The second to last scene of the movie, the one on the rooftops, show Hauer's character Roy experiencing not only a reflection on his own memories as well as a sudden flood of empathy for his tormentor Deckard. The great Irony is that in dying, the replicant passes the test and becomes fully human.

The role is a hard one to capture. Roy was the villain, the tortured and childlike soul, the broken hearted and wrathful madman seeking revenge for the slaying of his friends and his lover, and finally the champion of the film. Rutger Hauer captured the diverse emotions and actions of the character with precision and a sly grace without overreaching.

I wish Hauer would have gotten more roles like this. Ladyhawke was a good movie premise, but it has hardly aged well. Was thrilled to see him in Sin City and Batman Begins, both were short roles he nailed.

LOL

Don't forget Flesh+Blood. I love that movie in which he plays the leader of a mercenary bank in medieval Europe. A classic!

Born in '44; I had to look it up.

Yes! Had that a few times now, even refreshing the page won't fix it. Still having to login each time still

you're lucky. i've been coming here since the beginning and none of the Big sites have ever even let me register (hence my ongoing appearance as a guest). i just get 'page not found', 'page doesn't exist', etc., errors when i try to go to login/registration. i've asked repeatedly for help but never get a response and nothing ever gets fixed.

i also get a LOT of "400 Error- Bad Request" lockouts on certain threads. perhaps someone can advise me on this, but having now posted a comment on this thread, the odds that i will now be locked out of it for a day or so are are pretty high. siiiigggghhhh…………

His performance in Blade Runner was inspiring and frightening at the same time. His best scene comes at the end when his synthetic character dies ever so quietly and all you have is his bowed head with the saddest rain dripping off him. Even though he was the bad guy in that movie I wanted to cry for him at that moment. Even when I see the scene again I can't bring myself to say anything.

He wrote his own ending dialog in Blade Runner, if I recall correctly. Truly an awesome bit of work.

That's amazing. The whole "I've seen things…" speech is one of the most moving I've ever heard in ANY movie, not just in a sci-fi film.

The Osterman Weekend – the last scene where Hauer informs us that "we can just turn it off" – good advice on election day. It will be our turn to "turn off" the Obama crusade against capitalism.

Flesh+Blood is a Paul Verhoeven movie set in the middle ages (or the 30 years war, I´m not quite sure) and it is exactly as depraved, disgusting, gory and entertaining as you would expect. Hauer is a tough mercenary and Jennifer Jason Leigh is some posh dame, so of course he rapes her. This being a Verhoeven movie, she enjoys it and they team up. Oh those enlightened Europeans! There are some great battle scenes, too.

By the way, Leigh got raped in lots of movies. But not in her next movie, the brilliant The Hitcher, where she meets Hauer again. This time he just kills her.

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