I don’t recall the picture, only that it starred an actor who was young and handsome at the start of his career fifty years ago but was now an aged relic. Dark thoughts in the darkened theater as I watched the folds of wizened skin beneath the famous chiseled jaw, pouches beneath the steel-gray eyes. Projected on the screen at fifty times life size, .
He’d been a hero once but had changed into the old man in front of millions.
On the drive home, I keep glancing at my own eyes in the mirror. My private degradation, just as certain.
That’s a perfect moment captured there, Joshua. I’m not certain it’s a story, but I liked it very much
Oh, I don’t know. “He’d been a hero once but had changed into the old man in front of millions” is a narrative. A hundred words can do a lot or a little. This one doesn’t do much, I guess. Glad you liked it, though ;-)
Dear Josh,
As those shriveled heroes who were young and vibrant during my childhood die of natural causes, I look in my own mirror. You’ve captured the unspoken fears we all face I think. So well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
I just saw Blade Runner last night. I did note that while Harrison Ford is allowed to age, Sean Young was presented as her 22-year-old self. As the Weinstein allegations show, nothing has changed in Hollywood since the days of Harry Cohn.
I’m going to defend Blade Runner, partly because I loved it – the Sean Young character was killed in the original, in this film it is a new replicant that we see, so she wouldn’t have aged. Harrison’s character has continued to live so would have aged whether human or replicant ( I assume). So the internal story logic justifies this. Your wider pint about Hollywood in general is of course, completely correct.
Rachel wasn’t killed in the original. She escaped. Deckard is likely a replicant, the first of the Nexus 7 (of which Rachel is number 2). The sequel is excellent.
SPOILER ALERT: Correct,I meant she dies soon after the original film as explained in this film.
As depressing as it is inevitable for us all.
Now all I can see is the chiseled jaw of Burt Lancaster…
Though is is one who aged relatively well…
Yes, we all get older.
I like the voice you’ve found for this story, Joshua. Very cinematic.
Wonderful, cutting descriptions, Josh. Powerful parallels between that cinema screen and the man in the mirror – nicely told
I find myself intensely attracted to the narrator. Like I’d stay with him until death do us part, and always find him handsome… Unless he spoils Blade Runner for me. That would upset me.
So that means we’re watching it this weekend??
Sure :-)
Wow, a dagger to the heart, where my dismay at aging lives. Nicely written.
I hit 70 years in July. This one is just a bit too close to home!
I often wonder what actors think when they see themselves in films from long ago. At least, having grown up in the pre-digital era, very few photos of my younger self exist!
Ageing is inevitable. We should just hope to age gracefully.
I’m always questioning where that old gal in the mirror came from.
Nicely done Hardy!
Growing older, ageing, feeling the loss of youth and one’s fragile mortality. Everyone over thirty can relate to this in some way.
Is that actually a picture of young you on the link? I like that you did that.
Lets not think of it as degradation, we’ll call it metamorphosis ;-)
Hi there, I like this though it is grim, particularly the comparison between the big screen and the car mirror.
I love this story. You portray the connection of the ‘actor’ and the narrator beautifully. Well done.