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I know everyone is talking about how he voiced Vader, but when I think of him, I think of Strangelove and Hunt for Red October. I didn't spend a lot of time in
by OhMeadhbh 2y ago
I know everyone is talking about how he voiced Vader, but when I think of him, I think of Strangelove and Hunt for Red October. I didn't spend a lot of time in the fleet, but what I did was rather boring and/or annoying; the idea that something exciting would happen in the CIC is probably why I often think of the line "Now, understand, Commander, that torpedo did not self-destruct. You heard it hit the hull. And I was never here."
- jcastro 2y agoWhen Jack hands him the photos of Red October: "Jesus that's a big sucker."
- cylinder714 2y ago"I told you to speak your mind, Jack, but Jesus!"
- aidenn0 2y agoFor me it's Sneakers "We are the US Government, we don't do that sort of thing"
- geocrasher 2y agoI forgot he was in Sneakers! Fantastic movie.
- beastman82 2y agoFree on YT right now
- iancmceachern 2y agoLove this movie, it really holds up too. I live right near that plaza in SF where Sydney Poitier yells at Martin "its your Mother" with the Car phone in his hand. Great movie
- nocoiner 2y agoI love that movie too. It’s amazing how well it holds up for it being, in many ways, a tech-focused movie - I mean, yeah, the tech is very much dated and completely a product of its time, but it doesn’t look at all ridiculous. Undoubtedly probably helps that it was pre-WWW/popular internet.
- sjburt 2y agoI think it helps that the technical concept that drove the main plot was a very real and still-present risk to public key encryption systems.
- ManuelKiessling 2y agoWhenever the line „they don’t make them like this anymore“ comes up wrt movies, I think of „Sneakers“ and „The Hunt for Red October“.
- hinkley 2y ago"... I'll see what I can do."
- mrcwinn 2y agoI can still hear it. Some voices are just available to you, forever. "We'retheUS GOVERNment. We don't DO that SORT of THING." What a loss. He is one of a kind.
- Tempest1981 2y agoHere is the clip, at around 2m30s: (the whole clip is good) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74ocbvwam7c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74ocbvwam7c "I want a Winnebago" ... "WHAT?!!"
- UberFly 2y agoSneakers is climbing into cult classic year by year. What a great cast. Wow.
- aidenn0 2y agoYes the cast. Aside from James Earl Jones it had the following actors who at one point or another had Academy Award nominees (or won) for acting: Robert Redford Sidney Poitier David Strathairn River Phoenix Ben Kingsley Mary McDonnell And In addition to those it had Dan Aykroyd and Stephen Toblowsky
- OhMeadhbh 2y agoJust read on his Wikipedia page that he made it through Ranger school in the Korean War era. That's an accomplishment. Several readers here will know that's not really an easy thing to do. Overcame stuttering as a kid. Went to Ranger school (as an African American in the 50s.) Performed Shakespeare and contemporary plays and worked in film. A true dude. Lifting one in his honor this evening (though I'm old enough that it has to be a non-alcoholic one.)
- wut-wut 2y agoThat's bad ass!
- fsckboy 2y agowikipedia says "Jones was commissioned in mid-1953, after the Korean War's end, and reported to Fort Benning (now Fort Moore) to attend the Infantry Officers Basic Course. He attended Ranger School and received his Ranger Tab."
- 4thgenrustcoder 2y ago[dead]
- vertis 2y agoold enough <=> smart enough
- Zancarius 2y agoHunt for Red October for me also!
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoI think of Conan, and Coming to America. I was told by an industry insider (taken at face value), that he almost never turned down a part, which drove his agent nuts. That's why he was in these kind of oddball movies. I suspect that Nicholas Cage is similar.
- jdougan 2y agoMichael Caine apparently is similar. I see no other reason why he would have done the (wonderful) movie "Water".
- wbl 2y agoDon't forget Noises Off. Truly delightful farce, and his acting plus the physical comedy of the rest of the cast makes it happen.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoThere’s his infamous quote about being in Jaws 3: I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.
- aidenn0 2y agoHe was in Jaws: The Revenge which is the 4th Jaws movie.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoThanks for the correction!
- mathgeek 2y ago> I suspect that Nicholas Cage is similar. Probably, although it’s also well documented that Cage took a lot of roles to pay off his extensive debts after blowing through nine digits of his wealth.
- nnf 2y agoFor me, it's Sandlot. Relatively small part, but it was impactful for me as a kid.
- francisofascii 2y agoWe finished watching Sandlot yesterday with my kids for the first time. And then to hear this today.
- SoftTalker 2y agoHe was in Field of Dreams too, another baseball flick.
- vertis 2y agoEvery startup founders favourite movie.
- geocrasher 2y ago"I told you to speak your mind Jack, but Jesus!" I also am one who thinks of The Hunt For Red October. You already listed the best quote in the movie from him, but the above also makes me giggle every time.
- nocoiner 2y agoAlso in that scene when he slightly moves his hand to get Jack to back off from interrogating the admiral about whether he’d ever met Ramius - just terrific non-verbal acting that speaks volumes.
- iancmceachern 2y agoI think of "Field of Dreams" and Patriot Games, and of course vader
- ekianjo 2y agohe was excellent in Conan too.
- themadturk 2y agoThe first thing that comes up for me when I hear his name (after Star Wars) is Field of Dreams. He made me laugh out loud more than once in that, my favorite baseball movie.
- lagrange77 2y agoI will always think of him as King Jaffe Joffer, Ruler of Zamunda.
- petcat 2y ago> My son works?! This one is my go-to. Also The Sandlot
- listless 2y agoI always think of Field of Dreams. He was incredible in that role. He holds that movie together.
- bitwize 2y agoHe was also Police Chief Thad Green in the Mathnet segments of Square One TV. He only appeared a few times, but was unmistakable when he did. He also participated in early test footage for what would become Sesame Street. Film footage of him reciting the alphabet, in trademark James Earl Jones diction, was one of the things they used to research young children's response to educational programming.
- gciguy 2y agoI loved Mathnet and Mathman segments. Still remember the episode where they figured out the hill a van drove up because of the tilt of the water in a glass.
- sevensor 2y agoI remember that one! Goodness that was a long time ago.
- GauntletWizard 2y agoI completely forgot about Mathnet for many years - I'm not sure where I even saw it; My family didn't even have a TV (and I was too young anyway) for it's run. It was a delight when I discovered that my fever dream of a dragnet parody was in fact real. Great show, very funny, and good education.
- spaceribs 2y ago"Long Ago and Far Away" for me.
- acomjean 2y agoReading Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" on the Simpsons. It was shortened but great...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- somerandomqaguy 2y ago"You took an oath, if you recall, when you first came to work for me. And I don't mean to the National Security Advisor of the United States, I mean to his boss... and I don't mean the President. You gave your word to his boss: you gave your word to the people of the United States. Your word is who you are." I doubt anyone could pull the gravitas that he brought to the role of Admiral Greer.
- shagie 2y agoI believe the appropriate clip to watch is Lisa and Bleeding Gums Murphy - https://youtu.be/PX05DJWNj3k https://youtu.be/PX05DJWNj3k
- imiric 2y agoTo me he will always be Mufasa. Brilliant performance and perfect casting. "Everything the light touches is our kingdom." Still get shivers from that movie to this day. Nostalgia, sure, but it's truly a masterpiece. R.I.P.
- qup 2y agoSaw it in theaters as a kid. It was one of the best movie experiences of my life.
- steve_adams_86 2y agoMan, what I’d do to have a theatre experience like that again. I feel like I’ve already seen just about every movie I see these days. I watch them to just tune out occasionally, like a safer version of alcohol. I don’t watch them because it’ll be moving, insightful, exciting, etc. It’s just coarse stimulation. I really miss movies that left me feeling like I had a significant experience. It happens occasionally, but I feel like it used to be more common. The lion king was amazing. The remake was a kick in the pants.
- nonameiguess 2y agoMy aunt used to take me and my sister to the El Capitan theatre to every big Disney tentpole that premiered there in the late 80s and early 90s. I think Lion King is probably still the best movie-going experience I have ever had and ever will have. It was the first one where I was a teenager and that was probably the end of my true childhood and when I started losing interest in stuff like that. I don't think any scene will ever again touch me like James Earl Jones voice booming from the clouds telling Simba to remember who he is. The swell of that Hans Zimmer score still brings tears to my eyes instantly every time I hear it.
- ethbr1 2y agoBecause HN skews younger, I expect there are some out there who haven't seen "The Vader Sessions" from the early YouTube era, in which James Earl Jones dialog from his other films was spliced into Star Wars Vader scenes. I think it's a testament to his range: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6A0rwG39Jzk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6A0rwG39Jzk
- xxandroxygen 2y agoI watch this at least once a year, it never gets old
- steve_adams_86 2y agoThat’s right Sally! The editing choices still seem really, really good after all these years. The radio scene is hilarious. Edit: thanks for linking this and bringing back so many good memories.
- acheron 2y agoI'm plenty old enough but somehow have never seen or heard of this. Fantastic.
- az226 2y agoFor me it’s Coming to America, the King of Zamunda.
- bambax 2y agoIn Clear and Present Danger (1994), James Earl Jones (as Admiral Greer) dies in the middle of the movie. For some reason, and maybe because I have a hard time telling the difference between art and reality, I was fairly certain, for a long time, that the actor himself had died, and I would be regularly surprised when he would appear in new movies. He was a fine actor, and a fine man.
- lelandfe 2y agoMy memory of James Earl Jones is him in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh5wIQHFwOg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh5wIQHFwOg
- devoutsalsa 2y agoI liked him as Admiral Greer in the Jack Ryan movies (The Hunt For Red October, Patriot Games, Clear And Present Danger).
- fasa99 2y agoAs an ex-military man, one would think DRS or HFRO (using standard aggressive HN style acronymiziation, or AHNAN) would be his seminal role. But, no, his best role (BR) is as GENERAL JAMES SOLOMON in the best video series ever, command and conquer!