Ray Winstone is the star guest at this year’s Bradford International Film Festival (April 19 – 29), appearing in person at the National Media Museum for a Screentalk interview with none other than esteemed film critic Mark Kermode on Saturday 21st April, 7.30pm. Paul Clarke looks back at the career of the daddy of British film.
‘Who’s the daddy now?’
That primal roar of rage is as good an introduction as it gets for a new actor.
Ray Winstone is now part of the British film establishment but when Alan Clarke picked this former England schoolboy boxing champ to star in Scum he was a complete unknown.
In many ways Winstone was a natural fit to play the brutal, streetwise Carlin who would rise to be the boss of his borstal – working class, hard, with a strong sense of justice and a natural screen actor.
Scum is relentlessly grim as Carlin battles for survival keeping his head down but finally when forced to take on the bullies he unleashes a wave of violence that you believe Winstone himself might be capable of. Who can forget the scene where he fills a sock with pool balls before setting about his enemies?
Carlin is a more benevolent daddy ruling the roost until a vulnerable inmate is gang raped in a greenhouse and sparks a mass riot in the dining hall. This was an astoundingly assured debut from a kid with no real training who left school with a Grade 2 CSE (ask your parents) in drama.
Scum plays BIFF Friday 20th, 2.30pm at the National Media Museum, and Saturday 21st, 3pm at Hyde Park Picture House
Strangely after this his career drifted and he was nearly lost to us. There was a stint in Robin of Sherwood playing Will Scarlett as a football hooligan – perhaps in tribute to his beloved West Ham.
But, god bless her, Kathy Burke came to the recue offering him a theatre role which led to career saving role in Nil By Mouth. I don’t think anyone who’s seen the best British film of that decade will ever forget his raw performance as Ray, a wife beating alcoholic.
Nil By Mouth is Gary Oldman’s semi-autobiographical tale of his upbringing in working class South London and Winstone grabs his chance to revive his career with both beefy hands. His interplay with Burke, as his long suffering wife Valerie, is from a man who absolutely knows this world, and blow hard bullies like Ray.
Three scenes stand out in a pitch perfect film. The most brutal is when in a drunken rage he viciously kicks a terrified Valerie, and his look of rage is utterly authentic. The saddest is where he tries to win Valerie back with his usual bluster, but she rebuffs her abuser saying he has taken her youth and she feels old. The last is a solo tour de force as he talks – with tears and spittle flying – about his own brutal father who terrorised him and his mum, which goes somewhat to explaining his appalling behaviour thanks to an honest performance.
Nil By Mouth is playing BIFF on Wednesday 25th April, 3.05pm at the National Media Museum
So Raymondo is back with a vengeance and he‘s straight onto familiar territory as the duplicitous armed robber Dave in the very underrated Face, co-starring with a piss poor Damon Albarn.
Another great British actor Tim Roth then pops up with his debut film offering Ray the chance to play Dad in the harrowing The War Zone. God alone knows why this grim indie film isn’t hailed a modern classic with Ray dominating the film as the paedophile father having an incestuous relationship with his daughter. Playing this creature was a big risk so early in his comeback, but it pays off as Dad is believably controlling and repellent throughout.
The War Zone is playing BIFF on Thursday 26th April, 3.25pm at the National Media Museum
Once again another plum role comes along as he plays Gary ‘Gal’ Dove in Sexy Beast. This is a film Guy Ritchie would have made if he has any talent whatsoever and remains the best British gangster film since The Long Good Friday. Gal is a retired gangster sunning himself on the Costa Del Crime when he is visited by the psychotic Don – an Oscar nominated Ben Kingsley – who terrorises this hard man into taking one last job. It is a mark of Ray’s development as an actor that he manages to persuade the viewer that he is scared stiff by a little nutter played by Ghandi.
Sexy Beast is playing BIFF on saturday 21st April, 3.40pm at the National Media Museum and Wednesday 25th April, 9.00pm at Cineworld Bradford.
On a high Winstone steps up in the UK big league in Last Orders more than holding his own with British greats Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings and Bob Hoskins.
Finally Holllywood beckons with a turn as Reeves in the little seen Ripley’s Game opposite an utterly magnetic John Malkovich. Sure Reeves is Face 2, but Raymondo more than hold his own against a scarily icy Malkovich in the lead. This was swiftly followed by a sinister turn as Teague in the overblown Cold Mountain ‘starring’ the wooden Jude law.
Since then I think Ray has made a few poor choices. He was ok – despite a wandering American accent – in an undercooked role as Mr French in Scorsese’s inferior remake of The Departed. He was utterly dreadful in Beowulf, but then so was everyone in what will go down as one of the worst movies ever made.
If you’re intrigued after such a damning indictment, Beowulf plays BIFF Friday 20th April, 6.15pm, Saturday 21st, 8.10pm and Thursday 26th, 5.45pm, all on the humongous 3D on the National Media Museum’s IMAX screen.
His cameo in Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll was a massive return to form with a beautifully understated role as Ian Dury’s feckless father, and I for one can’t wait to see him as Jack Regan in the retooled The Sweeney.
So Ray’s visit to BIFF is from an actor who is A-list in this country and one of the ‘go to’ guys when Hollywood needs a hardman or someone they know will do a decent turn. But his career shows he is far more subtle actor than the critics give him credit for, and he has firmly put the pool balls behind him.
Perhaps the biggest tribute to an East End lad like Ray is that he is the natural heir to Michael Caine who – between bouts of appearing in rubbish – remains our greatest screen actor. All Ray needs is another stand out role and an Oscar could be his.
For more on this and the rest of BIFF, see their website www.bradfordfilmfestival.org.uk
Paul Clarke loves nothing more than a heated debate on cinema and can be contacted at [email protected] or on Twitter @paulleedsconf
If you have any film related stories, articles, reviews with a twist, etc, contact The Culture Vulture’s film editor Mike McKenny on [email protected] or find him on Twitter @DestroyApathy