Gregory Peck: His Own Man

Gregory Peck: His Own Man (1988)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Very good documentary from Gene Feldman goes over the career of Gregory Peck. Through newsreels and film clips we see some highlights of his career as well as get to know a little about his person life. Jane Fonda, Lauren Bacall, Audrey Hepburn, Jack Lemmon, Anthony Quinn and Liza Minnelli are among the people interviewed who share their stories on Peck the actor and the man. Seeing so many famous names talk about Peck is certainly something special but even better is that we get the man himself talking about his career. It was a lot of fun getting to hear from Peck as he talks about what he looks for in a role, what he tries to do in a role and of course he talks about some of his bigger films like TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and DUEL IN THE SUN. Peck also goes into details about his childhood, how he got into acting and of course his children, including the son who killed himself. I can't imagine any fan of the actor not be entertained by this thing. At just a hour one wishes that it had gone on much longer but I think what's here is pretty special and especially considering so many of the people are no longer with us.

Gregory Peck's charisma stands strong to this very day. I dont know of many other actors from that era with such an incredible powerful charisma. Robert Mitchum comes to mind and there sure are other great Hollywood actors with lots of charisma, but what makes Gregory Peck unique is his charisma of sensitivity and righteousness. One instantly senses that this man is honest and gentle, while he simultanesouly oozes authority. His deep bronzen voice adds to this authoritarian father figure, which swept away the female audience and invoked respect from male viewers.

This documentary is very complimentary, chronically giving a general overview of this actor's carreer up untill "Old Gringo". His chronilogically movie carreer is intermingled with a few family snapshots how he grew up as a kid and how he was as a family man, later in life.

This 1 hour documentary is a good way to quickly cover decades of movies made by Gregory Peck, however it is done with such a speed that I wished some classics could have gotten a bit more time to be reviewed more thoroughly.

The virtue of film is to propose more than the actor but the man. In delicate, precise, wise and touching manner. Behind roles and conquest of name, his struggle to be not a star but the good worker of each role is significant and it is build by each testimony of colegues, son and scene of film.