WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
Throughout his life and career, Bowie was known by different names including Ziggy Stardust and ‘The Thin White Duke’. I’ll be honest, I’m still rather heartbroken by his death in 2016 because even though some would say I was born too late – I have always been a fan of his music and one of his films is one of my favourites (I’ll come to that a little bit later). He started acting in 1976 but he never let his first passion become second place. I found out something interesting writing this article. For a long I believed that Bowie had heterochromia iridum (you know, that thing that makes some people’s eyes two different colours) however, it only looks that way. In fact, due to a fight when he was at school, he recieved so much damage to his left eye that his pupil is permanently dilated – making that eye look darker and browner than his right.
Merry Christmas, Mister Lawrence
This isn’t Bowie’s first film but I get the feeling it may be the first one that he doesn’t sing in. Alright, I know some people that have seen the film will say ‘what about the funeral?’ (at least that’s what they call it in the film) but in my opinion he’s not exactly singing, he’s more speaking the lyrics. What’s interesting is, for quite an important character as Jack Celliers, it seems he isn’t in the film as much as maybe you would expect. For example, there’s a whole scene when he and Lawrence are in the cells that we hear his voice more than we actually see his face. My favourite scene of Bowie’s is actually towards the beginning when Celliers is put in his cell awaiting punishment. He starts having this conversation with himself, and that’s the first time you wonder ‘has this guy gone crazy?’ and you’re barely even 20 minutes into the film.
The Prestige
When I sat down to watch this film, not for the first time ever but the first time in a long time, I highly anticipated Bowie’s scenes. Mainly because I couldn’t exactly remember when he finally appeared but he was definitely as good as I remembered (thought I was setting you up something bad there, didn’t you?) For example, Bowie’s role as Tesla steals the scenes he’s in – even though he is starring alongside what many would consider as big name actor in Hugh Jackman. His accent is pretty good and – unless I missed it – at no point does it slip. Even listening to voice when Augier reads his letter, it has powerful air to it.
The Man Who Fell To Earth
I’ll be honest, I can’t even tell you how little I understand this film. There’s a whole scene at the beginning that in my opinion, other than seeing the man that sees Bowie’s character arrive, that has absolutely no relevance to the rest of the film. Don’t get me wrong, I thought Bowie was really good but that doesn’t mean that the sex scenes between Newton and Mary Lou are any less awkward. I always thought Bowie was a good looking guy in an interesting way but that doesn’t mean that I was comfortable seeing his penis, let alone his bare bottom, in this film. Truthfully, it’s a good film so I would definitely say watch it – even more so if it means someone can actually explain it to me…
Honorary Mentions
No one will understand quite how gutted I am that I was unable to get hold of The Hunger. My mum has praised this film, where Bowie stars as a vampire, so highly that I was so eager to watch it but I cannot get hold of it anywhere. He even stars in the TV Series adaption as the same character. His role of Jareth in Labyrinth is possibly my favourite role of his, but that could be because it’s one of my favourite films. Alongside these, he played roles in two Twin Peaks films.
