Confusing actors

I enjoy war movies.  I've probably seen every one of them, and I can't wait to see Dark Zero Thirty this weekend.

A few years ago, The Thin Red Line was all the rage.  Terrance Malick is some sort of savant director who has made very artsy movies that Hollywood types love.  He may have; I'm unaware.  I just cared that another World War II movie was made and I was anxious to see it.

Well, I was a little underwhelmed in that there wasn't as much action as I'd have liked.  John Travolta's character came off as gay.  The cinematography was wonderful, though, so there was that.  Since I never read James Jones's novel, I can't say whether it was a faithful adaptation.  Aside from all the stars in the movie, there was one thing that distracted the heck out of me.

Before this movie came out, I don't think I knew who James Caviezel, Elias Koteas, Adrian Brody and Ben Chaplin were.  All of them are fine actors, one of them proving as much with an best actor Oscar (Brody).  My problem was that I couldn't keep the actors and their characters straight because they all resembled, to my eye, each other enough that I got confused by who was who.  I spent every scene in which one or more of them appeared trying to figure out what their roles were in the plot.

Well, I have another such issue, but it's not with a single movie.  For some reason, I can't keep Toby Maguire, Lukas Haas and Elijah Wood straight.  I saw Haas for the first time in one of my favorite movies, Witness, but he was a child in that movie.  Since he's grown up, I've lost track of him, and then every once in awhile, he pops up in a movie and I have to try and remember his name.  Maguire I've seen in some things, although I've never watched one of the Spiderman movies, so when I see him in something, all I know is that he was Spiderman...but I can't remember his name.  Wood was in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but beyond that, I easily confuse him with Maguire. 

Ordinarily, I'm pretty good remembering faces and names.  For some reason, when these guys are in movies, I get confused.  I've long since straightened out Caviezel, Koteas, Brody and Chaplin.  I even saw Koteas at a party one Thanksgiving, so that helped.  Caviezel, of course, played Christ.  Brody kissed Hallie Berry and Chaplin's a Brit. 

I hope that with time I'll get Haas, Maguire and Wood correct.  In the meantime, it's going to bother me every time I see one of them in a movie.

(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles