About book Robert Mitchum: "Baby I Don't Care" (2002)
Cool can be defined in two words: Robert Mitchum. In this world where nothing is consistent, we have one man who was consistent in his ability to convey a sense of "I don't give a fuck" throughout all of his 79 years. Reading Lee Server's biography Robert Mitchum: "Baby I Don't Care", one is struck by Mitchum's skill in making things look easy -- when Mitchum actually bothers to use any skill. His acting technique was closer to Zen than method acting: His primary concern was to memorize the shooting script and make sure he didn't bump into the furniture.Of course, the directors were all warned not to have Mitchum work past 6 P.M., due to his alcohol intake during the early-morning hours and his 24-hour-a-day passion for the "devil weed." Aside from that, he was the perfect employee -- he was always a friend to the shooting crew (he often ensured that the set was supplied with good food), while challenging the higher-ups at every opportunity. Although he was married for over 50 years, he was the ultimate skirt-chaser. Either he must have done something right, or his wife should have gotten a Purple Heart just for putting up with him.What's also obvious to anyone who has seen any of his impressive screen roles -- The Night of the Hunter; Cape Fear; Farewell, My Lovely; Thunder Road; Out of the Past -- is that Mitchum was a highly intelligent man who understood the space around and beyond the material he had to work with. He was extremely well read, a writer himself (it is one of the great disappointments that he never wrote his autobiography), a hard-core record collector who had a passion for hard bebop as well as for opera, and a true connoisseur of marijuana. In other words, Mitchum was the ultimate hipster, who somehow found himself as one of America's great movie stars. In a way, he was the proto-Elvis, in that his image conveyed certain wild, untamable urges, with a look of "so what?" tattooed all over his eyelids.Server's excellent biography lists numerous examples of Mitchum starting bar fights, farting in people's faces, attending swinging bachelor parties, whipping out his penis (and pissing on various objects and persons), and telling uproarious stories. Like the time he woke up -- still drunk -- with a woman in some room he didn't recognize. He got up and left quietly, quite fearful that his wife would find out. Later, he realized that he had left the wristwatch his wife had given him in the bedroom. As Mitchum began to panic, his wife casually mentioned that he had left his wristwatch by their bedside. He hadn't realized that he had been sleeping with his own wife!The pairing of Mitchum the subject with Server the biographer is a perfect one. Server fairly balances Mitchum's rough edges (of which there are many) and his notorious character with his kindness to his coworkers and his great skill as an actor. Server is also one of the leading film noir historians, so he knows film history, in addition to the economic and political circumstances without which film noir never would have thrived. This book is the next best thing to having Mitchum himself tell these stories at his favorite watering hole
He was a poet with an ax. Beneath this deity of indifference beat the heart of a lyricist who used the adventures of his early life to become one of the last Golden Age film stars. Masculine. Tough. Sarcastic. Charismatic. The Bard of BadAss.Mitchum didn't need to do much. The great film critic, James Agee, once aptly described him as, "Bing Crosby...on barbiturates". The languorous big dude had presence, and that's what makes a movie star. Watching the camera close in on Mitch's simmering profile in its B&W glory on Pursued, one wishes we had someone on the screen today who could exude the same good/evil battle that defined Mitchum's magnetism.After hearing Elia Kazan tell Robert DeNiro to think of something different while saying his lines, Mitchum retorted, "Shit, I've been doing that for years".Lee Server provides a lengthy take on Robert Mitchum's life and screen roles. As someone who had only seen some of his later movies, it was worthwhile to hunt down some of the films to see if Server's enthusiasm was justified. It certainly was. I enjoyed the book and the detailed research. Mitchum's films are now part of my collection, so I would say the book is a success.They certainly had faces then.Book Season = Summer (let me tell you the story about right hand/left hand)
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Basically a very dry rundown of the making of all of Mitchum's films, with a few anecdotes of those who worked with him thrown in. An occasional allusion to his wild side was fun to read about and I kept hoping to read more about his personal life and affairs but halfway through the book I realized it was going to continue to be more of the same, lifeless account of his films.Mitchum is cast.Mitchum is described as a prankster, possessor of a photographic memory and masculinely magnetic by bit player also cast in the film.Leading lady describes him as incorrigible.Mitchum gets arrested for (fighting, marijuana possession, fighting, marijuana possession...)Mitchum drinks heavily but it doesn't affect his performance.Mitchum wanders off between takes to fish or doze under a tree.Mitchum leaves the set at five on the dot every day.Repeat that in precisely the same way about 25 more times and you've got the picture.
—Alison Potvin
Not so much a pinch of salt, an entire sack of the stuff is required to be taken when reading this book. It's not an autobiography I accept, but the author has clearly been given limited access to even Mitchum's immediate family and as a result the book is entirely anecdotal. It boils down to first he did this, and then he did that, and then he did this for well over 600 pages. In all honestly he probably only made two films of any real merit but neither of these are given any additional coverage, instead you get 100 pages about the TV Movies and Series that he did after he hit 70 odd?! There are points of interest, particularly Mitchum's early years but in comparison to some biography's I've read recently such as Mcqueen's or Sinatra's it's just not a patch on them.
—Matthew
This is one of the best biographies I've ever read, due in large part to Mitchum's unique life. He was perhaps a bigger badass offscreen than on- and his incredible hijinks extend well beyond the over-publicized pot bust. That said, turns out he was a big pothead his whole life, yet possessed a remarkable memory that enabled his career as an actor. I think what I loved most was learning about his early life, when he, at a very young age, decided he wanted to be a poet and then embarked upon a life as a rail-riding hobo during the Depression. A wonderful read for fans of old Hollywood tales.
—Kenneth
