In honor of James Earl Jones, who just died at age ninety-three, we’re all calling up memories of our favorite Jones performances. These memories probably involve his magnificently deep, rumbling voice.
As Darth Vader in Star Wars (1977) he unforgettably intoned to a subordinate officer who doubts the power of the Force, “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” That’s right before the throat-crushing begins.
In The Lion King (1994), millions of children were marked for life by the magisterial spirit of Mufasa urging from beyond the grave, “Simba, you must remember who you are — you are my son, the one true king.” And Conan the Barbarian (1982) features Jones’s remarkably unsettling grin as he delivers the “Steel isn’t strong, boy” speech to the bloodied but unbowed title character played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fELypfnxLU
Oddly enough, the James Earl Jones line that most lingers in my memory is spoken in exhaustion, in the dwindling of physical power that nevertheless packs a tremendous dramatic punch because of its utter despair. It’s the last line in his first starring role in a film, The Great White Hope (1970).
In it, Jones reprised his Tony-winning stage performance as Jack Johnson (called Jack Jefferson in the play and the film), the legendary heavyweight boxer who became the first black world champion, undefeated for many years in spite of all the racist world could throw at him in the form of Caucasian opponents who were supposed to defeat him in the ring, one “great white hope” after another.
At the end of the play and film, he finally loses the fight, a tragic nadir that follows the suicide of his white wife. As he’s being supported away from the ring following the brutal bout, the crowd surges past him, and he says, “Let ’em go by. Let ’em all go by.” At least, that’s my memory of the last harrowing scene, which I saw on television when I…
La suite est à lire sur: jacobin.com
Auteur: Eileen Jones
