Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Interviews: Dennis Quaid - Christianity Today Movies

Interviews: Dennis Quaid - Christianity Today Movies:
"Few actors have had as versatile a career, or have matured as well, as Dennis Quaid. Born in Houston in 1954, he rose to stardom in the 1980s with roles as diverse as a real-life astronaut (The Right Stuff), a New Orleans homicide detective (The Big Easy), a test pilot who is miniaturized and injected into Martin Short's body (Innerspace), an aging football jock (Everybody's All-American), and of course Jerry Lee Lewis (Great Balls of Fire!)...."

"...Quaid spoke to Christianity Today Movies in Los Angeles—first in a private interview, then at a roundtable with several other reporters. The following is an edited transcript from both of those conversations...."
I have not seen very many of the Dennis Quaid films, but those I have seen have been quite enjoyable. Innerspace, The Rookie, and The Right Stuff were all quite well done, in my opinion.

One film not mentioned, Enemy Mine, is perhaps my favorite. In this film Quaid plays a space fighter pilot who ends up marooned on a planet along with his alien adversary. They end up teaming up in order to survive, and it is Quaid's character that has the farthest to go in terms of overcoming hate and prejudice. One particularly moving scene is when the alien teaches Quaid to read and understand the book that he reads regularly. Quaid's development into one who cares not only for himself and his allies, but also his enemies, is portrayed well in this film.

Quaid tells of his Baptist upbringing and how some of his spirituality involves meditation learned in India. He justifies this effectively by pointing out that Jesus went out alone to be alone with God. Quaid says he is a seeker, and it seems that he is looking in the right places.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I agree, that was a moving scene. This film had a lot of imagery that suggests Christian values.

Personally I feel that some of the best Christian values seen in movies are from films that did not overtly try to be a "Christian film".