Word: manly
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...man follows his dreams...
Kevin Costner is the man of the moment and a star out of his time. What other actor would think to achieve rampant movie fame by playing a Soviet spy and two baseball fanatics? For Costner, though, the improbable risk was a good career move. As Eliot Ness in The Untouchables, he played the straightest arrow in Prohibition-era Chicago and made saintliness sexy. As Tom Farrell, the cryptic intelligence officer in 1987's No Way Out, he brought devious modernity to a character right out of a '40s suspense novel. As Crash Davis, the bush-league catcher...
Costner is something else: a grownup hero with brains. He's modern and classic. He thinks fast and shoots straight. He has city reflexes that help him beat the big boys at hardball. Yet he stokes memories of the lone man on a horse, silhouetted against the craggy horizon and setting sun of Old West values. He has the requisite danger for big-screen stardom -- the stubbornness in pursuit of ideals, the slow anger when pushed, the threat in a face that can mask its intentions -- even as his actions inspire trust. He could be a husband, a lover...
...pegged as the reincarnation of some old star, and Costner watchers have their candidates. "Kevin fulfills many of the same ideals that a Jimmy Stewart or a Gary Cooper did for their generation: the little guy against the system, the pure guy vs. evil, the strong man in a time of trouble," says Tom Pollock, chairman of the MCA Motion Picture Group. "It's hard to think of any other leading man in his 30s who can play this variety of roles -- action hero, romantic lead and family man...
...they should brace themselves for Revenge, scheduled for release early next year. This violent drama may upend -- or just end -- Costner's current image as a Goody Two-Cleats. "Revenge is shocking, vulgar, a bit of a fall from grace," Costner says. "But I have no problem playing a man who isn't likable, as long as I understand him. Revenge is strong medicine; you won't come out feeling good. That's O.K. too. You don't have to have a snow cone at the end of every movie. Right now, I don't know how this one will...