by Nathaniel R
Harrison Ford has been a major star for our whole lives but Call of the Wild (2019), opening today nationwide, is actually the first time in many years that studios have trusted his name alone to sell a picture. Well, that and a CGI dog, but the solo name (no pun intended) above the title is still worth noting.
Ford, who is now 77, has been a regular on movie screens for over 50 years and his films have amassed over $9 billion dollars globally. But he wasn't always a superstar. In the 1970s he wasn't just acting for filmmakers but also doing carpentry jobs to support his then wife and sons (Francis Ford Coppola famously hired him as a carpenter before casting him in The Conversation and Apocalypse Now). The rest, of course, is showbiz history.
How many of his 49 pictures (excluding uncredited appearances and voice only roles) have you seen? All 49 posters are after the jump as well as a breakdown of his career in chapters...
Chapter 1. Sometime Actor / Sometime Carpenter (1967-1977)
The bit parts, sometimes uncredited began in 1966 when Ford was 24 years old. Curiously his first credited role A Time For Killing (also known as The Long Ride Home) was in a film where the top billed player's last name was also Ford (Glenn Ford). Harrison's casting in George Lucas's American Graffiti (the first of three consecutive films he appeared that nabbed Best Picture nominations) was the game changer. It led to a little film called Star Wars.
Chapter 2. Rising Star (1977-1980)
Star Wars pushed his name up the credits lists of various pictures and gave him a few headlining opportunities like Hanover Street and The Frisco Kid. A second round of Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back ended the "rising star" status -- he had officially risen.
Chapter 3. Superstar (1981-1998)
Star Wars was the launch pad/test ground but it was actually Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) that made Ford a true superstar and the only bankable member of the Star Wars cast outside of that galaxy far far away. Hit (Witness) after hit (Working Girl) after hit (Patriot Games) after hit (The Fugitive - his 8th and final time in a Best Picture nominated film) after hit (Air Force One) followed for two decades. His superstar years also gave him his one and only Oscar nomination (Witness), underrated dramas (Presumed Innocent), auteur curiousities (Mosquito Coast and Frantic), more Indy and Han Solo outings and his third legacy role as Rick Decard in Blade Runner, a flop that over time became one of the most influential and beloved pictures of the 1980s.
Chapter 4. The Fade (1999-2014)
The descent from superstar status happens to almost all A+ listers eventually. What Lies Beneath and a fourth go at Indiana Jones were his only blockbuster hits over the next 15 years with many films fading quickly into obscurity whether they were underperformers (Hollywood Homicide, Morning Glory, Ender's Game) or fast-fade successes (Cowboys & Aliens). He also returned to supporting roles which he had done approximately none since 1979 (42, Expendables 3, Anchorman 2)
Chapter 5. Legacy Comeback (2015-2020)
Hollywood's discovery of "legacy reboots" where they essentially remake a series by sequelizing it (rather than fully rebooting it) and give the original stars the chance to pass the torch ONSCREEN to a new generation of stars, has been very kind to Harrison Ford. It's resulted in great reviews, successful films, and served as a hard-to-miss reminder to audiences of how brightly his star has burned over the past 40 years of pop culture.
So now Harrison Ford is the sole headliner again via Call of the Wild. Do you plan on seeing it?