(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Despite being such a comparatively small island, the cultural heft of the British Isles is quite impressive. Musically, the little island possesses some of the greatest bands in the 20th century, and the artistic weight continues into movies, too. Once confined to the roles of villains, a burst of creative energy in the 1960s opened the Hollywood door to British actors, through which some of the greats walked, including Gary Oldman.
With the ability to take on any role and change his physical appearance and psychological mannerisms to fit that character, Gary Oldman is undoubtedly one of the greatest actors to ever grace British cinema. Rubbing shoulders with the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis, Tilda Swinton, Anthony Hopkins, Michael Caine and Olivia Colman, Oldman is an iconic star who has worked with some of the industry’s biggest names.
Indeed, from his TV debut, where he starred in the Mike Leigh drama Meantime, Oldman has continually been a favourite of cinema’s most impressive filmmakers, later appearing in Stephen Frears’ Prick Up Your Ears, Oliver Stone’s JFK and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 Dracula movie. Gaining career momentum towards the tail-end of the 20th century, by the new millennium, Oldman was a bona fide movie star. With this powerful backing, Oldman has become one of the most beloved stars of his generation, but it took a little longer than he might have liked.
As a result, his first Oscar nomination wouldn’t come until his role in the 2012 spy flick Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and he wouldn’t win an Academy Award until six years later when he donned heavy prosthetics to play the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the 2018 biopic Darkest Hour. If Oldman wasn’t a British acting icon before playing the country’s greatest-ever Prime Minister, he certainly was now.
A lover and star of British cinema, Oldman once named his favourite movies of all time, wherein he chose one film from his home country that he holds dearest of all. It’s always fun to see which movie a British actor deems the greatest that the island has produced.
So, what is Gary Oldman’s favourite British movie?
Having already named a handful of American classics, Oldman’s British choice is “a small indie movie, a Lynne Ramsay movie called Ratcatcher. I just think it’s a masterful piece of filmmaking”. Telling the story of a young boy who explores the squalid streets of 1973 Glasgow and attempts to come of age in the process, Ramsay’s Ratcatcher is an iconic British movie of the late 20th century that would make a name for the burgeoning young filmmaker.
On the face of it, the movie is a ghost story of childhood. However, it is cloaked in the detritus of 1970s Glasgow. Delivered through the eyes of young James, Ramsay doesn’t just observe poverty—she feels it, soaking every frame in silt, sorrow, and spectral wonder. Rather than being held together with a sturdy plot, the movie bounces off fragments as the mundane becomes part of the ethereal myth she weaves, making a kitchen-sink drama that feels spun into something truly divine.
Decades later, it’s clear that Ramsay’s debut was no sheer fluke, going on to helm a small collection of contemporary greats, including 2002’s Morvern Callar, 2011’s We Need to Talk About Kevin and 2017’s You Were Never Really Here. Among the very best directors working today, Ramsay has exciting collaborations with the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Julianne Moore and Rooney Mara coming in the near future.
Elsewhere on Oldman’s list of favourites, he also opts for the 1973 Terrence Malick classic Badlands, which tells the story of two young wannabe Bonnie and Clyde’s who go on a killing spree in the South Dakota Badlands.
“I love Badlands because, I think, I like the interior,” he says of the coming-of-age story, which moves with significantly more Hollywood romance than Ramsay’s film, “I love the story told through Sissy Spacek’s character. I think the telling of it is delicate. It’s just exquisite, that sense of the relationship seen through her; as if she’s telling one story and we’re witnessing another”.
Take a look at the trailer for Lynne Ramsay’s staggeringly good feature film debut, Ratcatcher, below.
Related Topics
