3 in a Row: The History of Tim Robbins’ Rise To The Top

Tim Robbins has sort of drifted from mainstream Hollywood at late, though one might say he always has, his eclectic taste in roles making him a powerful acting presence in the industry for decades. While he’s mostly seen on television these days (where he began back in the 1980s), the Oscar-winning actor is behind a few of the most experimental and influential movies ever made. After making small appearances in big movies, such as The Sure Thing and Top Gun, he turned some heads in the now classic Bull Durham, a baseball movie with Kevin Costner (his other baseball movie), though was set back a little by flops Howard the Duck and the Robin Williams comedy Cadillac Man. And then came Jacob’s Ladder, a psychological horror film that is still studied to this day, the 1990 Adrian Lyne-directed brain bender that had everyone wondering just what is was they’d seen.

Doors flew open for the actor and he got cast in Spike Lee‘s pot-stirring Jungle Fever before beginning his short collaboration with legendary filmmaker Robert Altman. He starred as the lead in The Player, Altman’s poke at the film industry, one of the sharpest and cutting edge films of the decade, still way ahead of its time for its storytelling approach and clever story. We’ll get to their second film together in just a second, but it’s important to note that it was here where Robbins earned enough clout to spread his creative wings both in front of and behind the camera, releasing Bob Roberts, a 1992 political satire that still resonates today (with early roles for Alan Rickman and a very young Jack Black). And so it was, Robbins was on his way, a movie star in the making, albeit unconventional, his boyish innocence and tall lanky stature certainly left of center. He was well known already, but things were about to go big, starting with an ensemble flick that pokes some fun at LA.

SHORT CUTS

Robbin’s second film with Altam is considered a minor masterpiece, a highly-inventive and innovative movie that is surely Altman at his peak. Robbins stars with a huge cast, including Julianne Moore, Matthew Modine, Robert Downey Jr., Lily Tomlin, Tom Waits … what am I doing? It goes on and on. There are 22 main characters whose lives sometime interconnect, sometimes not, all part of a carefully woven story of life in Los Angeles. Robbins is Gene Shepard, a cop unfaithful to his beautiful wife Sherri (Madeleine Stowe), spinning colorful stories to distract her from his affair with Betty Weathers (Frances McDormand).

Admittedly, his part is small but so is everyone’s, the film a collection of layered stories that lead us from one entanglement to another. In a film packed with so many recognizable faces (something Altman excelled at), it might seem hard for anyone to stand out, but many do, including Robbins, who finds the exact right tone and weight for a fella living on a precarious edge. He has this sort of simmering danger underneath that pinch-able face, making him instantly memorable as a character we might not be so sure of in terms of stability. It’s a great film and solidified Robbins’ place in Hollywood, going toe-to-toe with some of the best in the business. That said, he caught the eye of a couple of fairly new but genre-bending filmmakers wanting a certain look for their new movie …

THE HUDSUCKER PROXY

The Coen Brothers are now two of the most celebrated and acclaimed directors in cinema, their always imaginative and deeply-provocative films earning high praise from critics and spawning tons of conversation from fans. By 1994, they’d already had people talking with films like Blood Simple and Raising Arizona, not to mention the lesser known but ingenious Miller’s Crossing. They cast Robbins in their latest venture, a satirical film about business and news called The Hudsucker Proxy, playing lightweight but energetic  Norville Barnes, a midwesterner who gets a job in the mailroom of Hudsucker Industries, hoping to make it to the top. As chance would have it, after the company’s founder jumps from a window on the top floor, he does. Pitching ruthless board member Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman) an idea – he draws a circle on a piece of paper and says, “You know, for kids” – he’s suddenly installed as the company proxy in a scheme by Mussburger to take over the company.

The movie itself is a bit of an homage to the classic films of the 1940s, with fast-talking characters and snappy, breathless dialogue. Best at this is co-star Jennifer Jason Leigh, who steals every scene she’s in, eerily looking and sounding like she was plucked from a time capsule. She’s truly great. But so is Robbins, who delightfully falls into the Mussburger trap, believing he’s doing the job he thinks he actually doing. If that makes sense. Then there’s the circle. What a great payoff. A triumph of production design, the film met with mixed reviews but has since gone on to be a cult classic. Either way, Robbins was a standout and was riding a high that he carried right into the what is now considered one of the greatest movies ever made.

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

Based on a novella by Stephen King, there’s hardly a film fan out there who doesn’t know and admire Frank Darabont‘s epic The Shawshank Redemption. While it didn’t play well in theaters on release, competing against the likes of Quentin Tarantino‘s juggernaut Pulp Fiction and the Tom Hanks Oscar-winner Forrest Gump, it’s gone on to top the lists of many best of all time movies. Robbins is tall drink of water Andy Dufresne, who is sent to prison for the murder of his wife and her lover. Did he do it? He says no, but winds up at Shawshank, a penitentiary in Maine, sentenced to life behind bars. There, trying to keep low-key, he meets Red (Morgan Freeman), a guy who can get things, and begins a twenty-year friendship that plots a personal rebellion and escape.

Praised for its writing, the film earned its highest acclaim for the acting, with Freeman and Robbins singled out as reasons why the emotional story works so well. A long list of actors (including Gene Hackman, Clint Eastwood, Tom Cruise, and Kevin Costner) were considered for the part but it is Robbins, in no uncertain terms, who is perfectly cast, that simmering danger and external innocence finally finding the part he was born to play (even though those same qualities would earn him an Academy Award almost ten years later for Mystic River). This movie is impossible not to fall into, the setting and style so compelling, and the long genuinely touching history of these characters making it a timeless experience. A true Hollywood classic.

THE AFTERMATH

After 3 in a Row like that, Robbins would seem to be done, but of course, the actor would go on to star and make appearances in dozens of other hit movies. While the aforementioned Mystic River would be the cap to his acting triumphs, there’s no taking away from great work in a host of titles, including Arlington Road, High Fidelity, and that odd scene in War of the Worlds. Robbins might not be headlining big movies anymore, but his legacy is intact, a staple of the 1990s and one of cinema’s most adventurous names.