Top Ten Tuesday: Angels in Hollywood

Scott Stewart’s new film LEGION opens on Friday, January 22 and we’ve decided to take a cinematic angelic look back at the best angels on the big screen. angels of death, banished angels, space angels and troubled angels… whatever the interpretation, you won’t find any cute little porcelain angels with fluffy white wings a golden halos on their heads. Behold, our Top Ten List of the best Angel characters portrayed in the movies!

10. Don Cheadle as Cash, THE FAMILY MAN

Say what you will about THE FAMILY MAN.  It’s a half-assed IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE.  It’s Nicolas Cage trying way too hard for yet another Oscar.  I liked it better when it was called MR. DESTINY.  It’s Brett Ratner, ’nuff said.   But, the film has a pretty cool angel played by a pretty cool guy.  Don Cheadle could sleepwalk through most of his performances and still be cooler than half the rest of the cast.  With THE FAMILY MAN, he brings that cool in abundance and shows Nic Cage the joys of living your life.  Sure, it’s no IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, but THE FAMILY MAN is notable if for no other reason than because it has a very cool angel driving the story.

09. Nicolas Cage as Seth, CITY OF ANGELS

Nicolas Cage may always include a piece of himself in every role he takes on, but as the angel Seth in CITY OF ANGELS, he fairly successfully oppressed the sarcasm and sharp tongue he is so well-known for. Good thing too, because this was a role in a movie that had no place for his typical flair. Instead, while it may not be the best movie, it fairs as a modestly respectful American remake of Wim Wenders’ WINGS OF DESIRE. On a side note: Andre Braugher was also great as the angel Cassiel.

08. John Phillip Law as Pygar, BARBARELLA

In the 41st century Barbarella (Jane Fonda) is sent to thwart the schemes of the evil Black Queen. After surviving several kinky encounters, including an attack by killer dolls with razor-sharp teeth and a ‘death by orgasm’ device, Barbarella defeats the Black Queen and the galaxy is restored to peace. Along the way, Barbarella takes refuge in the wings of Pygar (John Phillip Law), a hunky blind angel who can’t fly. “An angel does not make love, an angel is love”claims Pygar but Barbarella sets him right with a roll in the hay (actually a literal ‘love nest’) that makes Pygar feel like a man again. “I’ve regained my will to fly!” states Pygar and Barbarella simply responds with “I know”. In a film full of campy, over-the-top characters, it’s John Phillip Law’s serene and bucolic angel that gives BARBARELLA some heart.

07. Matt Damon as Loki, DOGMA

Loki, formerly the Angel of Death, may be having a hard time coping with his recent unemployment from a job he truly loved, but he’s far better adjusted to his life of exile on Earth with the humans than his angelic buddy Bartelby (Ben Affleck). Matt Damon gives Loki a fun-loving, free-spirited personality, but one that’s not above lashing out at mortals he feels deserve punishment. Funny, smart and in some ways the “good little angel” on Bartleby’s shoulder at times, Damon created a likable angel with a handgun and a heart-of-gold.

06. Tilda Swinton as Gabriel, CONSTANTINE

While Tilda Swinton may not be considered the most attractive movie star on the market, she’s far from being ugly. With that said, she embodies a certain trans-gender quality as the archangel Gabriel that works to great effect in her performance as a type of character that is often perceived as asexual. Regardless, Swinton gave the character a part-feminine, part-mysteriously badass attitude; an attitude that is accomplished without masculine aggression. This is an approach we hadn’t seen before with what could be called the baddest, most hardcore angel outside of Lucifer himself. Swinton’s role was brief, but her performance is highly admirable in this really cool, dark and gritty film.

05. Alan Rickman as Metatron, DOGMA

If you were the almighty one, the one who created the heavens and the Earth, the one who, with a single whisper, could make humans explode on site, would you really choose anyone other than Alan Rickman to be your voice to the masses?  I didn’t think so, and neither did Kevin Smith, who had a stroke of genius in casting Hans Gruber as the Metatron in DOGMA.  The film has its naysayers, mostly casual moviegoers and ultra-conservatives who had problems with the film’s subject matter as a whole.  But even my mother watched it with me after she heard Rickman was in it, and that’s no fleeting task.  DOGMA pretty much remains the quintessential movie about theology and angels at work of our generation, and, of all the angels in the film, Rickman’s Metatron is by far the coolest, classiest, and most memorable angel of them all.

04. Henry Travers as Clarence, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Clarence, the angel sent by Joseph to show Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey what life would have been without his existence, is perhaps as memorable of a character in Christmas activities as Santa himself. At least, to film buffs. Clarence’s lively, cherubic nature plays off of Stewart’s despondent character wonderfully, and to this day I can’t help but think about him when I hear bells ring.

03. Bruno Ganz as Damiel, WINGS OF DESIRE

Wim Wenders’ remarkable 1987 movie WINGS OF DESIRE imagines a world haunted by invisible angels listening in to our thoughts (only children can see them). A kind spirit (Bruno Ganz) posted to contemporary Berlin, falls in love with a lonely trapeze artist and decides to sacrifice his spiritual existence to be able to become human and know her. The angels in WINGS OF DESIRE are sometimes glimpsed with wings, but mostly wear overcoats and can hear the internal dialogue of every human that they pass by. Equal parts drama, comedy, and meditation, the mostly black-and-white WINGS OF DESIRE, unlike it’s glossy Hollywood remake CITY OF ANGELS, is a rewarding film that requires contemplation and work.

02. Cary Grant as Dudley, THE BISHOP’S WIFE

In THE BISHOP’S WIFE, God sends one of his angels, Dudley (Cary Grant), down to Earth to help Bishop Henry Brougham (David Niven) raise money for a new church to be built. The Bishop’s preoccupation with the new cathedral has driven a wedge between himself and his wife and daughter, so who happily takes advantage of this situation…Dudley of course. And boy does he ever fall hard for the bishop’s wife, Julia (Loretta Young) too. The debonair Grant emits a dark, brooding tone that makes Dudley more human than angel. It’s ever so subtle, but unmistakably there. After Henry confronts Dudley and claims that he’s not going to lose his family without a fight, in true angel speak, Dudley asks the Bishop, “Don’t you realize Henry, that as an Angel, I could quite possibly destroy you with a bolt of lightning?” Miffed messenger of God in  present-day films is the norm, but it’s amazing that this story line worked in 1947. Apparently the status quo found something appealing about it back then. THE BISHOP’S WIFE was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Score and Best Editing, but won a single Oscar for Best Sound.

01. Christopher Walken as Gabriel, THE PROPHECY

Is it really any surprise that the one and only Christopher Walken would end up at #1 on our list, portraying the archangel Gabriel? I would certainly hope not! Insulting Walken’s Gabriel is probably about as good for one’s health as insulting Walken’s Vincenzo Coccotti. Case in point…

“I’m an angel. I kill firstborns while their mamas watch. I turn cities into salt. I even, when I feel like it, rip the souls from little girls, and from now till kingdom come, the only thing you can count on in your existence is never understanding why.” — Christopher Walken as Gabriel

He looks creepy, he sounds creepy, he speaks with lucid and dominating command over the language of fear… who better to strike fear into the hearts of the weak and unworthy humans. Walken masterfully manifests the bitter rage and loathing Gabriel feels for humanity, peppering it lightly with the necessary undertone of being hurt, betrayed even, by God whom he holds a dangerous grudge against. One thing is for sure, this is not an angel I would want to run into in a dark alley.