View allAll Photos Tagged KevinCostner
The sycamore tree is probably the most photographed tree in the country. The tree grows in a dramatic dip, with Hadrian’s Wall rising either side. The 1991 film ‘Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves', starring Kevin Costner, was filmed here. The tree has been known as The Robin Hood Tree ever since.
Regno Unito, Northumberland, Vallo di Adriano vicino a Crag Lough, Estate 2014
Il Vallo di Adriano era una fortificazione difensiva della Britannia romana. La costruzione iniziò nel 122 AC durante il regno dell'imperatore Adriano e fu in gran parte completato in sei anni. Il Vallo si estende per 80 miglia romane o 117,5 km e va da Wallsend sul fiume Tyne, passando per Carlisle alla riva del Solway Firth, terminando vicino al villaggio di Bowness-on-Solway. Lo scopo principale del muro era quello di separare i romani dai barbari al fine di rafforzare l'impero. Il Sycamore Gap Tree o albero di Robin Hood è un sicomoro che si trova accanto al muro di Adriano vicino a Crag Lough nel Northumberland, in Inghilterra. Si trova in un drammatica fenditura nel paesaggio ed è un popolare soggetto fotografico, descritto come uno degli alberi più fotografati del paese. Deriva il suo nome alternativo dall'apparizione in una scena di spicco nel film del 1991 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. L'albero ha vinto il premio England of the Year 2016 dell'Inghilterra. L'albero è apparso in una scena chiave del film di Kevin Costner del 1991 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, in cui Robin Hood viaggiava tortuosamente dalle White Cliffs di Dover a Nottingham attraverso il muro di Adriano, e in seguito è diventato noto come "Robin Hood Tree". È apparso nel video musicale di Bryan Adams (Everything I Do) I Do It for You, che è apparso nella colonna sonora del film.
Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Construction started in AD 122 during the rule of emperor Hadrian and was largely completed in six years. Hadrian's Wall was 80 Roman miles or 117.5 km long and it runs from Wallsend on the River Tyne, via Carlisle to the shore of the Solway Firth, ending near the village of Bowness-on-Solway. The main purpose for this wall was to separate the Romans from the barbarians in order to fortify the empire. The Sycamore Gap Tree or Robin Hood Tree is a sycamore tree standing next to Hadrian's Wall near Crag Lough in Northumberland, England. It is located in a dramatic dip in the landscape and is a popular photographic subject, described as one of the most photographed trees in the country. It derives its alternative name from featuring in a prominent scene in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The tree won the 2016 England Tree of the Year award. The tree featured in a key scene of the 1991 Kevin Costner film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, wherein Robin Hood travelled circuitously from the White Cliffs of Dover to Nottingham via Hadrian's Wall, and has subsequently become known as the "Robin Hood Tree". It appeared in the music video for Bryan Adams' (Everything I Do) I Do It for You which featured on the film's soundtrack.
England's longest single drop (surface) waterfall at 30m.
Kevin Costner swam in the pool below the falls in a scene from "Robin Hood Prince of Thieves" and apparently found it quite cold 😂
An iconic landmark on Hadrian's Wall, cut down by a vandal on 28/9/23. This tree featured in the Kevin Costner film "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves" and was a tourist attraction in it's own right.
"You have to decide if you're going to wilt like a daisy or if you're just going to go forward and live the life that you've been granted."
-- Kevin Costner (American actor, producer, film director, and musician who has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards)
Technical Information (or Nerdy Stuff):
Camera - Nikon D7200 (handheld)
Lens – Nikkor 18-300mm Zoom
ISO – 320
Aperture – f/7.1
Exposure – 1/250 second
Focal Length – 300mm
The original RAW file was processed with Adobe Camera Raw and final adjustments were made with Photoshop CS6.
"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11
The best way to view my photostream is through Flickriver with the following link: www.flickriver.com/photos/photojourney57/
Pano's are a bit Marmite for me, but they do look awesome on a wall. Especially if you have a love for the area its in, Seven Sisters in Eastbourne, from hope gap which is Saltdean on the other side of the Cuckmere outlet. This scene was the backdrop for Kevin Costner in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.
With Kevin Costner and Madeleine Stowe
I have rented it from YouTube and I managed to take this photo.
It's not so clear, but I just love Kevin Costner.
Hollywood made this famous in the 1991 movie, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. I probably stood where Kevin Costner stood and bloodthirsty man-eating hounds chased a boy up into the tree. My own visit to this spot on Hadrian's Wall was slightly less thrilling, although I must admit I didn't find the Holywood version too thrilling either, even in 1991. Quite what Loxley, aka Robin Hood was doing with an immigrant Saracen so far north of his home in Sherwood Forest I could never work out. And how he got from Beachy head to Northumberland in ten minutes simply defied belief. Anyhow here is that scene by the tree, suitably blurred to make it look appropriately aged www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0RnajX2rW8
If you've ever seen the 1989 classic Field of Dreams, you've seen this corner and parts of north and south Main St. before. Galena, which is identified as Chisholm, Minnesota in the movie, is where Ray Kinsella, played by Kevin Costner, and Terrence Mann, played by James Earl Jones, go to look for "Doc" Moonlight Graham, played by Burt Lancaster.
Upon arriving in Chisholm, Ray and Terrence visit the local newspaper office and learn that Doc Graham died in 1972. Later that evening, a confused Ray goes for a walk on this street and discovers that he has somehow been transported back to the year 1972. He then sees an older man with an umbrella walking toward the corner shown in this photo. Ray catches up and calls out "Doctor Graham," who turns around. Ray asks "Doc" if he is "Moonlight" Graham. Graham responds that no one has called him "Moonlight" in fifty years. Ray then asks if he can join him on his walk to talk about what happened when Moonlight got to the majors and played only one inning of one game.
Ostensibly about baseball, the emotional, magical Field of Dreams became more than just a movie for many people following its release in 1989 to both critical and popular acclaim. Based on W. P. Kinsella's book Shoeless Joe, Field of Dreams is a story of faith, forgiveness, and redemption. I highly recommend both the movie and soundtrack by the late James Horner.
Back to the image. This photo provides a view of the west side of the 100 block of S. Main St. in downtown Galena. On the corner is the Newhall Building (where the scene just described takes place), a two-part commercial block in Greek Revival style that was constructed in 1843. Nearly every building in this view is a contributing property in the Galena Historic District, which encompasses a remarkable 85 percent of the City of Galena and includes more than 800 properties. The Galena Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969, with modifications in 2013.
Galena is the seat of Jo Daviess County. This is the un-glaciated area of northwestern Illinois. The rolling hills, history and abundant 19th century architecture draws visitors from throughout the country. The estimated population of Galena in 2019 was 3,158.
With Kevin Costner and Madeleine Stowe
I have rented it from YouTube and I managed to take this photo.
It's not so clear, but I just love Kevin Costner.
An iconic landmark on Hadrian's Wall, cut down by a vandal on 28/9/23. This tree featured in the Kevin Costner film "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves" and was a tourist attraction in it's own right.
A beautiful tranquil location to just sit & take in this super view of the upper falls ! cant beat the sound of running cascades of fast flowing water, always making you feel relaxed.
Old Wardour Castle is in the county of Wiltshire, England. Situated in a village called Anstey, close to the towns of Tisbury and Shaftesbury. The Castle has featured in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner.
Sycamore Gap is a well-known location, made even more famous by 'Robinhood' starring Kevin Costner. There is an abundance of photographs of this location that one has to think twice before getting something original. The simplicity of the place makes it even tougher, and if you are a tourist staying one night in Haltwhistle or Once-Brewed, you are testing your luck. The curves of the hills are attractive at this spot, as is the singular giant tree, and the personal touch for me is the clouds and the light, specifically light falling on the two little specks to the top-left of the tree.
www.flickr.com/cameras/olympus/e510/
Shown as most Interesting for Olympus E-510 Camera on Flickr.
This sycamore tree sits alone and sheltered in the dip of a hill right next to Hadrian's Wall. For the movie buffs among you, Kevin Costner fought some ruffians at it in "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves".
The Greatest Show on Turf will be led by none other than Yellowstone star Kevin Costner!
www.calgarystampede.com/stampede/parade
8th July 2022
There are the sounds of laughter, the announcements of the next show at the Bijou Planks, and, of course, the singing of Christmas Carols.
Canny on black :-)
This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without my written permission. This also applies to the rest of the images in my photostream.
For nearly 40 years, the folks at the Utah Department of Natural Resources have gathered the bison herd on Antelope Island to check their health and manage the population. This annual roundup draws people from all over the world, young and old, locals and travelers. This year, I chatted with a couple from Canada and a gentleman who had come all the way from Argentina.
The rider pictured here was an Utah native who’s been part of the roundup for years. At 80-plus years old, he told me he might only have a few more rides left with his trusty horse who’s now over 20 years old itself. But from what I saw, he looked tough as nails and ready for another day in the saddle.
Before the roundup began, I asked if he’d take a few warm-up laps around the open field. He grinned and asked, “Walk or run?”
“Run, of course,” I said.
And run they did.
From his hat, I’d guess he once rode with the U.S. Cavalry, the kind of man who’s spent a lifetime charging into life full stride, horse and all.
I think the round-up brings back a sense of history. A way to remember and maybe even romanticize today’s cowboys and cowgirls.
The River Ure tumblingover a series of limestone steps, known as Aysgarth Falls. One of Wensleydales most famous beauty spots. Featured in the Kevin Costner film "Robin-Hood - Prince of Thieves" (1991).
Same as yesterdays, but with some colour and less crop. Same amount of exhaustion though. I might possibly have just about recovered!
Buy this pic here - www.redbubble.com/products/configure/12299475
MLB at Field of Dreams
Photographed for CNN
www.cnn.com/travel/article/field-of-dreams-stadium-iowa/i...
Dyersville, Iowa
August 2021
All photos © Joshua Mellin per the guidelines listed under "Owner settings" to the right.
For nearly 40 years, the folks at the Utah Department of Natural Resources have gathered the bison herd on Antelope Island to check their health and manage the population. This annual roundup draws people from all over the world, young and old, locals and travelers. This year, I chatted with a couple from Canada and a gentleman who had come all the way from Argentina.
The rider pictured here was an Utah native who’s been part of the roundup for years. At 80-plus years old, he told me he might only have a few more rides left with his trusty horse who’s now over 20 years old itself. But from what I saw, he looked tough as nails and ready for another day in the saddle.
Before the roundup began, I asked if he’d take a few warm-up laps around the open field. He grinned and asked, “Walk or run?”
“Run, of course,” I said.
And run they did.
From his hat, I’d guess he once rode with the U.S. Cavalry, the kind of man who’s spent a lifetime charging into life full stride, horse and all.
I think the round-up brings back a sense of history. A way to remember and maybe even romanticize today’s cowboys and cowgirls.
One from a Keven Costner movie premier a few months ago in his home town of Ventura.
Take a look at Large On Black
I'm going to upload a few today so please don't feel the need to comment.
Invites are great, but please all things in moderation :-)
Travel & Cafe & Foodie. Travel Advisor. Hotels and food Photographer in Spain, Venezuela, Thailand, and the World. Travel Destinations magazine contact me 👉
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Leica Sumilux 25/F1.4
Leica Sumilux 15/F1.7
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XF16mmF2.8
XF35mmF1.4
Coming Soon Travel Blog.
Field of Dreams Movie Site
Dyersville, IA
Work took me to Iowa the past two days, and a chance to see the Field of Dreams took me an hour and half north one evening to Dyersville, IA with camera in hand.
23 years after the initial release, Field of Dreams remains easily inside my top 3 favorite movies of all time. The story of regret, redemption, and stepping out in faith when the world thinks your nuts, all wrapped into the guise of a "baseball movie" still tugs at my heart strings.
To stand on the same field where James Earl Jones delivered the "People will come" speech, where Shoeless Joe Jackson appeared, and most importantly the big reveal as to who would come if you built it, who's pain would be eased, and what would happen if you went the distance.. well it was a bucket list item removed for me.
French postcard, no. 2056. Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner, 1990).
Kevin Costner (1955) is one of Hollywood's most prominent strong, silent types. He had his breakthrough with his portrayal of Eliot Ness inThe Untouchables (1987). For several years he was the celluloid personification of the baseball industry, given his indelible mark with baseball-themed hits like Bull Durham (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), and For Love of the Game. His epic Western Dances with Wolves (1990) marked the first break from this trend and established Costner as a formidable directing talent to boot. He received two Oscars, two Golden Globes, and a Primetime Emmy. Although several flops in the late 1990s diminished his bankability, for many, Costner remained one of the industry's most enduring and endearing icons.
Kevin Costner was born in 1955, in Lynwood, California, and grew up in Compton. His mother, Sharon Rae (Tedrick), was a welfare worker, and his father, William Costner, was an electrician and, later, a utility executive at Southern California Edison. Kevin was not academically inclined in school. He enjoyed sports (especially football), took piano lessons, wrote poetry, and sang in the First Baptist Choir. While a marketing student at California State University in Fullerton, he became involved with community theatre. Upon graduation in 1978, he married Cindy Silva, who worked at Disneyland as Cinderella. Costner took a marketing job that lasted all of 30 days before he decided to take a crack at acting. He took work that allowed him to develop his acting skills via tuition, including working on fishing boats, as a truck driver, and giving tours of stars' Hollywood homes to support the couple while he also attended auditions. He made an inauspicious film debut in the ultra-cheap independent film Sizzle Beach USA/Hot Malibu Summer (Richard Brander, 1986), AllMovie mentions 1974 as the premiere date. According to Wikipedia, Filmed in the winter of 1978–1979, the film was not released until 1981 and re-released in 1986 after Costner became a celebrity. However, Costner decided to take a more serious approach to acting. Venturing down the usual theatre-workshop, multiple-audition route, the actor impressed casting directors who weren't really certain of how to use him. That may be one reason why Costner's big-studio debut in Night Shift (Ron Howard, 1982) consisted of little more than background decoration, and the same year's Frances (Graeme Clifford, 1982) starring Jessica Lange, featured the hapless young actor as an off-stage voice. Director Lawrence Kasdan liked Costner enough to cast him in the important role of the suicide victim who motivated the plot of The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan, 1983). Unfortunately, his flashback scenes were edited out of the film, leaving all that was visible of the actor - who had turned down Matthew Broderick's role in WarGames (John Badham, 1983) to take the part - to be his dress suit, along with a fleeting glimpse of his hairline and hands as the undertaker prepared him for burial during the opening credits. Two years later, a guilt-ridden Kasdan chose Costner for a major part as a hell-raising gunfighter in the 'retro' Western Silverado (Lawrence Kasdan, 1985), this time putting him in front of the camera for virtually the entire film. He also gained notice for the Diner-ish buddy road movie Fandango. The actor's big break came two years later as he burst onto the screen in two major films, No Way Out (Roger Donaldson, 1987) and The Untouchables (Brian De Palma, 1987); his growing popularity was further amplified with a brace of baseball films, released within months of one another. In Bull Durham (Ron Shelton, 1988), the actor was taciturn minor-league ballplayer Crash Davis, and in the following year's Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson, 1989), he was Ray Kinsella, a farmer who constructs a baseball diamond in his Iowa cornfield at the repeated urging of a voice that intones "if you build it, he will come." Riding high on the combined box-office success of these films, Costner was able to make his directing debut. With a small budget of 18 million dollars, he went off to the Black Hills of South Dakota to film the first Western epic that Hollywood had seen in years, a revisionist look at American Indian-white relationships titled Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner, 1990). The supposedly doomed project, in addition to being one of 1990's biggest moneymakers, also took home a slew of Academy Awards, including statues for Best Picture and Best Director.
Kevin Costner's luck continued with the costume epic Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991). The film made money, though it seriously strained Costner's longtime friendship with director Reynolds. The same year, Costner had another hit - and critical success - on his hands with JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991). The next year's The Bodyguard (Mick Jackson, 1992), a romantic thriller which teamed Costner with Whitney Houston, did so well at the box office that it seemed the actor could do no wrong. However, his next film, A Perfect World (Clint Eastwood, 1993), casting Costner against type as a half-psycho, half-benign prison escapee, was a major disappointment, even though Costner himself garnered some acclaim. Bad luck followed Perfect World in the form of another cast-against-type failure, the Western Wyatt Earp (Lawrence Kasdan, 1994). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Adding insult to injury, Costner's 1995 epic sci-fi adventure Waterworld received a whopping amount of negative publicity prior to opening due to its ballooning budget and bloated schedule; ultimately, its decent box office total in no way offset its cost." The following year, Costner was able to rebound somewhat with the romantic comedy Tin Cup (Ron Shelton, 1996), which was well-received by the critics and the public alike. Unfortunately, he opted to follow up this success with another large-scaled directorial effort, an epic adaptation of author David Brin's The Postman (Kevin Costner, 1997). It featured Costner as a Shakespeare-spouting drifter in a post-nuclear holocaust America whose efforts to reunite the country give him messianic qualities. Like Waterworld, The Postman received a critical drubbing and did poorly with audiences. Costner's reputation, now at an all-time low, received some resuscitation with the romantic drama Message in a Bottle (Luis Mandoki, 1998), with Robin Wright, and later the same year he returned to the genre that loved him best with the baseball drama For Love of the Game (Sam Raimi, 1998). A thoughtful reflection on the Cuban missile crisis provided the groundwork for the mid-level success of the historical political thriller Thirteen Days (Roger Donaldson, 2000).
Kevin Costner's played a member of a group of Elvis impersonating casino bandits in 3000 Miles to Graceland (Demian Lichtenstein, 2001) with Kurt Russell. This film drew harsh criticism, relegating it to a quick death at the box office. Costner's next effort was a more sentimental supernatural drama lamenting lost love, Dragonfly (Tom Shadyac, 2002). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Costner fared better in 2003, and returned to directing, with Open Range, a Western co-starring himself and the iconic Robert Duvall -- while it was no Dances With Wolves in terms of mainstream popularity, it certainly received more positive feedback than The Postman or Waterworld." Next, Costner starred alongside Joan Allen in the drama The Upside of Anger (Mike Binder, 2004). It cast Allen as a single, upper-middle-class woman who unexpectedly strikes up a romance with the boozy ex-baseball star who lives next door (Costner). Even if divided on the picture as a whole, critics unanimously praised the lead performances by Costner and Allen. After the thoroughly dispiriting quasi-sequel to The Graduate, Rumor Has It... (Rob Reiner, 2005), starring Jennifer Anniston, Costner teamed up with Fugitive director Andrew Davis for the moderately successful Coast Guard thriller The Guardian (Andrew Davies, 2006), co-starring Ashton Kutcher. Costner then undertook another change-of-pace with one of his first psychological thrillers: Mr. Brooks, (Bruce A. Evans, 2007). Playing a psychotic criminal spurred on to macabre acts by his homicidal alter ego (William Hurt), Costner emerged from the critical- and box-office failure fairly unscathed. He came back swinging the following year with a starring role in the comedy Swing Vote, playing a small-town slacker whose single vote is about to determine the outcome of a presidential election. Costner's usual everyman charm carried the movie, but soon he was back to his more somber side, starring in the recession-era drama The Company Men (John Wells, 2010) alongside Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, and Tommy Lee Jones. As the 2010s rolled on, Costner's name appeared often in conjunction with the Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained prior to filming, but scheduling conflicts would eventually prevent the actor from participating in the project. He instead signed on for the latest Superman reboot, playing Clark Kent's adoptive dad on Planet Earth in Man of Steel (Zack Snyder, 2013) starring Henry Cavill. In 2020, he returned to form with Let Him Go (Thomas Bezucha, 2020) with Diane Lane.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Atoll Enforcer: Isn't that Mariner behind us??
Nord: No, that's Robin Hood.
Atoll Enforcer: He looks just like Mariner!
Nord: Uncanny.
Films
1. Where Eagles Dare (1968)
2. Kelly's Heroes (1970)
3. Dirty Harry (1971)
4. Magnum Force (1973)
5. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
6. The Gauntlet (1977)
7. Pale Rider (1985)
8. Heartbreak Ridge (1986)
9. Unforgiven (1992)
10. A Perfect World (1993)
11. Space Cowboys (2000)
12. Mystic River (2003)
13. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
14. Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)
15. Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
16. Gran Torino (2008)
17. Invictus (2009)
18. Hereafter (2010)
19. J. Edgar (2011)
20. Trouble with the Curve (2012)
Documentaries
1. The Eastwood Factor (Extended Version) Documentary (2010)
2. Eastwood Directs: The Untold Story Documentary (2013)
Available as prints here: www.redbubble.com/products/configure/6964747-poster
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Maybe not of mine favorites, but couldn't come up with anything else to use this idea for.
"People will come, Ray…The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.” - Terrence Mann, Field of Dreams
Vintage postcard, no. 2036. Kevin Costner in Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991).
Kevin Costner (1955) is one of Hollywood's most prominent strong, silent types. He had his breakthrough with his portrayal of Eliot Ness inThe Untouchables (1987). For several years he was the celluloid personification of the baseball industry, given his indelible mark with baseball-themed hits like Bull Durham (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), and For Love of the Game. His epic Western Dances with Wolves (1990) marked the first break from this trend and established Costner as a formidable directing talent to boot. He received two Oscars, two Golden Globes, and a Primetime Emmy. Although several flops in the late 1990s diminished his bankability, for many, Costner remained one of the industry's most enduring and endearing icons.
Kevin Costner was born in 1955, in Lynwood, California, and grew up in Compton. His mother, Sharon Rae (Tedrick), was a welfare worker, and his father, William Costner, was an electrician and, later, a utility executive at Southern California Edison. Kevin was not academically inclined in school. He enjoyed sports (especially football), took piano lessons, wrote poetry, and sang in the First Baptist Choir. While a marketing student at California State University in Fullerton, he became involved with community theatre. Upon graduation in 1978, he married Cindy Silva, who worked at Disneyland as Cinderella. Costner took a marketing job that lasted all of 30 days before he decided to take a crack at acting. He took work that allowed him to develop his acting skills via tuition, including working on fishing boats, as a truck driver, and giving tours of stars' Hollywood homes to support the couple while he also attended auditions. He made an inauspicious film debut in the ultra-cheap independent film Sizzle Beach USA/Hot Malibu Summer (Richard Brander, 1986), AllMovie mentions 1974 as the premiere date. According to Wikipedia, Filmed in the winter of 1978–1979, the film was not released until 1981 and re-released in 1986 after Costner became a celebrity. However, Costner decided to take a more serious approach to acting. Venturing down the usual theatre-workshop, multiple-audition route, the actor impressed casting directors who weren't really certain of how to use him. That may be one reason why Costner's big-studio debut in Night Shift (Ron Howard, 1982) consisted of little more than background decoration, and the same year's Frances (Graeme Clifford, 1982) starring Jessica Lange, featured the hapless young actor as an off-stage voice. Director Lawrence Kasdan liked Costner enough to cast him in the important role of the suicide victim who motivated the plot of The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan, 1983). Unfortunately, his flashback scenes were edited out of the film, leaving all that was visible of the actor - who had turned down Matthew Broderick's role in WarGames (John Badham, 1983) to take the part - to be his dress suit, along with a fleeting glimpse of his hairline and hands as the undertaker prepared him for burial during the opening credits. Two years later, a guilt-ridden Kasdan chose Costner for a major part as a hell-raising gunfighter in the 'retro' Western Silverado (Lawrence Kasdan, 1985), this time putting him in front of the camera for virtually the entire film. He also gained notice for the Diner-ish buddy road movie Fandango. The actor's big break came two years later as he burst onto the screen in two major films, No Way Out (Roger Donaldson, 1987) and The Untouchables (Brian De Palma, 1987); his growing popularity was further amplified with a brace of baseball films, released within months of one another. In Bull Durham (Ron Shelton, 1988), the actor was taciturn minor-league ballplayer Crash Davis, and in the following year's Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson, 1989), he was Ray Kinsella, a farmer who constructs a baseball diamond in his Iowa cornfield at the repeated urging of a voice that intones "if you build it, he will come." Riding high on the combined box-office success of these films, Costner was able to make his directing debut. With a small budget of 18 million dollars, he went off to the Black Hills of South Dakota to film the first Western epic that Hollywood had seen in years, a revisionist look at American Indian-white relationships titled Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner, 1990). The supposedly doomed project, in addition to being one of 1990's biggest moneymakers, also took home a slew of Academy Awards, including statues for Best Picture and Best Director.
Kevin Costner's luck continued with the costume epic Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991). The film made money, though it seriously strained Costner's longtime friendship with director Reynolds. The same year, Costner had another hit - and critical success - on his hands with JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991). The next year's The Bodyguard (Mick Jackson, 1992), a romantic thriller which teamed Costner with Whitney Houston, did so well at the box office that it seemed the actor could do no wrong. However, his next film, A Perfect World (Clint Eastwood, 1993), casting Costner against type as a half-psycho, half-benign prison escapee, was a major disappointment, even though Costner himself garnered some acclaim. Bad luck followed Perfect World in the form of another cast-against-type failure, the Western Wyatt Earp (Lawrence Kasdan, 1994). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Adding insult to injury, Costner's 1995 epic sci-fi adventure Waterworld received a whopping amount of negative publicity prior to opening due to its ballooning budget and bloated schedule; ultimately, its decent box office total in no way offset its cost." The following year, Costner was able to rebound somewhat with the romantic comedy Tin Cup (Ron Shelton, 1996), which was well-received by the critics and the public alike. Unfortunately, he opted to follow up this success with another large-scaled directorial effort, an epic adaptation of author David Brin's The Postman (Kevin Costner, 1997). It featured Costner as a Shakespeare-spouting drifter in a post-nuclear holocaust America whose efforts to reunite the country give him messianic qualities. Like Waterworld, The Postman received a critical drubbing and did poorly with audiences. Costner's reputation, now at an all-time low, received some resuscitation with the romantic drama Message in a Bottle (Luis Mandoki, 1998), with Robin Wright, and later the same year he returned to the genre that loved him best with the baseball drama For Love of the Game (Sam Raimi, 1998). A thoughtful reflection on the Cuban missile crisis provided the groundwork for the mid-level success of the historical political thriller Thirteen Days (Roger Donaldson, 2000).
Kevin Costner's played a member of a group of Elvis impersonating casino bandits in 3000 Miles to Graceland (Demian Lichtenstein, 2001) with Kurt Russell. This film drew harsh criticism, relegating it to a quick death at the box office. Costner's next effort was a more sentimental supernatural drama lamenting lost love, Dragonfly (Tom Shadyac, 2002). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Costner fared better in 2003, and returned to directing, with Open Range, a Western co-starring himself and the iconic Robert Duvall -- while it was no Dances With Wolves in terms of mainstream popularity, it certainly received more positive feedback than The Postman or Waterworld." Next, Costner starred alongside Joan Allen in the drama The Upside of Anger (Mike Binder, 2004). It cast Allen as a single, upper-middle-class woman who unexpectedly strikes up a romance with the boozy ex-baseball star who lives next door (Costner). Even if divided on the picture as a whole, critics unanimously praised the lead performances by Costner and Allen. After the thoroughly dispiriting quasi-sequel to The Graduate, Rumor Has It... (Rob Reiner, 2005), starring Jennifer Anniston, Costner teamed up with Fugitive director Andrew Davis for the moderately successful Coast Guard thriller The Guardian (Andrew Davies, 2006), co-starring Ashton Kutcher. Costner then undertook another change-of-pace with one of his first psychological thrillers: Mr. Brooks, (Bruce A. Evans, 2007). Playing a psychotic criminal spurred on to macabre acts by his homicidal alter ego (William Hurt), Costner emerged from the critical- and box-office failure fairly unscathed. He came back swinging the following year with a starring role in the comedy Swing Vote, playing a small-town slacker whose single vote is about to determine the outcome of a presidential election. Costner's usual everyman charm carried the movie, but soon he was back to his more somber side, starring in the recession-era drama The Company Men (John Wells, 2010) alongside Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones. As the 2010s rolled on, Costner's name appeared often in conjunction with the Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained prior to filming, but scheduling conflicts would eventually prevent the actor from participating in the project. He instead signed on for the latest Superman reboot, playing Clark Kent's adoptive dad on Planet Earth in Man of Steel (Zack Snyder, 2013) starring Henry Cavill. In 2020, he returned to form with Let Him Go (Thomas Bezucha, 2020) with Diane Lane.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Indoors
Such a shame that this week's theme was indoors - I mean, it was only 105 today, no big whup...
Seriously, it's ridiculously hot out there and I'm actually pretty happy that this week was indoors. Although, I'll be out all weekend shooting the horses at the show, at least I could take my time and be slightly creative indoors with this shot.
Summer is baseball season in Chicagoland and at least one of our two teams are doing well. The line "Hey dad, wanna have a catch was spoken by Kevin Costner's character Ray upon seeing his late father appear in the "Field of Dreams" - one of the most storied baseball players of all time was in this movie and was portrayed by Ray Liotta - "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, who was banned from the game of baseball for his alleged participation in the conspiracy to throw the 1919 World Series.
I don't know that the White Sox will ever live that down, but I do know that they currently have more World Series wins than the Cubs, and that's alright by me...
French postcard, no. A083. Sent by mail in 1994. Kevin Costner winning two Oscars for Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner, 1990).
Kevin Costner (1955) is one of Hollywood's most prominent strong, silent types. He had his breakthrough with his portrayal of Eliot Ness inThe Untouchables (1987). For several years he was the celluloid personification of the baseball industry, given his indelible mark with baseball-themed hits like Bull Durham (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), and For Love of the Game (1999). His epic Western Dances with Wolves (1990) marked the first break from this trend and established Costner as a formidable directing talent to boot. He received two Oscars, two Golden Globes, and a Primetime Emmy. Although several flops in the late 1990s diminished his bankability, for many, Costner remained one of the industry's most enduring and endearing icons.
Kevin Costner was born in 1955, in Lynwood, California, and grew up in Compton. His mother, Sharon Rae (Tedrick), was a welfare worker, and his father, William Costner, was an electrician and, later, a utility executive at Southern California Edison. Kevin was not academically inclined in school. He enjoyed sports (especially football), took piano lessons, wrote poetry, and sang in the First Baptist Choir. While a marketing student at California State University in Fullerton, he became involved with community theatre. Upon graduation in 1978, he married Cindy Silva, who worked at Disneyland as Cinderella. Costner took a marketing job that lasted all of 30 days before he decided to take a crack at acting. He took work that allowed him to develop his acting skills via tuition, including working on fishing boats, as a truck driver, and giving tours of stars' Hollywood homes to support the couple while he also attended auditions. He made an inauspicious film debut in the ultra-cheap independent film Sizzle Beach USA/Hot Malibu Summer (Richard Brander, 1986), AllMovie mentions 1974 as the premiere date. According to Wikipedia, Filmed in the winter of 1978–1979, the film was not released until 1981 and re-released in 1986 after Costner became a celebrity. However, Costner decided to take a more serious approach to acting. Venturing down the usual theatre-workshop, multiple-audition route, the actor impressed casting directors who weren't really certain of how to use him. That may be one reason why Costner's big-studio debut in Night Shift (Ron Howard, 1982) consisted of little more than background decoration, and the same year's Frances (Graeme Clifford, 1982) starring Jessica Lange, featured the hapless young actor as an off-stage voice. Director Lawrence Kasdan liked Costner enough to cast him in the important role of the suicide victim who motivated the plot of The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan, 1983). Unfortunately, his flashback scenes were edited out of the film, leaving all that was visible of the actor - who had turned down Matthew Broderick's role in WarGames (John Badham, 1983) to take the part - to be his dress suit, along with a fleeting glimpse of his hairline and hands as the undertaker prepared him for burial during the opening credits. Two years later, a guilt-ridden Kasdan chose Costner for a major part as a hell-raising gunfighter in the 'retro' Western Silverado (Lawrence Kasdan, 1985), this time putting him in front of the camera for virtually the entire film. He also gained notice for the Diner-ish buddy road movie Fandango. The actor's big break came two years later as he burst onto the screen in two major films, No Way Out (Roger Donaldson, 1987) and The Untouchables (Brian De Palma, 1987); his growing popularity was further amplified with a brace of baseball films, released within months of one another. In Bull Durham (Ron Shelton, 1988), the actor was taciturn minor-league ballplayer Crash Davis, and in the following year's Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson, 1989), he was Ray Kinsella, a farmer who constructs a baseball diamond in his Iowa cornfield at the repeated urging of a voice that intones "if you build it, he will come." Riding high on the combined box-office success of these films, Costner was able to make his directing debut. With a small budget of 18 million dollars, he went off to the Black Hills of South Dakota to film the first Western epic that Hollywood had seen in years, a revisionist look at American Indian-white relationships titled Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner, 1990). The supposedly doomed project, in addition to being one of 1990's biggest moneymakers, also took home a slew of Academy Awards, including statues for Best Picture and Best Director.
Kevin Costner's luck continued with the costume epic Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991). The film made money, though it seriously strained Costner's longtime friendship with director Reynolds. The same year, Costner had another hit - and critical success - on his hands with JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991). The next year's The Bodyguard (Mick Jackson, 1992), a romantic thriller which teamed Costner with Whitney Houston, did so well at the box office that it seemed the actor could do no wrong. However, his next film, A Perfect World (Clint Eastwood, 1993), casting Costner against type as a half-psycho, half-benign prison escapee, was a major disappointment, even though Costner himself garnered some acclaim. Bad luck followed Perfect World in the form of another cast-against-type failure, the Western Wyatt Earp (Lawrence Kasdan, 1994). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Adding insult to injury, Costner's 1995 epic sci-fi adventure Waterworld received a whopping amount of negative publicity prior to opening due to its ballooning budget and bloated schedule; ultimately, its decent box office total in no way offset its cost." The following year, Costner was able to rebound somewhat with the romantic comedy Tin Cup (Ron Shelton, 1996), which was well-received by the critics and the public alike. Unfortunately, he opted to follow up this success with another large-scaled directorial effort, an epic adaptation of author David Brin's The Postman (Kevin Costner, 1997). It featured Costner as a Shakespeare-spouting drifter in a post-nuclear holocaust America whose efforts to reunite the country give him messianic qualities. Like Waterworld, The Postman received a critical drubbing and did poorly with audiences. Costner's reputation, now at an all-time low, received some resuscitation with the romantic drama Message in a Bottle (Luis Mandoki, 1998), with Robin Wright, and later the same year he returned to the genre that loved him best with the baseball drama For Love of the Game (Sam Raimi, 1998). A thoughtful reflection on the Cuban missile crisis provided the groundwork for the mid-level success of the historical political thriller Thirteen Days (Roger Donaldson, 2000).
Kevin Costner's played a member of a group of Elvis impersonating casino bandits in 3000 Miles to Graceland (Demian Lichtenstein, 2001) with Kurt Russell. This film drew harsh criticism, relegating it to a quick death at the box office. Costner's next effort was a more sentimental supernatural drama lamenting lost love, Dragonfly (Tom Shadyac, 2002). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Costner fared better in 2003, and returned to directing, with Open Range, a Western co-starring himself and the iconic Robert Duvall -- while it was no Dances With Wolves in terms of mainstream popularity, it certainly received more positive feedback than The Postman or Waterworld." Next, Costner starred alongside Joan Allen in the drama The Upside of Anger (Mike Binder, 2004). It cast Allen as a single, upper-middle-class woman who unexpectedly strikes up a romance with the boozy ex-baseball star who lives next door (Costner). Even if divided on the picture as a whole, critics unanimously praised the lead performances by Costner and Allen. After the thoroughly dispiriting quasi-sequel to The Graduate, Rumor Has It... (Rob Reiner, 2005), starring Jennifer Anniston, Costner teamed up with Fugitive director Andrew Davis for the moderately successful Coast Guard thriller The Guardian (Andrew Davies, 2006), co-starring Ashton Kutcher. Costner then undertook another change-of-pace with one of his first psychological thrillers: Mr. Brooks, (Bruce A. Evans, 2007). Playing a psychotic criminal spurred on to macabre acts by his homicidal alter ego (William Hurt), Costner emerged from the critical- and box-office failure fairly unscathed. He came back swinging the following year with a starring role in the comedy Swing Vote, playing a small-town slacker whose single vote is about to determine the outcome of a presidential election. Costner's usual everyman charm carried the movie, but soon he was back to his more somber side, starring in the recession-era drama The Company Men (John Wells, 2010) alongside Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, and Tommy Lee Jones. As the 2010s rolled on, Costner's name appeared often in conjunction with the Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained prior to filming, but scheduling conflicts would eventually prevent the actor from participating in the project. He instead signed on for the latest Superman reboot, playing Clark Kent's adoptive dad on Planet Earth in Man of Steel (Zack Snyder, 2013) starring Henry Cavill. In 2020, he returned to form with Let Him Go (Thomas Bezucha, 2020) with Diane Lane.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.