Jonathan Kieran

Ehhhhhhhh, I am always tickled when any publication brings attention to the earnest and enigmatic Viggo Mortensen. I have been a big fan of Viggo’s work since before THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy: indeed, I was impressed by his portrayal of Lucifer himself in the 1995 Christopher Walken/Elias Koteas B-flick, THE PROPHECY. I even felt an odd kind of “local kinship” with Viggo because he grew up and went to college only forty minutes from the town in which I grew up, lumped in the provincial wilds of real Upstate New York (sorry, Utica) within spitting distance of the Canadian Border. Viggo’s parents apparently continued to live in that region long after both of us, in our respective trajectories, not together, had left the North Country for keeps.

Following Viggo’s post-Aragorn career was always a bit of a challenge. Due to work and whimsy, I moved fairly often upon relocating to California from Paris, France, in the mid-1990s (including a move back to Europe for a short time), and that wanderlust, along with changes in the film distribution industry, meant that the smaller, boutique indie movies that Viggo favored as career vehicles were harder to track-down in theaters. Renting his films on DVD was an easier alternative, but in the midst of a busy life, one really had to make an effort to remember that he had starred in these briefly released arthouse films and then focus upon hunting them down. Get in the car. Turn the ignition. Drive any number of miles to a video/DVD rental store. Hunt for the film if the store even had it or if it had even been released, at any given time. Yeah. No.

Basically, I saw few of Viggo’s later flicks, at first. The big-budget (and impressive) Hidalgo and A History of Violence constituted those “few.”

Once streaming came into the entertainment equation I was able to play a rather worthy game of catch-up, and have seen most of his wonderfully peculiar offerings. The movies themselves have not always been exceptional, but Viggo himself has never been anything less than compelling, even riveting. As it stands now, my Mortensen favorites (aside from LOTR) are Captain Fantastic, Far From Men, The Road, Green Book, and his own directorial debut, Falling—a far too under-appreciated recent gem starring both Viggo and a superb Lance Henricksen. I still believe there’d be a Best Actor Oscar in Viggo’s future if complete garbage were not being annually rewarded by a vast gaggle of excessively woke-ass industry nitwits.

Collider recently came up with their list of Best Viggo Mortensen Films That Aren’t Lord of the Rings. It’s worth a look, if you’re a Viggo-fan, just to see if you agree. I can take the list or leave it, but I’m glad they put it together—any Viggo Mortensen publicity is a balm for the artistic wellbeing of the world.

[Look for Jonathan Kieran’s fabulous new—as yet untitled—book of hundreds of witty, cynical, zeitgeist-rocking, and knee-slappingly clever cartoons of Pure Smartassery in 2024! Stay tuned for developing news and previews.]

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