FORD’S FEATS

Like millions of other moviegoers, I have long admired and enjoyed the performances of Harrison Ford in films that run the gamut from the silly to the challenging to the thrilling. I’ve always felt that he was giving his audience full value for their money, at least until I read Bruce Newman’s eye-opening interview (“Danger Is His Business,” Aug. 14) and learned that Ford has been holding out on us. Ford in person manages feats I would gladly pay $6 to see in a film.

Early on, Newman tells us that in person “when (Ford) is provoked--or afraid--his brow descends like the cornice of a great mountain, and his eyes form blue lakes at the foot of this undulant granite mass.” Wow! Sounds rather like a description of Yosemite Valley in mid-spring! In movies he just looks like a guy. Then there’s his “unscripted” speech: “When the words come, they seem to erupt from him like magma that has been churning just below the surface.” Boy, I wish he’d talk like that in the movies. It sounds like it’s a lot more exciting than his usual naturalism that merely sounds like his character is expressing his thoughts.

But the greatest achievement of all comes near the end of the article, when, during a silence, Newman witnesses this astonishing stunt: “Ford’s eyebrows slowly begin to knit themselves together.” I would love to see them do that on a big screen! Jim Carrey needs ILM to pull off that sort of thing!

DOUGLAS McEWAN

Hemet