Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: the third collaboration between Steve McQueen and director Richard Attenborough.
After a stint in the Merchant Navy, then in the Navy, Steve McQueen turned to drama. In 1956, the budding actor made his first film, Marked by Hate, under the direction of Robert Wise, even if his appearance, as a pool player, is not credited in the credits.
Insolent and withdrawn, sometimes aggressive, Steve McQueen remained condemned to doing extras for a long time, until he landed the role of bounty hunter Josh Randall in the television series In the Name of the Law (1958- 1961). Propelled to the rank of star, he quickly became one of the most coveted actors of his generation.
In 1966, Steve McQueen found Robert Wise, who offered him the leading role in La Canonnière du Yang-Tse. In this thinly veiled condemnation of the Vietnamese conflict, the actor embodies the chief mechanic of a gunboat who finds himself at the heart of the Chinese civil war between nationalists and communists.
He thus puts to good use his own experience in the army, as well as his charisma and his instinctive game (he himself modifies his text to emphasize certain lines) in the service of a precursory anti-hero, announcing the wave of protest icons of the 1970s. His performance earned him his one and only Oscar nomination for Best Actor – a reward he would never win.
La Gunnière du Yang-Tse by Robert Wise with Steve McQueen, Candice Bergen, Richard Attenborough…
Tonight on Arte at 8:55 p.m.