Tagged: Sweden

Gorky Park: Lee Marvin’s Sheepskin Flight Jacket

Lee Marvin as Jack Osborne in Gorky Park (1983)

Lee Marvin as Jack Osborne in Gorky Park (1983)

Vitals

Lee Marvin as Jack Osborne, American fur importer

Stockholm, April 1983

Film: Gorky Park
Release Date: December 15, 1983
Director: Michael Apted
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

As winter rages on, you’d think I would be looking for escape via light movies set in tropical locations… but instead, I recently rewatched Gorky Park, adapted from Martin Cruz Smith’s 1981 novel that begins with three disfigured corpses found in the snow outside a Moscow ice rink. (And I wonder why I get depressed!)

Our ostensible hero is Militsiya officer Arkady Renko (William Hurt), whose investigation of the grisly murders leads him to the sophisticated yet sinister sable importer Jack Osborne (Lee Marvin). Continue reading

The American: Jack’s Winter Attire in Sweden

George Clooney as Jack in The American (2010).

George Clooney as Jack in The American (2010).

Vitals

George Clooney as Jack (aka “Edward”), American hitman-in-hiding

Dalarna, Sweden, April 2010

Film: The American
Release Date: September 1, 2010
Director: Anton Corbijn
Costume Designer: Suttirat Anne Larlarb

Background

The opening of The American finds our titular protagonist hiding out in Dalarna in central Sweden with the lovely Ingrid. Although his Syriana days are long behind him, Clooney sports a salt-and-pepper beard to let us know right away that he has been out of action for sometime. For anyone familiar with the film due to its marketing campaign or regular ol’ smarts, this “action” is contract killing.

Continue reading