All Those Moments (Rutger Hauer)

“All Those Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants and Blade Runners”, Rutger Hauer’s autobiography, is a damned enjoyable book.
It is no masterwork, but neither will fans be disappointed.
Hauer himself has always been a favored actor of mine. I was a big fan of many of his films when I was growing up, LadyHawke and Blade Runner being two on the forefront. Rutger always plays fantastic characters, but off screen, I never heard mention of him. As such, he has always been kind of an elusive celebrity. He never really made “A-list” ranking, but he was never B either. He is that temper-mental in between that the celeb rags and new organizations rarely pay attention to.
This book touches on his life, pre-Hollywood. The first few chapters detail his life as a child and teen, his wayward actor-parents, and his indecisive career. The depth of his history is kept minimal, covering most of his early years in a matter of a third of the book. I was left a bit wanting, feeling that i knew him better as a person, but only being allowed to see the private side that he had carefully dictated as “valid”.
Later chapters cover individual films he worked on and how he influenced the characters played, making them into the classic persona’s many of us know. Key/memorable elements that drive these movies were often brainstormed between himself and the directors, to a surprising degree this seems to have held true. A fine example would be the title of this book, taken from poetry spoken by Batty in Blade Runner.
“I?ve seen things you people wouldn?t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time? like tears in rain? Time to die.”
“All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.” Said poetry would never have been included were it not for his input. He added? this to the final scene, on the fly as he fleshed out his character on camera the last day of filming.
This book is not for everyone. People who have no real interest in Hauer or his filmography will not find some lusty industry secrets here to chit-chat in hushed voices about. It just is not that kind of memoir.
On the flip side, fans of his work, will find this very enjoyable time spent. The detailed look into his film history, combined with some background on his past, really shines a light on Hauer’s skill and love for the work.
Co-authored by crime-thriller writer Patrick Quinlan, the ebb and flow of this memoir was very comfortable.

Comments

  1. DaveDecember 8, 2010 at 3:46 AM

    As a huge fan myself, I am interested in reading this book. A side note, have you seen Flesh And Blood? It was done right after Ladyhawke, and is probably one of the most violent and nasty depictions of the dark ages I have ever seen on film...next to 'Jabberwocky' of course! lol. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089153/

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  2. erisianDecember 13, 2010 at 1:56 AM

    i definitely suggest it :)
    was interesting and enjoyable.

    i was left a little wanting due to lack of details on his life history, but honestly, anything is better than nothing for this mystery man.

    flesh and blood was awesome, as was jabberwocky :)

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  3. erisianDecember 13, 2010 at 1:58 AM

    his part in the cannibal episode of "Tales from a parallel universe" (renamed after the "Lexx" after sci-fi picked it up and extended it) was freakin awesome as well

    ReplyDelete
  4. KarenJanuary 4, 2011 at 12:29 PM

    Thanks for your review. I just read online today that my favorite 80s actor Rutger wrote a book.
    I read it came out in 2007. I remember seeing him on a few talk shows in the 80s and noticed he was difficult to interview if anyone asked him much of any personal question. And I recAll what horrid taste he had in clothes then wearing big bulky sweaters with huge colorful designs on them which wAsnt flattering to him. He was so handsome then though and has such intense piercing blue eyes.

    ReplyDelete
  5. erisianJanuary 6, 2011 at 3:41 PM

    HA! . that's awesome. i don't know what it is with Europeans and sweaters, but more power to them for rocking the style.

    you're right, his eyes are STILL piercing.

    if you read the book, stop by and let me know what you thought. hard core rutger fans unite to form mega-hauer!..

    (sorry about that...)

    ReplyDelete

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