Cinema Experts

"Everybody likes to win. One of the biggest disappointments was when I didn't get an Emmy for Lonesome Dove. It's political. It can be a popularity contest."
Duvall was born in San Diego, California. His father, William Howard Duvall, was a Virginia-born U.S. Navy admiral, and his mother, Mildred Virginia Hart, was an amateur actress and a relative of American Civil War General Robert E. Lee. His father was a Methodist and his mother was a Christian Scientist; he was raised in the Christian Science religion. Duvall grew up in a military family, living for a time in Annapolis, Maryland near the United States Naval Academy. He attended Severn School in Severna Park, Maryland. He served in the United States Army from 19 August 1953 to 20 August 1954, achieving the rank of Private First Class and receiving the National Defense Service Medal.
Duvall studied acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre in New York under Sanford Meisner. While struggling as an actor, he worked at a Manhattan post office as a clerk but quit after six months. Duvall is close friends with actors Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman whom he knew during their years as struggling actors. At one point, Duvall roomed with Hoffman while they were looking for work.
Duvall's screen debut was as Boo Radley in the critically acclaimed To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Duvall later played the notorious malefactor Ned Pepper in True Grit (1969), and Major Frank Burns in the film version of MASH (1970), but his breakout role was that of Tom Hagen in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974). He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in A Civil Action and for his role as Lt. Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now (1979). His line "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" from Apocalypse Now is now regarded as iconic in cinema history. He won Oscar's Best Actor in Tender Mercies (1983).
He directed the critically acclaimed The Apostle, about a preacher on the run from the law, and Assassination Tango (2002), a thriller about one of his favorite hobbies, tango. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2005. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on September 18, 2003.Duvall portrayed General Robert E. Lee in Gods and Generals in 2003 and is actually a relative of the Confederate general. He has stated in several forums, including CBS Sunday Morning, that his favorite role was that of Augustus "Gus" McCrae in Lonesome Dove.

"Being different personalities brings out some of the personalities that you have, too. So I guess I have become a more well-rounded person."
Osment was born in Los Angeles, California, where his family still resides, to actor Michael Eugene Osment and Theresa Osment née Seifert a teacher. He is the brother of actress Emily Osment of Hannah Montana and Spy Kids fame. He was a student at Flintridge Preparatory School in La Cañada, California, and currently attends New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
Osment began acting at the age of four, when he tried out for a Pizza Hut commercial in a shopping mall. The commercial launched his career, and he landed his first television role later that year. As a young child his first film role was as Forrest Gump's son, also named Forrest Gump, in the 1994 film of the same name as well as making a small appearance in Mixed Nuts. He had roles in numerous TV series, including Thunder Alley, The Jeff Foxworthy Show and most notably the final season of Murphy Brown, in which he replaced Dylan Christopher as Murphy's son Avery. He also made numerous guest appearances in various TV series including The Larry Sanders Show, Walker, Texas Ranger (as a child dying from AIDS), Touched by an Angel, Chicago Hope, The Pretender, and as a child dying from leukemia in the emotional episode "Angels and Blimps" of the late-1990s show Ally McBeal.
Osment starred in Bogus alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Gérard Depardieu, and appeared in the 1998 made-for-TV movie The Lake with Yasmine Bleeth, as well as I'll Remember April with future The Sixth Sense co-star Trevor Morgan. He first achieved stardom in 1999 when he appeared in the blockbuster The Sixth Sense, co-starring Bruce Willis. For this role, he won the Saturn Award for best young actor. He was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor but lost to Michael Caine (alongside whom he would later star in Secondhand Lions). One of Osment's lines in The Sixth Sense, "I see dead people" is often repeated or parodied on television programs and in other media. He also made three minor guest appearances on Family Guy in 2000.
The 2000 Academy Awards ceremony honored another future co-star, Best Actor Kevin Spacey, who, along with Helen Hunt, appeared in Osment's next film, Pay It Forward. The following year, he appeared in Steven Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence: A.I., cementing his stature as one of the leading young actors in Hollywood. This role earned him his second Saturn Award. Also in 2001, Osment starred in the Polish film, Edges of the Lord, as Romek. The movie was never released theatrically in the United States. He has since provided voices for The Country Bears and The Jungle Book 2, and returned to live action with the 2003 film, Secondhand Lions.
More recently, Osment was the voice of Sora, the main protagonist of The Walt Disney Company and Square-Enix's Kingdom Hearts video game series, which has been extremely financially successful as well as generally well-received critically. He was also the voice of Takeshi Jinno, the main character of the Immortal Grand Prix anime TV series. Osment's next film will be Home of the Giants, playing a high school journalist opposite Ryan Merriman and Danielle Panabaker.

“The kid gets it all. Just plant us in the damn garden, next to the stupid lion.”

"Secondhand Lions" is a movie which has achieved excellence. The story line is fast-moving and packed with nuance. Various elements of the plot overlap and blend for a harmonious whole. It is not a series of action scenes played primarily for visual impact, but a compelling story which demands attentive viewing.
Flashback scenes are intentionally cartoonish, so that the audience, like the character of the boy Walter, is left wondering whether the fantastic tales of the old uncles' adventurous youth are really to be believed. Uncle Garth tells the stories, which we see through Walter's imagination. We see in the flashbacks what Walter envisions as he hears the stories, and Walter doesn't have the age and experience to see anything other than the caricatures which appear in the flashback scenes. It's not a photo-accurate rendition, it's what a youngster imagines while listening to oral storytelling. For instance, a twelve-year-old Texan in the 1950s wouldn't have been likely to know what a really angry Sheik would have looked like in the 1920s. These flashbacks, and the ways in which they are depicted, are central to the plot of the movie. Through his storytelling, without realizing it, Uncle Garth nurtures a creative potential in Walter (who will grow up to become a cartoonist).
Christian Kane is a magnificent casting choice as young Uncle Hub (the younger incarnation of Duvall's character), displaying just the right kind of spark for the daring adventurer. Kyra Sedgwick is eerily believable as Walter's shallow and self-absorbed mother. The family of hick relatives is superbly annoying.
Haley Joel Osment delivers a solid portrayal of Walter. Sometimes his voice sounds like that of a boy, sometimes like that of a young man, as would be expected in a male of Walter's age. Sometimes Walter cries like a child, sometimes he displays stoic maturity, as would be expected from a boy who is in the transition of becoming a man. We see Walter unsure of himself in the beginning, but later finding his footing. Not too sugary, not too hard-edged, Haley Joel Osment is ideal for the role. He may be overshadowed by Caine and Duvall, but actually holds his own reasonably well, working between these two living legends.
Michael Caine's accent as Uncle Garth is a perfect portrayal of a Texan who has lived outside Texas for much of his life. Garth is no bumpkin hick, but a man who has traveled the world, and in light of his experiences it would not have been credible to give this character a strong country drawl. Even though, as the plot progresses, we don't know how much of Garth's fantastic storytelling we should believe, there is never a question of whether Garth has ventured outside the Texas borders. Michael Caine gives Uncle Garth just the right combination of toughness and tenderness, and treads the fine line of allowing us to see Garth as a trustworthy character regardless of his adventurous stories.
The uncles are very realistic characterizations, and Texas holds many characters like them. The aging uncles had, as young men, gone away to find adventure, and lived on the edge for much of their lives. Then they returned home to retire in a rural Texas setting which they were finding to be just a little too tame, no longer remembering much about Texas country life except for acquiring the obligatory too many dogs. The uncles don't say much to each other because there is no need to say much, they understand each other perfectly. Confronted with age, they seek out reckless behavior, unwilling to sit still and get older, unable to overtly give up on life. Walter's presence suddenly requires them to adapt to new purpose, and to take care of themselves, too, as they are faced with the issue of providing appropriate male role models so that their young nephew might one day become an appropriate man.
The characters must make choices, and not always easy ones. The valiant tales of adventure don't always conclude with happily-ever-after fairytale endings. It is not purely a comedy, but instead probes the depths of emotion... 8/10