The Chairman

i loff him!

i shall borrow that term to express my admiration for Gregory Peck. the first time i saw him was a part on his Oscar winning performance in "To Kill A Mockingbird". that drew me and threw me off as at that time i was a high school student dreaming of getting a law degree in the future. then there was his cute romantic movie "Roman Holiday" where i actually cannot remember right now when exactly i was able to see this. (thinking about it, it might be that this was the first one and "To Kill..." was the second). i saw him in "Spellbound" not too long ago, and i was drawn to him, and to be honest, the answer to "Why?" is because he really looks like someone from the past (which i mentioned in my Spellbound post). the lasting impression of course is that for me, he is such a great actor.

in this movie, he is like the American Bond sent to China to spy on the activities of the Chinese, especially on their scientific research. at that time, he is the only foreign national who was given access or visa to stay in China. this is a 1969 movie, thus this is during the time when China and Communism were intertwined. as the American Bond, he had to keep a straight face, strong bones, and flexible muscles. some parts showed him jumping of the roof and trying to run fast to get to the China-Russia border when he was being chased by the Chinese soldiers. he was 53 when this movie was released.

i dunno what to actually say about the movie, but i liked it simply because it was Gregory Peck. though the intensity is not as great when he was John Ballantine or Atticus Finch, Dr John Hathaway was a brave man who was sure that he was doing himself proud and noble to serve his country, but some people were just not sure with his allegiance. in the end, he proved them wrong.

i cant wait to get my next Peck movie rental and watch him play Sam Bowden in the original of one of my most favorite movies