Two Travoltas
Edgar Chaput on Friday, February 5, 2010 at 12:48PM 
Welcome to The Flip Side of the Frame, the Reelists column where we perform dual-angled case studies on film actors. In the history of cinema and acting, very few have ever retired from the game with a spotless record. Even the greatest made some questionable role choices and ultimately paid the price with their performances. This is where The Flip Side of the Frame comes in. I’m an acting buff. If there’s one thing that grinds my gears, it’s the type of cinephile who claims that everything begins and ends with the director. Over the years, my appreciation of the director’s purpose and contribution to a film has grown significantly. Naturally, if a set doesn’t have a director (or if it has Stephen Sommers), then nothing gets made. I’m also quite certain that there is truth to be found in the famous ‘auteur theory.’ But I’ll never let go of my first true love in the movies: the acting.
For this first entry into the Flip Side archives, we take a glimpse at two performances from John Travolta. Mr. Saturday Night himself can be seen this week in From Paris With Love, which looks ready to take a huge dump all over the Bond franchise. Travolta has always been rather hit or miss for me, and I’m positive that many readers would agree. He falls into the ‘Mark Wahlberg’ category of actors. It just depends on what the script asks of him, and what character he's asked to portray. Some performances are strong expamples of why Travolta has become as popular as he is, while others show him growing lazy and merely ‘going through the motions.' Here are two such examples.
