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Sean Connery: The Icon Beyond The Screen
The cinema world is that dimension that transforms imagination and imprints it in a film that gives shape, colors and voices to stories that can be of different genres: dramatic, comic, adventurous, sentimental, or full of action and thrills. A movie objectively outlines those traits that a book leaves free to be expressed in your own mind and presents it to the public in a uniform manner, still with a load of emotions. Inside this wonderful container there are people who dedicate their lives to playing the most disparate roles, often being so good as to transcend that role of fiction and transmit beyond the screen a reality that allows us to be right in the middle of those stories, always more often part of our culture.
At the age of 90, at the end of last year an incredible actor left us, star of an impressive number of movies and a true symbol of composure, especially in life away from the set. Sir Thomas Sean Connery has always been a living legend, undisputed character of titles such as “Highlander “, “The Name of the Rose”, “Hunt for Red October” and obviously for wearing the role of the most famous secret agent in the world in 6 chapters of James Bond’s filmography. Without a shadow of a doubt he has contributed to fuel the interest in a trend that has always traveled on the thin line between action and that of exaggeration, representing the perfect justification for the infallible skills of a golden bachelor who immediately became the most loved man by women and most envied by men.
Sean Connery, an even more redundant name than James Bond himself, capable of impersonating different roles, yet maintaining that charm that increased over the years with an experience gained in the field, leaving the indelible memory of his 94 performances, held between 1954 and 2012. And if for a moment we leave aside his role as submarine captain and monk and focus exclusively on that of the first and most iconic 007 ever, it is because the importance of Sean Connery is the perfect marriage between man and machine, where obviously the first shape that comes to mind is that of the sensual silhouette of the Aston Martin DB5 driven in “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball”. His are the chases to the limit of reason, as well as the sarcastic jokes at the game table and the unflinching self-control even when death was close, too close. The same one that took the body in real life, but can do nothing against the aura of legend that will forever remain etched in a cross-section of the whole world cultural heritage.
Unlike other big names in the show, Connery’s gaze was perfectly at ease in the role he played, yet he held something that tied the fictional role together with that of his persona. Incredibly, he was able to transfer part of himself into fiction, making everything even more real and sweeping away the now distant perception of looking at something written and constructed, in favor of witnessing spontaneous images, as when it happens to improvise and keep good the first scene shot. Sean Connery lived through very distinct eras, starting to act in the early 50s, going through the golden age of cinema between the 60s and 70s, up to the most modern cinema and with the first advent of digital effects, to then give its contribution also in more recent times, where technology has opened up countless possibilities to directors and screenwriters.
Precisely in this last phase, Sean Connery has shown that despite the miracles of the contemporary world, a role that can never be replaced is that of the character of a great actor. Those looks that penetrate the screen and keep you glued to an increasingly smart but less sincere TV. Sir Connery was part of the old bunch, he held up the banner of a world that gave more importance to dialogues rather than special effects, a reality closer to the one we live on this side of the screen and he was certainly not afraid to say what he was really thinking, as following the disappointing filming of “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” (which is not so bad, ed), or for the great effort made to support his beloved Scotland. Let’s consider ourselves lucky to be able to relive him through his movies and imagine him on the roadside, next to his Aston Martin, watching us with a good cigar in his hand.
Words by Christian Parodi / Photos rights go to their respective owners
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