Robert Duvall has died | Hacker News Reader

Robert Duvall has died

nytimes.com

143 pointsglimshe69 comments

He was very underrated in Falling Down, a sleeper of a film everyone should see at least once.

If we are talking underrated films he was in, my choice would be Deep Impact.

The Apostle is a great movie of his one doesn't hear mentioned a lot.

I don't remember it being a "sleeper"; I recall it stirring quite a bit of controversy at the time. It came out in the pre-Columbine "Going Postal" era. But agreed: it's worth a watch.

It’s a smaller movie, given the talent involved, but very interesting. The controversy undermined the viability of its popular legacy.

Kind of like Passengers (half kidding, but the controversy on this one always felt like an inadvertent bend of timeliness).

You made me curious, but there are like 5 different films with that title - which one are you referring to?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falling_Down. It was the #1 movie in the U.S. for a couple weeks after release, made for $25M and grossed $96M.

Pretty sure he was asking about "Passengers".

The Michael Douglas one I’m assuming where Duvall was the cop

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0106856/

I was very surprised to learn that Joel Schumacher directed Falling Down.

> sleeper

Obligatory, I do not think it means what you think it means.

When that film first debuted, you couldn't throw a rock without hitting someone who knew of it.

We're old. When younger people uncover the greatness of an older movie, from there perspective it's equivalent to uncovering a sleeper.

It's just memory-holed to the point of being purposefully buried at this point.

This comment and a similar one on reddit are the only times I've even seen it mentioned anywhere (IRL or otherwise) in 10+ years

Falling Down is a brilliant film. I think Duvall’s sober, gentle, unfazed detective is exactly what makes it work.

The entire movie D-FENS is running into people who trigger him or push back and justify his rage. So the whole time you’re rooting for him. He’s the protagonist! And then you get to the end and the detective just doesn’t give him the same response. But you never worry that Duvall is about to be a victim. And I think it’s very difficult to portray a character who is seasoned, gentle, grandfatherly, but doesn’t come off in the slightest as prey.

The movie is a bit of a gut punch because I think it does encourage you to cheer for him sticking it to The Man and the Nazis and the corporations, only to realize ,alongside Douglas, that “I’m the bad guy?”

Spoiler!!

D-Fens was mostly right with his anger. Just turned out he never knew how to control it and was an abusive husband, too.

I wanted to write RIP Prendergast, but since you mentioned it I put it here, whole movie flew under radar, masterpiece.

Don't forget Network.

Like the other sleeper, Apocalypse Now. :-D

Don't know about the States, but across the pond from there, THX 1138 is not as well known as it probably deserves. I hope the public here can appreciate this Sci-Fi movie and Duvall is great there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THX_1138

It's known over here (to the degree that it is at all) for being the source of the THX name that Lucas later used for his digital sound system. But the movie is interesting in itself as an early pre-fame Lucas movie.

The Apostle is worth watching and rewatching; written and directed by, and starring, and financed by, Duvall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apostle

I was going to say this, love The Apostle, very few people have seen it.

Agree. That film really stuck with me.

He has too many great films to list, but one I really like that is lesser by him known nowadays is "Secondhand Lions."

Agreed, absolutely fantastic movie.

My dad was a big fan of westerns, so Lonesome Dove was a big deal in our house when I was a kid. Sometimes I think about showing them to my son, but I know there's no way he'll have the patience to sit through it all. I'm worried that I might not have the patience either anymore.

I recently read the book for the first time. Fantastic story! The best western I've ever read. Then I watched the miniseries with my wife (also for the first time). Westerns aren't her favorite, but she loved it too. Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones were incredible, the whole cast did a great job, and the costumes and scenery were beautiful. We still make jokes about "We don't rent pigs." :)

We only watched season 1 because that's the one based on the original Lonesome Dove book. They make some changes, but generally only one that makes the show easier to follow. I'd highly recommend anyone to watch it. If you stick with only season 1 it tells a complete story and it's not too long of a commitment. It has everything.

RIP Duvall. You've had many roles, but this is the one I'll remember you for.

Would you recommend the book or series?

The book will not let you down

I recommend reading the book first, then watching the series. They're both great but the book has a lot more details and explains the events better than the series. It will make watching the series even better.

The audiobook is great, but the sound quality for the first few chapters wasn't the best. That gets fixed though. If they ever do a "full cast" audiobook for this one I would definitely buy it.

He was a huge Clemson fan.

https://www.tigernet.com/clemson-football/story/legendary-ac...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Duvall

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000380/

RIP. I think the last thing I saw him in was Widows.

I logged in to share this Robert Duvall-adjacent story, which got a chuckle from me at the time (read to the end):

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/08/65-year-old-woma...

Sad that even obituaries are written by AI these days...

No kidding. He deserves better.

These are written years in advance. It's vanishingly unlikely that this was AI-generated or AI-edited.

RIP Duval - he inspired me, like he inspired many others. I can't explain why, but his demeanour and sensibility. Recently watched Open Range. Need to watch more of his westerns.

RIP Duval - he inspired me too. Recently watched Apocalypse Now.

everyone is mentioning a movie they remembered or liked his performance in, and the first one that sprang to mind for me, for whatever reason, was Gone in Sixty Seconds.

It's a terrible corny movie (and an even worse remake), but i'm a car person and i'm from the city it takes place in, so it's hard not to like it.

He plays the surrogate-father-figure/sorta-reformed-chop-shopper, and he's wholly authentic. He reminded me of every machine shop owner i've ever met.

Loved him in Secondhand Lions.

"Atchley do you realize that several Marines were killed by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor while taking craps?" "No, sir." "A fighting man must be vigilant to surprise attack no matter where he is. The survival of our nation depends on the readiness of Marines all over the world. Also more importantly, you only wiped yourself twice - grossly insufficient. Right now, germs with names you can't even pronounce are preparing to launch a devastating attack that will render you helpless in the defense of your country... Do you read me?" (The Great Santini)

Classic. I also love the scene where he tells the squadron of which he's just become CO that they should think of him as God.

Peculiar to think he was already forty when THX 1138 came out, 55 (!) years ago.

He was so brilliant in apocalypse now <3 His character was so delightfully insane.

The helicopters begging for his surfboard was so funny too. That was just his voice but it means he set up the character so well.

Thank you for your work, Don Hagen.

> Life is short. Shorter for some than others. -Gus

He had a good run.

"Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' d*k body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell? The whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday, this war's gonna end."

Jeez I thought he was long gone. The family will remember your service, Mr. Hagen.

He's one of those actors that if you told me he was dead, I wouldn't have been surprised, but then you go to the theater and in some random role, there he is.

It really messes with me though when someone dies before their last film came out. I watched that Batman movie with a knot in my stomach the whole time.

“He’s so good. But he’s gone. WTF.”

I don’t recall who now but there was some actor whose last film came out more than a year after he died, and that felt messed up and I can’t articulate why.

Brandon Lee and Paul Walker come to mind. A year delay or more isn't rare, I don't think.

River Phoenix had a role (Dark Blood) that he OD'd while filming, and it was put on hold, but then eventually finished and released 19 years later.

Even without incident, many movies with heavy special effects can take up to a year to finish the final draft. I kinda suspect it's by design. Get the studio hooked and ask for more money to increase the production values to match the acting.

Speaking of Brandon, some time watch Brandon speaking about The Crow. I watched that on a special edition of the DVD and I had to watch it twice. It was as if he knew something really bad was about to happen and he was rationalizing and coping with it. I can't watch any of the crow movies that came out after his death. I don't know if that monologue is on the internet anywhere.

Paul Walker is probably the most recent one to fall into that category. I believe his character will be in the next Fast and the Furious movie, but it'll be a CGI role (with family members standing in as the body/face they CG-enhance)

NYT obit: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/movies/robert-duvall-dead...

Thanks - we've switched to that from https://www.newsweek.com/entertainment/hollywood-legend-robe... above.

why do people venerate actors?

Actors express the human condition, and that’s more difficult than you think.

To pretend to be a person that you are not, on demand, for months on end, is hard and it demands great empathy and skill.

Because the service they render brings joy and entertainment to a large multitude of people. It is a higher visibility job than most, and is largely an individual contribution in and of the service they provide

why do people venerate computer scientists?

Because they became part of our stories through performance and iterations. We experienced their work.

Also, stories and those who tell them have been kind of a big deal for us homo sapiens now north of 50,000 years.

People see them on the screen so often they think they know them. I guess the term "parasocial relationship" has been common in the last few years to describe this.

I guess for actors and other types of artist specifically, people relate strongly to the work. It can form the basis for life memories. You remember where you were when you heard a song or saw a movie.

The same reason they venerate anyone: common positive experiences.

Why do people like fictional narrative so much? I'm not sure why, other than some platitude like "forming narratives is how people understand the world". But I'm not sure why it follows that fictional narratives are so important to us.

Because a good story scratches something that's deep and hard to reach.

Because fiction allows an escape from the drudgery that real life can so often be.

Because sometimes fiction is required to inspire us as to what we consider possible in life.

Very-publicly doing work that lots of people enjoy tends to have that effect.

They don't, in particular. They venerate people who have done amazing things.

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