George Clooney has earned an impressive Hollywood reputation for successfully navigating the treacherous path between enormous commercial success and uncompromising artistic integrity. The actor regularly earns millions with slick studio blockbusters such as the ‘Ocean’s‘ trilogy before using these earnings to finance and direct his own personal projects. Where millions still remember Clooney’s spectacular box-office failures, such as ‘Batman & Robin,’ the more intriguing aspect of his filmography is a string of highly risky projects that, unfortunately, have failed to establish themselves as lasting cultural phenomena after release.
Dealing with the reality that the most expensive and ambitious of Clooney’s movies has become completely forgotten represents a unique form of humility for the actor. However, this disconnect between the reception and legacy of his work gradually led Clooney to adopt a unique philosophical approach to his earliest career efforts. Decades after shifting focus towards more respectable Oscar-worthy drama, the actor looked back on one of his earliest ambitious undertakings with unexpected humor and hope for eventual recognition.
George Clooney Strives For Timeless Films
George Clooney’s philosophy when it comes to creating his legacy centers on making just a few movies that could withstand the test of time.
To illustrate this idea, he pointed out how successful his work on ‘Three Kings‘ and ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?‘ has been as timeless films.
At the same time, Clooney had very little positive to say about his first leading role in an action movie, which he took in 1997. When interviewed by Esquire, he quipped that he hoped ‘The Peacemaker‘ would receive recognition after his death.
“I try to get a couple that hold up over the years. O Brother [Where Art Thou?] holds up. Three Kings will hold up. Three Kings actually seems like it’s newsworthy…and The Peacemaker, of course. Someday, a group of people will discover that one and give me a posthumous award for that,” said Clooney.
Released as the first-ever film from DreamWorks Pictures, the political thriller saw Clooney play a military intelligence officer searching for a missing nuclear warhead.
Forgotten Blockbuster Finds Its Place
Despite the studio pouring massive sums into production, critics universally lambasted the movie, and George Clooney himself branded the performance some of the poorest of his career.
However, the passage of time has proven instrumental in providing a fresh perspective on the 1997 movie.
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Having removed all the media noise surrounding its release, the film emerges as a disturbingly accurate vision of the contemporary world, particularly in its treatment of nuclear vulnerability and Eastern European instability.
The movie represents a historically significant achievement as well, since ‘The Peacemaker‘ marked the occasion of a woman taking command of a blockbuster featuring extensive pyrotechnics.
The director, Mimi Leder, went on to make Deep Impact, breaking several box office records along the way. While the elusive George Clooney ‘The Peacemaker‘ award still eludes recipients, proper hindsight increasingly suggests that history could treat this forward-thinking movie quite leniently.
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