The Impossible Dream

I've loved this play and especially this song since I was a child (literally, 3 years old when my folks dragged me to see Kiley's performance - which I don't recall at all of course)

I've seen clips of Kiley's performance during promos, later during Tony ceremonies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHVGOp5Usv4


I've only just discovered Brian Stokes Mitchell's incredible performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgzXwpePTTU


Awesome, defining performances, both


But after decades of thinking of this movie as a grotesque perversion of the play, I've had an epiphany of sorts, and I suddenly find I like O'Toole's performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfHnzYEHAow

I spent years thinking it was lazy, but it's actually sort of courageous. He stands perfectly still, no props in hand (like Kiley's lance), none of the (entirely appropriate) gestures Mitchell uses. O'Toole just stands there and lets the song tell his story.

It's as if the song and its testimony are too great to dilute with anything beyond the music & lyrics.



Or it may have just been lazy direction