Don Johnson as Big Daddy
It was interesting watching Don Johnson achieve his TV stardom in the 80s on Miami Vice.
A few reasons:
He had been kicking around in movies and TV since the 70's. He had a cult classic in "A Boy And His Dog" and presented as a young sex star in "The Harrad Experiment" (which also featured his lover and wife to be, Melanie Griffith and HER mother, Tippi Hedren from The Birds, all of them in scenes of sexual teasing or reality.)
His looks were always great, but in the beginning as an older teen/young twenty-something , he was famously "too pretty." An unformed, unblemished face.
As Johnson himself said, he'd already been in a number of busted pilots for NBC when they asked him to audition for Miami Vice, and he almost turned the opportunity down. But he decided to audition, got the part, and became an 80s' icon, both during the run of the show and to "flash reference the 80s for the modern audience." It was that trademark Florida-ready white suit over a satin tee-shirt that sealed the deal. Recall that on "The Sopranos," Steve Buscemi returns to society from a 20-year prison term that started in the 80s...dressed in Don Johnson's signature white suit and blue satin T!
What I also recall in the 80s was how much the movie studios tried to help him get a movie career, but it didn't happen. And one could understand why. He was pitched to play Elliott Ness in The Untouchables, but the role went to Kevin Costner(after Mel Gibson passed to do Lethal Weapon.) You could just FEEL it about Johnson: he was "too TV," too CUTE and frankly a bit too shallow in his acting ability to pull off a major movie role. Guys like Mel Gibson, Costner, Jeff Bridges, Kurt Russell just seemed to have somewhat more rugged qualities than Don Johnson(who also had quite a reputiation as a ladies man -- marrying Melanie Griffith twice between hot affairs with folks like Barbra Streisand.)
By the 90s, Don Johnson's pretty boy looks were aging nicely (as men's looks do) into the more rugged and distinguished look of a handsome middle-aged man. But he still wasn't really a movie guy. Still, a second lead in a golf movie -- "Tin Cup" opposite the more major Kevin Costner -- introduced Johnson to co-star Cheech Marin and they teamed up for an SF based TV show called "Nash Bridges."
Flash forward to 2012. It seems that Don Johnson's long career -- anchored by the icon role in Miami Vice but surrounded by only moderate success around it -- had kept him in the minds of two New New NEW Hollywood pals -- Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodiguez -- and they helped hype a "Don Johnson renaissance" as a still-handsome older man star.
Rodriguez put Johnson in Machete, which was fun. But QT put Johnson in a more serious, major prestige project(albeit both funny and exploitational in its violence) called "Django Unchained."
Don Johnson appears in about a 20-minute stretch of the movie as the "warm up" plantation owner slaver to whom heroes Dr. Schultz(Christoph Waltz) and Django (Jamie Foxx) come on a scam. Their ostensible reason is to buy slaves, they are really there to (1) search for Django's bride and (2) in the process find some bad guys called the Brittle Brothers and kill them or capture them for bounty.
As Big Daddy, Don Johnson is as handsome as ever, but older and "dolled up" with white hair and goatee to produce the "Compleat Colonel Sanders" look. One figures that QT wrote the role AS Colonel Sanders and then thought it would be funny to cast Johnson in the role.
The combination of QT's great dialogue and Don Johnson's natural charisma makes the most of his scenes. He has three major ones:
ONE: An exchange with a slave girl to "tour Django around our plantation." What's funny is watching Big Daddy struggle with something he has no real interest in acknowledging: that Django(according to Dr. Schultz) is a "free man," not a slave. The dialogue:
Big Daddy: Betina, sugar?
Betina: Yes 'um?
Big Daddy" Django isn't a slave. Django is a free man. You understand?
(Betina pauses)
Big Daddy: You can't treat him like any of the other n-s around her, 'cause he ain't LIKE any of the other other n around here. Ya got it?
Betina: You want I should treat him like white folks?
Big Daddy: NO...that's not what I said!
Betina: Then I don't know what you want, Big Daddy!
And on it goes. Its funny dialogue but the point is made. Big Daddy not only gives the "free man" status any credence, he's made that he has to ACT like he does. Which leads to his other other big scenes:
TWO: Shultz and Django have killed the three Brittle Brothers on the property. Big Daddy comes stomping out to the distant location where it happened, surrounded by people. His face is barely repressed rage. Schultz realizes the grave danger that Django and he are in. They make their escape -- but Johnson's acting here communicates the power and anger of the man.
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