Top 10 Films Of Roy Scheider
Roy Scheider had an amazing presence on screen, and he had a phenomenal run of films in the 1970s and into the 1980s. With that thin angular face, he was born to play a cop or bad guy, with a few surprises in between. We look at his top ten films.
10. Last Embrace (1979)
An interesting Hitchcockian-style thriller with Scheider as a secret agent who has a mental breakdown after his wife is murdered as a result of a mission that goes wrong.
After spending time in a mental asylum, Harry Hannan (Scheider) receives a death threat, seemingly from one of his colleague, as he begins to question his own sanity and exactly who he can trust. He teams up with a young college student to try and solve the unfolding mystery, before it is too late.
Featuring some great scenes at Niagra Falls, this was helmed by future Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme, and features acting support from Christopher Walken.
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9. Cohen and Tate (1988)
Scheider often played the good guy, but he had the face that could be used for good or bad, and in this excellent buddy thriller from the writer and director of The Hitcher, he plays an aging hitman who is partnered with a younger, more trigger happy one.
Like The Hitcher, this film this pretty much takes places on the road or in the claustrophobic confines of a car and is full of bloody carnage and chaos.
A boy is witness to a mob hit and is kidnapped by two mismatched hitmen. Cohen, an older professional (Scheider) who is constantly clashing with his partner Tate, a younger hot headed killer. Like Jaws then it is another three-player, this time essentially Scheider the grizzled Quint.
Roy Scheider's performance as Cohen, the sleek professional hit-man is wonderful. We know all we need to know about him with the way he expertly puts on his black gloves at the start of the film. Adam Baldwin (Tate) is just as engaging, although obviously we are all secretly rooting for Scheider.
Scheider had a nice supporting turn in David Cronenberg's The Naked Lunch, but this is probably Roy Scheider's last great starring role.
8. The French Connection (1971)
The French Connection delivers, there is no denying that, and its great to see a pre Jaws Scheider in action, as a New York cop no less. It's just a shame we don't get to see Scheider do more or get more screen time. And I'll be honest I much preferred this than the second pairing of director William Friedkin and Scheider, with Sorcerer.
That's probably the most notable film left off this list, it's one often touted as a favourite amongst Scheider fans, but multiple viewings have never made me see the appeal, or make me warm to it. The crossing the bridge sequence is impressively staged.
FURTHER READING: Roy Scheider In The French Connection
7. The Seven Ups (1973)
This film has plenty of fizz, nothing to do with a soda with the same name, but more to do with the fact that it is directed by the producer of Bullitt and The French Connection, it almost feels a continuation of the latter for Scheider. And like both those afore-mentioned films it features a stunning car chase sequence, with Scheider front and centre.
As Scheider is the main star of this one, it just accelerates ahead of The French Connection, and besides, The Seven Ups deserves to be discovered by more people.
6. 2010 (1984)
It isn't 2001:A Space Odyssey, but it is a damn fine space film that does well to try and exain what went before, with cold war politics thrown in for good measure.
Subtitled The Year We Make Contact, Scheider plays Dr Heywood Floyd (a role originally played by William Sylvester) living in regret over the loss of the USS Discovery, its crew and the ship's doomed Jupiter mission. The world is full of political tension as the USA and USSR are on the brink of nuclear Armageddon. Scheider is given the chance to discover what went wrong on a joint US/USSR mission ensuring it is anything but a smooth ride and fraught with tension and danger.
It will always be unfairly compared to the original and features some memorable visuals, good special effects and great performances from Scheider, John Lithgow, Helen Mirren and Bob Balaban, still sporting his Matt Hooper beard from Close Encounters.
FURTHER READING: Brody In Space: A Look Back At 2010 (The Year We Make Contact)
5. Blue Thunder (1983)
Or, what Roy Scheider did to make sure he was busy when Jaws 3D was filming.
The film is written by Alien (Jaws in space, that was the pitch) scribe Dan O'Bannon and is about a state of the art surveillance police helicopter that is probably more pertinent today than when it was first made.
Vietnam vet Frank Murphy (Scheider) is the loose cannon pilot with rookie (played by Home Alone's Daniel Stern) who uncovers a conspiracy and put their own lives in danger.
Scheider is as reliable as ever, he just looks to be having fun and is a joy to watch. The helicopter antics are fun and exciting enough, especially over the city - many of the aerial shots in Netflix's documentary The Night Stalker reminded me of the vistas from this film - and I especially loved his Casio LCD watch with ‘countdown’ that was used to great effect in several scenes to check Murphy’s ‘sanity’.
Bad guy duties fall to Malcolm McDowell - another pilot who - conveniently - Scheider’s character came up against in 'Nam. The pair became good friends off screen and unable to attend Scheider's funeral he sent flowers and a card to his family.
4. Jaws 2 (1978)
Jaws 2 isn’t Jaws, I get it, but it deserves more love than it gets - although there seems to be a fair bit of it from The Daily Jaws followers.
We might be missing Spielberg, Quint (for obvious reasons) and Hooper - save for a literally one sided phoned in cameo - but we do get the brilliant Roy Scheider (even more brilliant considering that he didn’t want to be there - it never shows) and of course the shark is back - a lot more of him seen on screen this time round - as is John Williams and lots of the supporting cast.
It’s hard to carry a film on your own, but that is what Scheider does and he does it with great aplomb. And with Scheider’s great performance, some thrilling shark action and a host of familiar returning faces and locations, that is why Jaws 2 will always have a special place in my heart. It’s the closest we will ever get to capturing that original Jaws magic, embrace it.
And remember, it still has the greatest tagline ever, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. All things considered then, especially for a sequel that could never be topped, not a bad record for this vicinity.
FURTHER READING: 40 Years Of Jaws 2
3. Marathon Man (1976)
Dustin Hoffman is the ‘Marathon Man’ of the title and Scheider plays his brother, who just so happens to be a covert courier who gets into a whole lot of trouble. The film may be most famous for its dentistry scene (is it saf?) , but for me the highlight has to be Scheider being attacked in his hotel room. It’s taut, edge of your seat stuff and still as grim and bloody today, losing none of its power.
Scheider’s role is more a supporting one but he bristles with real confidence with those that he is in, and check out his push ups. Not sure that I still buy that Hoffman is his brother though. This is confident, assured Scheider at his best.
Great unnerving score from Michael Small, who was also responsible for the music for Jaws the Revenge.
2. All That Jazz (1979)
A (very) thinly veiled semi-autobiographal musical drama directed by Broadway legend Bob Fosse.
A justifiably Oscar-nominated Scheider plays Joe Gideon, a Broadway choreographer and film director, who collapses from a heart attack while directing a new show and editing his latest film.
This is Scheider as you have never seen him before, and without doubt it is the performance of his career. It's also his own personal favourite performance, so demands to be seen.
1. Jaws (1975)
Look, if we were The Daily Blue Thunder then things may have been very different, but they aren't.
Jaws is the go to Scheider role. It may seem to have been the massive stretch that All That Jazz was, but if the audience didn't believe or identify with Martin Brody then the film simply would not have worked. Period.
The beauty of Roy Scheider's subtle performance is that we believe he is out of his depth, we believe he is a good man, and we aren't sure if he will win. Jaws and its stars are icons, and the film is a stone cold classic that never fails to enthral us, entertain us...or make us jump at that Ben Gardner head scene.
It went over production, over budget and the mechanical shark, fondly nicknamed Bruce after Director Steven Spielberg’s Lawyer, often didn’t work. The film should never have worked, but all of this extra time meant the film matured, like a fine wine (red and white of course), to become the classic that we have today.
Jaws is the perfect engine, an eating machine, all this shark movie does is get better with each and every viewing.
Roy Scheider. He can do anything, he's the chief of police.
Words by Dean Newman
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