by Ed Travis
Brian Bosworth fascinates me. I don’t care about sports almost at all, so his career as a college football athlete shouldn’t really be of interest to me. His subsequent (and infamous) flameout in the NFL should also be something long gone from my mind. Even the fact that he made quite a few action movies shouldn’t necessarily warrant my fascination, in spite of my love for the genre; after all, Shaquille O’Neal made a bunch of star vehicle films that I’ve never convinced myself to see, and Shaq or Boz are just a couple of example of dozens of athletes who’ve made this attempt at cinema domination.
If I’m completely honest, it is entirely possible that my interest in Brian Bosworth is a product of just how successfully the guy marketed himself back in the 1980s. I was just a kid when he was playing football for the University of Oklahoma, and I don’t even think I could have told you at that time that he was a Sooner. Yet I knew who Brian Bosworth was, above most all other athletes, because he was so damn cool. That haircut, that nickname, that tough guy physique. The Boz was The Shit. Any time I try to claim that marketing doesn’t work or that people should never be famous just for being famous… remind me of what I’ve said here today.
So yeah, Brian Bosworth has always been a symbol of a certain era of coolness that was simply engraved onto my child psyche. It is interesting, then, that I never saw his fantastic action movie debut Stone Cold (1991) until just a few years ago. I wrote it up in my favorite Cinapse column, The Action/Adventure Section. Then, just a short time later, the Alamo Drafthouse hosted a screening of the film with Bosworth live in person for a Q and A afterwards. I wrote that up for Cinapse as well.
Since then, I’ve also indulged in the ESPN 30 For 30 Documentary Brian And The Boz, a fantastic feature-length documentary that delves deeply into this man’s psyche to the joy of weirdo fanboys like me everywhere. It is streaming on Netflix and well worth a watch.
I find myself once again writing about Bosworth and Stone Cold upon the release of the film on Blu-ray from Olive Films. When I first discovered the film and wrote about it, I made a plea that a proper Blu-ray release be brought to the demanding public of me, and it appears the cinema gods heard my cry, spoke through signs and wonders to the good people at Olive Films, and made my dream a reality. Sure, Olive is known for bare bones releases and this one is no different. There isn’t even so much as a trailer to be found on this disc. But bonus features be damned, it sure it good to see this film in all its high definition glory. Fans or the newly curious should definitely check it out as long as they know all they are getting is the film itself, looking glorious, sweaty, and shirtless.
But also, after three viewings of this movie in as many years, not to mention a live Q and A with the guy, as well taking in a feature documentary about him, I’m not done speculating as to why Bosworth is so endlessly fascinating.
I’d like to submit that, in spite of all the marketing hype, bluster and bravado, Bosworth is of so much interest because of his reluctance towards ever being an action hero in the first place, not to mention a sense of internal drive which has pushed him to speak very frankly and openly about his flaws, his past mistakes, and his newfound pursuit of Christianity. 1980s me was transfixed by Bosworth’s cool. 2015 me is enamored by his complex past and drive to be transparent. Bosworth is wholly open about the disappointment he feels surrounding his NFL career, and the fact that even amidst his action movie debut he was totally lost in life and angry.
There’s a certain amount of cool always associated with disdain. And Bosworth not even wanting to be in a star vehicle action film built around him could come off as prickish arrogance, but instead feels like an honest admission from a guy who isn’t afraid anymore. (How he was able to ooze so much charisma on screen amidst his lack of desire to be there is the subject of another editorial altogether). His ESPN doc is framed around a trip with his son to a storage facility in which all of his memorabilia is stored. Bosworth’s fatherly instinct to protect his son from the frivolous mistakes and transgressions of his own youth is effective from a documentary standpoint, but also feels entirely honest and from the heart.
While I have no real interest in watching the Christian-themed biker apocalypse films that Bosworth is currently starring in, myself and countless others will no doubt continue to be fascinated by Brian Bosworth, the marketing genius and sports icon who was, and is, larger than life. The Boz seems to have found what he is looking for; content to raise his family and proactively heal old wounds with folks at the University of Oklahoma and beyond. But in spite of the pain and sense of loss that surrounds this period of Bosworth’s life, I’ll always be excited that such a quintessentially early-1990s action film came out of that period. Stone Cold will always live on as one of the greatest star vehicle action films to ever come down the pike. And Bosworth’s humble pursuit of authenticity after such a public career filled with bluster and bravado only ensures that this film will remain in rotation throughout my life.
And I’m Out.
Stone Cold is now available on Blu-ray from Olive Films