Mickey Rourke...Still The Pope Of Greenwich Village
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I have been a huge Mickey Rourke fan going WAY back. My absolute favorite of his film is The Pope Of Greenwich Village. In fact, The Pope... is way up there on my all time favorite movie list. Rourke and Eric Roberts tore up the screen up with that movie. Who can forget Roberts as Paulie screaming "Charlie they took my thumb!"? If you have never seen this movie, you are really missing out on a classic. I watched this movie more times than I can count, and after writing this story, I now have to watch it again.
Couple movie facts you may not know about the Pope: Michael Cimino was uncredited for co-directing this movie and it was originally titled Village Dreams.
The only downfall to this movie for me, was Daryl Hannah, who played Mickey's girlfriend. (blech! never liked the gal, sorry)
I swooned over Mickey Rourke in the Pope. Damn he was handsome. It takes a lot for me to swoon, and a lot for me to use the word swoon. Rourke was also great in Diner and Barfly too, even though I was shocked at his appearance in Barfly as curmudgeonly writer, Charles Bukowski, himself not a "handsome" man. But in comparison to Mickey's face today, and I don't mean that in a mean way, I look back and realize he didn't really look half bad in Barfly.
I bet few people remember Rourke did a cameo as an arsonist in Body Heat. Now again, if you haven't seen this twisty mystery, please do, you will NOT be disappointed I promise.
OH! And let's not ever forget the two highly erotic and very steamy flicks (and perhaps what he's best known for) Wild Orchid and 9 1/2 weeks. Zowie!
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Mickey eventually dropped out of the movie scene, due to him being "castigated" from Hollywood, spurred by his erratic behavior and super crazy indulgent life-style, as well as abuse allegations against his Wild Orchid co-star turned wife, model Carrie Otis.
At the Golden Globes, his reply to Barbara Walters, when she asked him about his past and did he ever considered committing suicide:
"I sort of self-destructed and everything came out about fourteen years ago or so ... the wife had left, the career was over, the money was not an ounce. The dogs were there when no one else was there. Continued on the next page
