Sean Bean Movies
Before enrolling in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Sean Bean was going to enter his father's Sheffield steel fabrication business as a welder. He changed his mind after he garnered praise for acting in a few roles in local theater while taking an art class at Rotherham College. Bean received a scholarship to the prestigious academy and graduated a few years later with the Silver Medal for his performance in Waiting for Godot. Shortly thereafter, Bean performed in several West End productions. He also appeared in Romeo and Juliet with the Glasgow Citizens Theatre and with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon. In the first he played Tybalt and in the second he played Romeo. Following more stage experience, Bean made his feature film debut in 1986 in Derek Jarman's Carvaggio. Two years later, after returning to the stage, Bean appeared in Mike Figgis' Stormy Monday and in another Jarman effort, War Requiem. In addition to his filmwork, Bean also has a thriving television career that began in the mid-'80s. Notable television work includes Clarissa (1992) and Sharpe (1993). It is as a "bad guy" in films such as Patriot Games and Golden Eye that Bean is best-known in the U.S., though in the 1997 remake of Anna Karenina, he plays the dashing and romantic Count Vronsky. After joining Robert De Niro and Jean Reno for some international espionage in John Frankenheimer's Ronin (1998), taking a psychotic turn in Essex Boys (2000) and kidnapping the daughter of a respected adolescent therapist in Don't Say a Word (2001), Bean made his way to New Zealand for a role in director Peter Jackson's eagely anticipated Lord of the Rings trilogy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Another of writer/director Ken Russell's D.H. Lawrence adaptations, Lady Chatterley (an amalgam of three Lawrence novels) was first shown as a British TV miniseries on BBC1 from June 6 to 27, 1993. In recounting the familiar details of young, bored Lady Chatterley (Joely Richardson), her elderly, infirm husband (James Wilby), and her hot-blooded stable-groom lover, Manners (Sean Bean), Russell took the opportunity to both celebrate and savage the British upper classes of the 1920s. One brief sequence of full frontal nudity caused a minor scandal in Britain, though by Ken Russell standards the scene was a model of taste and decorum. After its initial TV run, Lady Chatterley was edited down from 220 to 110 minutes and released theatrically in the United States. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joely Richardson, Sean Bean, (more)
In Patriot Games, Harrison Ford plays former CIA agent Jack Ryan, taking over from Alec Baldwin, who had played author Tom Clancy's brainy protagonist in Hunt for Red October. This time around, Ryan foils an attempted assassination, thereby incurring the wrath of a maniacal Irish radical (Sean Bean). After seemingly neutralizing the villains, and deciding to celebrate the occasion with his wife (Anne Archer) and daughter (Thora Birch), everything appears to be back to normal; then all hell breaks loose. Author Tom Clancy himself bemoaned the liberties taken with his novel in the final sequences; the picture scored with audiences, however, and soon inspired a followup, A Clear and Present Danger (1994), also starring Ford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Anne Archer, (more)
The costume drama Clarissa stars Saskia Wickham as the title character. An unethical cad named Lovelace (Sean Bean) becomes obsessed with bedding the young woman, and soon ends up being responsible for her. However, his own libertine lifestyle takes its toll on him, physically and emotionally. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- 1990
This British version of Lorna Doone is one of the more rewarding film adaptations of the venerable R. D. Blackmore novel. The plot remains as ever: Lorna (Polly Walker), a feisty 17th century Scots lass, falls in love with a much-despised landowner (Sean Bean). Lorna's father, a notorious brigand, foments a peasant rebellion against her lover. It turns out of course, that Lorna is actually a high-born heiress, kidnapped in infancy. Billie Whitelaw and Rachel Kempson costar in this made-for-television costume epic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Richard Harris was nominated for several awards (including the Oscar and Golden Globe) for his performance in The Field. The time is the mid-1930s; the place, western Ireland. For many years rugged individualist Bull McCabe (Harris) has been cultivating a small plot of rented land, nurturing it from barren rock into a fertile field. Now, however, the widow who owns the land plans to sell it at auction. The infuriated Bull shows up at the bidding, secure in his belief that none of his neighbors will dare bid against him. But Bull has not taken into consideration a wealthy Irish-American (Tom Berenger), who intends to pave over the land and bring new industry to the area. "This is deep, very deep, deeper than you think" warns Bull, as he sends his grown son (Sean Bean) to "persuade" the American to withdraw his bid. Armed with the foreknowledge that Bull's tenacity has caused heartbreak and tragedy in the past, the audience steels itself for the awful consequences still to come. Punctuating the storyline are the periodic appearances of the toothless village idiot, played by John Hurt. Originally produced for British television, The Field was based on the landmark play by John B. Keane, and directed by My Left Foot's Jim Sheridan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Harris, John Hurt, (more)
- 1989
- R
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After years of capitalizing on the weaknesses of a gullible public, a London advertising executive finds that his worst qualities have literally taken on a life of their own in this scathing satire. Successful copywriter Dennis Bagley (Richard E. Grant) lives a posh life with his lovely wife, Julia (Rachel Ward), in the London suburbs. Pushed to distraction by a bothersome new pimple-ointment account, he flirts with renouncing his career and becoming socially aware. Immediately thereafter, Bagley discovers that he's developed a zit of his own -- a monstrous boil on his neck that begins whispering evil things in his ear. Convinced that he's being taken over by his dark half, Bagley soon finds his "good" self relegated to the boil while his malevolent alter ego returns to the world of advertising with a vengeance. At first, Julia is relieved that her husband seems to have bounced back from the abyss of mental illness, but soon she realizes that she prefers the gentle but crazy Dennis to the poisonous professional. Written and directed by Withnail & I's Bruce Robinson, How to Get Ahead in Advertising reunites the director with that film's leading man Richard E. Grant. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard E. Grant, Rachel Ward, (more)
- 1989
The story of a poor man who falls in love with a well-to-do woman is told in this British made-for-television movie. Owen Teale stars as John O'Brien, a turn-of-the-century working-class stiff who falls in love with Mary Llewellyn (Clare Holman), the educated daughter of a wealthy family. Despite the differences in class and upbringing, Mary steadfastly refuses to let their love be hampered by social pressures. This drama is based on the novel of the same name by Catherine Cookson. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
The first BBC television film to be given a British theatrical release, Derek Jarman's War Requiem is a cinematic interpretation of composer Benjamin Britten's famed oratorio. Narrated by Lord Laurence Olivier, whose last film this was, War Requiem combines Britten's music with the words of English poet (and World War 1 casualty Wilfred Owen) and Jarman's stark, symbolic images--filmed, appropriately enough, in an old mental hospital. Throughout, the sacrifice of young lives to the horrors of war is likened to the Supreme Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. As always, Jarman uses every opportunity to poke holes in Brtain's hidebound traditionalism. Though unrated, the violence quotient in War Requiem is enough to render the film unsuitable for young children. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathaniel Parker, Tilda Swinton, (more)
Stormy Monday is a four-person character study in which style is all that matters. This tautly constructed, deftly executed crime thriller is set in economically depressed Newcastle England. Sting plays Finney, a relatively honest Newcastle jazz-club owner who crosses the path of crass American gangster Cosmo (Tommy Lee Jones). Flaunting his wealth at every opportunity, Cosmo wants to involve Finney in a land development deal -- if only he'll give up his club. Both men are enamored of Kate (Melanie Griffith), who becomes a pawn in their ongoing one-upsmanship. Kate and her lover (Sean Bean) try to prevent Finney from corrupting his own sense of values by wallowing in the gutter with Cosmo. Stormy Monday, the first feature-length directorial effort of former jazz musician Mike Figgis, who also wrote the script and composed the score, tells its story using subtle shadings of character and a vivid evocation of its Newcastle setting rather than through violent action. Figgis's moody direction of his excellent screenplay is quietly effective and brimming with visual nuance and irony -- particularly in its perceptive take on love, money, jazz, and economic necessity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melanie Griffith, Tommy Lee Jones, (more)
- 1986
- R
Writer/director Derek Jarman injects his patented iconoclasm in this biography of Renaissance artist Michelangelo Merisa da Caravaggio. Nigel Terry plays the title role, whom (according to Jarman) essentially told his own life story in his paintings. Caravaggio travelled among thieves and prostitutes, many of whom were his models. He once killed a man, kept a deaf/mute child as a virtual slave, and squandered every penny he ever made. That we should care anything about so miserable and obscure a personality is a tribute to Jarman's filmmaking savvy--and the number of elements from his own well-publicized life that he injects into the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nigel Terry, Sean Bean, (more)
- 1984
In this British drama, Mal Stanton (Reece Dinsdale), a young British Royal Air Force recruit, meets and falls in love with the lovely Angie (Nicola Cowper). However, when Mal discovers that Angie is pregnant with the child of her former lover, he is forced to struggle with the complicated feelings this provokes. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reece Dinsdale, Nicola Cowper, (more)
