Tom Jolliffe looks back at the work of Ian Holm, who sadly passed away this week…
There are some actors who elevate everything they do. Even if they become a specialist in supporting roles, popping up in roles, which in lesser hands would be forgotten quickly. Not so with Holm. In a career which began in the late 50’s, he worked solidly up until 2014 with his final appearance as Bilbo Baggins. In the course of his career, Holm has worked with a number of high profile directors like Ridley Scott, Terry Gilliam, Peter Jackson and David Cronenberg (more than once in a few cases). He was always a reliable and regular face in cinema and TV. Maybe short in height, but definitely big on presence and never less than magnetic.
For such a magnificent performer, it’s perhaps a surprise that he was consigned to just one Oscar nomination for Chariots of Fire. For myself, Holm has appeared in a huge number of defining films in my life. His double dose of Gilliam with Time Bandits and Brazil are two personal favourites for me. In the former, he’s hilarious playing a comical version of Napoleon who obsesses over height. In Brazil, he’s one brilliant member of an awesome ensemble, and manages to stand out as an exasperated middle manager unable to cope in a crisis. Later in his career saw him gain bigger fandom being a key role in the Lord of the Rings franchise. The inimitable Bilbo Baggins, though fleeting in the trilogy, has a strong presence, and certain moments which have been riffed and memed into internet legend now. When Fellowship of the Ring came out, it became a big event movie in an era where the Christmas time movie lineups were becoming stale. A wonderful cast, but I recall being delighted to see Holm cast in a key role, expecting nothing less than excellence. He of course, delivered. Those films likewise captured a kind of excitement and anticipation in me which I hadn’t felt in years.
There’s one particular role I really enjoy from Holm though, and it’s completely and utterly creepy. There’s a great arc, and it is a role, which sees him turn from subservient assistant to malfunctioning threat. In fact, as the android, Ash, in Alien, he becomes a more interesting monster than the central creature itself. We’ve seen many interesting depictions of androids/cyborgs etc. How does one effectively play a human replication that has to feel human but simultaneously inhuman? With great skill. Be it Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner, Yul Brynner or Arnold Schwarzenegger playing the soulless kind to pitch perfection, iconic humanoid characters are hard to pull off. You can underplay it, or over play it so easily. Holm did something different to the others too. He played it with just the right amount of withdrawn restraint, but an increasing amount of malfunctioning nuances. He was creepy as hell. Beginning as someone who could just be a rather stoic and blunt doctor, to a twitching, malfunctioning and broken machine.
Holm is scary in the film. His unravelling, as programme mechanisms twig out and become self-aware, effected by conflicting algorithms and command orders, is gripping. It’s also an added element that made Alien more than just a creature in space horror. Whilst we have the human characters struggle with a situation that sees conflict between survival instincts and procedure, and we have the Xenomorph running amok (having initially been horrific in its facehugger form), that added complication of an android’s wires coming loose, cranks up even more tension and horror from the claustrophobic setting. It shouldn’t be underestimated, but Alien is a horror masterwork (and for those inherent subtleties will always be my favourite over the more blockbuster-centric thrills of the superb Aliens). Holm’s part in Alien though, is absolutely key and the subtlety in which he plays his transition from subservient background miller, to defective threat to life is the mark of a master.
I guess in the end, when I think of Holm’s work, I think of an actor whose presence always lifted a film, made a character as interesting as it could be and I also think back through every role I’ve seen him in (even in elevating average films like From Hell or Frankenstein) and I’ll remember him as never less than stellar. What’s your favourite of Holm’s roles? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or on our facebook page @flickeringmyth.
Tom Jolliffe is an award winning screenwriter and passionate cinephile. He has a number of films out on DVD/VOD around the world and several releases due in 2020/21, including The Witches Of Amityville Academy (starring Emmy winner, Kira Reed Lorsch), Tooth Fairy: The Root of Evil and the star studded action film, Renegades. Find more info at the best personal site you’ll ever see here.
Originally published June 20, 2020. Updated November 29, 2022.
