Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Genre Character of the Week: Chandler Jarrell


I recently read an article in Entertainment Weekly that talked about the most iconic role of actor Eddie Murphy (they chose Axel Foley), and it got me thinking about my own favourite role of his, a social worker named Chandler Jarrell in the 1986 fantasy film The Golden Child.

To be fair I will state that this movie was one of the only two films I can remember my father taking me out to see (the other was E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), and I had the movie poster (pictured left) up on my wall from the age of eleven to twelve so I may have my own personal bias when I think back on this film, but hey, it’s my blog so you’ll have to live with my point of view.

Here’s what I’ve got to say about Chandler, we first see him in the film doing a television interview about the disappearance of a young girl to the annoyance of the journalist interviewing him. The majority of the film follows him as he attempts to first locate the girl, and then a young Tibetan boy; the Golden Child.

What I like best about the character is that he is willing to go to incredible lengths to help these kids. The film involves demons, mystical trials and all sorts of adventure and through it all I totally bought the character as a guy out of his depth, simply trying to do his best.

For some Eddie Murphy will by Axel, for my kids he’s Donkey, but for me, he will alway be connected to The Golden Child.

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