Sir John Hurt has starred in iconic classics for people of different ages in multiple generations, including 1979’s Alien (where he is the central figure in the iconic chestburster scene) and 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (where he played the wandmaker Ollivander, a role that he would reprise in two more Harry Potter movies).
However, the 1990s stretch of his career has been gravely overlooked, particularly when it comes to his 1997 stalker drama Love and Death on Long Island, in which he co-stars with Beverly Hills, 90210 heartthrob Jason Priestley.
How John Hurt and Jason Priestley’s Stars Aligned
The somewhat bizarre collision of these two major stars from very different spheres could only have happened in the late 1990s.
For John Hurt, Love and Death on Long Island came when he was in something of a fallow period. His earliest career high point came in the late 1970s and early 1980s when he earned near back-to-back Oscar nominations for 1978’s Midnight Express and 1980’s The Elephant Man. During that period, he also starred in Alien and the George Orwell adaptation 1984.
However, before his 21st century career resurgence (which saw Harry Potter cementing his status as a British elder statesman and leading to roles in major projects such as Hellboy, V for Vendetta, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Merlin, Snowpiercer, and Jackie), his biggest roles of the late 1980s and the 1990s came from scattered titles that aren’t particularly well-remembered, like Roger Corman’s Frankenstein Unbound and Gus Van Sant’s Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.
Meanwhile, while Jason Priestley didn’t have an especially robust film career, he was at the height of his fame at the time, having starred as Minnesota transplant Brandon Walsh in the popular teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210 since 1990. By 1997, he had starred in a few movies, including the 1993 road trip comedy Calendar Girl (which was a major flop, becoming only the 179th highest-grossing movie of the year at the domestic box office and earning what is still one of the Top 50 biggest week 2 drops of all time) and the forgotten 1995 hitman comedy Coldblooded.
‘Beverly Hills 90210’ (1990)Credit: Fox
However, his most notable film role to that point had been playing lawman Billy Breakenridge in the iconic 1993 Kurt Russell Western Tombstone, in which he was 12th billed. He was looking for new opportunities as he prepared to leave 90210 early on in its ninth season (out of 10), and Love and Death on Long Island proved him with the perfect opportunity to test his mettle as a movie star once again before his final episode aired in November 1998.
The fact that both stars were at a key transitional point in their careers is likely what drew them both to the screenplay for Love and Death on Long Island, which was penned by the movie’s director Richard Kwietniowski (Owning Mahowny), adapting the 1990 novel of the same name by Gilbert Adair (the author of The Holy Innocents, which was adapted into the Bernardo Bertolucci movie The Dreamers).
High Culture Meets Low Culture in Love and Death on Long Island
Appropriately, everything about the place that both stars were in their career at the time feeds directly into the story and themes of Love and Death on Long Island. Both actors very closely match their characters, which helps elevate what is ultimately a very simple story.
The movie follows pretentious British author Giles De'Ath (Hurt) accidentally winding up at a screening of the teen movie Hotpants College II and instantly being beguiled by its handsome young star, Ronnie Bostock (Priestley). His growing obsession with the heartthrob eventually leads him to make his way to Long Island, where he worms his way into Ronnie’s personal circle, positioning himself as a sort of mentor as Ronnie attempts to elevate his career beyond teen fare.
Bostock being on top of the world but worried about being taken seriously is a character trait that taps directly into Priestley’s own journey and works in both directions, allowing the actor to channel his private feelings into the character and letting the viewing audience use public knowledge about his career as an entry point into the character.
Meanwhile, Hurt’s career being at a transition point also fuels his character, who is in a different transition point as a man who thought that he had figured life out, but is suddenly forced to contend with the fact that his internal life isn’t quite what he thought it was. In addition to grappling with a sudden attraction toward another man, he must contend with the fact that this man was brought to him by what he has too often dismissed as “low culture,” in the form of raunchy comedy movies, teen magazines, and the like.
‘Love and Death on Long Island’ (1997)Credit: Cinepix Film Properties
This conflict between high and low is present both within Giles himself, between him and Ronnie, and extratextually between the careers of John Hurt and Jason Priestley.
Love and Death on Long Island Is Woefully Underrated
Although Love and Death on Long Island could have taken the more violent and dangerous route of the similarly themed 1990s movie The Talented Mr. Ripley (which stars Matt Damon as a young man whose sublimated homosexual desires lead him to murder and replace the rich straight man that he admires), it doesn’t. Instead, it is a tender examination of the unusual way that two very different men come to change one another’s lives, both because of and in spite of the intense attraction that one has for the other.
This, combined with the movie’s layered themes that make use of both the internal and external elements of its story, makes it a tremendous shame that the movie had next to no footprint when it came out in theaters in 1998 (following its premiere at Cannes in 1997). It grossed roughly $3 million (landing entirely outside of the Top 150 movies at the worldwide box office in 1997, below titles including Major League: Back to the Minors, Slums of Beverly Hills, Phantoms, and Meet the Deedles) and has yet to be reclaimed as a cult classic, as shown by the fact that it has fewer than 400 reviews on Letterboxd (Phantoms has more than 3,000).
So have you seen Love and Death on Long Island? If not, are you curious to check it out? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
