A Home Video Retrospective: Philip Seymour Hoffman

As I was on the bus on my way to work the morning of Sunday, February 2nd of this year, someone very dear to me called, to tell me that Philip Seymour Hoffman had died.  It wasn’t one of those fake celebrity stories that get spread around the internet only to be debunked hours later, it was true – apparently a drug overdose (not being too up on filmmakers’ personal lives, I hadn’t realised he’d had an issue with drugs.)  We both very much admired Hoffman as an actor (even rather had a bond over that – I would’ve wanted to call him too if I’d just heard) and felt shocked and truly saddened (the bearer of bad news had an even greater sense of connection to him, having been writing a script with him in mind – I know Hoffman was an inspiration to him.)

My home video library contained a number of Philip Seymour Hoffman movies (plus two of the five film posters on the walls of my main room include him in the cast) and I pulled them from the shelves, thinking perhaps I’d have a little retrospective, in memoriam.  But I had a lot going on at that time, and felt like it’d only make me more sad about things.

Months later, still have challenging personal stuff lingering (health issues suck) but am not having to work too much this summer.  So with today being Philip Seymour Hoffman’s birthday, it’s time to start in on my retrospective.  Since February I’ve been combing second-hand shops and Amazon, and more recently placed some strategic holds (with suspensions, in an attempt to time out receipt) on library DVDs (don’t have home internet or Netflix so it’s all VHS and DVD), with the plan to watch all his film acting roles in order of release (determined by info garnered from the IMDb.)

Since I’m still waiting on his first film credit to arrive from Amazon.com (not available on the .ca site – was late to checking elsewhere for obscure titles to be a completist), will start with an early Law & Order episode…