Handsome jack face theory movie#
Handsome jack face theory tv#

вЂњThe guy is just obliterated,вЂќ Child says. Hooked the tips of my fingers in his ear and squeezed.вЂќ вЂњSmashed the boss manвЂ™s balls like I was trying to punt a football right out of the stadium I jammed my thumb into his eye. вЂњSomebody does a very bad thing, and Reacher takes revenge.вЂќ When Reacher gives the bully his comeuppance - in the way Jim Grant longed to do - ChildвЂ™s prose seems to slow down, so that we leisurely savor the act of the enemyвЂ™s kneecap exploding or his nose caving in. вЂњAt a very simple point, the Reacher stories are revenge stories,вЂќ says Child. A stranger comes to town and sets things right. вЂњThese are postmodern Westerns,вЂќ says Connelly, who writes the Harry Bosch series. In the books, they have included a Texas district attorney, a crooked Army general, al-Qaeda agents, a Mexican drug lord, and a mob boss named the Zec (played in Jack Reacher by Werner Herzog). Like Lee Child, Reacher does not tolerate bullies. In the books, his wards have included a single mom who works as a cocktail waitress, an elderly librarian, a young African American boy in Mississippi, and small-town Coloradans. Like Lee Child, Reacher likes to stick up for the little guy. He hitchhikes across the country, with a travel-size toothbrush in his pocket, and finds noble causes. The act of leaving his job turned Reacher into a protective figure, an avenging angel. Like the author, Reacher was workplace surplus: He was a military policeman in an era of Army downsizing. It might seem like a simplistic theory, but itвЂ™s true.

It recalls a line Child once wrote about Jack Reacher: вЂњHis face looked like it had been chipped out of rock by a sculptor who had ability but not much time.вЂќД¬hild created Reacher from the smoldering embers of his own rage. HeвЂ™s 6-foot-5 and has a blandly handsome face. Lee Child, as Jim Grant is now known, sits in his office in Manhattan.

Or as Jack Reacher would later put it, вЂњAttacking me was like pushing open a forbidden door.вЂќ вЂњI had that blaze of annoyance, like, IвЂ™m not going to take this shit anymore,вЂќ Child says. GrantвЂ™s boss put it around that the next man to lead the union would be fired within a week. And it was being vandalized, just destroyed, by these know-nothing idiots who were chasing a short-term buck.вЂќ вЂњTwo generations of very decent, talented people had built this edifice. вЂњI was furious at this wanton destruction of what was a magnificent industry,вЂќ he says.

Handsome jack face theory tv#

Grant saw his friends sacked, TV shows canceled, his career going pear-shaped. New management, led by Charles Allen - вЂњan ugly, twisted little man,вЂќ Child says - came in to break GranadaвЂ™s union. But as the вЂ™90s began, Granada found itself a target of the Thatcherites who ran Britain. Grant, a presentation director, made sure the right shows got on air at the right time. вЂњThat was my first working lunch.вЂќДЇor a decade, the studio cranked out classic middlebrow fare: Sherlock Holmes, Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown. вЂњLaurence Olivier, Alec Guinness, John Gielgud, and Ralph Richardson,вЂќ he remembers. On his first day, Jim Grant sat down to a picnic with four actors. Viewers flocked to the studio to see the replica of Sherlock HolmesвЂ™s 221B Baker Street home and the public house from the long-running soap Coronation Street.

Back in the 1980s, Granada Television in Manchester was a dreamland. And how the newly minted Child became - as the mystery writer Michael Connelly calls him - вЂњdistinctly American.вЂќ ItвЂ™s an odd thing when a British writer, powered by British rage, creates the ultimate Tom Cruise vehicle.Д«ut first, Jim GrantвЂ™s boss. The mystery weвЂ™re here to solve is how Jim Grant, angry employee, turned into Lee Child, revenge novelist. вЂњYouвЂ™re working out all this narrative,вЂќ Child says, вЂњand itвЂ™s great training.вЂќ So how would you have it done? Where could you find the kind of people to do it for you? How would you pay them? How would you pay them in an untraceable way? вЂњBut obviously you canвЂ™t break the guyвЂ™s leg. вЂњIвЂ™d have these horrendous meetings and want to break the guyвЂ™s leg,вЂќ Child says. And every day, Jim Grant went to battle against his boss at a TV station. Child was Jim Grant, a 40-year-old British union man.

Handsome jack face theory movie#

Child - the pseudonymous writer who has created Jack Reacher, sold 50 million books, and inspired the new Tom Cruise movie (which opens Friday) - didnвЂ™t exist yet. A puzzle fiend named Dan Brown wanted to solve the mother (and Holy Father) of all riddles. An insurance agent named Tom Clancy wanted to kick commie ass. Part I The Adventure of the Angry EmployeeД®very thriller novel starts with a dream.