After cheating death yet again, the real life Harrison Ford is doing a better job of evoking his best films than anything he's acted in over the past fifteen years. Film fans still processing Leonard Nimoy's passing have been spared the loss of the Last Great Movie Star.
As much as Ford's plane crash is unfortunate, it serves to highlight how he represents an earlier, more authentic model of movie star that is all but extinct. These kinds of movie stars spend most of their time doing proper things like flying planes and going to war and carpentry, only pausing briefly to star in a silly old movie or two, just for a lark.
Image 1 of 10: Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner (1982).
Even in his crummier films (i.e. everything since Air Force One), Harrison Ford exudes buckets more personality than most of today's overly-managed movie stars. I am confident that the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens will re-assert his classic movie star qualities with more authority than 2008's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Ford's old school authenticity as a movie star is only enhanced by his clear distaste for such notions. It's hard to think of another A-list star that who less interested in being an A-list star. That stance may generally manifest as grumpiness on Ford's part, but he gets away with it like the world's favourite surly uncle.
