JohnnyDepp-Zone.com

A critical appreciation of Johnny Depp by D. Allan Kerr is must-reading for all Deppheads. “The rulers of Disney are no doubt thrilled with the unprecedented success of installment No. 2 in the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN series,” Kerr begins; “after pulling in the biggest weekend in box-office history this month, the movie is already the champion blockbuster of the year.” But what amazes Kerr even more than DEAD MAN’S CHEST’s boffo box-office is the “mainstream recognition (and appreciation) of genuine genius,” and the genius is Johnny Depp.

“Most who are deserving of this title are only anointed by a relatively small, enlightened portion of the population, and even then only after suffering years of obscurity and hardship,” Kerr writes. “What Johnny Depp has done here is inspiring–instead of sacrificing himself on the public altar to win over the masses, he has brought the masses to him. He created something so original and with such panache that the entire world not only has to pay attention to it, they can’t get enough of it. [. . .]

“The genius of Johnny Depp is that when you’re watching him on the screen you don’t know what he’s going to do next,” Kerr observes. “It might be a roguish smile at an unexpected moment, it may be an inflection of speech that catches you off guard. He has a comic flair that invites you to root for him even when his character is decidedly unheroic. He brings to his characters a humanity that convinces audiences they are watching a true-to-life, quirks-and-all character, and not a performer playing a role.”

You can read Kerr’s inspiring analysis of Johnny’s work on the News & Views forum; the Zone thanks emma for finding this gem and posting it. Kerr even compares Johnny to his late mentor Marlon Brando, seeing them as two peas in a pod: both share the gift for making movie scenes look “unscripted and spontaneous, and therefore real.”