The Raul Julia As Gomez Addams Appreciation Thread

My brother and I have a habit of performing The Mamuska at family gatherings. A large part of that is due to our love of Raul Julia's Gomez, which is probably one of the most effortlessly cheery performances in the last 20 years.

I don't know if this is common to film fans, or just me, but at least a couple times a year, I'll find myself thinking "You know who I really miss? Raul Julia." (You can insert this with your deceased actor of your choice.) THE ADDAMS FAMILY was the first PG-13 movie I saw, and at the time, I liked John Astin's Gomez more. But over the years, I've really come to love Julia both as an actor and his performance as Gomez. I think the thing that makes his interpretation of the character is the authenticity he imbues the role with. It's not winking, it's not Groucho Marx-eyebrow wiggling (like Astin), and it's not obvious (like Tim Curry). It's the one Gomez I believe in fully as a character and as a "person," and one of the great things the two ADDAMS movies do is emphasizing the love and compassion these people have for each other, despite their homicidial and sadistic quirks. I love how the movies set up that this family is wealthy, and how Julia plays Gomez with a real aristocratic bearing.

But I keep coming back to that word, authenticity, and what I'm saying is that I believe Gomez as a character whether he's doing the Mamushka, playing with his trains, calling into Sally Jesse Raphel in his underwear, or singing 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.'

God, Raul Julia. I miss him. He and the late John Spencer (another guy I miss) are the best parts of PRESUMED INNOCENT, and it's kind of criminal he wasn't even nominated for an Oscar for ROMERO. A worthy follow up to the Billy Zane/Cal Hockley thread, Andrew. Bravo.

Raul Julia...IS, Gomez Addams. Angelica Huston was fine as Morticia, and Christopher Lloyd was great as, Fester, but the only other performance as quirky and cool in, The Addams Family was...Christina Ricci's Wednesday Addams. Raul Julia was...Perfectly cast. He died much too young.

Still can't quite forgive the first film for the unnecessary fucking around they did with Fester.

And let's not be too quick to throw Astin's Gomez under the bus here. Julia's was great, but there was just as much glee and delight in Astin's portrayal, and, in my mind, a jollier, more left-field sort of madness around the edges.

Ricci's weak in the first film, but she's goddamn near revelatory in Values. But that's a different thread.

Julia, on the other hand....Rath nails it. He plays Gomez as a father and aristocrat on an even keel. His flair for the dramatic dances right on that edge between awesome and over the top without breaking a sweat, and once he dials it down (pretty much everything after the family gets booted out of the mansion in the first film), he's just as effective.

Julia was brilliant but they did a great job with pretty much the whole cast (except Pugsly maybe, who's just kind of there).

Yeah, I quite like the movie anyway, but out of all possibilities for those characters I can't believe they thought it was a good idea to go with a plot that fucks with the setup so severely. The second movie was improved massively just by letting the characters be themselves without any of that mistaken identity nonsense. They hit their stride with Values so it would've been nice for it to have been filled out into a trilogy, but without Julia it wouldn't have been the same.

I didn't mind the Fester situation. It was a nice shake up from the show, plus I loved the interactions of the family as forced into the outside world. plus Girl Guide cookies made from real Girl Guides

The only thing bad about The Addams Family movies in my opinion are the MC Hammer songs on the soundtrack. Raul Julia does indeed rule as Gomez Addams. He died much too young.

Yeah, everyone else in the cast is great, but great in ways you can see coming; Anjelica as Morticia was kind of a no-brainer. But Raul Julia became a born-again goth king in that role.

I think it was the Hallmark Channel that was having an Addams Family marathon on Halloween night, and as it was playing in the background I mused that if they were making the movies today, of course Burton would've directed, with Depp as Gomez and Bonham Carter as Morticia (or maybe Ricci, heh). And I can kind of see Depp as Gomez. He would've been fine. But Julia brought an unabashed, hungry romanticism to it.

The way his eyes light up when he says "Hello, Sally?" fills me with a special kind of warmth every time I think about it.

Isnt Burton doing that stop motion Addams Family still? Might still be cool, but I'd be stunned if the casting doesnt go down exactly like this.

In an ideal, bizarre alternate dimension, though? Billy Zane as Gomez. Cate Blanchett as Morticia.

In case you can't tell, I'm an unabashed Addams fan. I even proposed Gomez for that genuine nice guys thread we had a while back. Julia was great in this role. I'll agree with the bit about his look while talking to Sally Jesse Raphael being magical.

I would. While it has its moments, Values feels too forced. The first Addams family movie showed their weirdness in a simple, funny, tasteful way, but Values almost shoves it down your throat in a too-cutesy manner. It's the "hardcore, full-frontal" version and I feel that it loses some of the charm.

I do think it's funny, though, that Nathan Lane plays the officer from your quote and would go on to play Gomez himself.