Salvaje

Dennis Hopper

(1936-2010)

Algunos preferirán recordarlo como el fotógrafo lisérgico que le da la bienvenida al capitán Willard y sus muchachos en el apartado feudo del coronel Walter Kurtz; otros, más fundacionales, viajarán al antiguo cementerio de Nueva Orleans para seguirlo con su propia cámara entre los imponentes mausoleos; habrá quienes se sumarán al apretado placard de Isabella Rossellini para espiarlo en plena crisis de excitación asmática; o, tal vez, alguien más opte por verlo bajo la piel del más miserable y encantador personaje surgido de la pluma de Patricia Highsmith. ASUNTO LITERARIO despide a Dennis Hopper con sus líneas finales en la película True Romance, escrita por Quentin Tarantino y dirigida por Tony Scott. El ahora finado Hopper muere allí a manos del mafioso Coccoti, interpretado por Christopher Walken, luego de negarse a descubrir el paradero de su hijo. La escena ha sido homenajeada, parodiada y analizada en decenas de lugares por lo que citarla acá es, seguramente, innecesario. Hay en esta composición de Hopper como el veterano policía Clifford Worley algo que trasciende al texto de Tarantino y que se erige como la marca actoral Hopper, una mezcla precisa, que por momentos parece involuntaria, entre el descontrol y la sublimidad.

Clifford Worley: You're Sicilian, huh?
Coccotti: Yeah, Sicilian.

Clifford Worley: Ya know, I read a lot. Especially about things... about history. I find that shit fascinating. Here's a fact I don't know whether you know or not. Sicilians were spawned by niggers.

Coccotti: Come again?

Clifford Worley: It's a fact. Yeah. You see, uh, Sicilians have, uh, black blood pumpin' through their hearts. Hey, no, if eh, if eh, if you don't believe me, uh, you can look it up. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, uh, you see, uh, the Moors conquered Sicily. And the Moors are niggers.

Coccotti: Yes...

Clifford Worley: So you see, way back then, uh, Sicilians were like, uh, wops from Northern Italy. Ah, they all had blonde hair and blue eyes, but, uh, well, then the Moors moved in there, and uh, well, they changed the whole country. They did so much fuckin' with Sicilian women, huh? That they changed the whole bloodline forever. That's why blonde hair and blue eyes became black hair and dark skin. You know, it's absolutely amazing to me to think that to this day, hundreds of years later, that, uh, that Sicilians still carry that nigger gene. Now this...

[Coccotti busts out laughing]

Clifford Worley: No, I'm, no, I'm quoting... history. It's written. It's a fact, it's written.

Coccotti: [laughing] I love this guy.

Clifford Worley: Your ancestors are niggers. Uh-huh.

[Starts laughing, too]

Clifford Worley: Hey. Yeah. And, and your great-great-great-great grandmother fucked a nigger, ho, ho, yeah, and she had a half-nigger kid... now, if that's a fact, tell me, am I lying? 'Cause you, you're part eggplant.

[All laugh]