Betsy Sharkey’s film picks of the week: Barry Pepper movies

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Barry Pepper is one of those actors who can slip by you, often disappearing from the screen almost as soon as you’ve started to appreciate how good he is. Again.

His bad boy looks and wound-tight delivery inside a body that appears as if it were born gaunt, marked him early on as a character actor whom directors could count on to do more than they asked with whatever bone they threw him. That ability to hold the screen is in excellent form in “True Grit,” where he kicks up dust as outlaw Lucky Ned Pepper –- with Pepper (no relation we presume) finding a way to lodge a streak of decency inside all that evil.

He’s in another movie at the moment, not such a good one, with Pepper nevertheless a nice slice of sleaze partnered up with Kevin Spacey in ‘Casino Jack.’ Far better Pepper can be found on DVD, in ‘Saving Private Ryan,’ the young sharpshooter who never saw the irony of mixing killing with a line or two from the Good Book

But if you’re in the mood for a lot of Pepper, perfectly milled, pick up Tommy Lee Jones’ feature directing debut, “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.” Pepper is terrific as the spring-loaded young Border Patrol agent who kills Estrada in a panic, only to be forced by Jones’ irascible rancher, Pete Perkins, to pay his debt by taking Estrada’s body home to Mexico and getting an earful of Pete’s musing on humanity along the trail. It’s pure Pepper: biting, hard, vulnerable, scared.

You just wish more filmmakers would consider how much flavor he adds to whatever stew they’re cooking up.

--Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times film critic

Photos (top): Barry Pepper with Hailee Steinfeld in ‘True Grit.’ Credit: Paramount Pictures; (bottom) Barry Pepper, with Jon Lovitz, in ‘Casino Jack.’ Credit: ATO Pictures