By Drew Dietsch
| Revealed
HBO Max must be a wonderful repository of the Warner Bros. cinematic catalogue. Subscribing to their streaming service ought to guarantee you could anticipate their well-known movies to be available. Sadly, everyone knows thatโs not the case relating to HBO Max or any streaming service. You possibly canโt rely on them for jack.
Thatโs no extra obvious than with the passing of Michael Madsen and the truth that HBO Max doesn’t have a blockbuster Warner Bros. field workplace success that he starred in: Free Willy.
Go Drown, Haters

First off, Iโm not right here to speak concerning the perceived high quality of Free Willy as a film, and Iโm actually not right here to get within the weeds with any controversies concerning the filmโs manufacturing. Nevertheless, I do need on the report that I feel Free Willy is a legitimately good film. When you have some bee in your bonnet about it as a result of itโs a youngsters film, youโre only a grouch who doesnโt really like motion pictures.
Michael Madsen as Glen Greenwood in Free Willy

What I need to concentrate on is Michael Madsen within the function of Glen Greenwood. The general story of Free Willy is a few homeless boy named Jesse who’s being given an opportunity at adoption with Glen and his schoolteacher spouse, Annie.
Michael Madsen is requested to play a personality who appears to be acquiescing to his spouseโs actual ardour for having a baby. However, Glen just isn’t some doormat neither is he doing this in a begrudging method. Heโs doubtful that Jesse goes to place within the work to attempt to make this association perform, not to mention turn out to be a real household unit.
Itโs additionally revealed (within the form of weak dialogue Madsen not often bought to talk) that Glen doesnโt essentially need to acknowledge his personal rising emotions for Jesse. Itโs a bracingly actual little bit of emotional honesty that doesnโt hyperlink up with most of Madsenโs hottest performances.
And itโs this little bit of character subplot that turns Glen into an important function in Michael Madsenโs profession. By the top of the film, he has opened his coronary heart to Jesse and helps fulfill the titleโs promise by liberating the orca Willy so he can rejoin his family.
Unfair Typecasting However He Did It Properly

The above shot from Free Willy is from a scene the place Glen is first attempting to achieve out to Jesse by determining guidelines they’ll each agree on whereas Jesse stays with the Greenwoods. It now reads like the right encapsulation of Madsenโs personal eventual profession path.
He was identified for and excelled at taking part in villains or tough antiheroes. Even in one thing like Species (and the superior Species II), he canโt assist however flip his heroic lead into one thing of a two-fisted pulp powerful man. Itโs actually gratifying however Free Willy highlights that Madsen had much more instruments in his toolbox than he typically bought to make use of.
I want Free Willy, a Warner Bros. film that made $153 million worldwide, was available on HBO Max. Open-minded viewers should see this facet of Madsen and provides this film a good shake faraway from any worthwhile or unwarranted stigmas the flick carries.