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Last week, Joaquin Phoenix did the unthinkable: he retired from acting at the age of 34. He is leaving to pursue a music career, although there are reports that he is also relapsing into alcoholism, which might have something to do with this. Phoenix has always been kind of an odd duck when it came to the studio system; unlike a lot of actors, he always hated to talk about himself, and mentioned publicly several times that he didn’t think he was very talented. In short, he wouldn’t have been the last person one would think would ever do such a thing, but it’s still surprising (I just like opening articles with attention-grabbers like UNTHINKABLE).

But on another level, it’s kind of refreshing. The man had two academy award nominations at a fairly young age (one for Gladiator, and another for Walk The Line), and had starred in a number of fairly big hits (his roles in Signs and We Own The Night certainly didn’t hurt his career). His last few didn’t look so hot (did anyone see Reservation Road in theaters? Or at all?), but his career was by no means in shambles. And he gave it up for something that he just plain wanted to do more (as far as we can tell). In a culture that seemingly couldn’t be more obsessed with celebrity, someone has given it up to pursue something that he actually enjoyed, instead of something that would undoubtedly be more lucrative.

Frankly, I’d like to see more of this. Voluntarily giving up your career when you don’t feel that you have any more to contribute is something that a number of actors and directors should have done a long time ago (case in point: John Travolta, George Lucas, The Simpsons). Not only is it probably good for that creative person's inner life (have you ever seen a movie about Hollywood where everyone is happy?), but it’s good for the industry. I think that a lot of people, and not just whiny film people such as myself, would appreciate seeing more new blood in film, instead of having to rely on the star power of one or two people involved to tell us what to see. Plus, we’d be spared all sorts of vanity projects that should never see the light of day (did I mention John Travolta?).

I guarantee you, the average quality of film would no less than quadruple if more people were simply to retire when they should. There’s no real way of measuring for gauging when that should be, but maybe there’s some sort of internal barometer for finding such a thing, for knowing a race has been won and there’s no need to keep on going. If we face the truth, we all know when that is for specific filmmakers, and we, as fans, should probably start telling them that if they’re going to stop challenging themselves, they should probably get out of the game. I certainly wouldn’t think any less of them if they did.

So, Joaquin, cheers to you, and best of luck in your future endeavors.

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