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Kontiki
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Canada
Aug 2001
time: 00:24
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Peter Sellers - no question, Dr. Strangelove. I can't remember exactly how many characters he plays (I think it's three), but it was just classic!
Morgan Freeman - something of a toss up. His role in Driving Miss Daisy was critically acclaimed, but I think his best may have been in The Shawshank Redemption.
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Sikander
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Boulder, Colorado, United Snakes of America
Jan 2000
time: 22:24
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Peter Sellers - Tough one, as he has been so good in so many films, but I have to agree with the consensus and select "Dr. Strangelove", where he cracked me up as three different characters.
Marlon Brando - Another tough one, mainly because he made many films that I have never seen. I'll select "The Young Lions" just to be contrarian, as I wasn't all that impressed with Brando in anything I have seen him in since the 1950s anyway.
Robert De Niro - It's hard to admit, but I've never seen "Raging Bull", so take my opinion with a grain of salt (those who don't discount it out of hand habitually). I'm going to choose "Taxi Driver", which had a big impact on me when it came out.
Clint Eastwood - I like a lot of his films, and have always felt that he really brought something to the cinema with his ability to make silence work for him, as has already been lauded above. I'll select "Where Eagles Dare", where he showed his ability early on to share the stage with a great actor (Burton) in a performance that made the most of both actors abilities.
Steve Buscemi - I liked him a lot as "Donny" in "The Big Lebowski" too, but I have to pick him as Mr. Pink in "Reservoir Dogs", which is the role that really put him on the map for me, and a favorite.
Morgan Freeman - Another actor who has done a lot of important work that I haven't seen. So my probably ignorant selection for him is "Glory.
Sean Penn - Another actor who has done a lot of impressive work, as well as one who has been in a lot of acclaimed films that I have missed.
Samuel L. Jackson - Again, I am sure that there are some awesome performances that I have missed, but my favorite of what I have seen is "Pulp Fiction"
Gary Oldman - I reallly like this guy, in "The Professional", "Bram Stoker's Dracula", "True Romance", but I'm going to select his role as Zorg in "The Fifth Element".
James Stewart - God, so many films, many of them great, and many great performances. I'll go with "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence".
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Guynemer
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The only performance that I haven't seen mentioned yet is Gary Oldman in "The Contender". Simply incredible.
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molly bloom
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Lundenwic
Oct 2001
time: 15:24
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For Eastwood I would be forced to choose between 'Play Misty For Me', 'The Beguiled' and 'The Unforgiven'. In all of them he acts against his usual characterisation, and I think is the better for it. He's decidedly unsympathetic in 'Misty', and nearing his sell by date in 'Unforgiven' (as the character)- like Wayne in 'True Grit' or 'The Shootist'.
For Brando, I can only choose 'The Wild One'- he oozes sex appeal, to men and women, he epitomizes the essence of freewheeling rebellion and has yet to lapse into mumbling caricature. But he's also dammn fine in 'The Men' too.
De Niro I like for 'Godfather II'. My problem with de Niro for many of his recent films is that he seems to be playing de Niro playing de Niro. In 'Godfather II', he shows the transition from ordinary decent hardworking recent immigre to the embryonic mafia don figure. And he makes it so plausible, almost as though his fate is to inexorably become the gangster.
Morgan Freeman inhabits quietude and silence in 'Seven'. By doing less, he achieves more than the hyperactive Mr. Pitt. If only all screen detectives had Mr. Freeman's 'zone of silence' presence.
Tim Roth has never bested his performance in the teleplay 'Made in England' where he played a neo-nazi skinhead.
Peter Sellers in 'Being There' showed he could be a serious actor- for much of his oeuvre he was the constant nervous joker, wearing disguises, donning accents, and yet in his portrayal of Chance the gardener, he played against type and surprised his usual audience.
Similarly I liked James Stewart in 'Rear Window' and 'Vertigo', wherein he very much doesn't act the folksy 'Our Town' American. In fact, his prurient telephoto lens wielding snoop in 'Rear Window' must be one of his least sympathetic roles.
Gary Oldman was best in '***** Up Your Ears', when he played the gay playwright Joe Orton. Orton's kitchen sink welfare state humour gelled nicely with Oldman's acting, and Oldman had yet to develop the taste for cheese that he showed in 'Dracula' or 'Leon'.
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Rufus T. Firefly
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is one way of saying it, though I prefer "mensch"
Sep 2000
time: 07:24
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Peter Sellers - Lolita. Clare Quilty brings out the menace that was always just below Sellers best comic performances, better than any other I can think of.
Marlon Brando - Streetcar Named Desire. The essential Brando persona, but with more depth and complexity than any other Brando film.
Robert De Niro - New York, New York. Hardly anyone has seen this (it bombed whan it opened, and "A Martin Scorsese Musical" doesn't exactly inspire confidence), but I think its the film in which he displayes his fullest range: violent, comic, even romantic. It's a brilliant performance, and an unjustly neglected film.
Clint Eastwood - Tightrope. Eastwood reaches deep down and desconstructs everything compelling about his own persona. He's completely brilliant in it.
Steve Buscemi - Resevoir Dogs. Just for the scen in which he objects to being "Mr. Pink." But I should say that I haven't seen Ghost World, which I've heard touted as his best work.
Morgan Freeman - Unforgiven. Can't say why, because he's great in everything; maybe just his rapport with Eastwood.
Sean Penn - Carlito's Way. He completely disappears into the character of the mob lawyer, and gives a performance that grabs the spotlight away from Pacino (who himself is very good in it) without ever being showy.
Robert Carlyle - Cracker, "To Be a Somebody." Manages to draw your symapthy and repulsion in equal measure, the whole way through, in a way I've never seen an actor do before or since.
Tim Roth - Resevoir Dogs, I guess; he just doesn't do that much for me.
Samuel L. Jackson - Jackie Brown. Charismatic and an a$$hole; smart but not as smart as he thinks he is. It's a great role, and he's perfect in it.
Gary Oldman - Sid and Nancy. Gets to show more range than I can think of in any of his other films.
James Stewart - It's a Wonderful Life. There are two James Stewarts: The easy-going All-American hero of films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and the tormented neurotic of films like Vertigo. This is the one film in which he's both, an dto great effect.
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23-12-2002 04:23
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