Greatest performances ever?

[Mr-Brightside]

What do you consider the 5 greatest cinematic performances,, 5 male and 5 female, in film history? As the starter of the topic I'll set the ball rolling:

Male:

1) Daniel Day Lewis - Myleft foot
2) Denzel Washington - Malcolm X
3) Al Pacino - Dog Day Afternoon
4) Ben Kingsly - Gandhi
5) Robert DeNiro - Raging Bull

Notable Mentions:

Dustin Hoffman - Rainman
Jack Nicolson - The Shining, One flew over the cookoo's nest
Robert DeNiro - Taxi Driver
Tom Hanks - Cast Away
Jim Carey - Man on the moon
Gregory Peck - To kill a mocking bird

Female:

1) Cathy Bates - Misery
2) Ingrid Bergman - Casablanca
3) Hilary Swank - Boys don't cry
4) Meryl Streep - Sophies choice
5) Talia Shire - Rocky

Notable mentions:

Whoopi Goldberg - The colour purple
Charlize Theron - Monster
Naomi Watts - Mullholland Drive
Rene Zellweger - Cold Mountain
Kate Winslett - Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind

[Boricua]

That's a pretty solid list you got there, though I'm suprised you didn't include Marlon Brando in The Godfather

[Mr-Brightside]

boricualuchador said:

That's a pretty solid list you got there, though I'm surprised you didn't include Marlon Brando in The Godfather

I may have opted for that if: 1) The role hadn't pretty much become a parody of itself. Whilst well acted I think the role was more characature than actuality, hence I tend to think the role is overstated and over-hyped by those that lavish it with such praise. And 2) I believe his performances in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront were both superior to that of the one he cut in the Godfather. Both would have made my list but only now, thanks to you, have I plucked the performances from my memory.

[Boricua]

I can understand that. The other two Brando ones were ones I was thinking about as well.

Speaking of Brando: you know, there was actually a time in my life were I could recite the entire opening scene of the Godfather, with Don Vito's voice down pat?

[Bill Covington]

Male:
1) Russell Crowe-Gladiator
2) Edward Norton-American History X
3) Brad Pitt-Meet Joe Black
4) Robert De Niro-The Untouchables
5) Sylvester Stallone-Rocky

Female:
1) Ingrid Bergman-Casablanca
2) Olivia de Havilland-The Adventures Of Robin Hood
3) Hilary Swank-Million Dollar Baby
4) Vivien Leigh-Gone With The Wind
5) Linda Blair-The Exorcist

[Leonard(o)]

Male:

1) Robert DeNiro - Taxi Driver
2) Kevin Spacey - American Beauty and the Usual Suspects
3) Christian Bale - American Psycho
4) Brad Pitt - Fight Club
5) Jared Leto - Requiem for a Dream

Notable Mentions:

Dustin Hoffman - Rainman
Val Kilmer - Wonderland, Joe the King and the Doors
Woody Harrelson - Natural Born Killers
Mark Wahlberg - Boogie Nights
Jim Carrey - Man on the moon
Al Pacino - Dog Day Afternoon

I will do the female roles tomorrow

[coolcool]

1. Ray Liotta in Goodfellas
2. Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction
3. Robert De Niro in Goodfellas
4. Tom Cruise in Collaterall
5. Jim Carey in Man on the Moon

Anyway, good to know someone here noted Careys finest performance ever in Man on the Moon.

[+Donald $. Carlos+]

In no particular order:

Samuel L. Jackson - "Pulp Fiction"
Kevin Spacey - "American Beauty"
Jared Leto - "Requiem For A Dream"
Al Pacino - "Dog Day Afternoon"
Edward Norton - "American History X"



I'll do the female roles tomorrow, when I'm thinking clearly . . .

[OfLegend]

1.) Laurence Olivier as "Prince Hamlet" in Hamlet
2.) Robert DeNiro as "Jake LaMotta" in Raging Bull
3.) Orson Welles as "Charles Foster Kane" in Citizen Kane
4.) Antony Hopkins as "Hannibal Lecter" in Silence of The Lambs
5.) Peter O'Toole as "T.E. Lawrence" in Lawrence of Arabia

[Gary Groucutt]

1) Denzel Washington in Training Day
2) Ray Liotta in Goodfellas
3) Robert Deniro in Raging bull/Taxi Driver
4) Jack Nicolson in About Schmidt/As Good as It Gets
5) Christian Bale in American Pyscho

[fantomas82790]

Males:

1. Paul Newman in The Hustler
2. Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird
3. Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction
4. Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie
5. Tom Hanks in Philadelphia

Honorable Mentions

6. Roberto Bengini in La Vita e Bella(Life is Beautiful)
7. John Tuturro in Quiz Show
8. Samuel L. Jackson in Jungle Fever
9. Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman
10. Sidney Portier in Lillies of the Field
11. Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs
12. Robert Redford in The Sting
13. Jack Nicholson in Chinatown
14. Robert Deniro in The Godfather Pt. 2
15. Jack Lemon in Glengarry Glen Ross(Possibly the greatest ensamble cast ever)
16. Jim Carrey in Man on the Moon
17. Walter Mathou in The Fortune Cookie
18. James Woods in Ghosts of Mississippi
19. John Travolta in Pulp Fiction
20. Samuel L. Jackson in Jackie Brown



Females:

1. Hillary Swank in Boys Don't Cry
2. Uma Thurman in Kill Bill Vol. 2
3. Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs
4. Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday
5. Kathrine Hepburn in On Golden Pond

Honorable Mentions

6. Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction
7. Meryl Streep in Adaptation
8. Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights
9. Lorraine Bracco in Goodfellas
10. Sharon Stone in Casino
11. Pam Grier in Jackie Brown
12. Taila Shire in The Godfather
13. Taila Shire in Rocky
14. Meryl Streep in The Deer Hunter
15. Kathrine Hepburn in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
16. Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady
17. Angela Basset in Boyz N The Hood
18. Halle Berry in Monsters Ball
19. Charlize Theron in Monster
20. Courtney Love in The People v.s. Larry Flynt

[geoshi]

Males:
1) Marlon Brando in The Godfather
2) Tom Hanks in Philadelphia
3) Dustin Hoffman in Rainman
4) Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull
5) Jared Leto in Requiem For A Dream
Only notable mention:
6) Brad Pitt in Fight Club

I'll do the girls part later on.

[Nathan Versus]

I’ll finish the list when I can be arsed.

Male

1. Sean Penn (Dead Man Walking)

2. Robert De Niro (Raging Bull)

3. Robert Shaw (Jaws)

4. Gene Hackman (The Conversation)


Female

1. Naomi Watts (21 Grams)

[Moeru Toukon]

1) Robert Deniro- Raging Bull
2) Al Pacino- The Godfather (part two)
3) Eli Wallach- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
4) Denzel Washington- Man on Fire
5) Rutger Hauer- Blade Runner

[Chubbs]

1. Anthony Hopkins in "Silence of the Lambs"
2. Robert De Niro in "Raging Bull"
3. Joaquin Phoenix in "Walk the Line"
4. Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump"
5. Clive Owen in "Closer"

[OfLegend]

Would anyone like to talk more about their choices?

I realise I'm necromancing a very dead topic here, but I just wanted to elaborate on how firmly I believe Laurence Olivier is the tremendous actor of the 20th Century, how his performance as Hamlet is a personification of this, and how it is superior to pretty much every example of great acting any of you have named.

As great as Hamlet is (I regard it as the greatest piece of literature ever conscribed to the boards), I have never seen the role itself defined as well as Olivier managed. Watch the film: it may be a direct translation with little in the way of direction, but the performance of Olivier is beyond superlative.

Hamlet, to read, has often been considered a tiresome and frustrating technical exercise to both budding and even experienced actors. The translation of a now almost archaic form of modern English into a piece of acting that is emotive and believable by a thespian is beyond the range of many. It is for this reason that the role is held in the highest regard among stage actors: to paraphrase director Bruce Robinson, it is the most harrowing experience of a young boy's life when he wakes up one morning and realises he will never play "The Dane". The question of how one fully conveys the self-stated ambitions of a character who is more complex than a casual viewer might believe with the Shakespearean tongue can be both an extremely difficult one, and a very welcome challenge, as it represents the highest form of faith by the head of casting in the ability of an actor.

It is for this reason that many have cracked and failed, or played the role "safely", i.e. injecting too much angst into the role to paper over the fact that Shakespeare's dialogue is beyond their ability to do true justice. You hay have seen it before: Hamlet, far from being an interesting man, is instead reduced to teenage levels of complexity until he begins to resemble more an emo kid. This arguably is the fault of the inclusion of Hamlet's mother in the play as a desirable woman: she must, many theorise, be not too advanced in years, leaving Hamlet still as a young man who has been overburdened too soon in his life.

Olivier did not. His Hamlet was strong and fierce, without compromising on the emotion the role requires. Not a hero looking for sympathy from the audience, but a character of questionable motives and increasingly obsessive mentality. The idea of existientialism was not represented as an almost adolescent way of carving an identity, but in the face of Olivier's Hamlet, a very serious and adult question that is never truly answered but is perhaps alluded to. He is angry, yes, but not bitchy. As has been said in the past, he speaks arguably Shakespeare's most difficult lines as if he were himself thinking them. Most importantly, a man, and as Olivier himself puts it in the voiceover, one who "could not make up his mind."

He owns De Niro, Brando and Pacino.

[Joshua James]

No particular order

Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction
Eli Wallach in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Russell Crowe in Gladiator
Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest
Tim Robbins in The Shawhank Redemption

[coolcool]

4 Months later and Liotta is still #1 for me for his role in Goodfellas.

Ray Liotta never gets enough credit.

[OfLegend]

I forgot Toshiro Mifune in Seven Samurai. Maybe my favourite role in any film.

[Carl]

For now.....

Male

- Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver)
- Dustin Hoffman (Rainman)
- Kevin Spacey (Usual Suspects)
- Sean Penn (Dead Man Walking)
- Denzel Washington (Training Day)

Female

- Charlize Theron (Monster)
- Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry)
- Vivien Leigh (A Streetcar Named Desire)
- Uma Thurman (Pulp Fiction)
- Elizabeth Taylor (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)