With Phantom Thread, Daniel Day-Lewis has decided to call it a career.
What was his best performance?
I’ve included all of his films in the poll for completeness, though I doubt many of these titles have been widely viewed.
Imo his best performance was in Gangs of New York but the horribly cast Leonardo DiCaprio and the horrible Cameron Diaz ruined the film.
He was amazing in that movie but I agree, could have done better with the other leads.
He also did some TV work and some theater but this is only about his film work.
Also, everyone else note this is not about which was his best film, but in which film he gave his best performance.
I fell in love with him in My Beautiful Laundrette.
Boom. Done. Been looking for that boyfriend/lover ever since.
He was awesome in There Will Be Blood.
I would have to call it a tie.
Although there’s many on that list I haven’t seen, TWBB gets the nod.
I drink your milkshake!!!
Diaz I’ll give you, but I don’t think think DiCaprio was miscast - he did his best with a poorly-written role.
This and a few other flaws aside, *Gangs *is one of my all-time favorite movies, and my favorite DDL performance. He’s utterly mesmerizing.
Imo DiCaprio was poorly cast because he just wasn’t believable as an alpha male gang leader. He is an excellent actor but menacing He is not.
That’s the same reason I stopped watching Sons of Anarchy. Charlie Hunnam seems a decent actor, but I just never believed him as that guy.
Remember, DiCaprio was pretty damn menacing in Django. He could have been menacing in Gangs too if the script had given him something menacing to do; barring that, he could have been the clever, charismatic type of gang leader. All the film had to do was decide to give him a personality.
I feel like I haven’t seen enough of the films to vote.
On the question of Gangs of New York, the overall presentation seemed too fake for me to take the actors seriously. It just doesn’t matter how good a performance you give if the people who did your costume and makeup have decided to make you look about as realistic as Bluto and the set design and cinematography looks like someone spent too much time watching Hollywood musicals (Chicago, Moulin Rouge, etc.)
Films where the presentation seeks to be realistic-as-possible, My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, Lincoln, etc., he’s quite good. Somehow, he didn’t ‘feel’ like Lincoln to me (too wise sage-ish? not country enough?), but nevertheless he came across as a believable Presidential figure of the time period.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being for me.
You’re a bastard from a basket!
Of the handful of DDL films I’ve seen, I enjoy Gangs of New York the most. That’s not to say I consider that his *best *performance; I don’t even know how to choose that.
I’m not sure I agree. Some males just excude danger. Lee Marvin in Point Blank, Robert Mitcham in his early films, etc. DiCaprio just can’t pull that off. DDL, on the other hand, did completely pull off the charasmatic gang leader type.
I’ve seen two of them. Gandhi and Lincoln, and I couldn’t tell you what part he played in Gandhi. I’d vote Lincoln, but I guess that’s not fair. I’ll abstain.
I chose Lincoln for the simple fact that the way he portrayed the scene with Sally Field the father of a dead child that had to hold all of his grieving in to take care of other things until it boiled out was devastatingly realistic.
ETA: I thought he retired after Lincoln. What made him come back to do one last one?
I’m going to have to see more of his films. I’ve only seen Gangs of New York, The Age of Innocence, My Left Foot and Last of the Mohicans.
I voted Gangs of New York.
Last of the Mohicans for me. That movie is my everything.
I saw Last of the Mohicans, Gangs of NY, Lincoln, and There Will Be Blood.
My favorite role was Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, but whether it’s his best performance or not is hard to determine. That film had a lot of good acting in it - Lewis wasn’t the only good acting job in that film. The director gets credit for putting together a good cast, script, and all. But it’s nevertheless my favorite and in part a good example of Lewis’ range as an actor.
Lincoln was a reasonably good film – could have been better, but good nonetheless. Also some good acting, though the script and development of the movie was a little predictable, IMO. Not a reflection Lewis of course. My quibbles with the movie aside, Lincoln shows another side of Lewis and in some ways exemplifies his range and depth even more so than TWBB, which I liked better as a movie. The same could be said of Last of the Mohicans and Gangs.