Here’s how this works. Choose a movie star then choose the best movie in which that person has a starring role, and justify your choice.
I’ll start with Marilyn Monroe, and choose The Prince and the Showgirl. Outstanding movie! The fluffiest of light comedies, also starring and directed by Laurence Olivier. She was not locked into being “Marilyn” in this role, and consequently her performance was much more nuanced and textured than in, say, Some Like it Hot or even Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Also a great cast in general, including the aforementioned Olivier and Dame Sybil Thorndike as a wonderfully dotty Empress Dowager. It turns up on AMC about one every three days it seems, so watch it right now!
Bogie in “African Queen”. Damned if he didn’t play it just right. He was tough, yet vulnerable enough to fall in love. He was smart, but not so smart that automatically you knew he was gonna make it out. Having Katherine Hepburn to play off of probably didn’t hurt. I just remember many parts of that flick when Bogart surprised me. He has been one of my heros ever since. (Yes I saw “African Queen” prior to “Casablanca”.)
“A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the investigation of so vast a subject.” - Seneca
Fred MacMurray (spelling?) and Double Indemnity. It’s amazing that someone who played such a nice guy (think My Three Sons) could also play someone so vile. Second Best - The Apartment (same reasoning)
Kate Hepburn in A Philadelphia Story. She got to be flirtatious without being stupid, clever without being manipulative, high class without being snobby.
Gabriel: African Queen is one of my favs, too. Read an interview with Hepburn where she was talking about all her costars, and she said that Bogie was the most SOLID. Not strong, but “when you lean against him, you know you’re leaning against something unmovable.” I always thought that description fit the bill.
Not really a starring role, but I kind of liked Terence Stamp in “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” as the bitter, aging transsexual. Still “on the road”, adrift in the world, things did not magically become better after the operation. But unlikely as it seemed, she still found there was a chance of having a loving relationship. I wonder how it worked out? Speaking of deserts, Peter O’Toole, “Lawrence of Arabia”. In such an enormous epic, an actor who can command the screen with his crazed passion, a STAR, is essential, and I think he certainly did that. (I saw this when I was 11 and one look at those intense blue eyes and such a thrill went through me that I saved my allowance and went back six more times. " 'awrence! 'awrence!"
Susan Sarandon, Bull Durham. I don’t know why it is, but she works so much better as a manipulative seductress than as a maternal character (Lorenzo’s Oil (whic I loved, BTW), Stepmom). It’s a shame women her age are seldom given those roles…although Rene Russo in The Thomas Crown Affair gives one hope for the future.
“Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.”
– Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective
Russel is an increible actor and has the most intense eyes I have seen. In this film, cast as the leader of a group of skinheads in Australia he plays a most chilling role convincingly, but also has a soft side. it’s fabulous and so is he.
If you feel that you must suffer, then plan your suffering carefully–as you choose your dreams, as you conceive your ancestors.
Man, did he play a mean bastard in that movie. You couldn’t help but hate him because of everything he did. The funny thing is though, that by the end of the movie, you sort of feel sorry for him, and appreciate what he does for Celie. It’s not often that movies stir up real emotion in me, but he played this character to such perfection as to make me seethe with anger.
Dustin Hoffmann in “Rain Man.” It was one of the few roles where you completely lose track of the actor and actually half believe that he is the character he’s playing. I mean, I’ve seen Dustin Hoffmann in a lot of roles, but he blew me away in the role of Raymond.
De Niro in “Midnight Run”
Newman in “Cool Hand Luke”
Cary Grant in"Mr. Lucky"
Hanks in “Big”
not Hoffman in “Rain Man”–I saw actor all the way, personally. Hoffman in “The Graduate” is an acotr getting lost in the role.
Hepburn in “Biography” with Grant (that or “Bringing Up Baby”)
Bascially my picks tend to be an actor breaking out of limits that he or she has had before (and sometimes after)
Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, or George C. Scott in Patton.
The first time I saw Chinatown, it really impressed me. I don’t know how much was due to his role, and how much is due to the movie in general, but it’s definitely one of my favorites of all time.
Patton was another one that just blew me away the first time I saw it. The fact that GSC looks someone like Patton didn’t hurt, either.
Sean Penn “Dead Man Walking” He disappeared so far into his role that you couldn’t tell where it ended and he began. If you never knew anything about him you would swear that Sean was the character because nobody could act that well. There wasn’t a false moment in the entire characterization, no time in which you could see him play to the camera, unlike some of his other roles.
Keith
Sean Penn “Dead Man Walking” He disappeared so far into his role that you couldn’t tell where it ended and he began. If you never knew anything about him you would swear that Sean was the character because nobody could act that well. There wasn’t a false moment in the entire characterization, no time in which you could see him play to the camera, unlike some of his other roles.
Keith
Joan Crawford in “Rain”—anyone who thinks she wasn’t capable of being a great actress, check out her acting rings around Walter Huston and Beulah Bondi in this!
Jean Harlow in “Bombshell”—her quintessential role; makes fun of her own image. Very funny.
Clara Bow in “It”—again, if you doubt this baby could act, check it out!
John Gilbert in “Downstairs”—a talkie he cowrote himself; he plays a slimy, opportunistic chauffeur. Great role, enjoyable film.
Costner can be the most wooden, unemotional, downright dull actor around. But in this 1985 film, his first big role, he plays it loose. His Jake is a goofy untamed kid brother who is bursting with energy and doesn’t know what to do with it. Too bad Kevin has chosen to be the stoic, every man hero in every film since then instead of playing more characters like Jake.
Tom Hanks in Big
If you saw this movie and didn’t truly believe that Hanks was a twelve year old boy in a grown man’s body, then…then…I’m at a loss for words.
Brady Bunch Quote Of The Week:
“Judging from the reaction around here, I’d say Davy Jones is the hottest thing since pepperoni pizza.” - Carol
Costner can be the most wooden, unemotional, downright dull actor around. But in this 1985 film, his first big role, he plays it loose. His Jake is a goofy untamed kid brother who is bursting with energy and doesn’t know what to do with it. Too bad Kevin has chosen to play the stoic, every man hero in every film since instead of playing more characters like Jake.
Tom Hanks in Big
If you saw this movie and didn’t truly believe that Hanks was a twelve year old boy in a grown man’s body, then…then…I’m at a loss for words.
Brady Bunch Quote Of The Week:
“Judging from the reaction around here, I’d say Davy Jones is the hottest thing since pepperoni pizza.” - Carol
I knew who he was from Growing Pains, but I didn’t know he was the kid in this movie till someone told me. I thought it was a real retarded kid. (Mentally challenged, differently abled, whatever is PC nowadays)