Your favorite Sherlock Holmes

[Czarcasm]

I am currently watching, and thoroughly enjoying, The Triumph Of Sherlock Holmes(1935), with Arthur Wontner as Holmes and Ian Fleming as Watson. The did three movies together as Holmes and Watson.

[vislor]

Another vote for Jonny Lee Miller. I think it’s several things.

JLM had to win me over as I saw him about the same time as Sherlock, Cummerbuns version, which the first two seasons of that are good. Miller and the writing just made him better.

The writing is better overall in Elementary. They got their tone and stuck to it more than any other show. Maybe a few here and there were off but overall better. What do I mean by that? In the first season, Holmes is by far the smartest. Marcus may get a few points but it’s Holmes. And then we get the best progression ever. By the last season, Watson and Marcus may have mostly caught up to him but Holmes is still best. They get steps one to five but Holmes still gets step six or the twist. And it works well. It allows Holmes to be slightly better but still show the others are smart.

For authenticity of Holmes in a Victorian-era setting, Jeremy Brett.

Benedict’s Sherlock started great with the first season. Faltered a bit in second but still good and the last two, or three, or whatever, were awful. However, this also shows what I don’t like about most Watsons. Watson never learns in any other version. Never. Maybe that’s true to the books but it annoys me. He’s purely there to say, “What is it, Doctor, er, Holmes?” IIRC, there is a scene where Holmes outdoes Watson in the cause of death? That’s when I lost all respect for that Watson and the show in general in how it treated others.

I’m torn on RDJ’s version. I think it’s too action oriented. I agree that Holmes could fight but I think the point was it was rare he did. He out thought the bad guys and let the police/constables handle that side of it most of the time. I don’t know. There is just something about it that while entertaining doesn’t rise to be Holmes to me.

I haven’t seen many of the others.

Good discussion! Thanks!

[Larry_Borgia]

@gdave

The original Arthur Conan Doyle-written Sherlock Holmes was certainly cerebral, but so was Downey’s Holmes. He is depicted as winning fights by plotting out all of his moves and his opponent’s moves ahead of time, and otherwise out-thinking his opponents and using his wits at least as much as his muscles to over-come obstacles.

But Doyle’s Holmes was absolutely not “all” cerebral. By the standards of the era, he was an action figure.

In “The Speckled Band,” an antagonist tries to intimidate Holmes by bending a fireplace poker with his bare hands. Holmes responds by casually straightening it back out, a much more difficult feat of strength, that he accomplishes with much less effort.

Doyle’s Holmes is also a master of “baritsu”, which is a reference to the real life “bartitsu” fighting style. This was a supposedly “scientific” fighting style, and mentioning Holmes’ mastery of it was the Victorian equivalent of establishing him as a both an action hero and a techno-thriller hero.

Anyway, on the OP’s topic, I’m pretty torn between a sentimental attachment to Basil Rathbone, Jeremey Brett’s masterfully faithful depiction, Benedict Cumberbatch’s modernized portrayal of Holmes-as-sociopath, and Downey’s just plain fun Holmes.

This was what I was going to post, and you went into it in more detail than I would have been able to.

[Sunny_Daze]

@MrDibble

Jonny Lee Miller

Another vote here.

[puzzlegal]

Jonny Lee Miller – I’ve probably spent 50 times as much time watching him play Holmes as anyone else, and certainly no other portrayal jumps out at me as “BUT THIS IS SOOOO GOOD.”

@Alessan

Hugh Laurie. Yes, he counts.

@Alessan

Except that House was very much a variation on Holmes, far more than your examples: the observational genius, the eccentricities and musical ability, the disconnection from humanity (bordering on misanthropy), the drug use, the best friend and confidant with the initials JW, even the name (House… Holmes… get it?). They even name-checked 221b and Irene Adler. Not to mention that Hugh Laurie looks like the classic Sherlock, tall and lanky with a long face and hollow cheeks.

*House *was easily as much Sherlock Holmes as the Guy Ritchie movies.

Yes, “House” was absolutely explicitly modeled on Sherlock Holmes. But he seems less physical than the real one (in the books) and crueler. Also, the later seasons kind of ruined it for me.