My Top 10 Male Performances

        Very soon it is going to be the third anniversary of this blog and to celebrate, I am making various film-related lists. In this list, I enumerate some of my favourite performances by actors. The list is in random order with my absolute favourite performance crowned at the end.

Brad Pitt in Fight Club

In a way, Pitt's Tyler Durden is my least favourite character of the main trio of Fight Club. But the more I think about it, the more amazed I am by his performance. Durden is crazy, strong and charismatic, someone not dissimilar to Satan in Paradise Lost, and Pitt brings to it so much energy and danger to Durden that one cannot imagine anyone else in his place.

Favourite scene- After being bloodied by the owner of the basement in which he holds his fight club, Tyler laughs hysterically and spits blood all over the man, leaving him very frightened indeed.

Robert De Niro in Raging Bull

If you know me, you would know of my abhorrence towards sports and everything sports-related, in however big or small way. In spite of this, I could not help but be gobsmacked by De Niro's legendary turn as Jake LaMotta.

Favourite scene- LaMotta in his prison cell, punching and hitting his head against the wall and then collapsing crying.

Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List

I have often spoken about how Schindler's List is sometimes a bad example for me for a Holocaust movie because I am so enchanted by Fiennes' Amon Goeth, in all his repulsive glory. He personifies everything that was wrong about that time and the worst acts of genocide and hatred that the world ever saw. It is a scarily brilliant performance.

Favourite scene- Goeth looks at the mirror and like a benevolent god says, "I pardon you."

Ryan Gosling in Drive

I have a thing for internalised performances. Gosling's Driver is a lonely and taciturn man who has a very lethal side to him that he keeps just under control. This underlying current of danger that is always present in his performance gives him a sort of edge that makes him one of the coolest anti-heroes of our time.

Favourite Scene- The Driver interrogates Blanche. The restrained anger is terrifying.

Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange

Speaking of anti-heroes, I am particularly partial to my favourite one, Alex DeLarge who is brought to life by McDowell. His DeLarge thrives on violence and Beethoven. I think this is a very brave performance in many ways. Not everyone would like to be the embodiment of nihilism but McDowell does it fantastically.

Favourite scene- The Minister of Interior feeding Alex while Alex artfully taunts him.

Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Whatever one says or thinks of his career choices now, Depp's ability to morph into a character is astounding. And his Captain Jack Sparrow feels almost like a real living and breathing person. He isn't Depp as Captain Jack, he is Captain Jack himself. Depp immerses himself in this role completely, with all the mannerisms and acting and charm, and gives us a modern hero like we've never had before.

Favourite scene- "She's safe, just like I promised. She's all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised. And you get to die for her, just like you promised. So we're all men of our word really... except for, of course, Elizabeth, who is in fact, a woman."

Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon

The only word I can use to describe this performance is all-encompassing. I really do not believe that there is any emotion that a human being can go through that Pacino's Sonny doesn't go through in this film and he shows it all so beautifully.

Favourite scene- Sonny talks to Leon on the phone. We get to see just how confused this man is about everything that is happening to him.

Bill Murray in Lost in Translation

Sofia Coppola wrote this part for Murray and it was really custom-made for him. While being one of the funniest men alive, Murray brings a sort of tragedy and vulnerability in this persona of him. A most nuanced and lovely performance.

 Favourite scene- When he first says goodbye to Charlotte and watches her walk away while having to take pictures with the hotel staff.

Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs

For a character who is there for only sixteen minutes in the film, Hopkin's Hannibal Lecter pervades the entire running time because of his unforgettable menace and startling softness towards Clarice Starling. My favourite villain ever.

Favourite scene- When we finally see this "monster" in action and then him listening to music covered in another man's blood.

Which brings me to my favourite male performance-

Adrien Brody in The Pianist

Just look at the stills above. This is towards the end of the film, when Brody's character Władysław Szpilman is finally playing a piano after having witnessed the horrors of Holocaust. He starts out at peace and then after seeing one of his friends outside the recording room starts to feel happy, but soon reality hits him and all that he suffered and lost is remembered and he starts to cry, only to try to compose himself and finish his beautiful piece.

I was stunned by Brody when I first saw The Pianist. He is alone throughout a major part of the film, barely talking to anyone... in a room, living, surviving. His character goes from being a sprightly attractive man at the beginning of the film to someone who is can barely walk straight and is almost ape-like by the end . There is so much pain and guilt and fear in this performance that it just breaks my heart. I have never seen a more deserved Oscar winner.

Favourite part- Szpilman walking down pillaged streets, crying, and when he plays a piano at the command of a German soldier.

Heat and the Good and the Bad, and Me

          So I just saw Heat. I mean I had seen bits and parts of it when it came on the telly, but I was never able to watch it completely. And for some reason the part where Robert De Niro meets Amy Brenneman is what I always manage to see, and it is nice and all, but really not that interesting. What is interesting in this film is sparring between Al Pacino and De Niro, the Cop and the Robber, maybe even the Good and the Bad. 

"I do what I do best, I take scores. You do what you do best, try to stop guys like me."

         Woah what? Are you like five? I know that you are thinking it. That last phrase, which, when it crossed my mind, made me stop and really think too. I mean do I really care about who is good or who is bad in films? Yes everyone has good and bad in them blah blah blah, and I have declared my love for anti-heroes and villains over the rooftops of the world, but in films like these I do end up supporting one of the sides. Usually it is due to the better character depicted in the film or better acting of one or, and this is, slightly shamefully, the case most of the times, the actor playing the role.

            I know, I am biased and indecisive and a toddler. So anyways, on going further down this chain of thought, I thought it might be all the Bollywood movie-watching that has led to this cop-robber/good-bad thing. Though honestly if Heat was a Bollywood film, Pacino and De Niro would have been estranged brothers and one of them, probably the former a.k.a. the "good cop" would have had a blind, old mother and both of them would have had a common love interest. That is not the case, thank god, but having had seen many Bollywood films with such a plot line, and I wouldn't be surprised if Heat was an inspiration behind some of them, and it is almost by reflex that I assign the lawful with the good and the unlawful with the bad. Obviously, this does not mean that I choose the "good" over the "bad". I think one of the reasons I really love villains so much is that the "bad" are usually better, for the afore-mentioned reasons, than the "good".

           In Heat, there really was no clear-cut good guy and bad guy, according to the generally-accepted ideas anyway. I mean I thought Pacino's character, Vincent, was bordering on repulsive for me. He was vulgar and short-tempered and horrible with his family, and made no convictions about being anything otherwise either. De Niro's character, Neil, on the other hand, was I thought very polished, and I liked his whole story with Brenneman's character, Eady. It was sweet. But then again, Vincent was a very good cop, one of the best that I have seen in films so far. He is efficient and smart and skilled; though the part where he kills one of the characters who was holding a child at that time was, in my opinion, really reckless and careless of him, and made me kind of want to hate him. He had the good lines though, so yaay! Conversely, Neil was quite a ruthless thief who, I thought, went back on his word a bit, and that made him slightly scary. Therefore the criterion of the better character between the two has failed for me for choosing a good or bad side.

          My second criterion is the better acting. Um...hmmm...well...I got nothing. Moving along.

          The third thing, and what inevitably does become the main criterion in nearly all such cases, is my love for the actors. I guess technically you can say this is the extension of the second criterion, especially for this film. I highly doubt I will have a more difficult time choosing between any other two great actors like I had in the case of Heat, and the godfathers of acting- Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. I think I have days when one is better than the other according to me. One day Pacino is greater, the other De Niro. It's sort of like picking my favourite Beatle (John), but harder still. They are both such fantastic actors, and well, attractive too. Today, while watching the film, my heart sort of yo-yoed between the two.  It did land on one in the end though. Guess who?!

        Still, it does not mean I have chosen a side. I feel incapable of doing so, and that is something, I am sure, which will make me remember Heat for a long time. Not to mention the excellent heist scene at the beginning, with the unfurling ribbon thing, and the plain awesome face-off, and the you know, "usual" chat over coffee, and the very loud shootout, and the really thrilling ending. Michael Mann has indeed made an excellent film, even called a modern classic by many. I can believe that now because when I sat down to write this, I felt I liked it but didn't love it all the way, but right now, the feelings of admiration have exponentially increased.

           So there you have it...I completely random post on a thought that I felt like expanding upon, and me falling in love with yet another film. And what a film...