Top 10 greatest film performances

So what are the top 10 greatest film performances you have ever seen? I'm talking about a performance so good that you were asking yourself "how the hell did they pull this off?" and also where you might have even gotten a few goosebumps from watching their magic on screen.

Here is my list,

1. F. Murray Abraham in "Amadeus".

2. George C. Scott in "Patton".

3. Jack Nicholson in 'The Shining".

4. Rutger Hauer in "Blade Runner".

5. Anthony Hopkins in "Silence of the Lambs".

6. Malcolm McDowell in "A Clockwork Orange".

7. Rod Steiger in "Waterloo".

8 and 9. A two-fer here! Joaquin Phoenix in "Gladiator" and in "The Joker".

10. Robert DeNiro in "Heat".

Any list without Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday is null and void.

You forgot Peter Sellers in "Doctor Strangelove" ! He was one of the greatest actors of all time who never won an Oscar.

And on a related note, Stanley Kubrick never won an Oscar for directing!

*Laughs in Heather Ledger's Joker*

Gal Gadot Wonder Woman

the old woman in Titanic

Predictably, Russell Crowe in «Master and Commander»

Stephen Lang as Stonewall Jackson in «Gods and Generals»

Both Morgan Freeman as Red and Tim Robbins as Andy in «Shawshank Redemption.» Man. That is one perfectly crafted movie.

Tom Berenger in "Platoon". He reminded me of sergeants I knew. And 30 years later my son said the same thing when I showed him the movie.

Agree with most of your suggestions Panzer, 1, 8,9,10 not seen or recalled if viewed. Felt Steiger was a bit hammy in Waterloo.
Mine in no particular order.

1. George Harris Kennedy in "Cool Hand Luke".

2. George C. Scott in "Patton".

3. Jack Nicholson in 'The Shining".

4. Rutger Hauer in "Blade Runner".

5. Anthony Hopkins in "Silence of the Lambs".

6. Malcolm McDowell in "A Clockwork Orange".

7. Christopher Plummer in "Waterloo".

8 and 9.Harvey Keitel in 'The Duelists' and 'Grey Zone'.

10. Toshiro Mifune in 'Yojimbo'

In no particular order, my 10 favorite acting performances are:
1: Humphrey Bogart - The Big Sleep

2: Hugo Weaving - V for Vendetta

3: Audrey Hepburn - Wait Until Dark

4: Denzel Washington - Glory

5: Tommy Wiseau - The Room

6: Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

7: Humphrey Bogart - The Caine Mutiny

8: Gregory Peck - The Big Country

9: James Cagney - Mister Roberts

10: Bette Davis - Dark Victory

Definitely.

Many of the movies mention I never seen. Some I have not heard nothing about.

Gawd, impossible for me to name a top ten of performances i love, some standouts that aren't the same old movies always at the top.


Ken Watanabe in The Last Samurai, awesome presence and you can't help but love his complete character.

Hiroyuki Sanada, same movie, you can't help but dislike him but understand his anger, resentment and hatred and then him growing to respect the one he hates and totally loving his arc. Great character.

Javier Bardum, No Country for old men, awesome. Loved him and hated him. He's a flesh and blood terminator.

DiCaprio in Wolf of Wall St, i think he enjoyed that role too much, just pulls you into that crazy world.

Michael Douglas in Falling Down. You think he's just had enough of this sh/t and goes, eff it, i'm doin' what i want. As the movie progresses you see a deeper troubled side that finally takes over that moment he snapped.

Sigourney Weaver, Alien. Soft girl gets tough and takes no prisoners, cliche maybe? but she did it the best.

Excellent picks all around from everyone who has posted so far.

@ Ajay - Concerning Ken Watanabe, I think he's one of the most grossly underrated actors out there. He was fantastic in "The Last Samurai" and also "Letters from Iwo Jima".

"And when the machine breaks down, WE break down". By far this was Berenger's best performance IMHO.

Dustin Hoffman in Rain man
And I agree with vonBaur Tom Berenger was like some of the Korean War Vet sergeants we had in the 60's Also a nod to Ken Watanabe in The Last Samurai and Letters From Iwo

Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys. He played it just crazy enough but not over the top, and very un-Brad-Pitt-like.

Yeah, I love his character in The Last Samurai. He played that role to perfection. Tom Cruise wasn’t bad either. One of the movies I haven’t seen in a while. Will have to watch it again soon.

Regarding Brad Pitt, I love his role in Snatch as Mickey the pikey. Probably the most quotable movie of all time!

I saw "Snatch" way back when it was first released on DVD but I have not seen it since. Does anyone know what kind of accent that was supposed to be which was spoken by Pitt?

Kenneth Branagh in Henry V.
Ian McShane in Deadwood, and really that whole cast did an excellent job.

No, really?

Irish traveler. He actually does it quite well.

Denzel Washington - Glory

I seen -

Patton
The Shining
Blade Runner
Gladiator
Joker
Heat
Master and Commander (and will never be able to unsee it for the rest of my life)
Platoon
The Dark Knight
Wolf of Wall Street
Alien
Letters From Iwo Jima

I not seen, have heard of them before -

Glory
Snatch
Amadeum
Silence of the Lambs
Clockwork Orange
Doctor Strangelove
Shawshank Redemption
V for Vendetta
No Country for Old Men
The Last Samurai
Snatch
The Caine Mutiny
Mister Roberts
Henry V
Rain Man
Deadwood
12 monkeys

I not seen, never heard of them

Waterloo
Gods and Generals
Cool Hand Luke
Duelist
Gray Zone
Joyimbo
The Big Sleep
Wait til Dark
The Room
The Big Country
Falling Down
Dark Victory



Not finding Doc Holliday

I've never heard of these movies either!

I seen Snatch. It was them dirty movie.Don't remember Brad Pitt in it.

He's the bloody pikey.

It's a derivative of Irish.

Taking a slightly different approach, but in keeping with the thread title.

The bank robbery and street shootout scene in "Heat".



The scene has been widely regarded as one of the most realistic portrayals of small unit tactics & technique. It has eportedly been used to train U.S. Marines.

Bonus: Behind the scenes



I see that PM listed DeNiro in this movie in his O.P. I think the whole scene deserves a nod.

Andy McNab directed those scenes from what I have read.

If there is a bank robbery/heist scene in a movie that is better than the one in "Heat" then I have not seen it yet.

You roused my interest so I looked him up and read a short bio. It's stunning to me how his life turned out when you consider the terrible circumstances of his early life!

44 minutes



LA takedown

The books Bravo Two Zero and Immediate Action are worth a read PM

Doc Holliday is Val Kilmer’s character in «Tombstone»

Have not seen Tombstone. I think it came on TV one time back when we watch free TV and there were free movies at night and only the privilege lucky folks had cable TV with all day movie channels

Will check Amazon Prime and Netflix for those movies I haven't not seen.

"5: Tommy Wiseau - The Room"

That was either a joke, or you were trying to see who would catch that!

I cant come up with 10 on the spot, but I will add some to the thread as I think of them.

in no particular order:
Toshiro Mifune-- High and Low
Henry Fonda -- On Golden Pond, The Wrong Man and many others.
Heath Ledger -- Dark Knight. Many have been called but there can be only one Joker.
Al Pacino -- The Godfather I, II, III
Marlon Brando -- On The Waterfront
Daniel Day Lewis -- There will be Blood

Read both, and very glad I did. Bad ass dudes. Certainly helped me form my HELL NO opinion on Iraq, the sequel. One of the dumbest moves, from one of the dumbest Presidents in America's history.

Daniel Day-Lewis - Last of the Mohicans

One of my all time favorites

Yep. He is awesome in all his movies, but that is the standout for me as well.

Turkish (Jason Statham) "It's not Irish...it's not English.....it's well, just Pikey"
An authentic attempt at the dialect by Pitt as witnessed here:

I would like to add Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump".

Spielberg has been quoted saying that he could not have made “Lincoln” without Day-Lewis in the lead role.

Haha, yep, Pooch. You're right on both counts. It was a legendary performance, but not for the same reasons as the rest.

Man, the Shelby Family from the Peaky Blinders fell on hard times after Tommy died.

"The Room" is indeed a horrible movie but you know what? When you have a Hollywood movie made starring James Franco about the making of "The Room" then at least you know your film is still remembered! How many decent/competent films have been made which have been totally forgotten by the public? A lot.

Is it me, or are a lot of posts gone from this thread?

I just rewatched The Last Samurai for the first time in probably ten years. Some say it’s a movie full of stereotypes, and I am inclined to agree with that to a certain degree, but it is done so well, IMO, and even a movie full of stereotypes can be a good one if that is thhe case. Beautiful cinematography and music, and the performance by Ken Watanabe is just stellar. One of the finest on-screen performance I have ever seen.

I need to re-watch this as well. It was quite interesting to see Billy Connolly in a strictly serious role but then again he can do both comedy and drama equally well.