Best Acting Performance You've Ever Seen

The whole cast of Twelve Angry Men. Henry Fonda of course but I love the older, bitter fella who tears up the picture of his son.
 
Daniel Day Lewis - The Age of Innocence.

Morgan Freeman - The Shawshank Redemption

Marlon Brando - Julius Caesar (his ‘Dogs of War’ soliloquy in particular was sublime)
 
Christopher Walken and Rob De Niro in The Deer Hunter, some great scenes in that.

If you havent seen it, it isnt just two great performances but a really good Vietnam war movie. Meryl Streep stars too.

 
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Arbitrium said:


This.
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Jesus that is good. I've seen the film and enjoyed it but I'd forgotten that scene.

I've always thought of Tom Hanks as more of a safe pair of hands than anything else but he's acted very well in some great films. One of the steadiest most credible guys in Hollywood for sure.
 
Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2.

Sylvester Stallone in Rocky.

Bruce Willis in Die Hard.


Yes I like 80s action movies. They don't make em like that anymore. Though I have some hope for the upcoming Death Wish with the aforementioned Bruce willis.
 
12OunceEpilogue said:
Jesus that is good. I've seen the film and enjoyed it but I'd forgotten that scene.

I've always thought of Tom Hanks as more of a safe pair of hands than anything else but he's acted very well in some great films. One of the steadiest most credible guys in Hollywood for sure.
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I think that movie as a whole was okay, but that scene is probably the most believable piece of Acting I’ll ever see, he conveys trauma perfectly.The girl checking over him isn’t an actress, she’s a nurse in the navy, not sure if that makes the scene even better or diminishes it a little.
 
Arbitrium said:
I think that movie as a whole was okay, but that scene is probably the most believable piece of Acting I’ll ever see, he conveys trauma perfectly.The girl checking over him isn’t an actress, she’s a nurse in the navy, not sure if that makes the scene even better or diminishes it a little.
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Indeed. Too often you see actors howling in misery and streaming with tears when what's required is the kind of detached desolation Hanks shows in that scene. The way he struggles to process the succinct questions being asked of him, the intermittence of his responses and the gradual way the panic and tears come on are all very authentic. I also see a character point in the way he seems to be trying to hold it together and be strong, as he's had to do throughout the film.

I think having a naval nurse check him over just as she would in real life is a brilliant idea as it lets the film put its full attention on Hanks, which is where it should be in that scene.
 
Colin Farrell - In Bruges
Frances McDormand - Fargo
Tom Hanks - Castaway
Aaron Paul - Breaking Bad
 
Heardy said:
I remember watching that and saying to my mrs - "if anyone had forgotten just how good of an actor Tom Hanks is, they should watch that last three minutes."

An incredible outpouring of emotion.
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I said something similar to my mrs too. I think we were just expecting a happy ending, he’s just endured a horrendous ordeal and now everything’s fine, he’s the hero. Then you see what it might actually have been like for the captain.
 
Tom Noonan (Manhunter), Ted Levine (Silence of the Lambs).
 
Casey Affleck - The Assassination of Jesse James
Viggo Mortensen and Vincent Cassel (not sure who is better) - Eastern Promises
Nicholas Cage - Leaving Las Vegas
 
Mike Leigh has a knack of getting great performances out of his actors. David Thewlis (Naked), Timothy Spall (Secrets and Lies) and Lesley Manville (Another Year) have all given career best performances while working with him.

Those aside Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose), Matthieu Almaric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Isabelle Huppert (The Piano Teacher) and Ellen Burstyn (Requiem for a Dream) have all blown me away in recent years.
 
I watched Schindler's List for the first time in ages the other night. Ralph Fiennes playing Amon Goeth has got to be one of the best acting performances in cinema history. He's insanely good (and evil).
 
Kag said:
I watched Schindler's List for the first time in ages the other night. Ralph Fiennes playing Amon Goeth has got to be one of the best acting performances in cinema history. He's insanely good (and evil).
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Schindler has him sussed from the start, and it's as if Amon is a boy in the company of a man. Schindler realises that Goeth is riddled with self-doubt about whether he's fit to be a member of the 'master race'. The scene where Goeth is studying himself in a mirror effectively shows us his doubting thoughts hidden behind studied arrogance. Masterful performance by Fiennes.
 
Few of my faves in no particular order

Ben Mendelsohn in Bloodline
Edward Norton in Primal Fear
Kirk Douglas in Ace in the Hole
Jack Lemmon in The Apartment
Maggie Cheung in In The Mood For Love
Jim Carey in Eternal Sunshine
Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window & Vertigo
Bill Murray in Lost in Translation
 
And in Red Riding 1980, he was this clean-cut, honest detective. Fine actor.
 
Marion Cotillard in La Môme/La Vie En Rose is up there.

I didn't like the film as a whole all that much but she was incredible.
 
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