Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.
This week, a raft of good actors appears in Savage Salvation, an action thriller directed by Randall Emmett in his second outing after his critically lambasted Midnight in the Switchgrass. It’s no surprise that this film is generating no buzz, but it stars Jack Huston as a recovering addict who seeks revenge against the dealer whose drugs killed his fiancée. John Malkovich and Robert De Niro co-star. I’ve talked about Malkovich previously, but strangely not De Niro. That’s likely because he hasn’t been doing a lot of blockbuster pictures lately. I rectify this now as I look at my five favorite films that star or co-star Robert De Niro.
The Godfather, Part II (1974)
After the smashing success of The Godfather two years earlier, director Francis Ford Coppola reteamed with Mario Puzo to further adapt his novel into a combination prequel/sequel to that success. The Godfather, Part II picks up after the events of the prior film following Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) as he tries to protect the family after an attempt on his life. This storyline is interwoven with a look back at his father Vito Corleone’s move from Sicily to New York City and his rise to power. The younger version of Vito, played in the original film by Marlon Brando, is played here by De Niro.
Delivering a stellar performance in both English and Italian, De Niro anchored the film’s prequel elements and took home an Oscar for his richly-textured performance, probably still one of his best ever. The film is a terrific follow up, remaining one of the few sequels that is equal to its predecessor in terms of quality. It’s hard to assess the film without seeing the original, which is also a great film and both should be required viewing for film enthusiasts of all stripes. Even if you aren’t enamored with the crime genre, there’s no denying this film’s importance within that milieu.
Taxi Driver (1976)
Although he had already made some well respected films, director Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver sent his star INto the stratosphere and may well be one of the first films most burgeoning cineastes see in beginning their love affair with him. The film stars De Niro, hot off his Oscar win, as Travis Bickel, aN ex-Marine Vietnam War vet suffering from PTSD who works the night shift as a taxi driver. After being dumped by a woman (Cybill Shepherd) that he attempted to take to a porn theater, his disgruntled attitude leads him into physical training and weapons training in preparation for shooting the woman’s boss, Senator Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris) while also contemplating saving a child prostitute (Jodie Foster).
De Niro’s performance is jarring, a fierce expression of bravado underlain by self-doubt and delusion. It’s not far removed from his Godafther, Part II performance, both of which established his common persona of the violent tough guy. Longtime child actor Foster is terrific in her breakthrough, Oscar-nominated performance as the wise-beyond-her-years prostitute. Shepherd makes a lasting impression in her brief supporting role. Scorsese’s film is one of his best, cementing his status as a directorial icon. Although some give him too much credit for some of his later works and not enough for his non-crime efforts, Taxi Driver remains a central film to his reputation and it’s worth watching in spite of its harrowing subject matter.
No original review available.
Brazil (1985)
Having cut his teeth on the short-lived British sketch series Monty Python’s Flying Circus, director Terry Gilliam took that absurdist influence and turned it into a prominent film career. Although Brazil was only his fourth film as a director, it ultimately became his only truly great film. Sure, The Fisher King, 12 Monkeys, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas are well reviewed films, but Brazil stands head-and-shoulders above those pictures.
Set in an excessively bureaucratic future, Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is a low-level government employee who stumbles into a case of mistaken identities where the wrongful death of a cobbler leads him on a downward spiral of anti-government activity that ultimately leads to his capture. De Niro takes the role of a known terrorist leader who was the intended target rather than the cobbler. He matches the insane lunacy of the film quite well, but it’s Pryce and Katharine Helmond as Sam’s mother Ida who really make the movie a delight. It’s visually daring and fascinatingly complex in its examination of out-of-control bureaucracy, a warning to the public against such a potential future. In spite of its craziness, the film is contextually brilliant.
No original review available.
GoodFellas (1990)
As with Taxi Driver, one of the great films on Scorsese’s filmography is this crime epic that follows a group of Mafioso on their rise to wealth and flame and then their successive falls from grace. Ray Liotta plays Henry Hill, a young man who gets involved with the mafia, drawn to it by their glamorous life; De Niro plays James Conway, a truck hijacker, who takes Henry under his wing; Joe Pesci won an Oscar as a fellow delinquent who joins Jimmy’s crew; Lorraine Bracco stars as Henry’s wife; and Paul Sorvino appears as the capo of their Mafia cell.
While Scorsese’s ’70s contemporary Coppola established much of what the modern gangster film would look like, Scorsese’s 1990 Best Picture nominee would further refine and solidify those styles and become one of the greatest crime films in history. The entire cast is brilliant and although Pesci and Bracco were the only acting nominees from the film, they would have easily won the SAG ensemble cast award had the organization given awards at the time. Scorsese was nominated for directing and the film pulled out six total nominations, but went home empty-handed in the Best Picture race against the epic western revival Dances with Wolves. GoodFellas is easily the better film and should have won Scorsese the Oscar there and then, but Pesci was the only recipient among the cast and remains one of the greatest winners in the Best Supporting Actor category in Oscar history.
No original review available.
Jackie Brown (1997)
Although much of De Niro’s career has been on the dramatic side of the film ledger, he was no stranger to comedy when he took on a role in Quentin Tarantino’s third film, Jackie Brown. With the one-two punch of this and 1997’s Wag the Dog, De Niro took on more comedy films, including the wildly successful Analyze This and its sequel. In Jackie Brown, De Niro is part of a terrific ensemble that includes Pam Grier in the leading role as a money-smuggling flight attendant popped with a bag of cocaine who must work with her criminal cohort (Samuel L. Jackson) against the ATF agent (Michael Keaton)and LAPD detective (Michael Bowen) to protect him and keep her from being Jackson’s latest victim.
De Niro plays an criminal associate of Jackson’s whose girlfriend (Bridget Fonda) encourages her to betray Jackson. Robert Forster co-stars as the bail bondsman who gets Jackie out of jail and eventually becomes her associate. While some might consider this minor Tarantino, I think it’s one of his top tier films. He’s only made one bad movie that I’ve seen, Grindhouse. Jackie Brown not only features a terrific ensemble, it captures the essence of Blaxploitation pictures of the 1970s and gives Grier, an actor who starred in those types of films, a chance to prove her acting prowess and she did. Although Forster was the only one nominated at the Oscars, Grief should have been a Best Actress nominee and it remains one of the Academy’s biggest injustices. As to De Niro? He’s hilarious and if all you’re familiar with from him previously were intense dramas, it’s a welcome relief. Also worth noting is that Fonda was terrific and it’s a shame that she gave up acting not terribly long after this, ending one of the greatest acting dynasties in cinema history.
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