Top 5 Robert DeNiro performances

1. The Deer Hunter. Far and away the best performance of his career, this is where De Niro's patented "intensity" brand actually coupled with a worthwhile character. He perfectly encapsulates the trauma that was endemic in those returning from Vietnam, and it all feels in service of the film, rather than the film having to more or less bend over backwards to accommodate him. Would've made a phenomenal winner.

2. Goodfellas. This is where De Niro became De Niro as we really know him; all of the tics and mannerisms people like to mimic and mock nowadays are in full force here, but this performance is bolstered by pure, unfettered charisma. De Niro comes in and fucking owns every second he's on-screen, and even with even better performances like Liotta and Pesci muscling in on his turf, De Niro knows how to keep you watching him. That stare in the bar is, for me, his finest moment as an actor.

3. Awakenings. 1990 was really a powerhouse year for Bobby D, with this and Goodfellas. Here, he is so goddamned earnest and it works wonders. Leonard is an instantly likable creation, but it's so easy to keep from steering into the realm of the saccharine and overtly maudlin. De Niro's skilled enough to skirt that realm entirely.

4. Angel Heart. Probably not as well-loved or respected by most De Niro fans, but I'm a huge fan. Louis Cyphre is such a creepy, unsettling character, one who instantly arrests your attention. It's even more intriguing when you realize De Niro was playing Scorsese. His silky-smooth style keeps you riveted, and his final scene (bad CGI-eyes aside) haunts me to this day.

5. The Mission. Another underrated, under-discussed performance that uses De Niro's physicality to great effect. The way that he wracks himself in torment over his guilty conscience is something to behold, and even though he has to hold his own against a superior Irons performance, De Niro doesn't back down.

I'd probably round out his top ten with Midnight Run, Mean Streets, Raging Bull, Once Upon a Time in America and Jackie Brown.

what I'm gonna do to all the voters when Daniel Day-Lewis wins:



might as well bump this up to 10....

1. Raging Bull
2. Taxi Driver
3. Mean Streets
4. The King of Comedy
5. The Godfather: Part II
6. The Deer Hunter
7. Heat
8. Goodfellas
9. Midnight Run
10. Jacknife

I'd put The Wizard of Lies in his top 15 or 20... and that's a top 15 or 20 that's stronger than mostly every other actor ever for me...

Newman and Lemmon were 1-2 the last time we did this so I could see that again - the actors have a lot of mitigating factors though, and much of the success in our poll I'm afraid comes down to actors not acting - Hackman and Nicholson retiring, DDL being so selective........eventually you're praising actors for not acting at all but whatever, I think I'm a week early for this rant.

fine actor, but way too overpraised.

1. Taxi Driver
2. The King of Comedy
3. The Deer Hunter
4. Goodfellas
5. Raging Bull

1-2 are great, 3-4 are very good, 5 would be utterly soulless if not for the last 20 minutes but those last 20 minutes are more than enough to get it on this list

most overrated - Cape Fear, Heat, Godfather II
most underrated - Casino

Taxi Driver
Mean Streets
The King of Comedy
The Deer Hunter
TGII

Interesting that most of us are including the same 6-7 perfs. I wanna mention Hi Mom! too which I don't expect to make anybody's list but is De Niro in an early and rare mode - where he's hilarious, loose, and goofy. There's splashes of that perf in Rupert Pupkin, in terms of the characters' lightly insane and performative qualities, even when they're alone, craving for attention/art, etc. Pupkin perf is better of course, more fully formed and detailed. De Niro's character is more sketchy and slapstick in Hi Mom! but there are several scenes where he's quite playful, even relatable, and laugh out loud funny. "I'd like a four minute egg, no sooner, no faster."

Frankly Denzel should be the winner or top 3 at worst (more reflective of his stature in the real world), though we all know he won't be. It was always kind of embarrassing how low he used to place in those polls back on IMDB, and the mental gymnastics people went through to justify not voting for him. The insecurity he brought up in some people was intense. Less intense these days, but you can still see some people are bewildered & bothered by everything I said about his eventual and all-time stature coming true, and then some.



Funny to think he's now got a better Oscar record and general accolades than all but a handful of the likely winners (Only Newman and Nicholson have better Oscar records I think, and that won't last much longer in Newman's case).

Anyway, I reckon DDL will have a good shot at winning.

I still have a lot of the big ones to see for what it's worth:

1. Taxi Driver
2. Silver Linings Playbook
3. Goodfellas
4. Jackie Brown
5. Meet the Parents

I'd say it's not how riled up people get over him, it's rather how riled up people get over other people arguing on his behalf and whether he deserves to be held in that high esteem. Not in our poll that's just silly (but fun) stuff but in general.

The implicit argument about Washington is if you don't overwhelmingly agree with his "success" and call him the GOAT you must be a racist, it's sly and hidden and not said but that's the clear implication. Those threads get heated because they are always in some level a response to the the same old thread - "Denzel's the greatest living actor!" or "Joe Carnahan says he's much better than anyone by far!!" and stuff like that.............but make that same thread about any male actor - DiCaprio for example - and you'd have people get riled up too over whether that's a legit claim.

I am guessing you never have seen any threads on here like that for any other actor but him..........

There was nothing sly or implicit about the racism surrounding Washington on IMDB either. It was very much in the open and I took a lot of pleasure going up against it.