I hate to steer you to the troublesome navigation waters yet again, but I did a gallery of the "Ten Best" DeNiro performances for MSN Movies, and it's the same deal as the family films gallery only there are fewer films so maybe it'll be a less drawn-out pain in the ass to read.
Of course trying to discuss DeNiro in terms of a ten best is kind of ridiculous, rather like (and sorry to sound like an old boomer here) trying to come up with a "definitive" ten best Beatles/Rolling Stones song list. Can't be done. There are those that will argue that it CAN be done, that there has to be an objective measure by which ten and ten alone will constitute THE ten that are best, but, you know... In any event, I took a tack here that's not quite contrarian but definitely steered away from aleady-established fan favorites and tried to throw a spotlight on his less ostensibly showy work. It's funny, I recently wrote a proposal for a monograph on DeNiro and was asked to use a similar format, e.g., choose ten "representative" performances, and made a list/text that was quite substantively different. When considering the best he's done, and the changes he's gone through, and that his current standing was arrived at by NOT burning out in a way that a lot of his other precursors (as we understand them) did, he gets more interesting.
As a kind of compensation for the anticipated irrigating navigation, I will tell you the origin story of the phrase "It was DeNiro..."
It was the summer of 1987, and an old girlfriend had finagled for me the opportunity to house-sit this gigantic loft apartment right above Woolworth's on 14th Street. It was a weird thing, because the apartment belonged to another ex-boyfriend of hers, whose relationship pre-dated mine, but one thing about dating mores in New York in the '80s is that everyone made a big deal out of acting like they were just cool with EVERYTHING, so there you are. Anyway, this cat fellow was into finance and traveled a lot but had this one cat he totally doted on that needed feeding. So I moved in for a few weeks and basically turned the place into a crash pad where my then-bohemian then-buddies could hang out while under the influence of various psychotropic drugs, mostly ecstasy and super-speedy acid. And it was on one morning around Labor Day weekend when a bunch of us were still up at like seven in the a.m. and watching "Good Morning America" on the really pathetic thirteen-inch color TV that was the apartment owner's only mass-media machine. (He had plenty of money but was on some kind of Asia-inspired quasi-Zen "don't consume shit" kick at the time, I gathered.) Among our number was this droll cat named Kiel who worked at an East Village bar of some noteriety. Rolling Rock was the hipster beer of choice at the time, so night after night he would be subjected to the repeated entreaty "Kiel! A Rock!" so often that he came to believe (not really) that the voices in his head were ordering him to kill someone with a rock. Anyhow. He was quite good with the television talkback, so when Corey Haim and Corey Feldman were on rocking headscarves while flogging The Lost Boys, he had a good dumb-teen-mutter going on saying "So, we just want to look as much like Duran Duran as possible" and so on. Soon enough singer/songwriter Melissa Manchester came on, and she was reliably effusive as she told The Stories Behind The Songs. At one point the interviewer asked her to talk about A Very Special Backstage Visit She Had Recently Received, and she breathlessly related how a few months ago, after wrapping up a show on tour X in city X, and she's just relaxing in the dressing room area after Giving It Her All, and then someone taps her on the shoulder and she turns around and...
And here Kiel interjected, with a really perfect kind of affected-hip This Is So Awesome I'm Gonna Shrug It Off tone, "It was DeNiro." Which I hence always think of whenever someone's relating a celeb encounter anecdote in an unusually fraught way. In any event, in the case of the Manchester anecdote, I think the actual celeb was Stevie Wonder.
Fair enough, though I've always considered it the tragedy to GOODFELLA's comedy. Which, granted, makes it sound like it IS something of a retread, but I mean that broadly, simply in terms of Mafia films by the same filmmaker.
Posted by: bill | July 13, 2012 at 03:06 PM
Since we're quizzing Tom Carson on old columns, I remember one from over a decade ago comparing the careers of Denzel Washington and Taye Diggs, and how Diggs seemed to be having more fun as an actor. How do you feel about Washington's work in the less-Oscar-seeking, Out of Time/Inside Man/Deja Vu era, and do you think he read your piece and took your advice to heart?
Posted by: Bettencourt | July 13, 2012 at 03:17 PM
I love CASINO so much that I'd say it's *better* than GOODFELLAS: sharper about money, a vastly richer female lead, a more propulsive narrative, and a unique use of voiceover (not to mention one of Saul Bass' best credit sequences). The only weak link is DeNiro, who's very good but completely miscast as Abe Rosenthal. So much of the story is about the tension between the chilly Jew who understands the system and the brutal Italian who gets shit done (with both admiring and loathing each others' defining characteristics) that casting the brothers from RAGING BULL kinda deflates it. Put Albert Brooks in the Rosenthal role and you have an undeniable masterpiece.
And hey, Tom, is there any way we can read your Monticello column? I still remember that one fondly, especially the line that confronted with homosexuality, Thomas Jefferson would have found a way to make it more ingenious.
Posted by: That Fuzzy Bastard | July 13, 2012 at 05:02 PM
>@bettencourt: Yes, the "cat" as in "dude" versus the actual feline cat is pretty confusing even by my own eccentric standards. Will correct.
Aww, the play off the double meaning of 'cat' was my favorite part of that sentence...
Posted by: Gordon Cameron | July 13, 2012 at 05:03 PM
"I've always considered (CASINO) the tragedy to GOODFELLAS' comedy"
Yup. Part of it is definitely that. While being similar in material and approach, Casino totally de-glams the glamor of Goodfellas. It's the genuinely rare gangster movie that doesn't make you wish you were a gangster.
But it's also a way to give Frank Vincent, at long last, a chance to get payback on Joe Pesci...
Posted by: Petey | July 13, 2012 at 06:15 PM
"I'll never forgive him for wrecking two generations -- so far -- of (mostly) male movie acting thanks to his influence."
Trying to make sense of this comment, which on the surface is like saying "Hitchcock was a hack!" Maybe it's because few male movie actors have been able to reach the same level of Prime DeNiro and therefore suffer by comparison? In which case DeNiro should be forgiven that others can't pull it off? To throw away Prime DeNiro, one might as well toss Prime Brando in the dustbin.
Posted by: Krillian | July 13, 2012 at 06:54 PM
Um. I can't help being flattered that people remember my old stuff, but it's GK's blog, not mine, so forgive me for feeling a mite sheepish. Anyway, 1) Joel, I did indeed review that godawful Patrick Stewart Moby-Dick in the Voice, but the line you recall still mystifies me. I can only guess -- or hope -- that I was being tongue-in-cheek or deliberately buffoonish. 2) Bettencourt, my take on Denzel these days is that he's awesomely cynical, and given his options, cynical may be the smart way to go. 3) TFB, no, you can't find the Monticello piece (which I was fond of myself) online. The Voice's web archives just suck. And to go back on topic, I like CASINO better than GOODFELLAS, too.
Posted by: Tom Carson | July 13, 2012 at 11:45 PM
Excellent list, though I would have placed Midnight Run closer to the top. But totally agree with the top 3. Good work. As far as Tom's comment about intensity being easy, etc.; I think Midnight Run and King of Comedy prove Mr. DeNiro is/was capable of relaxing but chose what he wanted to do at the time. Tom who?
Posted by: Joe Badalamente | July 14, 2012 at 10:56 AM
Loved the pictures - but I just can't imagine a best of deNiro that does not include Stardust. He rocks as a gay pirate, one of the best characters in a truly fun film. ♥
Posted by: Savannah | July 14, 2012 at 12:03 PM
Stardust belongs at the bottom of De Niro's resume, next to Rocky & Bullwinkle. His performance in that in an embarrassment. He might have been able to get away with such an offensive swishy gay stereotype in a three-minute SNL sketch, but to carry it on for an entire feature film is akin to a hate crime.
Posted by: Josh Z | July 14, 2012 at 02:25 PM
"Tom who?"
Carson.
Posted by: bill | July 14, 2012 at 08:22 PM
Maybe it was embarrassing (I like STARDUST a lot), but he throws himself into it. Compare that to KILLER ELITE, which is easily the paycheckiest of De Niro's last 10 years' worth of ill-advised roles, in a walk.
Posted by: Jaime N. Christley | July 14, 2012 at 10:56 PM
For what it's worth, if I had to choose a three hour film from 1995 starring a great Scorcese actor, I'd choose HEAT or ULYSSES' GAZE. CASINO is certainly a seductive and enjoyable film and if you had to have a sequel to GOODFELLAS, who better to direct it than Martin Scorsese? But in tone, musical score, themes and actors it is ultimately a sequel, and unlike other sequels, it's one that does nothing to advance the themes of the original movie. If GOODFELLAS emphasis on the sadism and cruelty of the criminal world was subtly undercut by the charisma of its actors and Scorsese's own style, CASINO has the same problem, only with a more sympathetic protagonist. Henry Hill was a parasite whose corruption morally compromised the woman who loved him, who glibly ignored the murder of people who thought he was their friend, and who only broke with the Mob because his greed led him to violate their one not utterly unreasonable demand. Ace Rothstein by contrast has a genuine talent, in perhaps the most tolerable of organized crime's activities, and who falls because his wife and best friend are unworthy of his trust. Definitely more sinned against than sinning, his employers try to kill him and he's victimized by corrupt hypocritical Nevada politicians.
Posted by: Partisan | July 15, 2012 at 04:09 AM
Ronin, so often overlooked, is one of my favourite DeNiro performances and his work in it needs to be celebrated more. He's so restrained, so alert, projecting so much cagy situational awareness and skepticism. God, I love everything about that movie.
Posted by: Mark Slutsky | July 15, 2012 at 02:19 PM
Personally, I like "Casino" more and more with time. If "Mean Streets" was about mob wannabes, "GoodFellas" about the earners, "Casino" is about the upper echelon.
More than that, though, it's about Hollywood.
Honestly, substitute LA for Vegas, the movies for gambling, and what Scorsese is saying about how greed and corporate cowardice can ruin a pretty good thing is, I think, very clear.
Plus if De Niro at the end isn't meant to be a dead ringer for Lew Wasserman... (Actually, I asked the director about that once. He just laughed.)
Posted by: Stephen Whitty | July 15, 2012 at 10:20 PM