Hazel Motes

Two of the most iconic film performances of alltime. Whats your pick?

Boba Fett

Daniel Day Lewis

DeNiro is truly great as LaMotta, but you still easily see DeNiro in the character; Day Lewis is unrecognizable.

PopcornTreeCt

It wasn't even DeNiro's best performance, granted it was Day Lewis' best either... but gonna go with Day Lewis.

Solid Snake

Ddl

kefrank

Instead of voting, I'm just going to chime in and say that calling Daniel Day Lewis' performance in There Will Be Blood one of the most iconic film performances of all time is overstating things just a little.

Solid Snake

heh...I didn't read the OP..just thread question.

Not sure if I'd actually call it iconic either. I'd say Taxi Driver is iconic. Daniel Plainview played by DDL is a better job on so many levels but..it's not iconic..just fucking good. I feel horrible for saying that about that role but it's not really iconic.

JGaitan82

De Niro really embodied the role a lot heavier(no pun intended) in Raging Bull. It is a much harsher film then There Will Be Blood, and I thought that De Niro was unregocnizable in the role and I as I watch the film I forget it is De Niro. All I see is a jealous, crazy monster beating his wife and yelling.

Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood, just reminded me of Bill the Butcher. I mean it was powerful. But I thought De Niro was better.

inri222

Not to take anything away from Daniel Day-Lewis' performance in There Will Be Blood, which was masterful, but I gotta go with DeNiro.
The way he portrayed his character with all these insecurities & flaws just waiting to explode.
The little nuances & facial expressions he used such as in the scene where he is asking his brother if he is having an affair with his wife are brilliant.

CloverClover

Robert DeNiro is better for me. Yeah, Day-Lewis was unrecognizable, however he overacted...his character was acted beyond the point of realism. He didn't feel like a real person.

In Gangs of NY, that heightened performance style was pitch perfect for the surreal world they created. but I don't know what kind of world There will be Blood was, it strived to be real but it was also very exaggerated. There is a tone problem in it.

DeNiro felt like a real person. The role also demanded way more of the actor, because of the emotions and physicality. You feel drained after watching the film, due to his power. In There will be Blood, you feel drained at the end, due to its running length.

Mabuse

I voted DeNiro.

I think DDL was best in Gangs of New York (even though it's a bad film).

And DeNiro best performance is probably Taxi Driver.

Shannon Nutt

Bobby.

But when comparing these two movies, we need to remember that De Niro was blessed with the better DIRECTOR...so perhaps Daniel DID give a better performance, and Marty just put it all together better than Paul Thomas Anderson did.

CloverClover

It seems most of us who chose DeNiro are giving explanations, while the ones who choose Daniel Day-Lewis are remaining silent. I wonder if DDL is being chosen for the reasons similar to people liking Scarface, because of all the crazy lines he shouted during the movie and his outbursts. It is probably a more 'cult classic' performance.

Maybe it would have been better to compare him to DeNiro in Cape Fear, due to the transformation and 'theatrical' over-the-top quality of his acting there. That role makes me think DeNiro could have done Gangs of NY as well.

JumpCutz

Bob

WeylandYutani

De Niro.

PopcornTreeCt

It's definitely Taxi Driver.

Hokeyboy

Deniro. But both performances are masterful.

FRwL

In Raging Bull it's acting like an unlikeable asshole the whole movie and at the end "sorry bout that folks". Taxi Driver he is layered upon layered tapping into a universal problem that no one really thought about to make a movie about.