Brack

I personally liked the "It's not your fault" scene later in the film. I get tears every time I see that part.

james2025a

This just shows how people can have different opinions on what is considered great. First time i have seen this scene (not seen the movie) and i found it to be rather an expected performance and acting gimmicks for a character that has just gone through a difficult experience. I think any half decent actor watching real life footage of survivors in the moments after they are rescued could have done just as good a job, and probably better.

I have a problem with a lot of Hanks acting though as i find he has little range. He always comes across as Tom Hanks and very rarely as the character he is supposed to be. Seems like a nice guy in real life, but i am never rushing to see a Tom Hanks film. Last time i was impressed by one of his movies was Road to Perdition, and it wasn't due in large part to him.

DeanoBKN

That scene gave me goosebumps the first time I saw it. Wow.

I'd add the scene in Taxi Driver where Bickle is talking to The Wizard outside the coffee shop. DeNiro is brilliant.

EddieMoney

Easily in my top 5 of greatest performances I've ever seen, along with "Raging Bull."

Hokeyboy

Really? I found that scene to be the weakest, most cliched bit of scripting imaginable. Williams and Damon did their best with the material but the dialog there was terrible.

All IMO of course. I thought they did better work throughout the rest of the film. That scene, though, almost ruined the movie for me.

Perkinsun Dzees

Tony Leung and Jacky Cheung in Bullet in the Head

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Bullet In The Head (1990) pt. 2 by karimberdi

majorjoe23

I haven't seen the movie before, but watching that clip it's the EMT who helps sell the scene for me. Her performance feels very "real" from my experience in hospitals, which adds weight to what Hanks is doing.

EddieMoney

I like Hanks, but he sure loves to Oscar whore.

devilshalo

IIRC, she's not an actor, but a real field nurse. And if you haven't seen the whole film, it's hard to understand this one little scene. Because he is pretty much just Tom Hanks reading lines throughout the movie. No real emotion as he plays Capt Phillips as one note as he could.

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/bp/real...211216628.html

inri222

dugan

The marine recruiter in Winter's Bone worked really well for the same reason.

Decker

With all the scholck he's churned out the past ten years, it's sometimes easy to forget how great an actor Denzel can be when he actually wants to. I love him in this scene - you totally lose the movie star in the character here. I feel for Rubin, deeply

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Strevlac

Henry Thomas in E.T. Every scene he's in.

Also little Carey Guffey in Close Encounters when he sees the aliens for the first time and the camera never leaves his face. Maybe not "acting" but it was a great moment capturing a genuine reaction.

TGM

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the kid fucking nailed it.

hdnmickey

I remember going to a movie years ago because I heard awesome things about it, and gave it a shot because Superman was in it. I was completely blown away by a black guy I had never hard of and wouldn't have been able to name a few days after the movie. Until he was nominated for best supporting actor and eventually became a well known icon almost everybody can name just by hearing his voice.

Morgan Freeman - Street Smart. Every scene. Superman holds his own pretty well too.

Dvdlovr24

I love the acting in this scene because it was the first time Will asked a question from Sean and wasn't trying to press his buttons. When he asked Sean if he wondered what his life would be like if he had never met his wife and the follow not meaning anything by it. It was very subtle and showed him slowly opening up to Sean unlike how he had been before to Sean or any of the other shrinks. Plus the story about the game is awesome.

hdnmickey

Personally I prefer the scene where he tells Will he will end him if he disrespects his wife again. It's really rare that Williams ever got to show anger in his roles, but he sure was good at it.

Decker

Wow. I've never watched that before. Holy shit he was born for that role.
That scene where he's talking to ET's body? It got me in 82 and I still get choked up. Shame he didn't have a huge movie career after that, but regardless that performance was amazing and the movie wouldn't be nearly as much of a classic without his work.

Same goes for Haley Joel Osmet in The Sixth Sense. That kid was just amazing. Should have won that Oscar. I recently watched it again with my daughter (before somebody spoiled the ending for her, and right after we watched The Usual Suspects together for the same reason). I was blown away by how mature and heartbreakingly sad his performance was.

PatD

The "Stuck in the Middle with You" torture scene in Reservoir Dogs is too intense for me. The acting is just too realistic. Madsen and Baltz play that scene up to the grisly, stomach-churning hilt.

Also: Kirk Baltz never got enough credit as Officer Marvin Nash. His character is brutalized in various forms all the way through the film and his fear and anguish is palpable. It's too bad Baltz didn't really get to shine like that in any other movie (that I'm aware of).

Norm de Plume

A couple off the top of my head:

-Final moments of At Close Range, with Penn bursting into tears in court. Brilliant.

-Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer. I could pick from many amazing moments, but I love when he, having been fired from his job at a very inopportune time, gives the execs at the new ad agency an ultimatum. A virtuoso piece.

MScottM

I thought one of his better roles was in Glory. The wagon wheel scene was amazing. He should have won something for that role.

Decker

He did.

MScottM

You are right. Don't know how I forgot that. Must have been because I was pissed about him winning the Oscar for what I consider to be one of his "lesser" roles in Training Day. Why he had to win playing a POS corrupt cop instead of for a "role model" role, I don't know.

GoldenJCJ

The Oscar win for Training Day was a "make up" award for not awarding him for The Hurricane.

johnnysd

I guess people see things differently. Just saw this scene for the first time last night (and the movie, too) and it just felt, well acted. Reading ahead I guess the nurse was real and she felt it, and to me it just made it more obvious that he was acting. I would have single out her acting because it seemed some natural and believable but not his. Full disclosure: I never really bought in to the movie itself. I just got tired of the Somalians just yelling all the time. Just felt overdone and just annoying rather than tense so maybe since I was not invested in the movie I was not invested in Tom Hanks character either so the acting was more noticeable.