5. Robert De Niro in Cape Fear (1991)
Over the years, Martin Scorsese has extracted great performances from Robert De Niro in a number of different levels. None is quite the same as the one Marty directed in 1991’s Cape Fear, a terrifying thriller about a convicted rapist stalking the family of his former lawyer after he gets out of prison. As Max Cady, De Niro conjures up an impressive amount of mannerisms, physical strength and psychological turmoil.
He’s the tormented, ugly heart at the center of one of the most horrifyingly tense non-supernatural thrillers of all time, and his performance is one that explodes in brutality, abhorrence, and yet, baffling humanity. De Niro ably uses that humanity to show us that this is not the face of a monster, but the eye-adverting face of a human being gone awry.
4. Gary Oldman in The Professional (1994)
Who’s your favorite in the long lineage of Gary Oldman’s larger-than-life villains? Is it his baroque Dracula in the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola version? Or maybe you’re partial to the lunacy of Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, from The Fifth Element? Perhaps you’re a sucker for Air Force One and love his Ivan Korshunov? My personal pick is the assassin Stansfield, from the Luc Besson classic The Professional.
I like him better because he’s somewhat a believable nasty guy with a irritating habit of killing people while scored by classical music, and Oldman blows him out of proportion while still maintaining the appearances of a “perfectly adjusted” individual who might be just the product of his world. He’s a sneering, shouting, sweating son of a gun, but he sure as hell could exist.
3. Al Pacino in Scarface (1983)
I had to literally restrain myself from beginning this paragraph with “say hello to my little friend” (I compromised, though) – that’s how iconic Al Pacino’s performance as drug kingpin Tony Montana is in Brian De Palma’s Scarface, a whole film that serves as a testament that, sometimes, more is more. That goes for Pacino’s performance too – the king of overacting doesn’t lose his footing here, grounding Montana in reality while also making him a force of nature.
Flashy is the word here, because Pacino wants (and gets) to standout even in front of luxurious sets, a sumptuous narrative, and some neat directing tricks from old De Palma. We’re never not looking at him, all masculine prowess and vulnerability, all impulse and explosiveness. Even when he takes out a machine gun and shoots everyone, all we remember is what he said before that. It’s a masterclass in overacting.
2. Jack Nicholson in The Shining (1980)
One of the great classics of horror filmmaking, The Shining could not work were it not for Jack Nicholson’s completely mental performance as Jack Torrance. As divisive as the film sometimes is because of Stanley Kubrick’s very particular interpretation of Stephen King’s novel, Nicholson’s acting in it is absolutely undeniable. As he slowly delves into complete lunacy and paranoia, we watch stupefied by what the actor is able to do.
Nicholson brings a true sense of method to Torrance’s madness, and to the overall exacerbated emotions of his performance. It’s a rambling, terrifying mess, and that’s exactly what it supposed to be – to think that, as an actor, Nicholson was able to replicate being completely lost in his own head in front of the camera is extraordinary.
1. Christopher Lee in Dracula (1958)
The top spot, however, could not have gone to anyone else. Christopher Lee was the absolute king of delivering awesome, commanding, over the top performances, even though he rarely did so in good movies.
One notable exception, however, is the original Dracula movie, made in 1958 by Terrence Fisher – with only 13 lines of dialogue (in one later film, the 1966 Dracula: Prince of Darkness, he’d have none), Lee’s able to terrify and make a mark on any spectator’s memory.
He’s deliciously malignant, terrifically alluring, perceivably thirsty for blood, and there’s an element of death and sex that wanders in his eyes. He’s a morbid sex symbol for the ages, a soul-sucking (and not just blood-sucking) villain that defines and embodies the concept of evil in all its seduction and fearsomeness. It’s exactly how an over the top performance should be used – when you want it done right, leave it to the master.
Author Bio: Caio Coletti is a Brazilian-born journalist, a proud poptimist, and has too many opinions to keep them all to himself.