is there a better performance in a picture than danial day-lewis in 'the gangs of new york' ?

i cant think of any,.

danial day-lewis in There Will be Blood

Daniel Day-Lewis in The Age of Innocence

Daniel Day-Lewis in The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Daniel Day-Lewis in My Beautiful Laundrette

Daniel Day-Lewis in your mom.

He makes William Shatner seem subtle.

I would go with the in your mom thing because he must have some talents to land Rebecca Miller and I have yet to see em on screen

Happy holidays RUS !!!

“I would go with the in your mom thing because he must have some talents to land Rebecca Miller and I have yet to see em on screen”

Hi ooooooooooooooooooooh!

@Mood

I’d be interested in hearing the things that make this performance so great for you.

I’m not a big fan of DDL. Of the performances I’ve seen of him, I guess I like the one in Last of the Mohicans best.

As for better performances, I’d propose some others:

Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies
Isbaelle Huppert in Story of Women
Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves
Gena Rowlands in Woman Under the Influence

A tip for dealing with the MUBI community; unless it is not on R1 DVD, do not declare that anything is “the best”.

Beatrice Dalle in Betty Blue
Gena Rowlands in Opening Night

unless it is not on R1 DVD, do not declare

triple negative ??

I agree completely with RUS. I also love him in A Room with a View…the only human in that film.

And Left Foot while we’re at it but….why are these type of threads so absolutist?

“I also love him in A Room with a View…the only human in that film.”

The only fake performance in that film. I haven’t seen a worse Daniel Day-Lewis performance beyond that, unless of course one counts the short “cameo” in Gandhi.

Gangs of New York is a perfectly fine movie, it’s just not great… I will not understand why people on this site constantly bash it, neither will I understand the fan boys. The movie should simple be forgotten like the many, many others in its category.

Yes.

DANIAL DAY-LEWIS has pretty much a flawless resume and I’m glad the love fest for GONY continues with threads like this. I much as I love him in There Will Be Blood… there were times where I felt like he was echoing Bill The Butcher a bit too much. Bill’s intro in GONY is one of the best.

I wanted Cruise to win the Oscar over Left Foot

Mifune in Red Beard

Peter Sellers in Doctor Strangelove.

I could probably list hundreds of better performances, including better acting by Day-Lewis himself (i.e., MY LEFT FOOT).

The reason I say this is that I have an aversion to over-acting on screen and that’s what Day-Lewis does (shamelessly) in GANGS OF NEW YORK, at least in my opinion. His facial expressions, gestures, posture, and even his mustache are all exaggerated, almost as if he were acting on the stage.

Unfortunately, too often these sorts of theatrical turns are often mistaken for great FILM acting, which should generally be more restrained than stage performances. See my edited volume, More than a Method: Trends and Traditions in Contemporary Film Performance (Wayne State University Press, 2004).

Besides, many people confuse the ROLE (as written by a screenwriter) and the ACTING, which I think happened in both GANGS and THERE WILL BE BLOOD (which was also rather hammy). If that’s the case, then I would agree that both these parts are great, bold CHARACTERS, who might have been even more effectively portrayed by another actor or by a toned-down Day-Lewis.

Finally, his first name is spelled D-A-N-I-E-L, as it usually is for most of the Daniels of the world. It’s odd that his best fans on this thread seem to get it wrong. :-)

^ I agree with everything you just said, but without that performance there’s no reason to watch the film—it’s miscast and tone-deaf and DDL’s admittedly overdone Butcher is entertaining, at least. Cameron Diaz? shudder

they are both pretty cartoony performances imo. He reminded me of Snidely Whiplash in There Will Be Blood.

entertaining though

James Stewart in Vertigo

This has to be joke….no?

DDL was better in MY LEFT FOOT & THERE WILL BE BLOOD….though he was the best thing in GANGS OF NY.

In 2003, I think Jack Nicholson was better in ABOUT SCHMIDT and Nicholas Cage, Chris Cooper & Meryl Streep were better in ADAPTATION than DDL was in GANGS OF NY

Of course, this is just opinion…doesn’t really matter.

You can’t be serious. It is one of his worst performances and he made like 25 films. I think in many of his films the struggle to create a real character is visible which is not good for the film. I think he is great in My Left Foot oor There Will Be Blood.