People try and lump Keitel with greats like De Niro, Pacino and Nicholson but he's not even in the same league. He's just ok. He doesn't have the gravitas of the 3 aforementioned actors.
sharePossibly not Pacino....but Keitel shits all over the other two actors you mentioned (Nicholson over-acts and DeNiro under-acts)
Pacino (no stranger to a bit of scenery-chewage himself) is still the happy medium (between all four)
Maybe not as big as those three but I think he's up there.
shareyou forgot to mention tomas milian
None of these guys including Keitel are really "actors" in my opinion. They are always just playing De Niro, Pacino, Nicholson or Keitel. People mistake their magnetic or cool or interesting personalities as acting, but they aren't. With each of these guys, all of their movies could just be a string of sequels featuring the same character in different situations. Most of the most popular actors are like this: Eastwood, Cruise, Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Ford; all of them just play themselves again and again. The actors who really play genuinely different characters in each movie just blend in and go unnoticed.
shareNot insanely. Maybe just slightly. All of those guys who came to fame playing urban tough guys in the '70s and '80s are somewhat overrated.
shareI think Nicholson is the goat as he consistently delivered hit after hit in FIVE different decades. Pacino was consistent until around 1995 that's when his yelling at the end of the movie schtick wore thin. DeNiro also petered out around the mid 90's.
Keitel is similar to Nicholson, maybe not in talent but he's been very good over SIX decades. Bad Lieutenant and Reservoir Dogs in the same year. Then The Piano and Pulp Fiction the next 2 years. Then Smoke and Blue in the Face the next year. It'd be hard to find another star, even Nicholson, who delivered so many powerful performances in just a few short years.
He definitely isn't as high profile movie star, but that doesn't make him a lesser actor.
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