Top 10 Dustin Hoffman Films
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Hoffman's career went downhill fast starting in the mid-80's. I'd be hard-pressed to name a single decent film he's been in since 1990 (I suppose that Wag the Dog was decent, that's about it).
Hoffman is in good company, though. Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro can give him some competition in "once great actors who've been phoning it in since 1990" category.
I disagree about Pacino "phoning it in since 1990". Yes his best performances where in the 70's and a few in the 80's but since 1990 that still leaves:
The Merchant of Venice
You Don't Know Jack
Angels in America
Insomnia
Glengarry Glen Ross
Donnie Brasco
Carlito's Way
The Insider
City Hall
Chinese Coffee
There's more very good performances amongst that bunch than there are in most actors filmographies. Not all great films to be sure, but his acting can't be knocked. He was also in "Heat" which is a good film, even though his performance is weak in that for the most part (his acting in the final scene is great though).
Even De Niro has:
Silver Linings Playbook
Jackie Brown
Heat
Cop Land
Casino
Wag the Dog
He's good in all those and I think in "Heat" he puts in a great performance.
Outside of "Wag the Dog" Hoffman has done nothing of note since "Rain Man". "Luck" was probably the best thing he's done in that period, though that show was just starting to get going when it got cancelled.
With the exception of Glengarry Glen Ross, most of the films on your list for Pacino are good, not great, as are his performances (others, such as Angels in America are claptrap that aren't even good - his performance as Cohn was cartoonish and ridiculous, as were most of the other characters). The bottom line is, if those were the best of Pacino's filmography, he'd barely be a blip on anyone's radar screen, never mind an acting legend.
That's doubly true for the list you give for De Niro.
I was disagreeing with the statement "phoning it in since 1990", I never said all those films were great. It was more about the performances (Angels in America I've not seen but he received a lot of acclaim for it).
I would say those are all very good performances (as I said I've never seen Angels) and that Glengarry Glen Ross, Donnie Brasco, Carlito's Way, Heat and The Insider are very good films.
"The bottom line is, if those were the best of Pacino's filmography, he'd barely be a blip on anyone's radar screen, never mind an acting legend."
The same could be said of any great actor of their generation though. Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, Hackman, Walken and Duvall's best performances are all pre-1990. I don't feel there best work within that same period of time is any worse than those actors. It's just that they've starred in far more junk than the others since the 1990's, the same as Hoffmann.
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The same could be said of any great actor of their generation though. Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, Hackman, Walken and Duvall's best performances are all pre-1990. I don't feel there best work within that same period of time is any worse than those actors. It's just that they've starred in far more junk than the others since the 1990's, the same as Hoffmann.
Unlike Dustin Hoffman (or for that matter DeNiro and Pacino), Nicholson, Caine, and Duvall have given performances in the 90's and 2000's that are as good as anything they did during the 1970's.
Nicholson certainly does a lot of trash, but his performances in The Pledge, About Schmidt, and The Departed were terrific, in some ways more subtle and superior than his signature roles 20-30 years earlier. The same is true for Michael Caine, his performance in Blood and Wine was riveting even if the movie as a whole (including Jack Nicholson's performance) was mostly forgettable and mediocre.
Robert Duvall was magnificent in The Apostle, it's obviously not the high-profile film that The Godfather or Apocalypse Now were, but his performance in it was as good as anything else he's done.
Hackman's last great role was in Unforgiven, seemed like he was semi-retired with bit parts after that, and then fully retired not too long thereafter. share
Nicholson certainly does a lot of trash, but his performances in The Pledge, About Schmidt, and The Departed were terrific, in some ways more subtle and superior than his signature roles 20-30 years earlier.
I'm not as impressed with Nicholson's performance in The Departed as others are, but I agree about the other two being great, though I don't feel there better than his performances in films like Five Easy Pieces, The Last Detail, The King of Marvin Gardens, The Passenger, Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Missouri Breaks. For the most part those 70's performances are fairly quiet, subtle (Cuckoo's Nest excepted) and psychologically complex.
I feel that both Pacino and Nicholson put in more than half of there best performances in very short periods of time. With Nicholson most of his best performances are from 1970 - 1976 and with Pacino from 1971 - 1975.
To be fair I see what you mean to a degree. If you were doing a top 5 list of Pacino, De Niro and Hoffmann's performances nothing post 1990 would make it in their, but I still feel Pacino has put in some very good performances within that time period.
Anyway in answer to the thread title:
Top 10 Dustin Hoffmann films:
Little Big Man
Straight Time
Papillon
All the President's Men
Midnight Cowboy
Lenny
The Graduate
Straw Dogs
Tootsie
Marathon Man
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Little Big Man
Straight Time
Papillon
All the President's Men
Midnight Cowboy
Lenny
The Graduate
Straw Dogs
Tootsie
Marathon Man
Agree with your list (my top 5 from there are Papillon, Midnight Cowboy, Straw Dogs, and Marathon Man), and sadly, these are more or less the ONLY really great performances in Hoffman's career. I might add his turn as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman as an honorable mention, Hoffman did a good job in spite of being terribly miscast (by his own admission).
From the late 80's on, I thought his performance in Rain Man was overrated - it was good but not great, it seems like any decent actor could get the autistic mannerisms down just as well. He was pretty good in Hero, but basically Bernie Laplante was just a resurrected and more fortunate Ratso Rizzo. Wag the Dog was a good movie on account of the story and premise, but none of the performances there were especially noteworthy. share
I'd also add Pacino's performance in 'Any Given Sunday' to the list - I thought he nailed it as the part of the head coach.
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