The first in a series of polemics inspired by Controversial Pub-Arguments
Lauded Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington is exactly the same in every film. It doesn’t matter whether he’s a good guy, a bad guy, a good guy pretending to be a bad guy, or a bad guy pretending to be a good guy. He’s always the same. He should take on some more challenging roles. I want to see him play a computer nerd, or an idiot, or a frenchman, or a woman, or a white man - only then can he realistically be considered a good actor.
I just don’t get it. Maybe I have missed some of his key performances. Here are the ones I can recall (voice-overs don’t count):
- Crimson Tide - Stern, determined black guy
- Training day - Dodgy, stern, determined black guy
- He Got Game - Stern, determined black guy
- Remember The Titans - Stern, determined black guy
- American Gangster - Dodgy, stern, determined black guy
- The Manchurian Candidate - Stern, determined black guy
- Malcolm X - Stern, determined black guy
Pattern? Now don’t get me wrong, he does it well, but in my eyes, it’s all he can do. He’s a one trick pony. Nobody agrees with me on this, but nobody has come up with a credible counter-argument either.
Also, is that the opposite of situational irony in the picture up there? I think it is.
Posted in Film, Hole Picking, Polemics |
You forgot The Pelican Brief… boring, determined black guy…
Aha, I’ve not seen it. Is he stern or dodgy in it though? Or is ‘boring’ a genuine third variation he can play. Maybe I’m underestimating him…
Boring/stern. Definitely not dodgy. Julia Roberts loosens him up a bit eventually though (and I swear I don’t mean that in a filthy way).
Is this not the same with many big actors for example tom cruise –> same in every film, even the plot is similar in most of his movies
J - I’m glad you’re not lowering the tone of this high-brow blog.
IL - I don’t agree. Sure, there are a number of Cruise films where he plays a successful guy who goes through a crisis of confidence, starts to lose it, then meets a hot girl, gets his confidence back and ultimately succeeds (Days of Thunder, Far and Away, Jerry McGuire, Rainman, Top Gun, Cocktail), but, somehow he doesn’t annoy me. I find him very watchable. He can also vary it a bit - even in the films I’ve mentioned already he’s played a race driver, an Irish man (D’ya loike me hat Shannon?”), a loser agent, an impatient young business man, a homoerotic pilot and a waiter. That’s without mentioning Collateral, War of the Worlds, Eyes Wide Shut, Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, Interview With A Vampire, The Firm, Born On The 4th of July,The Colour of Money, Magnolia, The Last Samurai and the Mission Impossible films.
He may be a crazy couch-bouncing cult-leader, but that’s another argument altogether. I can happily watch him in films. Denzel just bores me.
You can add Hurricane, John Q, and Man On Fire to that list too!
While his portrayal of Malcolm X was one of those riveting performances for me, I have grown weary of Washington’s style in recent years. It really put me off American Gangster last year, which I was amazed to see so well received by the critics.
Compare Washington to, say, De Niro and there is only one winner! (Hint - he is not a stern, determined black guy!)
as a black guy, i would assume that the “…black guy” role that denzel plays in every starring role is because there are precious few black a-listers in hollywood. it’s basically him, will smith, and forest whitaker [but only sometimes]. and i also think that malcolm x was a career-defining performance for him, and he’s really the only person in hollywood that could have played that role. i don’t see denzel doing something comical, like, say, hitch. it would flop.
you also have to look at this fact: it’s not only the roles he accepts, but possibly the roles he’s given, as well. it would be nice for a screenwriter to give denzel something to stretch out his repertoire, but there’s always been this notion with black folk that hollywood sees most black actors as one-trick ponies [could you imagine chris rock or dave chappelle nailing a “serious” role?].
LO & DM - I’ll admit it was harsh of me to include Malcolm X, but i did say it was based on a drunken debate, so things tend to get shoehorned in to add weight.
Many actors are typecast, and often because they are obviously the best person for that type of role, which is probably the explanation in Denzel’s case, but I would love to see him blow my arguement out of the water by showing up in a Wes Anderson movie. I certainly wouldn’t advocate him starring in a ‘Hitch’ type movie, in fact I wouldn’t advocate a ‘Hitch’ type movie.
