Great Onscreen Performances
Robert Duvall
...There's this moment in Tender Mercies Duvall plays an understated has-been county singer trying to give up alchohol, looking for a new start of life. One day, his daughter (The beautiful Ellen Barkin) turns up at his door step. He had seen her last when she was a child, and now she is 20-something. they talk standing, awkwardly, yearningly. they have so much to catch up with but she stays only for a few minutes promising to come back soon. just before she leaves, she turns (with that sweet, crooked smile of hers) and asks him if he remembers a song he used to sing to her when she was a kid. duvall looks away and is silent for what seems an awfully long time. and then says no, he doesnt remember. she leaves. he stands looking out of the window with his back to us, watching her drive away. and then very softly, brokenly, sings the words she couldnt recall...
The strength of duvall's acting is not in what he does...but what he doesnt...in his holding back...
Sean Penn
He is one of the most notorious for refusing to act than to act, Penn has been saying 'this is my last film' and doing one more...Penn dazzles with a chameleon like transformations and they are done without drawing too much attention to himself in a way that may be Marlon Brando, or DeNiro, or Pacino or Hackman and especially Hoffman never learnt to do...His best may be the disturbed death row convict in 'Dead Man Walking'...and the next moment he will leave u amazed with playing an entirely different like the sly jewish lawyer in Carlito's Way... He is surely up there with the best.
Robert Duvall
...There's this moment in Tender Mercies Duvall plays an understated has-been county singer trying to give up alchohol, looking for a new start of life. One day, his daughter (The beautiful Ellen Barkin) turns up at his door step. He had seen her last when she was a child, and now she is 20-something. they talk standing, awkwardly, yearningly. they have so much to catch up with but she stays only for a few minutes promising to come back soon. just before she leaves, she turns (with that sweet, crooked smile of hers) and asks him if he remembers a song he used to sing to her when she was a kid. duvall looks away and is silent for what seems an awfully long time. and then says no, he doesnt remember. she leaves. he stands looking out of the window with his back to us, watching her drive away. and then very softly, brokenly, sings the words she couldnt recall...
The strength of duvall's acting is not in what he does...but what he doesnt...in his holding back...
Sean Penn
He is one of the most notorious for refusing to act than to act, Penn has been saying 'this is my last film' and doing one more...Penn dazzles with a chameleon like transformations and they are done without drawing too much attention to himself in a way that may be Marlon Brando, or DeNiro, or Pacino or Hackman and especially Hoffman never learnt to do...His best may be the disturbed death row convict in 'Dead Man Walking'...and the next moment he will leave u amazed with playing an entirely different like the sly jewish lawyer in Carlito's Way... He is surely up there with the best.
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