I sit here trying to write a critical piece about Robert De Niro, and I’m beat. I have so much I want to say about him. The influence. Words are futile as to what the work means to me. See? This is why I think these “pop culture/film blogs” are just as meaningless (unless you are Bob Lefsetz). Everyone’s doing it. Mr. De Niro has influenced far greater and far better. Just look at Kander & Ebb. De Niro implored them to go back and write another title song for the eventual critical bomb, “New York, New York”. How appropriate that De Niro would inspire a song that is the embodiment of New York City.
It’s been twenty-one years since De Niro has been nominated for an Academy Award for Cape Fear. I remember seeing it for the first time … twenty one years ago. Some people would think my parents were nuts/unfit for letting their ten-and-a-half-year old son watch a flick about an ex-con, convicted of assault and rape, who stalks the lawyer that put him behind bars for fourteen years (“in an 8×9 cell surrounded by people who were less than human”). Pretty heavy stuff for a kid not even in junior high. But they were young. I hung out with their friends. And was able to keep up with ideas far beyond my reading level. For better or worse, it’s an enormous part of what has shaped me. *
Cape Fear freaked me out. (Cheek biting? Cross-dressing maid with a piano wire?) But, Awakenings blew my world apart. You could pinpoint that performance as the one that first exposed me to what an actor really does. To what it means to build a character. Even if it was playing catatonic. After that, it was all over.
The Scorsese infatuation quickly followed. But, that’s a long story for another time. This De Niro kept popping up everywhere. I had seen everything I could – even hard to find B-titles like Born to Win and Sam’s Song. It was 1995 and Casino opened. Heat would follow three weeks later. It would be wildly debated for years over which film was better solely because of when it came out and its epic length. It would be the last time two De Niro pictures would spark such a trivial film-geek argument (especially amongst pseudo-intellectual teenagers who were far wiser than the average teenager today). It also signified the end of an era for De Niro and that generation of actors.
You weren’t going to see everything he was in anymore. It wasn’t the event that, say, seeing the new Daniel Day-Lewis flick is now. It was the brawl that broke out before a midnight screening of 15 Minutes that proved to be more entertaining than the actual film.
It was over.
He had become way too commercial. And why not? He was the best. He is the best. And if he wanted to make a payday, so what?!?? The art suffered, sure. Some would call it “selling out.” However, I’ve learned to appreciate the fact that it’s work. It’s a job. We work to survive. Most people work and hate what they do. I’m sure this is a period where he was going home every night and saying, “Boy. My job sucks.” We’ve all been there. More money, more problems. On the flipside, what more did he have to prove? Even with the deserved success of Analyze This, the Meet the Parents thing got out of control.
It was only a matter of time before De Niro would be in search of meatier material. I knew it at the beginning of the year with the slight misfire of Being Flynn. That film might not have been earth-shattering; but he was the best thing about it. The same can also be said for his work in Everybody’s Fine, critiques that haven’t been uttered in years, even amongst his biggest cinematic disappointments. (Showtime, Hide and Seek, Freelancers, Red Lights, New Year’s Eve, Killer Elite, Limitless, Righteous Kill, Godsend)
His performance in Silver Linings Playbook is one of the finest performances of the year – and his career. It earned him his seventh Academy Award nomination. And oddly enough, at this particular moment in time, he is not the favorite to win. Then again, no one in the Supporting Actor category really is. (Quite truthfully, Lincoln could upset Argo for Best Picture if they’d just give De Niro the Oscar. The Academy not only failed to honor Affleck’s consummate direction for the best film about Hollywood made since The Player, but there’s absolutely no way in hell that any of the three actors from The Master are going to win. If Day-Lewis can have three Oscars, so can Bobby. This statement, therefore, sums up how I feel about this year’s Academy Awards.)
I’ve crossed paths with Mr. De Niro once. He was exiting an elevator as I was trying to get on. Bundled up, I recognized him by his one imperfection – the beauty mark. Stopping him, I extended my hand and said “Thank you.” He nodded and half smiled, in his shy, yet charming, fashion. Shook my hand and returned the thanks. And we were on our way.
The energy of De Niro has followed me for as far back as I can remember. Rumor has it; my screening room/man cave overlooks a park he built in my neighborhood as a thank you for causing frenzy when he used Astoria to double for the Bronx in A Bronx Tale. Coincidentally, it has been announced that De Niro will make his Broadway Directorial Debut directing a musical based on this material, which also served as his cinematic directorial debut.
The serendipity of “New York, New York.”
My 5 Personal Favorite De Niro Performances. This list excludes any Oscar nominated/awarded performances.
1. Mean Streets & Bang the Drum Slowly – 1973 – This was the year De Niro broke out after bouncing around from early Brian De Palma and Roger Corman B-films. A perfect example of range. He would win the National Society of Film Critics and The New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Supporting Actor for both films respectively.
3. Jacknife – A little seen, perfect companion piece to “The Deer Hunter”
4. Jackie Brown – One of his last great characters.
5. Night and the City – An underrated remake of Jules Dassin’s British Film Noir.
*My parents are only 21 and 23 years older than me. Notable selections from the list “Movies I saw before I was 10”:
“Up in Smoke”,
“The Godfather”
“National Lampoon’s Animal House”
Annual screenings of Eddie Murphy’s “Delirious”
and …
“Follow That Bird”.
