Who Rules The Role?

Now I did not come up with this, I'm taking it from an article that was featured on IMDB.

It's no a game either, but simply a question. A question that you may ask other board members as well.

It's simple....who do you prefer in an iconic role?

Don't get it?

Here it is in a more simple term, who played the better Bond....James Bond.

Or what about Batman? Willy Wonka Or The Joker (that one will have to wait of course)

So I'll start it off.

Willy Wonka.

Gene Wilder VS Johnny Depp

VS



As weird as Johnny Depp was and as much as I enjoyed his performance, I have to stick with the classic, the charming and the mysterious Wilder Wonka.

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This so screams: "GENERATION!"

I loved Wilder, but my kids all like Johnny, matter-o-fact most were like. : "Who is Gene?"

For me it is not Wilder so much as his supporting cast and directing. Sure he is great in the role, but the thing that made the original better for me was the whole crew. Albertson was almost better than Wilder in that film....almost. Either way I enjoyed the remake, but the original in this case is much better.

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How about films in a series where one character is played by different actors - e.g. Don Corleone is played by Marlon Brando then Robert De Niro?

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I have to go with Gene Wilder, too. Depp was good, but Wilder's Wonka is something from my childhood that, well, I don't know how to explain it, but he's better.

Of course, Wilder and Depp approached the character in completely different ways.

Now as for the Oompa Loompas...I definitely prefer the ones in Burton's movie.

There's a charm in Wilder's performance as Willy Wonka that's missing from Depp's. Plus, there's singing, which fully pushes it out front as the better film in my opinion.

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I think the films stand alone without stepping on each others toes and I love Burton.

I have to go with Wilder though. I like the crazy, about to snap thing he has going on through the whole thing. I prefer the Oompa Loompas in the Wilder one too.

Connery was the best--the real--James Bond. And Charles Laughton and Clark Gable were the definitive Capt. Bligh and Fletcher Christian; However, Lon Chaney did a better Quasamodo than Laughton.

I still haven't gotten around to watching the Depp version...

What about Max Cady in Cape Fear ?

Mitchum VS. DiNiro






I loved Mitchum the first time I saw him as Max... but then DiNiro made the hair on my neck stand up... so I think I'd have to go with him...

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Really? DiNiro looks bad with all of those jailhouse tattoes, but Mitchum in that little goofus snap-brim straw hat just radiates so much hate and malice, especially in the scene where he's describing how he got even with his ex-wife who remarried while he was in prison. In the scene when he confronts Peck's wife on the houseboat, Polly Bergen later said that someone had mistakenly fastened the lock on the door that Mitchum was supposed to push her through but that he slammed her into the door, they both went rihgt through it, injuring her (a cracked rib, I think) in the process. Most of that scene of the attack was improvised by Mitchum, with the cracking of those eggs and smearing them on Bergen's body. Peck at 6' 3" was bigger than Mitchum but Mitchum was so threatening that you could believe him intimidating someone Peck's size. I think Mitchum could have scared DiNiro. The film was so rough that British censors insisted on 161 cuts to keep it from an X rating.

Wilder and the real oompa-loompas pip the post.

Do I have to explain? I don't think I do so that should be explanation enough.

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I have always preferred the Mitchum/Peck version in every way. Not that the remake was bad, but I think the original was much better.
Mitchum seemed more realistic and therefore more menacing to me. DeNiro was way over the top, almost a caricature.

I prefer Sideshow Bob in the Cape Feare episode of "The Simpsons".

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It has to be the Wilder Wonka, as opposed to the wilder Wonka...

If you know what I mean.

Mitchum's Cady is just so wonderfully creepy. Bob can gurn all he likes but it's a Slasher Movie performance at the end of the day and probably exactly what Marty was looking for.

Now: Michael Caine or Sylvester Stallone as Carter?

I shouldn't even have asked, should I?

Humphrey Bogart or Elliot Gould as Philip Marlowe?




Bogie?



Ermmmm ... Gouldie?

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It would be tough for me to say that Gould was better, but what I can say is that this was Gould's finest moments IMO. It sticks out for me more because of this fact. What Bogs did easily Gould had to improv...but what an improv eh? My pick is Gould, is there anyone else that could do that opening scene?

I've gotta agree. Bogart is iconic but The Long Goodbye is one of my all-time favourites so I've got to choose Gould.

The best neighbours in cinema!

I'm prejudiced. I like Bogart in everything, never cared for Gould in any thing he was ever in. But the best performance of Philip Marlowe was by Powers Boothe who was the star of Philip Marlowe, Private Eye on HBO in 1984-1986. Boothe was perfect for handling both the fight scenes and the sharp dialogue of Raymond Chandler's character.

Like the time a tough guy bursts into Marlowe's office and demands, "You Marlowe." Boothe responds, "No, P. Marlowe" "Huh?" says the thug. "The name's Philip," says Boothe. "I don't know any U. Marlowe."

Trust me--it sounded quicker and funnier than it reads.

I'm not sure that's a fair comparision, since Brando sets the character's tone and establishes certain characteristics so that in the "prequel," Di Niro has to play a younger Brando as well as a younger Corleone. The fact that he worked into his own portrayal the characteristics and tone established by Brando mean he was a better actor by doing so, or did it limit his own interpretation of a young Corelone?

Oh, I got it. Jokes like that appeal to me.

I've not seen the HBO thing of which you speak but casting Boothe in the role seems mighty interesting. I've always found him an interesting actor capable of moments of great intensity. Not the greatest actor to walk the face of the earth, but certainly one of the greatest chins...

I didn't see it on HBO but they did run it on cable TV sometime after the HBO showing. Had a lot of the Philip Marlowe stories like the King in Yellow that played like the short stories they were. They often changed the plot a little but did capture the feel of the Philip Marlowe stories.

Gene Wilder. He killed it with that creepy scene inside the tunnel.

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