Few actors landed on the American film scene with the same force of impact as Edward Norton. As a young man, he evoked the same blend of hardness and sensitivity previously associated with great thespians of decades past (Robert Deniro and Dustin Hoffman both come to mind). In films like “American History X” and “Fight Club,” it seemed like Norton was daring to redefine screen acting as we knew it – and it didn’t hurt that he was willing to work with risky, button-pushing directors like David Fincher and Spike Lee, both of whom coaxed him towards giving two of his finest performances to date.
Twenty-three years after his screen debut in “Primal Fear,” and Norton has worked in more registers than some actors do over the course of their entire careers. He’s done great work in risky arthouse projects, big-budget blockbusters, superhero movies (lest we forget, he was originally tapped to play the Hulk for Marvel Studios), and auteur-helmed passion projects. He’s played neo-Nazis, white-collar drones, Nelson Rockefeller, a perpetually anxious Jewish bagel named Sammy Bagel Jr. (in the raunchy foodstuff-centered comedy “Sausage Party”), and even a nightmare composite of all the “difficult” rumors that have circulated around him since his initial ascent into Hollywood (see: Alejandro Iñárritu’s “Birdman”). While some of his performances are more memorable than others, Norton truly brings all of himself to these roles – after all these years, he’s still one of the best actors we’ve got.
In addition to his remarkable acting resume, Norton is also a writer and director, and his latest venture – “Motherless Brooklyn,” a panoramic noir about obsession, gentrification, urban redevelopment, and de facto father figures – is arguably his most ambitious project to date. Before you check out that film, please enjoy this look back at some of Norton’s bravest, craziest, and most unforgettable performances.
“Primal Fear”
With every great actor, there’s that one movie that introduces them to the world at large. Robert De Niro has “Mean Streets.” Daniel Day-Lewis has “My Left Foot.” Philip Seymour Hoffman has “Twister,” “Boogie Nights,” “The Big Lebowski,” “Magnolia” (okay, maybe that guy has more than just one), and probably more that we aren’t thinking of. For Edward Norton, that movie is undoubtedly the 1996 legal thriller “Primal Fear,” directed by Gregory Hoblit (“Frequency,” “Hart’s War”). “Primal Fear” boasts a star-studded cast, including Richard Gere in an imperious register as a morally conflicted defense attorney, as well as Laura Linney, Alfre Woodard, Frances McDormand, and Steven Bauer. And yet it’s Norton who all but commands the screen as a Kentucky-born altar boy accused of murdering the archbishop who allegedly subjected him to horrendous bouts of sexual assault. This is a role that plays to Norton’s many talents: his penchant for playing outsiders, his gift for slow-simmering intensity, and his ability to blur the line between little-boy innocence and adult dispossession. The lightning-quick temperamental switch that Norton performs late in the film while being grilled by Linney’s no-nonsense lawyer is one of the scariest displays of repressed rage that the actor has ever given us (rarely has the threat of wanting to “play rough” sounded so personal). Norton’s final scene with Gere, in which (**spoiler alert**) his character reveals the full depth of his psychopathic nature, is more than just a skillfully mounted “gotcha” twist. It is the unofficial announcement of a remarkable acting talent. – Nicholas Laskin
“The People Vs. Larry Flynt”
The late, great Miloš Forman has made many great films about iconoclasts and social pariahs: who can forget Jack Nicholson’s immortal rebel R.P. McMurphy in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?” Or“Amadeus,” the director’s towering Mozart biopic? Or “Man on the Moon,” in which Jim Carrey immersed himself so deeply into the role of troubled funnyman Andy Kaufman that he nearly drove the cast and crew of the film to the brink of madness? One Forman film that doesn’t always get the love it deserves is “The People Vs. Larry Flynt,” in which Woody Harrelson imbues the part of the contentious “Hustler” publisher with his trademark rascally charm. It’s an accomplished portrait of a rather infamous individual, one that is given a big boost by Norton’s studied and confident turn as Flynt’s canny lawyer, Alan Isaacman. Harrelson’s performance as Flynt is appropriately larger-than-life, so it makes sense that Norton plays Isaacman in a more modest register, so as to offset the bawdy energy of his co-star. Norton holds his own in the movie’s courtroom scenes with great poise – which is fascinating, considering the young actor was on the opposite side of the judicial equation earlier that year as the deceptively guileless murder suspect in “Primal Fear.” The paradox of such a clean-cut legal professional defending a sleazebag like Larry Flynt is not lost on either Norton or his director, and the joint efforts of these two lauded artists result in a fine film, and also in one of Norton’s more understated and overlooked roles. -NL
“Rounders”
In the late ’90s, director John Dahl was mostly known for lurid crime dramas and hyper-charged erotic thrillers. When he got the opportunity to work with two of the hottest actors in Hollywood, it felt like he was ready to break through to the mainstream with the aid of Miramax at the height of its Hollywood reign. Unfortunately, “Rounders” was met with a somewhat tepid response after its Venice Film Festival premiere, despite being fueled by the considerable star power of Norton and co-star Matt Damon. Today, “Rounders” has amassed a healthy cult following among poker enthusiasts and film fans alike, largely thanks to tight direction by Dahl and a crisp, witty screenplay from first-time screenwriters David Levien and Brian Koppelman. The film was released in the shadow of Norton’s much flashier performance in “American History X,” but this still ranks with the actor’s best work. As the fast-talking friend of reformed gambler Mike McDermott (Damon), Norton’s appropriately named Worm is a character that could have easily been a.) obnoxious or b.) a “New Yawk” caricature. However, Norton is far too instinctive of a performer to have let that happen. Norton portrays Worm as a lifelong loser who can’t stay out of trouble, but he never plays it too cool – affording us glimpses of a man who is truly in over his head but still doing everything in his power to maintain control over his calamitous life. – Max Roux
“American History X”
It’s curious to consider whether or not a ruthless cinematic provocation like Tony Kaye’s “American History X” would cut the proverbial mustard in today’s cinematic climate, particularly since the film’s plot concerns the mental rehabilitation of a thoroughly inhuman white supremacist. The jarringly brutal opening scene sets the tone: Derek Vinyard (Norton) straddles his neo-Nazi girlfriend (Fairuza Balk) in bed before his little brother Danny (an astounding Edward Furlong) tells him there’s an African-American man outside trying to steal his truck. Derek proceeds to confront the man with a gun before committing a heinous hate crime, for which he is rightfully sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence. Kaye’s film proceeds to cut back and forth in time, observing Derek as both the feared king of the Venice Beach skinhead scene, and also as the more adjusted, far less hateful man he eventually becomes after returning home from his time behind bars. This is undoubtedly Norton’s most frightening turn to date: it’s difficult to watch the scene where Derek lays into his mother’s well-meaning Jewish boyfriend (Elliott Gould) without doing so through the cracks in your fingers. “American History X” is full of horrible, ugly stuff, but it does touch on an unsettling kernel of truth: that many white supremacists are pitiful, woefully insecure, and so desperate to belong that they’re basically waiting for an alluring devil-like Derek Vinyard to grant their sad lives a modicum of purpose. While Norton and Kaye allegedly didn’t see eye to eye on the final cut, “American History X” remains a grim and powerful 90’s drama, and one of Edward Norton’s all-time great performances. – NL
“Fight Club”
Twenty years after its financially disastrous release, David Fincher’s zeitgeist-defining adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s breakout novel is still inciting debate over its depiction of angry white men “living in a society.” It’s a film that has spawned countless think pieces and developed a lifelong fan base among cinephiles, Fincher devotees, and an unfortunate faction of fanboys who misinterpreted the film’s satirical take on late 90’s consumerism. Regardless of which side of the debate you stand on, it’s hard to ignore the two performances at the center of it all. While Brad Pitt infuses his performance as the enigmatic Tyler Durden with an electrifying balance of cool and malice, it’s ultimately Norton who’s tasked with the trickier performance. As an everyman lost in a web of depression and self-loathing, Norton is asked to play a man who’s believable as a nobody whose mental instability has manifested an alter-ego so captivating that they could spawn an entire anarchist movement. Ordinary and pleasant enough on the surface, Norton’s nameless narrator perfectly encapsulates the plight of an utterly average white American male watching his unremarkable life pass him by (for all the praise we tend to shower him with, Fincher doesn’t always get enough credit for his work with actors). In “Fight Club,” Norton acts as a kind of mirror for our own collectively banal existence. It’s a performance that could otherwise go overlooked in such a propulsively entertaining and thought-provoking film, but it offers further proof, in case any was needed, that Norton is one of the most dynamic leading men we have. – MR
“25th Hour”
“25th Hour” is one of Spike Lee’s finest achievements: a mournful spiritual lament set against the backdrop of post-9/11 New York that also happens to be a bracing character study about a man who must reckon with a lifetime’s worth of terrible decisions over the course of one pivotal day. As principled heroin dealer Montgomery “Monty” Brogan, Norton is a powerhouse of snake-like charm and buried regrets: his work here is a marriage of the actor’s showier tendencies with his propensity for subtle, sensitive character work. The result is nothing short of astonishing. Monty is far from the most affable character Norton has ever played, although he does save a wounded dog in the movie’s opening scene (it’s not quite “saving the cat,” but it’s close). That said, Norton is such a gifted and intuitive performer, we find ourselves rooting for Monty throughout the movie – this, despite the fact that the character’s ignominious fate is essentially sealed from the end of “25th Hour’s” first act. It’s honestly a shock just how well Norton fits into the director’s instantly identifiable vision of New York after the collapse: his blistering “fuck you” monologue, which takes aim at every ethnic demographic in the Empire State, is a memorably assaultive bookend to a similar harangue in “Do The Right Thing.” Norton also carries “25th Hour” through its protracted and gorgeously elegiac home stretch, in which Monty makes amends with the sins of his past so that he may arrive at a place of acceptance in regards to what exactly the future has in store for him. – NL