Djimon Hounsou – “Amistad” (1997)
“Amistad” got a quick reputation among Spielberg’s ‘serious’ films as something of a disappointment, and perhaps rightly so —it’s rather staid, unimaginatively filmed and worthily written. But it is well-performed by the ensemble —a young Matthew McConaughey, an ever-reliable Morgan Freeman, a sturdy Anthony Hopkins, a barely out of his teens Chiwetel Ejiofor— and the standout is Djimon Hounsou in his breakout role. Playing Sengbe Pieh (later Joseph Cinqué), the leader of a slave revolt on the ship Amistad who is subjected to a trial after arriving in the U.S., Hounsou displays the fierce charisma that’s given him a career these past twenty years, sometimes playing against the film’s more problematic elements to grant an interior life beyond being a symbol or a martyr, his fierce intelligence shining through in every scene. Would that the rest of the film is as good as he.
Tom Hanks – “Saving Private Ryan” (1998)
It’s almost remarkable that it took so long for Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks to work together —separately, they’d become perhaps the most American American film director and actor of the second half of the 20th century. Work together they eventually did on “Saving Private Ryan,” and the results proved to be worth the wait. The WW2 picture has its problems, even when it comes to Hanks’ character, a humble schoolteacher turned Ranger captain trying to hold on to his humanity —his explanatory speech feels over-written in a way that much of the movie doesn’t. But Hanks is never anything less than entirely truthful, a reluctant leader of men trying to keep his unlikely troop together even as he’s entirely aware that the mission they’re on will be a pyrrhic victory at best. Hanks and Spielberg have now worked together three further times, but “Saving Private Ryan” easily marks their best collaboration.
Tom Cruise – “Minority Report” (2002)
With Hanks ticked off his list, Spielberg moved on to a couple of movies with the other Tom-forenamed megastar he’d never worked with, via “Minority Report” followed swiftly by “War Of The Worlds.” They’re both good performances, among Tom Cruise’s best, but the actor never quite convinces as an ordinary dad in the latter, while “Minority Report” is one of the best true Movie Star turns in a Spielberg picture. Playing John Anderton, a troubled, grieving pre-crime cop framed for a murder he hasn’t yet committed, Cruise does a remarkably good job at locking away his trademark tics —the cockiness, the charm, the grin— to play a man who’s disappearing himself into oblivion every day in order to survive. There’s an effectively noirish sense to the performance, and even more impressively, a portrait of a fundamentalist forced to question the one constant he’s had in his life.
Leonardo DiCaprio – “Catch Me If You Can” (2002)
Perhaps because he was so keen to shake off the hearthrob image he got from “Titanic,” it’s been rare to see Leonardo DiCaprio having any fun —from “The Man In The Iron Mask” to “The Revenant,” DiCaprio’s more often than not been a tortured soul. A rare exception was “Catch Me If You Can,” his lone movie with Spielberg to date in which the star plays Frank Abagnale Jr., a fresh-faced conman who makes millions while impersonating secret service agents, doctors, and lawyers. He’s a James Bond-aping playboy, and it’s a pleasure to see DiCaprio’s Abagnale relishing his freedom and fun so much, but the star’s always careful to layer that with something else —early on, the sense that this is a little boy out of his depth, and later comes the regret that comes from the lifestyle he chose. Here’s hoping DiCaprio and Spielberg team up again.
Christopher Walken – “Catch Me if You Can” (2002)
Because of his prolific nature and seemingly less-than-picky approach to picking roles, we’re used these days to seeing Christopher Walken as a series ofg interchangeable villains, or in comedic turns that play on the novelty of his Walkenness. But it’s one of the things that make him such canny casting in “Catch Me If You Can,” in which he plays Frank Abagnale Sr, the beloved father of DiCaprio’s protagonist. A hard-working pillar of the community who’s worshipped by his son even after he goes to prison for tax evasion, he’s a man who values hard work, and is at once deeply proud of and a touch disappointed in his son. Walken seems like an odd fit for such an ordinary figure, but his unrepeatable speech patterns and sad eyes elevate the performance to film-stealing levels, proving the film’s emotional backbone and some of the finest acting of his career.
