Daniel Day-Lewis: His Greatest Hits

What more can be said about this man that hasn't been said? I think he'd most like to be considered a consumate professional, and in his profession of acting he most certainly was: every performance of his, regardless of the size of the role or the scale of the film, has him putting 100% into it. Taking the Method in Method Acting, at times to the extreme, his actions behind the scenes often verged onto the point of danger, frequently intimidating co-stars and frustrating the production team, yet there's no denying the magnificent results produced by these efforts. He's a man with a thousand faces and voices, but so much more than just an uncanny chameleon/impressionist. In a career so finely dispersed and with such long gaps in between, he's never entirely left the spectrum of film discussion because of the magnitude and impact each performance of his makes. Here are some of his finest moments.

Playing two opposite sides of the social spectrum, through two completely different characters in My Beautiful Laundrette and A Room With a View

No surprise that Day-Lewis garnered so much attention after these two extremely contrasting roles as working-class punk Johnny and upper-class repressed snob Cecil in two completely different British films. My Beautiful Laundrette is a nice, small-scale film much akin to say, East is East in depicting the complexities of dual national identity in London, and Day-Lewis is amazing in depicting such an endearing if flawed character who gradually becomes a better man through his relationship with Gordon Warnecke's Omar. Then in A Room With a View he plays the rich prat with high pretensions to such perfection, exactly as I'd envisaged in the novel. He's hilarious but also surprisingly heartbreaking in a way I don't even think the character was intended to, but he makes such a small side character be a highlight in a film where he'd usually be the straw man villain.

My Left Foot: exceeding limitations beautifully

Simply one of the greatest all-time performances. It actually takes some time when watching the film for the first time to realize what he's doing, and how he's doing it so impeccably well. It's an uncomfortable performance to watch in many ways because that's its intention, to depict the struggles of Christy Brown's condition without sugercoating it, and showing all his flaws as well as merits as an indivdual. Day-Lewis had the production team wheel him around set all day, never dropping character either as he maintained his character's abrasive but endearing disposition all the way through production. It may have caused the behind the scenes to be a nightmare for him and the staff, but what comes out of all the toil is a masterclass. See the two above scenes: one exceptionally uplifting, one extremely uncomfortable and sad, all thanks to DDL, An extremely well-deserved first Oscar win for DDL.

An action hero: The Last of the Mohicans...

Before Jeremy Renner, there was another sharpshooting cinematic Hawkeye, not the Marvel character, but the white adopted son of a Native American tribe in this adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. It's a perfect example of how outside of his heavy dramatic roles, he could just as easily adapt his talents into a simpler sort of character, the straightforward hero. Day-Lewis is for lack of a better word, a badass in this film. He spent months practising the way of life in the wilderness his character partakes in the film, and it really shows. I don't think enough people have seen this film, it deserves to be viewed for DDL's performance, and of course that iconic soundtrack.

And another double-bill of opposite characters in 1993: The Age of Innocence, In the Name of the Father

The man really doesn't take a break, a year after his strenuous work in The Last of the Mohicans he once again gave two diametrically opposed turns in again, two very different, and two very great films. In In the Name of the Father he's incredibly effective as an Irishman wrongly accused of being an IRA bomber. The role throws him into some of the most emotionally explosive and brutal scenes of his career as he's interrogated and forced to fight for his rights, and he very deservedly got an Oscar nomination for it. Then in perhaps Martin Scorsese's most underrated film, The Age of Innocence, he once again plays a repressed man like Cecil Vyse in Newland Archer, a walking emboidment of 1800s New York high society who gradually finds his defences crumbling around the seductive Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer). This is the most understated film Scorsese's ever made, but he also described it as his most violent in terms of its volatile repressed emotions, beautifully encompassed in DDL's performance.

WHOOPSIE DAISY, or Gangs of New York

I haven't seen Day-Lewis' 1996 and 1997 output yet, I've heard it's rather stellar so I'll make sure to do so as soon as possible. DDL went into a bit of a semi-retirement after 1997, to do shoe cobbling (of course he did), and burst back onto the scene courtesy of a re-collaboration with Martin Scorsese. I've always found his performance in Gangs of New York as Bill the Butcher to be interesting in the very conception of the casting, an Irishman playing a vehemently anti-Irish, American supremacist who kills Liam Neeson in his very first scene. This film contains perhaps the most infamous of Day-Lewis' behind-the-scenes Method antics, ranging from refusing to wear an overcoat for the cold wintery scenes because it wouldn't be accurate to the time period, to as per usual staying in character through the whole production, and tapping his eye with a knife at one point for real (don't try it a home, everyone). It's a magnificent performance, and though I do think the right actor won at the 2002 Oscars, this would have been an extremely deserving win for DDL too.

An Oilman's Odyssey: There Will Be Blood

A completely bonkers and entertaining film that takes such a potentially boring subject matter, and inserts Paul Thomas Anderson's magnificent direction, some amazing cinematography by Robert Elswit, and Paul Dano + Daniel Day Lewis engaging in screaming matches which is quite something to behold. Daniel plays Daniel, Daniel Plainview, and before watching the film I thought I'd be seeing something similar to Gangs of New York due to the similarity in facial hair. Far from it, and Plainview ultimately proves to be perhaps an even bigger fiend than Bill the Butcher. This is a performance that never plays it safe, always lets loose, and from the John Huston voice to the contrast between those loud, OTT (rightfully so) moments and quieter dramatic moments, this is a magnificent example of a truly Oscar-deserving performance in all ways.

The definitive Honest Abe in Lincoln

I've discussed this performance in detail before, but just to add onto that, this is an amazing performance as a real historical figure, one of the most difficult to pull off onscreen because there's so little basis to go off on, and yet do something 'wrong' and Abraham Lincoln could just come across as a complete phony. DDL anchors this wonderful biopic marvellously, and gives one of his best performances as an utterly convicted, charismatic and complex individual who's more than just an American hero, but a fully-fleshed biographical figure in this acting maestro's hands. Here's hoping Phantom Thread ends his career on a high note, because this film shows that he's still got it.