The 10 Best Dramatic Performances From 90s Movies

The 10 Best Dramatic Performances From ’90s Movies

From Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction to Jodie Foster in The Silence of The Lambs, the ’90s were a decade full of harrowing dramatic performances.

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With the rise of independent cinema and the dawn of postmodernism, the ‘90s were a great decade for movies. And with any great decade of movies comes a great decade of on-screen performances by the film industry’s finest actors playing rounded, well-written characters.

Directors like Quentin Tarantino, Sofia Coppola, and David Fincher all got their starts in the ‘90s, providing actors with substantial roles to really sink their teeth into. These unique, fascinating characters were an antidote to the same generic one-dimensional archetypes that were getting offered to actors by the big studios long after they ran out of original ideas.

10 Jack Nicholson As Colonel Nathan R. Jessup In A Few Good Men

In Rob Reiner’s film adaptation of Aaron Sorkin’s play A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson gives a breathtaking turn as Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, who boldly faces a court-martial.

Nicholson’s courtroom scenes, particularly the iconic “You can’t handle the truth!” monologue, shed light on the unfathomable decisions that military brass have to make.

9 Samuel L. Jackson As Jules Winnfield In Pulp Fiction

Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction has a healthy dose of pitch-black comedy, but the director insists that the movie is a drama above all. Samuel L. Jackson’s captivating performance as mob hitman Jules Winnfield proves that. Jackson has plenty of hilarious moments in the movie, like when he tastes Brett’s burger or when he’s cleaning “itty-bitty pieces of skull” out of his car, but it’s mainly a dramatic performance.

Whether he’s breaking up a diner robbery or delivering the classic Ezekiel 25:17 speech or suggesting that “divine intervention” saved him from being shot, Jules is endlessly compelling, and sticks with you long after the credits have rolled.

8 Elisabeth Shue As Sera In Leaving Las Vegas

After losing his job, his family, and his friends as a result of his alcoholism, Nicolas Cage’s Leaving Las Vegas character drives down to Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he drums up a relationship with a prostitute, played by Elisabeth Shue.

While Cage’s Oscar-winning performance is a harrowing warts-and-all portrait of alcohol abuse, Shue steals the show with a raw portrayal of life as a sex worker.

7 Tom Hanks As Captain Miller In Saving Private Ryan

From Philadelphia to Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks gave some terrific performances throughout the ‘90s, but arguably the best is one that doesn’t get talked about a lot is his turn as Captain Miller in Steven Spielberg’s WWII epic Saving Private Ryan.

The movie is most famous for its opening D-Day landings sequence, but Hanks’ portrayal of a school teacher who’s been whisked away to fight in a war whose scale he can’t grasp, trembling with fear, keeps it anchored in a relatable humanity.

6 Robin Williams As Sean Maguire In Good Will Hunting

Robin Williams’ turn as the title character’s psychiatrist Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting is the gold standard for dramatic performances by comedic actors. He shares astounding on-screen chemistry with Matt Damon, relating to his character Will on his level in a way that none of the other intellectuals hounding him to live up to his potential are able to.

The actor brought his signature improvisational skills to the role, but instead of ad-libbing jokes as he would in a comedy, he brought little character moments that made Sean Maguire feel more real and human.

5 Frances McDormand As Marge Gunderson In Fargo

Fargo’s pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson might be the greatest cop character ever created. She’s not a trigger-happy maniac spouting one-liners; she’s an ordinary person in a loving marriage who solves crimes by doing real police work.

The most distinguishing element of Frances McDormand’s performance is her “Minnesota nice” accent, but she nails every other aspect of the character, too, making her insanely likable.

4 Anthony Hopkins As Hannibal Lecter In The Silence Of The Lambs

Anthony Hopkins won the Academy Award for Best Actor with less than 17 minutes of screentime in The Silence of the Lambs. He brought a chilling, unforgettable presence to cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter, as well as a curious intellectualism.

From his first interaction with Clarice to his final “I’m having an old friend for dinner” stinger, Hopkins steals all his scenes as Hannibal and proved that there are no small parts, only small actors.

3 Jodie Foster As Clarice Starling In The Silence Of The Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs has two of the greatest dramatic performances from the ‘90s. Opposite Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Lecter, Jodie Foster carried the whole movie as FBI rookie Clarice Starling. She’s fierce but vulnerable; in other words, she’s human.

As a woman in a male-dominated field, Clarice is the quintessential outsider. Her tragic past has shaped her and the challenging dynamic she develops with Hannibal allows her to become the FBI agent she wants to be.

2 Joe Pesci As Tommy DeVito In Goodfellas

Martin Scorsese allowed the cast of Goodfellas to ad-lib a lot of their dialogue. For example, Joe Pesci improvised the iconic “Funny how?” scene based on a memory he had of a mobster coming into a restaurant where he was working.

Tommy DeVito is a total psychopath with a hair-trigger temper, but Pesci’s performance makes him feel like a real person with understandable motivations and an adorable relationship with his mother.

1 Morgan Freeman As Ellis “Red” Redding In The Shawshank Redemption

Morgan Freeman made himself the most famous narrator in the world with his performance as Red in The Shawshank Redemption. In stark contrast to Andy Dufresne’s culture shock as a new inmate, Red is a veteran prisoner who’s pretty much given up all hope of getting paroled.

Throughout the movie, Red doles out wisdom (“Get busy living or get busy dying.”) and develops a close bond with Andy that’s just heartwarming.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/most-compelling-drama-movie-acting-performances-nineties/

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