The movies that made Liam Neeson fall in love with cinema: “I just remember the gut feeling”
Liam Neeson’s career has been one of swings, roundabouts, and the occasional U-turn. A journey of finding a niche in cinema, only to pivot to something unrecognisable. Born to a Northern Irish family in 1952, he built his profile through smaller roles before breaking into the public eye with his Academy Award-nominated performance as Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List—a film that would go on to receive multiple Oscar accolades.
He’s played every role on God’s green earth on either side of his breakout into the mainstream as Oskar Schindler. He played Jesus Christ in 1977’s Pilgrim’s Progress, the Jedi Qui-Gon-Jinn in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and the supervillain Ra’s Al Ghul in 2005’s Batman Begins. Each role is more surprising than the last.
Unsurprisingly, the Irishman played Michael Collins in the 1996 biopic of the same name—winning plenty of awards for it, too. He once even considered a sequel but ultimately decided he was too old. Then again, reinvention has never been an issue for Liam Neeson. He may have felt too old to reprise Michael Collins, but that didn’t stop him from revitalising his career as an action star—well into middle age—with the Taken franchise and a string of other high-octane films that banked on its success.
So, what inspired this strange and storied acting career? During an interview with Collider, he spoke about his favourite movies. The first is 1984’s Once Upon A Time in America, the Sergio Leone crime epic starring Robert De Niro. Were you expecting someone else? But Neeson said of the masterpiece, “My favourite movie? Hmmm, well, there’s two actually. There’s one I was talking about last night with a friend of mine: Once Upon a Time in America.”
Neeson doesn’t say why he likes Once Upon A Time in America so much. Although it has garnered some acclaim upon contemporary reappraisal, it was met with mixed reviews upon its release. The problem was that it was sliced and diced on the editing table before its initial theatrical run, leaving the movie more than slightly incoherent. However, when the director’s cut was released, sadly after Leone’s death, the film finally earned the reception it deserved.
It did come under some scrutiny for gratuitous violence, sexual assault and the characters’ silly nicknames. De Niro’s character is named Noodles, and it’s hard to imagine Liam Neeson assenting to that for a role. Maybe he would. It’s no less stupid than Qui-Gon-Jinn. But it makes sense that Neeson likes the movie; it’s bleak and atmospheric. Every character is beyond any sliver of redemption.
Neeson has one more favourite, which he also neglects to explain in detail. He loves “Ben Hur with Charlton Heston” only elaborating that he remembers the “gut feeling” it gave him, that the chariot race “still holds up” which tracks with Neeson’s tilt toward action spectacle. He found Ben Hur “unbelievably exciting,” and you can imagine that recreating that feeling of exhilaration has been his career goal.
