Robert De Niro’s five most underrated performances
Few actors in the world can claim to have a filmography that’s quite as impressive as the American icon Robert De Niro. Working with some of the most celebrated filmmakers of modern cinema, including Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, David O.Russell, Michael Mann and Terry Gilliam, De Niro has delivered consistent greatness across over half a century working in the industry.
In that time, De Niro has collected two Oscars for performances in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather: Part II and Scorsese’s Raging Bull whilst being nominated on six other occasions. Indeed, for every movie De Niro is known for, there are about ten others for which the actor has never received the praise he deserved, putting up such a high standard of performance that anything that doesn’t touch perfection is overlooked.
As a result, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to create a list of De Niro’s five most underrated performances of all time, with our picks going back to the 1980s when the actor was a thriving Hollywood star. Whilst we don’t think too much of his 21st-century performances, there are a solid number of releases at the tail-end of the 1980s and 1990s that go criminally unnoticed by fans.
Take a look at our list of the actor’s five most underrated performances below.
Robert De Niro’s five most underrated performances
Angel Heart (Alan Parker, 1987)
Robert De Niro isn’t someone you’d associate with the horror genre, but in 1987 he lent his hand to Alan Parker’s Angel Heart with excellent effect. The actor played Louis Cyphre, a mysterious man who hires a private investigator named Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) to track down a singer, but all is not what it seems, and as the investigation goes on, the true darkness behind the case is revealed.
The best scene of the whole film sees De Niro’s character roll and peel an egg during a conversation with Angel. It’s eerie, unsettling, and perfectly sets the mood of not only the scene but the movie as a whole.
Awakenings (Penny Marshall, 1990)
Penny Marshall’s Awakenings is the sort of movie that may have passed you by your entire life without realising it existed at all. Starring De Niro as Leonard Lowe, a catatonic patient in a hospital, the film tells the true story of a young doctor named Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) who helps rehabilitate people using a miraculous new drug. Though he might say very little at all, De Niro is extraordinary in the role.
Totally dedicating himself to the role, De Niro does an excellent job of carrying out the transformation of the lead character, doing as much as he can with the small nuances he delivers on screen.
This Boy’s Life (Michael Caton-Jones, 1993)
By the 1990s, Robert De Niro had already done everything any self-respecting actor would have wanted to do in the industry, but during the making of This Boy’s Life he had a chance to work with another future star, a young Leonardo DiCaprio. The 1993 movie, based on the memoirs of writer Professor Tobias Wolff, tells a coming-of-age story of a rebellious teenager and his abusive stepfather.
Playing Dwight, the stepfather at the centre of the story, De Niro delivers a nuanced performance that brings out the pain inherent within the tormented character who suffers from low self-esteem and who takes his anger out on those around him.
Ronin (John Frankenheimer, 1998)
Forget underrated performances; John Frankenheimer’s Ronin may be one of the actor’s most underrated movies from his entire filmography. The story follows a freelancing former US Intelligence Agent who is attempting to find an item wanted by several secret services. Starring alongside the likes of Natascha McElhone, Jean Reno, Sean Bean and Stellan Skarsgård, Ronin is well worth the watch.
Such is why the John Frankenheimer movie is one of De Niro’s most underrated performances, with the actor starring as a straight-talking hero who brilliantly delivers J.D. Zeik and David Mamet’s sharp dialogue.
Wag the Dog (Barry Levinson, 1997)
De Niro is known for his many iconic acting collaborations, working with Al Pacino in The Godfather Part II, Samuel L. Jackson in Jackie Brown and Christopher Walken in The Deer Hunter. Still, there isn’t enough love for De Niro’s collaboration with Dustin Hoffman in the political satire Wag the Dog, where the duo appear as partners tasked with staging a fake war on film.
An intelligent and often hilarious film, Wag the Dog is a timely satire that features De Niro pulling off an uncharacteristically comedic role with gusto, shining beside his co-star and the likes of Woody Harrelson, Willie Nelson and Anne Heche.
