The two best movies ever made with terrible performances, according to Robert Duvall
For a movie to be deemed great, it has to be firing on all cylinders: the cinematography must be sharp and focused, the plot must thrust forward with hearty momentum, and the acting must be inspired, realistic, and emotive, but for Robert Duvall, this isn’t quite the case.
Duvall is a legendary actor and filmmaker in his own right, reputed for his Oscar-winning performance in Tender Mercies and his incredible character work in To Kill a Mockingbird and The Godfather, and he knows the film industry inside and out, and is masterful at picking tasteful projects. Yet, there’s a lauded director who he believes has the discipline of filmmaking all wrong, despite his incredible projects.
Duvall made the comment at an Actor’s Roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter, going in strong with the controversial claim: “The great Stanley Kubrick was an actor’s enemy,” he insisted, as the likes of Ryan Gosling and Mark Ruffalo listened intently.
Duvall shared confidently, “And I can point to movies that he’s done… The worst performances I’ve ever seen in movies. The Shining, Clockwork Orange… Terrible performances, maybe great movies, but terrible performances,” and no, Duvall is not related by any means to the female lead in The Shining, Shelley Duvall, who famously had to shoot many of the psychologically disturbing scenes in the movie over 100 times.
Referencing this fact, Duvall continued, “How does he know the difference between the first take and the 70th take? What is that about?”
The consensus surrounding the 1975 horror flick is that Jack Nicholson, who plays a writer who is pushed by sinister forces into absolute insanity, pulls off one of the greatest goddamn performances in cinematic history, and one early hint that Duvall’s words against Kubrick might ring true is that Nicholson’s most famous line, “Here’s Johnny!”, yelled as he stuffed his face into the holes made by his axe in the door separating him and his wife, was improvised.
In contrast to Nicholson, Shelley received very little praise for his terrified, paranoid wife, who must strategise a way out of the isolated building, all the while saving their possessed son. She shrieks, cries, and blubbers throughout a performance so gripping, yet so gaudy, that it divided many viewers. Really, her outlandish, whimpering reactions were at the behest of Kubrick’s mad directorial style.
So yes, in that way, Robert’s claim that Kubrick is the “actor’s enemy” rings true: While the insistence on dozens and dozens of retakes might have strengthened Nicholson’s terrifying resolve, it broke down the chambers of Shelley’s mind, resulting in unrealistic, somewhat cartoonish responses that broke any prior sense of immersion. Shelley ended up outside of herself, which meant, to some, that she had little grip on perfecting her acting, a profession which usually requires utmost internal concentration to pull off.
And still the movie, like A Clockwork Orange, is incredible. Both offerings build a sinister tone using all the tricks in the book, pulling the viewer through a mausoleum of madness with dignified solemnity. Plus, can the acting be so bad if we’re still talking about it over half a century later? Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Robert Duvall.
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