Let's forget about the last Robert de Niro to evoke that other great actor who at some point was. It may sound harsh, but it is true, one of the most charismatic types of celluloid has long passed with more pain than glory for films without that touch of classic cinema with which some films are already born.
It will be a matter of bad choices or not knowing how to retire in time. Or it may even be the fault of some alleged debts that have made him accept all kinds of papers. The thing is that while his "nemesis" to call it in an epic way, Al Pacino, has been burned into the popular imagination as a totem of interpretation, Niro's friend is slowly losing that aura of myth.
Of course, you may not agree with these considerations of mine. Because there are colors for taste and even in his latest comedies, De Niro knows how to move with ease. Whoever had retained. But that's what opinions are for, as the great Clint Eastwood, they are like asses, everyone has one…
Top 3 Recommended Robert De Niro Movies
Taxi driver
AVAILABLE ON ANY OF THESE PLATFORMS:There was a time when Robert de Niro characterized that duality with which Scorsese enjoys so much to awaken us an almost existential tension. A friendly face that turned dark without the need for other effects than the turn in the look of good de Niro.
There is some maddening tension in empathy with the psycho on duty. Because maybe the idea of Scorsese in this movie is that, resembling the insane. But there is also an idea that points to possible reconciliations with the world whenever a goal can be set to save from burning.
Iris, a prostituted girl, is Travis Bickle's (De Niro) only anchor to not completely surrender to tackling a world that owes him everything. As a war veteran, Travis seeks to overcome his traumas, which could only lead him to self-destruction, dwelling in the shadows of New York from his taxi. Only she appears as a target towards stolen purity and innocence. Travis knows he's lost, but Iris's youth convinces him that she might have a chance.
The antihero part of Travis is easily assumed as a popular confrontation with politics. The hero part appears despite his crimes in defense of Iris. The sum is that character on the tightrope of morality, able to fixate on time as an emblem between the anti-system and the righteous.
Cape of fear
AVAILABLE ON ANY OF THESE PLATFORMS:One of those remakes that end up burying its original. A performance that disturbs and unhinges with those calls «lawyer, lawyer, get out of there little rat». The typical vengeance to the point of Count Monte Cristo but without any foundation of poetic justice. There are only sadistic longings for revenge. In the sick obsession of Max, embodied by de Niro, that feeling of atavistic fear of the most threatening strangers reaches us, of the haters bent on the lives of others, on the property of others, on the family of others as if it were their own.
There is something about Robert de Niro, in his gesticulation that makes the feeling of unease even deeper. His ironic grimaces and a smile drawn with the satisfaction of the psychopath who revels in his plan. Because Max has outlined his plan for years. He approaches the daughter of his hated lawyer who took him to the prison, he delves into the depths of the family roots to corrupt them until he sees that everything decomposes, that he perishes in a pain that becomes almost tangible.
The outcome could have been one of those disruptive with the criminal finally triumphing. But the matter closes well, as things were done in the past and finally we also breathe with satisfaction.
Wild bull
AVAILABLE ON ANY OF THESE PLATFORMS:It's not that I'm a big fan of biographical films. The label "based on real events" usually puts me off because of its meaning beyond the euphemism: "I have no idea what really happened, but you eat it with potatoes."
But come on, if you take the film for what it is, a work of fiction with overtones about the personality and future of Jake LaMotta, then the matter takes on the aspect of a great film about the harsh and sinister world of boxing, or at least especially what surrounded him when boxing was limited to black markets and underworld.
Abounding in that idea of the boxer as the man faced above all with his demons at each blow of the bell. Life undertaken assault after assault with the feeling that doom is always better prepared to parry blows and counterattack. The feeling that this same perdition is a combat that, despite everything, some not only do not shy away from it but enjoy it.
Jake LaMotta is a young boxer Italian-American who trains hard to become number one in the middleweights. With the help of his brother Joey, he will see this dream come true long after. But fame and success only make things worse. His marriage goes from bad to worse due to his clandestine life with other women, sexual jealousy and the infidelities of his wife for revenge, and on the other hand the mafia pressures him so that his fights are arranged.