best film: John Hurt has worked with some great auteurs here from 1966 to 2016—a long career but his best film comes down to three choices: Alien, Dead Man or Melancholia. I think, by a sliver, I’m going to go with Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man as his best film. Hurt isn’t lead in any of the three prime candidates (he’s lead in only four of the 22 films below in the archives) but he’s a great addition to all of them.
best performance: The two candidates are Midnight Express and The Elephant Man. If I’m forced to pick I’ll go with Midnight Express. He plays “Max” the wildly eccentric, hashish-addicted, prison veteran. Hurt is mesmerizing. He’s equal to his work in Midnight Express two years later in 1980’s The Elephant Man where he plays the title character, John Merrick. Hurt vanishes here into his character. It’s a strong vocal performance (alters his voice to match the disfigurement) and physical one as well.
stylistic innovations/traits: He often played eccentrics in strong supporting role trusted by some of the greatest auteurs of the last 40 years. Hurt was busy- having over 200 IMDB credits (207) and is in 22 archiveable films. He’s not here without his pair of Oscar-nominated performances (they got his right if they were only going to single him out twice) leading the top 5 below. However, I also don’t think he’s here without the 6-10 other dynamite smaller performances in works like Alien or Only Lovers Left Alive. It is also telling of his talent to see he could carry a lead when called upon it (The Hit, 1984).
directors worked with: Oddly enough the only one more than once here is Jim Jarmusch (2) with both Dead Man and Only Lovers Left Alive. Other auteurs he worked with once include Ridley Scott, David Lynch, Michael Cimino, Robert Zemeckis, del Toro and Von Trier—quite a lineup.
Top 5 Performances:
- Midnight Express
- The Elephant Man
- 1984
- The Hit
- Owning Mahowny
Archiveable films
| 1966- A Man For All Seasons |
| 1971- 10 Rillington Place |
| 1978- Midnight Express |
| 1979- Alien |
| 1980- Elephant Man |
| 1980- Heaven’s Gate |
| 1984- 1984 |
| 1984- The Hit |
| 1990- The Field |
| 1995- Dead Man |
| 1995- Rob Roy |
| 1997- Contact |
| 1997- Love and Death On Long Island |
| 2003- Owning Mahowny |
| 2005- The Proposition |
| 2008- Hellboy 2: The Golden Army |
| 2011- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 |
| 2011- Melancholia |
| 2011- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy |
| 2013- Only Lovers Left Alive |
| 2013- Snowpiercer |
| 2016- Jackie |
@Drake- Do you think Anthony Hopkins is Hurt’s equal in The Elephant Man?
Huge statement but i think Hopkins is better. It’s a classic case of a showier performance getting more buzz. I think Hopkins deserves the Oscar nom alongside Hurt. Do you?
@M*A*S*H- Interesting idea- I like it- something I’ll take a closer at the next time.
Drake,
I love that you included his performance in Owning Mahowny in your top 5. Admittingly Owning Mahowny is rather bland in terms of visuals but it’s a phenomenal character study on the behavior of an addict. There’s also a nice formal touch with an early scene when Mahoney first arrives in Atlantic City and witnesses a
wealthy Japanese business man who is escorted into the casino like a heavyweight champion walking into the ring of a title fight. He is then greeted by the Hurt character addressing him with “Mr. N. An honor, as always.
An honor and a pleasure” Toward the end of the film there is an exact repeat of this scene, only with Mahoney the one with the encourage and is greeted word for word the same by Hurt “Mr. Mahoney An honor, as always.
An honor and a pleasure”.
There are two great performances; PSH as Mahoney and Hurt as the casino boss.
Hurt plays the role of a snake oils salesman to absolute perfection as he understands the pathological gambler the way a marine biologist understands sea creatures. He’s also hilarious with some absolute gems like when he tells the casino manager in Vegas to “shoot Mahoney before he loses all his money” when he learns Mahoney is up a million dollars. Or when he fires than rehires then again fires the hapless employee, who Mahoney seems to like, for no reason. He is completely shameless and utterly ruthless in his approach to separating gamblers from their money. The funny thing is he doesn’t fool Mahoney for a second, as Mahoney knows all this but is so addicted to gambling that it does not matter.