Top 5 Daniel Day-Lewis Performances

By Austin Johnson

Daniel Day-Lewis just may be the most efficient actor to ever live. He appeared in 21 films from 1971 to 2017 and has officially retired from the game altogether. Throughout his filmography, there are really no misses. He wasn’t taking paycheck roles, but instead consistently challenging himself with all kinds of different characters. DDL has been nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role by the Academy six times and won three. That’s some Michael Jordan kind of shit, so I feel like it’s necessary to have a list of my favorite performances given by him.

5.) Nathaniel Poe in The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

“Someday, I think you and I are going to have a serious disagreement.”

I remember going to the Alamo Drafthouse as a kid with my dad and seeing the trailers for screenings of older films. The clips of DDL from The Last of the Mohicans always stood out to me because my dad would lean over and say, “that guy is incredible.” Years later, I bought Mohicans on a whim and it was totally worth every cent. DDL is intimidatingly good as Nathaniel ‘Hawkeye’ Poe and I think the film itself is pretty rewatchable. DDL has worked with all kinds of incredible directors and Michael Mann is most certainly a noteworthy name on that list. When you look up DDL on IMDb, Mohicans is listed second for a reason.

4.) Johnny Burfoot in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

“Ain't nothing I can say to make it up to you. There's
only things I can do to show you... That I am with you.”

Just when I thought I’d seen DDL do everything, I discovered one of his first major roles in My Beautiful Laundrette as a young gay dude from London named Johnny Burfoot. It’s a terrific film centered around a Pakistani Englishman and white Englishman sharing a romance. DDL exquisitely moves about the screen with an aggression and elegance that is extremely rare to find at such a high level. I mentioned how he worked with Michael Mann on Mohicans, but Stephen Frears who directed Laundrette also has an awesome filmography and got the best of DDL.

3.) Christy Brown in My Left Foot (1989)

“Con... Con... Con... gra... tu... la... tions, Peter and Eileen
on the won... wonderful news. I'm glad you taught
me how to speak so I could say that, Eileen.”

You could say Christy Brown is DDL’s most impressive performance and I’d have no qualms with that. He is really going for it as Brown, an artist born with cerebral palsy who learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb, his left foot. DDL soaks up all the pain that Brown endured and gave us a jaw dropping performance. It got him his first Oscar nomination and win, which started that six nomination and three win run I mentioned earlier. Jim Sheridan directed DDL three times, but this one is my favorite. They clearly had a wicked good chemistry and it’s very hard to believe that My Left Foot was Sheridan’s directorial debut.

2.) Bill "The Butcher" Cutting in Gangs of New York (2002)

“You see this knife? I'm gonna teach you to
speak English with this fucking knife!”

Ahh, the most frightening character that DDL has portrayed has got to be The Butcher from Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. Everything about The Butcher is perfect, from his Nativist Protestant gang to his skill with knives. I just get sucked into the film every time because of his performance. Leonardo DiCaprio does his best to stay on the same level as DDL, but it’s just impossible when he’s in the zone as The Butcher. Again, DDL worked with another outstanding director who got the very best out of him. He got his third Oscar nomination because of it and it remains one of Scorsese’s best on-screen characters ever.

1.) Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood (2007)

“No, I'll go and talk to the man. I'll talk to him, show you how it's done.”

The stuff Daniel Day-Lewis is doing in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood is an instant hall of fame performance. Daniel Plainview is a frightening and dominant character that sort of inspires me but mostly disturbs me. Now, I’ll admit I’m very biased to PTA’s style of filmmaking but I honestly had no idea what he was all about when I first saw There Will Be Blood. I did know that I had witnessed a masterpiece unfold with one of the most badass performances of all time at the center. I’ll never stop rewatching it as I find new things to admire about the film altogether, especially things within DDL’s performance as the scariest damn oil man to ever live.