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What is Denzel Washington’s best performance? (Poll Closed)

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14 Comments

  • Eddie (Reseda, CA) - 8 years ago

    one last thing, in response to Chris in Tn -- his character in The Equalizer did not work at home depot. The store was called Home-Mart, which is as hard to say as the movie is hard to watch.

  • Eddie (Reseda, CA) - 8 years ago

    Training Day takes the anti-hero and violent elements of his Malcom performance, and give it more heart while the film has a much smaller scope. This is the accomplishment for me -- the lead in a historical epic will always get points for the context of the character and their actions, as well as accuracy, while Training Day takes the most interesting personal parts of the filmic Malcom X character and lets them run wild, bouncing off of straight man Ethan Hawke like the Abbot & Costello of grimey police dramas.

  • Jeremy - Windsor, CO - 8 years ago

    Truly one of my favorite actors, and I think what first opened my eyes to how great he would be was when I saw him in Glory. The way he played such a hardened man, who was broken down by the realization that he could live for someone/something other than himself, made me really take notice.

  • Chris, Tn - 8 years ago

    Other - his role as the guy who worked at Home Depot in the Equalizer

  • Kenny Montano - 8 years ago

    While I appreciate Washington's work with Spike Lee, and love his role in The Book of Eli, it is his performance in the Robert Zemeckis "joint" Flight that I found to his best. In almost every role, Washington is able to insert a charisma and charm into a character we want to root for whether he's a dirty cop, a la Training Day, or a complicated political/religious figure, see Malcolm X. In Flight, Washington has the difficult task of having us root against the charming and charismatic pilot at the beginning of the film until he's broken and battered by the crash of the plane and his alcoholic life. It's then, at the film's conclusion, that we find ourselves conflicted about whether we want him to receive justice or experience mercy, maybe a bit of both. This moral complexity and character transformation results in Washington's most nuanced and type-altering performance to date.

  • Joshua Heizer - 8 years ago

    I love Denzel's performance in Hurricane. For the most part, a very quiet, subtle performance. To me, his best.
    Favorite has to be Inside Man.

  • Kevin - 8 years ago

    You can't ask about Denzel and not include Devil in a Blue Dress.

  • Rory Dunn - 8 years ago

    This is certainly a toss up between Training Day and Malcolm X, and I had to go with Training Day, simply because it's refreshing to see someone who usually plays a hero (or anti-hero) go full villain. Washington is great as the corrupt cop.

  • Stephen Z - 8 years ago

    I had to go Training Day here. Not that I would have voted for, but "Man on Fire" would have been good to see on the list.

  • Billy Ray Brewton - 8 years ago

    It's so rare when I don't have to vote "Other" in one of these polls, but you managed to include both my favorite Denzel Washington performance AND my favorite Spike Lee-directed film, the highly underrated and surprisingly powerful, HE GOT GAME. Saw this film when I was sixteen and it blew me away. So much raw human emotion on display in virtually every scene, and the film never goes quite where you expect it to go. Washington delivers a subtly heartbroken performance that also finds space to sizzle with ferocity and anger. It runs the gamut in terms of highs and lows, and no one can do it better than Denzel. So glad you guys included this film as an option and - though I doubt it will win - I hope it encourages more folks to check out a Spike Lee film they might have skipped when it was released because you thought it was about basketball. It is, but it is also about SO much more than that.

  • Brad (Oconomowoc, WI) - 8 years ago

    Denzel is always solid and reliable, but there is only one time he has ever wowed me, and the option isn't even on the list. I had to go "other" for Glory.

  • Tom Morris - 8 years ago

    How did you leave out his OSCAR WINNING PERFORMANCE in GLORY? The look he has as he's being whipped for going AWOL to get shoes is heartbreaking.

  • Chris Massa - Pittsburgh, PA - 8 years ago

    I'm not sure if I can narrow it down to just one performance - Denzel has given so many great ones - but I can definitely narrow it down to one movie. Of all these films, I feel safe in saying that "Malcolm X" is the best, and the one most likely to be stand the test of time. And at the film's center is a great performance: passionate, subtle, larger-than-life, deeply human. Is it Denzel's best performance? Probably. Is it the role he'll be remembered for? Absolutely.

  • Bruno Hunziker - 8 years ago

    Hate Inside Man (yes, I know I'm alone in this one). Haven't seen The Flight. Denzel's performance in Training Day and He Got Game left me underwelmed. Malcolm X (could it be any other way?) is my obvious pick. It's an epic story, an epic movie, an epic performance.

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