9 Characters of the '00s Who Changed Movies Forever
· Ennis Del Mar (Brokeback Mountain, 2005)
There's not a lot more that can be said of Heath Ledger's lovesick Wyoming cowboy, who signaled a sea change in Hollywood's approach to gay characters at the movies. Beyond his political implications, however, Del Mar was just the perfect role for Ledger: Masculine yet sensitive, brooding but not especially self-aware, old soul in a young man's body, and a milestone of heartbreaking grace. Naturally he would be overlooked by Oscar voters, who conveniently waited until after Ledger's death in 2008 to officially recognize him. But forget the statuette -- it's what he did for Ang Lee's camera that makes him immortal.
· Effie White (Dreamgirls, 2006)
Say what you will about the quality of the film or the durability of Jennfier Hudson's performance as Effie, who would roll from rags to riches to rags to... something as a mega-voiced third of the superpower girlgroup. But Hudson's success in the role permanently rewrote the Hollywood myth of discovery, upending such sacrosanct legends as Lana Turner at Schwab's Drugstore with the queen- (and/or king-) making power of American Idol and other talent competitions. And to think: Hudson didn't even win. In any case, Effie anchored Idol and its peers in a legitimacy that made them all the more appealing to those dreamers who believe that someday this, too -- the screen idol -- can happen to them.
· Daniel Plainview (There Will Be Blood, 2007)
Beyond the obvious meme-friendly, scenery-devouring batshittery that ends viewers' time with Daniel Day-Lewis's oil-baron sociopath, the conclusion of There Will Be Blood persists as one of the '00s great triumphs of imagination. Just when Iraq- and Bush-obsessed critics had begun assigning deep political meaning to Plainview, Day-Lewis and director Paul Thomas Anderson turned on a dime to lock down the apolitical gothic horror masterpiece they knew they were making all along. That ruthless subversion of complacency and expectation not only helped affirm Blood as the decade's best film, but also established the gold standard for what a filmmaker and his star can and absolutely should aspire to as character-driven cinema slumps into the '10s.
· Speed Racer (Speed Racer, 2008)
Speed Racer wasn't the unmitigated failure a lot of folks considered it to be. For starters, its radical, foreground/middleground/background editing style should have done for montage what Avatar does for performance-capture. But on a more immediate level, the Wachowskis' $100 million bomb proved how even the makers of The Matrix weren't immune to the effects of poor casting, hubris and insularity. This lesson will not be forgotten as studios continue crying poor into the '10s. Serviceable as Emile Hirsch was as the title character, Speed Racer himself mostly just symbolized the pinnacle of big-budget folly -- especially with Iron Man and The Dark Knight showing just a few months later how aesthetic heft can actually enhance mass-pop accessibility.
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were the hell is the Joker from TDK???? Heath Ledger's performance changed the way of villains in cinema. the joker was chilling, ad funny at the same time, and i thought it was the bst performance of 2008, and it should b on the list
1) Gollum (and Orcs, Ents,trolls, Nazgul flying beast, Wargs, all LORTR creatures..lol)
2) Jack Sparrow
3) The Dark Knight
4) Harry Potter
5) Spiderman
6) Shrek
7) Faun (Pan´s Labyrith)
8) Wall-E
9) King Leonidas
ETC...it was a fantasy, Sci-Fi, epic, adventure, etc.... decade ...Hollywood helped us to forgot this terrible decade...XD.
Sure there are better characters I think. Sure there are better movies. I personally am so sick of SATC I could puke. However, I think you are all forgetting this is one persons opinion and he's entitled to it.
Start a blog and make your own lists! 🙂
Well I was expecting Heath Ledger's Joker to be on the list. That was a perfect example of getting into the skin of the character. And you have included Speed Racer?
JACK SPARROW!! where is he on this "list"? that performance by johnny depp was quirky and fun and different and almost everyone loved it. it will definately be remembered for years.
also, gollum, joker, harry potter. also, her performance as Jules shot keira knightley to fame so that may be worth mentioning, but not enough to get on the list.
again, JACK SPARROW!!!
I think there's quite a few characters missing but I sure agree with Ennis Del Mar. He, Brokeback Mountain and Heath Ledger will be remembered for a long time!
This list is unavoidably the reflection of mister van Airsdale's conception of changes in filmmaking during the last decade. Why he would decide to give it form as a characters list instead of original writing or directing style, say, is anyone's guess. Maybe his intention was to name nine performances which he thought were worthy or the "changed movies forever" epithet. If that were the case, though, the inclusion of Binks as proof that a certain filmmaker can be influenced by a certain audience is sorely out of place. This is true even more so where the main character in "Eternal Sunshine" is cited to stand in place for that film's praise of its writing and directing. This, then, is a list flawed from its conception. That, in and of itself, would not be wrong or even bothersome if its author were to identify it as such: a very personal perception of the changes that took place within the English-speaking filmmaking industry, not a deterministic listing of inflection markers along the evolving curve of movies. This I find to be dangerous for, as Umberto Eco said, "the list is the origin of culture." I'm unable to imagine a culture whose origins are to be found in lists such as these and sleep soundly.
For this reason, then, I'm comfortable in declaring clearly and unabashedly that I consider mister van Airsdale to indeed be an idiot.
This is probably the worst movie list I have ever seen online wow! How did you get the editors post this article in here...?
The list is of characters that changed movies forever (in the writer's opinion) in terms of their impact on the industry or inspiring change in the way movies are made or distributed. The list is not of the best or most memorable performances of the decade. I don't agree with all the selections, but stop trying to argue the performances that were the most earth-shattering for you. That would be a different list.
Two comments.
One-To say that any fictional movie character in the '00s changed the movies forever is a huge over statement. Blu-ray, HDTV, the switch from film to digital and downloading films over the internet changed the movies forever, not fictional characters.
Second-If there is one original fictional movie character from the decade just past who will be remembered whenever people look back at the '00s; it is Captain Jack Sparrow played by Johnny Depp. He was featured in 3 of the most popular films of the decade, and will probably be in a fourth, or maybe more. Unlike Speed Racer, Carrie Bradshaw, or Jar Jar Blinks he was a totally original character from the '00s. Also unlike Speed Racer or Jar Jar Blinks, most people do like the character of Capt. Sparrow. That's one of the main reasons a movie inspired by an amusement park ride was the huge critical and commerical sucess it turned out to be.
Yeah... though I appreciate the thought put into the list, I'm not sure it fits its title. Each of the characters you named are memorable, but few of them changed movies forever. Ennis, for example, created a lot of discussion, but I haven't noticed a sea change in the way gay characters are portrayed or an admirable increase in their inclusion.
Berry's inclusion is a good one, but a number of the actresses you mentioned as following her had already starred in unflattering/disturbed roles (think Winslet in Heavenly Creatures or Watts in Mulholland Drive).
Your inclusion of Carrey's role in Eternal Sunshne is undermined in your own praise, when you mention that Synecdoche, NY, which, by your theory, a film like Eternal Sunshine should have opened audience's up to, went relatively unnoticed.
Personally, I think both Gollum and the Avatar girl belong on the list. As the former paved the way for the latter, but the latter is obviously setting another benchmark for future films.
Anyway... a good list of memorable characters, some of whom defied conventions, but not necessarily a list of characters who changed movies forever.
Calling "There Will Be Blood" the "best movie" of ANY time period, including the ten seconds when it was first released, is such an exercise in monumental stupidity that it pretty much invalidates anything else you have to say.
The decade doesn't end until midnight on Dec. 31st 2010.
There was no year zero, it went from 1BC->1AD/1CE.
Decades don't start at 0 and end at 10, they start at 1 and end at 11.
Hi, wasn't able to resist a quick note to tell you how much I love the weblog.
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