MovieChat Forums > Harvey Keitel Discussion > Insanely Overrated as an Actor

Insanely Overrated as an Actor


People try and lump Keitel with greats like De Niro, Pacino and Nicholson but he's not even in the same league. He's just ok. He doesn't have the gravitas of the 3 aforementioned actors.

reply

Possibly not Pacino....but Keitel shits all over the other two actors you mentioned (Nicholson over-acts and DeNiro under-acts)

Pacino (no stranger to a bit of scenery-chewage himself) is still the happy medium (between all four)

reply

Maybe not as big as those three but I think he's up there.

reply

you forgot to mention tomas milian

reply

Keitel’s performance in Bad Lieutenant is as good as anything by those other actors, and he has given many wonderful performance over the years.

reply

I agree. I just recently finished watched the TV series, Life on Mars, and he was wonderful in that too.

reply

None of these guys including Keitel are really "actors" in my opinion. They are always just playing De Niro, Pacino, Nicholson or Keitel. People mistake their magnetic or cool or interesting personalities as acting, but they aren't. With each of these guys, all of their movies could just be a string of sequels featuring the same character in different situations. Most of the most popular actors are like this: Eastwood, Cruise, Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Ford; all of them just play themselves again and again. The actors who really play genuinely different characters in each movie just blend in and go unnoticed.

reply

Not insanely. Maybe just slightly. All of those guys who came to fame playing urban tough guys in the '70s and '80s are somewhat overrated.

reply