My love for Leonardo DiCaprio films has been reignited this year. At the time of writing this, I am yet to see 'Wolf of Wall Street' but I am absolutely dying to. This love has come from The Great Gatsby. Over the course of his career, there has been many Leonardo DiCaprio films that are well worth a watch.
Of course, the most famous of all the Leonardo DiCaprio films is Titanic. Playing ill-fated Jack, he was destined to die of hypothermia after bravely giving up a floating plank of wood to Rose. Before his death, he saves her from suicide, teaches her how to spit, and makes an amazingly fast get away from a steamy sex session in a car. What makes us love Jack even more is the fact that Rose's fiance is an absolute douche. I was just 10 when this came out, so this was where my love for Leo began.
I was a little young to watch this when it first hit our screens in 1995. However, as a teenager I grew to love Baz Luhrman's work. This naturally meant that I wanted to watch Romeo & Juliet. Thanks to this film, I know that Leonardo DiCaprio was great as a tragic guy pre-Titanic. Now when I watch it, I can hardly believe it is the same Claire Danes who plays Carrie in Homeland standing across from him.
I don't think I can ever express how much I loved The Beach. I've seen it dozens of times and it still doesn't get old. Maybe it is my fascination with travel, who knows. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a pretty good Richard in this film. Even when he goes a little crazy and starts imagining himself in a video game world, I still love him.
So somehow some director somewhere decided it'd be good to pull an actor's age back by about 20 years and have him play a 16 year old. Weirdly, it worked. As Frank Abagnale, Leonardo DiCaprio somehow goes from being a baby faced con artist to a ragged homeless-like prisoner. What's even better is, Catch me if You Can is based on a true story. That always makes watching a film more fun for me.
I have just about managed to put myself through Django Unchained twice now. Don't get me wrong, I love Tarantino, but some of the scenes in this film were so spectacularly harrowing and violent, I wince my way through it. Playing Mr Candie, Leonardo DiCaprio really pulls the whole absolute ass thing off brilliantly. Quite a feat for the guy who was once known for his tragic roles.
It took me a few years to watch Gangs of New York. I love Cameron Diaz, but in her comedy roles, so I was sort of turned off by the idea of her as someone serious. When I did get round to watching it, I wished I had tried it earlier! A lot of films go for the whole romanticized approach when it comes to cities in years gone by, but not Gangs of New York. There's a whole lotta vengance in it too, which I find addictive.
I sort of love Inception for the fact that it introduced me to Tom Hardy. How amazing is he?? Anyway, Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page make for THE most beautiful pairing. I have to admit, I couldn't even begin to explain what this film was about if you held me to knife point over it. However, I did follow the plot, I loved the morphing of Paris, and my heart raced like crazy throughout it all. Inception, is an absolute must-watch for Leonardo DiCaprio fans.
This film messed with my mind so much. I don't want to go into any spoilers, but I started to realize what the ending was moments before it arrived. When that realization came, I felt so sad! But it was mind blowing at the same time. It's nowhere near as scary as the ads make out, but very thrilling.
How could I not write about The Great Gatsby (again)? To me, Leonardo DiCaprio played Gatsby brilliantly for several reasons. The ultimate reason, though, was THE SMILE. He did that reassuring smile so well. The entire cast of this film blew me away.
Hopefully I will get to watch The Wolf of Wall Street sometime soon. As I went through Leonardo DiCaprio's filmography to write this, I realized there is a few I haven't watched. With that in mind, what is your favorite film that he's starred in? Or, alternatively, which of his films are you not a huge fan of?