The 25 Best Movie Performances Ever (In My Opinion)

Every now and then, people sometimes ask me "what characterizes a great performance". A great performance is something that goes beyond the limit and complex and original. Some performances can trigger your emotions. Some performances can leave you mystified. Some performances can get you scared. Finally, a great performance can also define an actor's and actress' work as something to be remembered in the history of cinema. Does that mean when an actor or an actress win an Oscar, that considers that the person had the best performance in the category or in history? True, the winners will be recorded in writing. But, everybody is opinionated. Here are the performances that I considered the best:

25. Heath Ledger as The Joker in "The Dark Knight" (2008)

24. Robert Duvall as Lt. Col. William "Bill" Kilgore in "Apocalypse Now" (1979)

23. Peter Sellers as "Dr. Strangelove" in "Dr. Strangelove" (1963)

22. Al Pacino as Sonny Wortzik in "Dog Day Afternoon" (1973)

21. (tie) Dustin Hoffman as Raymond Babbitt in "Rain Man" (1988) and as Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels in "Tootsie" (1982)

20. Charlize Theron as Aileen Wuornos in "Monster" (2003)

19. Malcolm MacDowell as Alex in "A Clockwork Orange" (1971)

18. Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance in "The Shining" (1980)

17. Diane Keaton as Annie Hall in "Annie Hall" (1977)

16. Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991)

15. Morgan Freeman as Red in "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994)

14. Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb in "Requiem for a Dream" (2000)

13. Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump in "Forrest Gump" (1994)

12. Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winfield in "Pulp Fiction" (1994)

11. Paul Newman as Lucas "Luke" Jackson in "Cool Hand Luke" (1967)

10. Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver" (1976)

9. Meryl Streep as Sophie Zawistowski in "Sophie's Choice" (1982)

8. Clint Eastwood as The Man with No Name in "The Dollars Trilogy" (1964-1966)

7. Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in "The Godfather Part II" (1974)

6. (tie) Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in "The Godfather" (1972) and as Terry Malloy in "On the Waterfront" (1957)

5. James Stewart as George Bailey in "It's A Wonderful Life" (1946)

4. Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito in "GoodFellas" (1990)

3. Jack Nicholson as Randle McMurphy in "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975)

2. Peter O'Toole as T.E. Lawrence in "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962)

1. Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta in "Raging Bull" (1980)

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Caro the Movie Critic

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