We live in a world where many people categorize greatness, and there is no greater bestowal of greatness than being called “The Greatest of All Time,” or “G.O.A.T,” in our modern vernacular. You see that term being thrown around in sports: Jordan or LeBron, Messi or Ronaldo, and so on. Some people even want to pick their GOAT restaurants. In that culture, however, it can be fun to put that through our cinephile lenses in terms of masterpiece works of film, writing, and more.
Just think about it. In mid-July, the film world discussed a ranking of every performance in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, pitting every single performance against the others. Other than creating some friendly back-and-forths and food for thought in the film world, doesn’t it seem a little bit odd to say that one person’s portrayal of their character is definitively better than someone else’s portrayal of their character? It just doesn’t do any performance justice.
Sure, it’s fun to have our picks and rankings, but the one area I’d argue we should hold off on categorizing is performance. Here are a number of reasons why.
There is No Finite Metric
In most other categories, there are tangible ways to measure impact and greatness. How many points per game in an NBA season, how many home runs a season in the MLB, etc. There is nothing, with the exception of the awards circuit, that measures the “success” of a performance. Many times the Academy Awards cement an actor’s legacy with a recognition of their performance. With that being said, sometimes the Academy Awards showcase an actor’s accomplishment that resonated in the most widespread and unanimous way, but in a few years, a different nominated performance sort of glosses over the win that was received.
For example, Michelle Yeoh picked up the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once, and at the time, it was sort of a shoo-in with how popular and unique the film was. Not to discredit her grounded yet dynamic performance, but as I personally reflect on her campaign race against Cate Blanchett in Tar, Blanchett’s performance has resonated far more with me since 2022. Maybe Blanchett having two Oscars already paved the way for Yeoh to receive her first, but that’s where things start to get messy in measuring success as an actor. Do we disregard a brilliant performance to give someone else the spotlight? Was Blanchett better in Tar than Yeoh was in Everything Everywhere All At Once? An argument can be made for either, with personal preferences creating bias.
Every Genre is Different
Of course this goes without saying, but the more it’s said, the more I think that it resonates. What Jack Nicholson did in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) can’t be compared to what Isabelle Huppert did in The Piano Teacher (2001). Every film and every approach is different for every story. Each actor lives to serve the story, so pitting one up against the other in a vast range of emotions, genres, and perspectives underserves each performance’s individuality. There is no way to give out the proper recognition to each actor’s performance or effort in their film except for the audience to watch. Many performances that may not be the actor’s finest performance get the spotlight and recognition in the awards campaign simply because of the resume and quality of career and actor has put in prior (cough, cough, Leonardo DiCaprio in 2015’s The Revenant), and sometimes there is an absolute gem of a performance that will go under the radar or not receive enough mainstream love, a topic which I frequently showcase in my “Underrated Performances” series.
Every Viewer Will Watch a Performance Differently!
Not only are there so many different factors to how a performance is rated or perceived in the world of filmmaking, but even in the world of viewership and accessibility. Every person who watches a film has their own perspective, set of biases, and even the circumstances in which they watch the film at a specific time and place. Each viewing experience cannot be replicated, and every person will get something new and unique out of any performance they watch. So how can you definitively say that one performance is better than another? All I can say is that I’ve never seen a performance like Robert De Niro’s in Raging Bull (1980), for example, or the way that Paul Newman spoke in Cool Hand Luke (1967) is naturalistic in a way that I can’t compare to other performances of that time. At the end of the day, those are my opinions, as whoever is reading this article has a plethora of their own opinions and performances in films that mean something to them.
Of course you can have a favorite performance, film, Oscar winner, anything of that variety in the world of performance. But in a culture of rating one thing against another, we can never definitively say that there is a greatest actor of all time because every performance and circumstance is different. So instead of placing a label of “G.O.A.T.” on a certain pedigree of artists, let’s celebrate every unique performance in their own way!
Essay Courtesy of Justin Duggan
Feature Image to Universal Pictures | Still from ‘Oppenheimer’ (2023)