Why Leo should have won that Oscar

OK, I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I adore Leonardo DiCaprio. I tend to do the same in real life, too, so much so that when I recommend a Leo movie to people, many say “you only like it ‘cause Leo’s in it”. And yeah, that’s probably true with a couple, but it can be easily argued that an actor can make or break a film. The reason that I love Leo so much (other than that beautiful face and gentlemanly charm) is because you can guarantee that he will give a standout performance whatever you see him in.

That is why he really deserved the Oscar that he missed out on last night. Matthew McConaughey, clearly brilliant in Dallas Buyers Club and also worthy of the best actor award, has given fine performances during his career. But, it has to be said, many were in rom-coms and chick flicks. Matthew might have deserved the win for his accomplishment this year, but Leo has deserved it for the majority of his time (almost a quarter of a century) in Hollywood.

Leo and Robert DeNiro in This Boy's Life

His first major role in a drama film was at the tender age of 16 in This Boy’s Life, starring opposite Robert DeNiro. Leo plays Tobias Wolff in the biographical film depicting an abusive relationship with his stepfather. Leo won the part after wowing Mr DeNiro himself at an audition, and followed through with his powerful newcomer performance in the film. DeNiro even told director Martin Scorsese to look out for “this kid” around a decade before their first collaboration.

Leo’s next role was as Arnie in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, the mentally disabled younger brother of Johnny Depp. If you haven’t seen this film, then do it purely for Leo’s performance. It is just incredible, and even earned him his first Oscar nomination for supporting actor at the age of 18. In fact, his performance was so realistic that people were shocked to discover that he did not actually have a mental disability when he arrived on the red carpet.

Leo in Total Eclipse

The Basketball Diaries was released in 1995, and was arguable Leo’s first leading actor role. He plays Jim Carroll, a young drug addict and writer living in nineties New York. The movie is shocking in terms of the explicit and honest nature of the scenes, which is down to Leo as he gives a poetic portrayal of an extremely troubled boy, and yet, doesn’t glamorise it in the slightest. The same year, Leo starred in the relatively unknown, low-budget European film Total Eclipse, which tells the tragic story of poets Rimbaud and Verlaine (played by David Thewlis) in 19^th century France. Leo is vile as Arthur Rimbaud, giving an arrogant performance which somehow retains a kind of love/hate charm that makes you feel sympathetic for the character.

The Titanic flying scene

Leo in Romeo + Juliet

It wasn’t until 1996 that Leo’s first big breakthrough came in the form of Romeo + Juliet as one half of the most famous literary couples the world has seen. He gives a beautifully heartfelt performance opposite Claire Danes, who said that she couldn’t help welling up whilst filming the final death scene because of Leo’s moving speech. A year later, however, brought the blockbuster that essentially made his name: Titanic. His performance as Jack Dawson isn’t often put with his best, but a character who is so open and passionate must be more difficult to give depth, and Leo does this brilliantly.

After 1997, he could pretty much do anything he wanted. However, Leo chose to appear in meaningful and carefully crafted pieces of work. The first was The Man in the Iron Mask, where he plays twins Louis XIV and Phillipe, two characters who couldn’t be more opposite: Louis is selfish and egotistical, while Phillipe is the poster boy for innocence and sensitivity. This film is unique in that it evidently displays Leo’s versatility and shows that you can love and hate him simultaneously.

Leo in The Beach

Next came a film that didn’t meet with much critical acclaim, but Leo said himself that he chose it because of the subject matter of isolation; he could relate due to the world’s hugely positive reaction to him after Titanic. The Beach is a dystopia-like tale of a group of people living in secret in a tropical paradise. Leo portrays traveller Richard, whose mental states takes a delicate decline, surprising the audience when the obvious breakdown begins. Ultimately, though, that breakdown is believably inevitable.

Leo and Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York

Leo and air hostesses in Catch Me If You Can

The turn of the millennium brought new, tougher roles to Leo’s repertoire. Gangs of New York was released in 2002 and marked his first work with legendary director Martin Scorsese. Leo’s character was Amsterdam Vallon, an Irish man leading his people into battle against Daniel Day-Lewis’s Bill the Butcher in 19^th century New York. This was Leo’s introduction into proper blood and gore fighting, and remains one of, if not his most, gruesome films. The year after, Leo starred in Catch Me If You Can as Frank Abagnale Jr, who posed as an airline pilot, a doctor and a lawyer as well as forging millions in bank cheques before his 19^th birthday. It is an impressive story, and an incredible feat for Leo to successfully play a 16 year old at the age of 28, giving a sad and sympathetic light to a charming criminal.

The Aviator. Anyone who has seen and knows this film just can’t argue that Leo is one of his generation’s best actors. He plays the infamous Howard Hughes, a pioneer of film and aviation who spent his life suffering from severe obsessive compulsive disorder, and this gave Leo his second Oscar nomination and his first for best leading actor. His dedication to the project meant that his portrayal was poignant and tender, gifting the late Hughes with an understanding tribute by altering society’s negative conception of him. He also shocks; by the ending of the film, Hughes is pathetic and decrepit, a huge distinction from the earlier image of a youthful and ambitious man. Leo became so inherently fascinated with playing this character that obsessive compulsive traits from his childhood returned, often making him late to set due to having to count chewing gum stains on his way. The Aviator, in my opinion is Leo’s best performance to date, and one that will be tough to beat.

Leo and Jack Nicholson in The Departed

Leo in Blood Diamond

Leo’s third film with Scorsese was The Departed in 2006, a story set in Boston depicting the complicated and violent relationship between police and gangs within organised crime. Billy Costigan, Leo’s character, is an undercover state policeman operating in Jack Nicholson’s gang. He is constantly conflicted and stressed, Leo playing this confidently. The same year brought Blood Diamond, a serious film about the trade of conflict diamonds in Sierra Leone. Leo plays Danny Archer, a cynical trader who helps a trapped fisherman find his family. Not only does he speak with a convincing South African accent, but he gives Archer a dark past that the audience can easily understand as the reason for his hard exterior during the film.

Another of Leo’s more underrated performances was as Frank Wheeler in Revolutionary Road. Opposite his Titanic co-star and real-life best friend, Kate Winslet, he plays one half of a suburban American couple in the fifties. However, this couple feel trapped within their family lives, and the film portrays their slow marital decline. Kate was utterly fantastic in this film, thoroughly deserving of her Oscar recognition for her incredibly successful year, but I think this slightly overshadowed Leo’s fantastic performance and made him forgotten by the Academy. Kate, in her Golden Globe speech, summed his work up perfectly: “your performance in this film is nothing short of spectacular”.

Leo in Shutter Island

2010’s releases began with Shutter Island, a psychological horror film set in a fifties mental asylum. Leo is US Marshal Teddy Daniels, a determined man haunted by the ghost of his wife and the mystery surrounding an escaped patient. The flashback scene in the lake, though, is the one which really impresses. Those cries are full of emotion and is simply heartbreaking. The second release was the hugely popular sci-fi hit Inception, in which Leo plays Don Cobb, a professional thief who steals secrets from his victims in their dreams. Again, the standout scene for me is Mal’s suicide, where you can see his desperation growing as she threatens to jump.

Leo in Inception

Leo in J Edgar

J Edgar is a film often forgotten as one of Leo’s most recent. He portrays J Edgar Hoover, the notorious FBI director who is alleged to be a closeted homosexual. Leo is heart-rending in the scene after his mother (played by Judi Dench) has died, dressing in her clothes and jewellery in utter despair and impulse. And later, in full aging makeup, he still manages to keep his face miserably expressive.

A part that I am still shocked that Leo didn’t get an Oscar nomination for is the evil Calvin Candie in Tarantino’s Django Unchained. His first film in years in which he does not play the lead, Leo is despicable and disgusting as the Southern plantation owner, making the audience genuinely hate the sickening character. It is also his first (obvious) role as the villain, and he settles into it incredibly well despite his onset concerns about using that word to describe his co-stars such as Jamie Foxx.

Leo in The Great Gatsby

Returning to Baz Lurhmann’s glamorous directing world for The Great Gatsby in 2013, Leo plays another of the world’s most famous literary characters. Jay Gatsby is one that has been played and analysed hundreds of times over, yet Leo still manages to bring his own unique charm to the role. He is clumsy and romantic, making us swoon and fall for him all over again as he introduces himself as Gatsby during one of the massive party scenes. He makes us want to be his only love, married Daisy Buchanan (played by Carey Mulligan) just because of the way he looks at her, and turns the tables on her character’s reputation frequently.

Finally, the one that he just lost out on. The Wolf of Wall Street is controversial, ambitious and shameless, something that the Academy doesn’t like. Leo, though, gives another of his best performances as Jordan Belfort, and again, in a film that he has been incredibly passionate about making for years. In the film, we see another side of Leo that we don’t usually get – his comedic performance is hilarious, especially during the Quaalude sequence (you’ll know it if you’ve seen it). He is also disturbingly inspirational as he gives his loud and profound speeches. Despite its reputation, The Wolf of Wall Street was one of the best films of the year.

Clearly, throughout his career Leonardo DiCaprio has given some incredible performances which have either been ignored or just not recognised by those award panels. He has definitely deserved more than he’s had recognition for. Who knows? One day, maybe he’ll deliver a performance so stunning that the Academy just won’t be able to deny him that gold statuette, and the internet will implode (note: don’t go near Tumblr when that day comes).