This article will look at the illustrious career of Robert De Niro and will question whether his credibility is dwindling in his old age. I will be assessing his past Film credits and current cinematic releases.

De Niro

Robert De Niro is undoubtedly one of my favourite actors of all time. He is either the star or co-star of many of my favourite films including 'Goodfellas', 'The Untouchables', 'The Godfather Part II', 'Casino', and 'Raging Bull' to name just a few of the many timeless classics that he has starred in. At the time of his performances in these films, he was, arguably, in the prime of his life and career and they were all instant or reviewed classics.

In recent years, however, possibly due to age, De Niro has been far less active in such classics and has lent his talents to more comedic or parodic features such as the 'Meet the …' franchises and 'The Family' where he played a stereotype of the typecast that he traditionally fulfilled. As a big fan, I feel it is a shame that he has featured in far fewer epics recently, given that they were where he became a household name and where I was introduced to him. Therefore, I will be looking at his career in the early days and discussing his best era which was from the 70’s to the late 90’s in my opinion.

What made De Niro's performances so great, classic, and timeless?

De Niro is famously a method actor and does not shy away from extreme and sudden changes to his body with little regard for his health.

Therefore, he became the person whom he portrayed such as a chubby Al Capone or a violent Irish gangster thus this skill lends itself more easily to serious and dramatic roles in my opinion. Due to this, there has been far less method acting in his parodic or comedic films since the audience already know what to expect from him and we have come to expect a perfect performance every time he graces the screen.

His appearances in such films as 'Dirty grandpa' have been disappointing to the extent that they have had a negative effect on his reputation in my opinion. It seems as though he is only doing them for the money and they have poor reception but a high budget. It is a similar tactic to inviting a celebrity to open a new business; it will work in attracting people the first time but they will not be likely to return unless it delivers after the opening attraction.

I firmly believe that De Niro needs to return to serious and dramatic acting and cannot wait to see 'The Irishman' that is being worked on with Martin Scorsese. It would be an honour to watch him once more as a master of the big screen in an epic or historical drama with his frequent collaborator. With any luck, the film will deliver and hopefully it will deter the great man from lowering himself to poor cliche comedies.

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