Harvey Keitelhas been around for decades, consistently shining in lead roles, supporting parts, and even cameos; he can do it all. He had roles in some ofMartin Scorsese’s earliest movies (and a couple of later ones), he was inQuentin Tarantino’s first breakout hits, and he’s also been cast in a handful ofWes Andersonmovies, to outline just some of the high-profile directors he’s worked with more than once.
He’s only ever gotten one Oscar nomination, for 1991’sBugsy, but everyone (particularly fans of the gangster genre) iswell-aware he’s given multiple performances that would’ve deserved nods from the Oscars. He’s been in so much that what follows is really just the best of the best. As such, honorable mentions and apologies have to go out to a handful of movies, namely:Mean Streets,Moonrise Kingdom,The Grand Budapest Hotel,The Duellists, andFrom Dusk till Dawn. It’s hard; he’s just been in too much good stuff!
10’Youth' (2015)
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Though it might not sound super exciting on paper,Youthis actually a surprisingly engrossing film, with a simple premise elevated by stunning visuals and some excellent performances. Essentially, it centers on twoaging men (played byMichael Caineand Harvey Keitel respectively) vacationing in the Swiss Alps and grappling with the fact that their lives are starting to wind down.
So, yes,Youthis about growing old, but it finds a certain amount of humor and empathy in the whole scenario, and manages to blend quirky comedy and sadder moments super efficiently. It does ultimately succeed thanks to Caine and Keitel, too,both doing arguably their best work of the 2010s here, and they’re backed by a great supporting cast that includes the likes ofRachel Weisz,Paul Dano, andJane Fonda.
Watch on Max
Director: Abel Ferrara
Bad Lieutenantis an extremely dark crime film thatwas somewhat understandably rated NC-17. That rating does have its problems, butBad Lieutenantis, for better or worse, extreme and unwaveringly confronting. The loose narrative follows Keitel’s character, known only as “The Lieutenant,” as he deals with personal demons and addictions, all the while also working on a case that involves a disturbing crime committed against a nun.
The world ofBad Lieutenantis rather hellish, and even though The Lieutenant does seek some form of redemption for the misdeeds he’s committed, the film does little to suggest he’ll get what he’s looking for. So,it’s dark and kind of miserable to watch, but there is a certain undeniable power here, and Keitel – who probably shows up in supporting roles more often than truly central ones – gives one of his most memorable lead performances here, as he’s unequivocally the main character.
Watch on Criterion
8’The Piano' (1993)
Director: Jane Campion
A film that deservedlywon the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festivaland remains arguably Jane Campion’s best work to date,The Pianois a unique historical drama/romance movie. It follows a mute woman and her daughter, and their experiences after the woman is sold into marriage, effectively trapping them in unfamiliar New Zealand.
Keitel plays another man whom the woman falls genuinely in love with, which starts up a whole heap of conflict… butThe Pianois far from a standard love triangle-centered sort of drama. It’s not sentimental and never feels clichéd, instead telling what’s, on paper, a simple story with care and a certain haunting quality. It’s the kind of film that leaves a mark; one that lingers long after the movie itself is over.
Rent on Apple TV
7’Reservoir Dogs' (1992)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
As mentioned before, Harvey Keitel played key roles in some early Quentin Tarantino movies, and had one of the largest parts in Tarantino’s feature directorial debut,Reservoir Dogs. Keitel’sstatus as a legendary gangster movie starwas well utilized here, as he plays a member of a crew formed to execute a jewel heist, only the entirely off-screen heist goes wrong, and the survivors begin to suspect that one member of the crew might be an undercover cop.
It’s all about the before and after the heist, rather than the job itself, with expertly done non-chronological storytelling used to make certain reveals and sequences all the more surprising/impactful.It’s aninfamously violent and sometimes cruel film, but stands out for being particularly tough, even by the crime genre’s standards, with the whole cast (Keitel included, obviously) more than rising to the occasion.
Reservoir Dogs
Watch on Amazon
6’The Irishman' (2019)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Predominantly,The Irishmanis a film that belongs tothe likes ofRobert De Niro,Joe Pesci, andAl Pacino, all of whom have the biggest roles in the film and ultimately impress the most. But Harvey Keitel had a part to play inthis epic Martin Scorsese gangster film, too, playing a particularly cold and shadowy member of the Philadelphia crime family associated with various other criminals in the film.
Keitel’s only in a handful of scenes, but seeing him in a Scorsese film for the first time in more than 30 years was great to see, as was the fact that other Scorsese mainstays like De Niro and Pesci returned and gave complex, bold performances.The Irishmanis allabout growing old, having regrets, and dying a kind of spiritual death before a physical one. It’s bleak, but also strangely entertaining and darkly funny at times. In other words, it’s remarkable.
The Irishman
Watch on Netflix
5’Thelma & Louise' (1991)
Director: Ridley Scott
GivenThelma & Louiseisn’t a work of science fiction, and nor is it any kind of historical epic, it might not immediately jump out as aRidley Scottfilm… but, nonetheless, it isone of the director’s best. The title characters are two women who go on the runafter one shoots a man in self-defense, leading to various members of law enforcement pursuing the pair, Keitel’s detective character included.
He’s not so much of a bad lieutenant, here, and neither are Thelma and Louise. Both are heroic, in many ways, and ultimately tragic figures, though there is something inspiring to be taken from their story.Thelma & Louiseis also just superbly entertaining, expertly paced, and packed with memorable characters, making it an admittedly well-regarded film that deserves to be held in even higher regard.
Thelma & Louise
4’The Last Temptation of Christ' (1988)
Some people have criticized Harvey Keitel’s performance inThe Last Temptation of Christ, but those people are wrong. Well, not entirely. They might be wrong, or they might be too hung up on the accent (or lack thereof) that he uses. But it feels like a lack of focus on accents within the film was intentional. It aims to humanize Jesus in a way that feels more relatable to 20th-century sensibilities, and perhaps the more modern-sounding characters were just a part of that.
David Bowieappears in the film, for example, and sounds like David Bowie. Once the accents are accepted,The Last Temptation of Christis a monumental achievement, and extremely well-acted (Keitel and everyone else). It has one ofthe best movie scores ever composed, courtesy of Peter Gabriel, and is undoubtedly one ofScorsese’s most moving and mature films.
The Last Temptation of Christ
Watch on Apple TV
3’Blue Collar' (1978)
Director: Paul Schrader
Paul Schrader’s efforts as a screenwriter are often well-celebrated, buthis work as a director tends to get a bit more overlooked. While his greatest film islikely 1985’sMishima: A Life in Four Chapters, the runner-up in a Schrader ranking is arguablyBlue Collar, and as it turns out, that one also has a great Harvey Keitel performance in it.
His co-stars,Richard PryorandYaphet Kotto, are also fantastic, with the plot ofBlue Collarinvolving their three characters enacting a plan to rob a safe at the headquarters of the union they’ve become frustrated with. It’s a movie about people in desperate times resorting to desperate measures, and then exploring some of the consequences that come about from the plan they attempt.As far as crime/drama films go, it’s an intensely realistic, grounded, and quite downbeat one, but it’s also very engaging and thematically rich, conveying the sorts of problems present at the time the film was made (problems that may or may not persist, in some ways, to this day).
2’Taxi Driver' (1976)
An intensely lonely film, as well as an intense one full-stop,Taxi Driveris one of thegreatest and most memorable movies of the 1970s. It had a reduced role for Harvey Keitel, compared to earlier Scorsese films he’d starred in (namely,Who’s That Knocking At My DoorandMean Streets), buthe’s phenomenal here for the screen time he has, playing a truly despicable and slimy character named Sport.
Sport makes the otherwise troubled Travis Bickle (played by Robert De Niro at his best) look almost heroic in comparison… though emphasis on “almost,” because Bickle’s no hero, and mightnot even really be an antihero. The whole film is raw and gutsy, with authenticity shining through in regard to both the acting and the wayTaxi Drivercaptures a particularly dirty, harrowing, and bleak New York City.
Taxi Driver
1’Pulp Fiction' (1994)
Harvey Keitel doesn’t show up until near the very end ofPulp Fiction(it would be near the start if you watched the whole thing chronologically), but he doessteal the scenes he ends up being in. He plays a fixer who’s tasked with dealing with what the film calls “The Bonnie Situation” – namely, there’s a car with its insides covered with the insides of a man’s head, and it needs to be hastily cleaned and disposed of.
ButPulp Fictionis the kind of sprawling movie where people come in and out, andcertain actors alongside Keitel – like Christopher Walken and Uma Thurman – make huge impressions, even if they’re not in large stretches of the film. It’s undoubtedly a classic of the 1990s, and arguably the best movie Harvey Keitel’s ever appeared in (the same can be said for therespective filmographies ofJohn TravoltaandBruce Willis, too).
