The Best Denzel Washington Movies
In an attempt to celebrate Denzel Washington’s stunning career, we’ve rounded up his ten best performances in one handy list.
Denzel Washington is easily one of the best actors of the past few decades. His style is dynamic and sophisticated, and he has an unparalleled ability to lend great empathy and nuance to his characters, no matter how deranged they may be (Training Day, anyone?) In other words, Washington is the kind of actor who makes it look easy. He’s effortlessly stealing scenes on the big screen—and, at least in the case of Cry Freedom, entire movies—with his charisma and obvious talent since the 90s, but it can be easy to forget that Washington’s career has been long and varied. His first serious acting gig was as Dr. Phillip Chandler on St. Elsewhere, a groundbreaking hospital drama in the 80s, becoming one of the few African American actors to star in the show. When St. Elsewhere came to an end in 1988, Washington made his move on to the big screen, and the rest is history.
Washington has also expressed an interest and talent for the stage, and even won a Tony award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for his role in an adaptation of August Wilson’s Fences in 2010 (Washington later directed the Oscar nominated movie adaptation of the same play.) If you add that Tony to his Oscars (one for Best Supporting Actor in Glory and one for Best Actor in Malcolm X) and his three Golden Globe awards, the man is halfway to a damn EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). He has actually already been nominated for an Emmy and Grammy; the former was for producing two documentaries Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks and Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream, and the latter for lending his voice to an audiobook of John Henry: Rabbit Ears in 1996. Your fave could NEVER.
In an attempt to celebrate Denzel Washington’s stunning film career, we’ve rounded up his ten best performances in one handy list. Take a day off and make it a Denzel marathon. Don’t worry, we won’t tell.
Denzel Washington is easily one of the best actors of the past few decades. His style is dynamic and sophisticated, and he has an unparalleled ability to lend great empathy and nuance to his characters, no matter how deranged they may be (Training Day, anyone?) In other words, Washington is the kind of actor who makes it look easy. He’s effortlessly stealing scenes on the big screen—and, at least in the case of Cry Freedom, entire movies—with his charisma and obvious talent since the 90s, but it can be easy to forget that Washington’s career has been long and varied. His first serious acting gig was as Dr. Phillip Chandler on St. Elsewhere, a groundbreaking hospital drama in the 80s, becoming one of the few African American actors to star in the show. When St. Elsewhere came to an end in 1988, Washington made his move on to the big screen, and the rest is history.
Washington has also expressed an interest and talent for the stage, and even won a Tony award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for his role in an adaptation of August Wilson’s Fences in 2010 (Washington later directed the Oscar nominated movie adaptation of the same play.) If you add that Tony to his Oscars (one for Best Supporting Actor in Glory and one for Best Actor in Malcolm X) and his three Golden Globe awards, the man is halfway to a damn EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). He has actually already been nominated for an Emmy and Grammy; the former was for producing two documentaries Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks and Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream, and the latter for lending his voice to an audiobook of John Henry: Rabbit Ears in 1996. Your fave could NEVER.
In an attempt to celebrate Denzel Washington’s stunning film career, we’ve rounded up his ten best performances in one handy list. Take a day off and make it a Denzel marathon. Don’t worry, we won’t tell.
Malcolm X (1992)
Director: Spike Lee
Stars: Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, Al Freeman, Jr., Delroy Lindo
Denzel’s performance as Malcolm X in this biographical drama won him his first Oscar nominated for Best Actor; the actor manages to explore all the nuances and complexities of Malcolm X’s rich life. The screenplay is based on The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm’s 1965 autobiography which he co-wrote with Alex Haley (who would later go on to write Roots, the inspiration for the seminal ABC 1970s drama of the same name) and traces the civil rights activist’s early life through to his untimely death in 1965. The film vibrates on a frequency only Spike Lee knows how to achieve, and Denzel is vibrant and comfortable in the titular role, paying perfect homage to an important American figure.
Fences (2016)
Director: Denzel Washington
Stars: Viola Davis, Denzel Washington, Stephen Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby
Fences is a faithful retelling of the Pulitzer-prize winning play of the same name by August Wilson, and Washington and Davis reprised their roles in the play, which won both of them Tonys during the play’s 2010 production, for the movie. As a result, these two powerhouse actors were already familiar with the sad and bitter story of Troy Maxson, a waste collector, and his wife Rose and sons Cory and Lyons. It’s a story of family and bitterness, of heartbreak and death, and although Davis and Washington both deliver knockout performances, the true star of the movie is the rich dialogue that explores the deep recesses of human relationships with tact and empathy.
Crimson Tide (1995)
Director: Tony Scott
Stars: Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman, George Dzundza, Viggo Mortensen, James Gandolfini
Cry Freedom (1987)
Director: Richard Attenborough
Stars: Kevin Kline, Penelope Cruz, Denzel Washington
In Cry Freedom, Washington plays the outspoken South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, who Nelson Mandela described as "the spark that lit a veld fire across South Africa." Biko was murdered in 1977, which happens about halfway through the film. The movie is kinetic and alive when Washington is on screen delivering his elegant and committed performance as Biko, but after he is murdered, the rest of the movie is about Biko’s white journalist friend trying to tell his story to the world. Kevin Kline is ultimately unequipped to fill the gaping hole that Washington leaves behind, a hole that Washington received a Best Supporting Actor nomination from the Academy.
The Mighty Quinn (1989)
Director: Carl Schenkel
Stars: Denzel Washington, Robert Townsend, James Fox, Mimi Rogers, M. Emmet Walsh
Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
Director: Keneth Branagh
Stars: Keneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Robert Sean Leonard, Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton, Keanu Reeves
American Gangster (2007)
Director: Ridley Scott Stars: Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, Ted Levine, John Ortiz, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington reunite in leading roles and thoroughly redeem themselves in American Gangster after the shitshow that was Virtuosity. Washington plays a fictionalized version of one of New York’s most notorious heroin dealers, Frank Lucas, and Crowe plays the cop on a bloodthirsty mission to lock him up. It’s one of those instances where you know the cop is the “good” guy, but Washington’s portrayal of Lucas is so sophisticated and dynamic that you almost side with this heartless, vicious killer because he’s just so darn charismatic and suave on the surface.
Glory (1989)
Director: Edward Zwick
Stars: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman
In Glory, Washington gives a powerful performance as a runaway slave who is part of the first military unit consisting entirely of African-Americans for the Union Army during the Civil War. It’s one of Washington’s most brilliant; his portrayal of a defiant and outspoken slave is dynamic and boiling over in empathy and humanity. One of the film’s central and most memorable scenes is one in which Washington’s character is whipped. “I remember walking around before that scene, just praying and calling on the spirits of all the slaves, because I didn’t know how to play it,” Washington told Entertainment Weekly in 2010. “I was like, ‘Okay, fellas, just tell me what to do’. And I went out there with an arrogance. I spit on the ground. I had this attitude and this strength … It wasn’t calculated. It was organic. That whip actually hurt, but I was like, ‘Don’t let him win.'”
Training Day (2001)
Director: Antoine Fuqua Stars: Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Scott Glenn, Cliff Curtis, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg
Washington’s portrayal of Alonzo, a decorated and corrupt narcotics officer in the LAPD with an unbelievably dirty backstory, is one of Washington’s most famous performances—it also won him his second Oscar. Alonzo is actually the film’s villain, a role that is seemingly straightforward but that allows Washington to give into his most dramatic, high-intensity, over-the-top instincts—who could forget "King Kong ain't got shit on me!"— but the result is a complicated, delicious villain. We never quite understand Alonzo’s motivations for being so cruel to his partner Jake, and at times it’s hard to disagree with his tactics, particularly towards the beginning of the movie, when it appears Alonzo is just trying to show Jake what it takes to patrol the L.A. streets. But at the end of the day, Alonzo is just as much of a vile asshole as Washington is a stellar actor.
Philadelphia (1993)
Director: Jonathan Demme
Stars: Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Jason Robards, Mary Steenburgen, Antonio Banderas
Released at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Philadelphia was the first major Hollywood movie to acknowledge the epidemic and explore issues of homophobia. Philadelphia is, at its heart, a courtroom drama, and Washington plays a homophobic lawyer tasked with representing Tom Hanks, a man with AIDS who is suing his former employer for wrongful termination. It’s a deeply emotional movie that demands a lot of its viewers, but also its actors: Hanks won an Oscar for his performance, but Washington was in a trickier position and still manages to give a complex and powerful portrayal of a man forced to face his deepest prejudices.