One of the great actors passed away yesterday. Since several other websites are listing their “must see” Robert Duvall movies, here’s my 5 favorite Robert Duvall movies (in alphabetical order).
“Apocalypse Now” – He’s only in one scene, but it’s a memorable one. It has what most people would say is the most famous line of the movie: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like victory”
“The Godfather” – Tom Hagan doesn’t do a lot in this movie, but he does have one memorable scene when – at Vito Corleone’s request – he goes out to Hollywood to ask studio head Jack Woltz to give Johnny Fontaine a part in a movie. The studio head says no which leads to the famous dead horse head scene.
“The Godfather Part 2” – Tom Hagan doesn’t have a lot to do in this movie either other that act as Michael Corleone’s consultant at the hearings (I also give Robert Duvall a lot of credit for turning down the third Godfather movie).
“The Paper” – This is the one that’s on my list but on hardly any others. It’s a great cast including Glenn Close, Michael Keaton, and Marisa Tomei but his scenes are some of the best. Jason Alexander (who is in one scene of the movie – shown in the photo above) just said on Instagram how great it was to work with Duvall on this movie. Also, Catherine O’Hara – who recently passed away – has a really good cameo in the movie. If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” – One of his very first movie roles. When I read the book and pictured Boo Radley – Robert Duvall in the movie was very close to what I pictured. I can’t imagine anyone else playing the role as good as he did.
Honorable Mention
A lot of other lists mention “Network” which he was good in (but overall I didn’t like that movie much), he’s good in “The Natural”, he was good in his Academy Award winning role in “Tender Mercies”, and he was pretty good as the original Frank Burns in the movie “M*A*S*H.”
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 