Wednesday Minute
No. 29 | February 10, 2010

Talkin’ ‘Bout “D” Generation

Our theme this week
Actors of the “D” Generation

Featured this week
Monday         —   Matt Damon
Tuesday         —   Matt Dillon

Leonardo DiCaprio

The essentials
“He saved me,” Leonardo DiCaprio said about Martin Scorsese.  “I was headed down a path of being one kind of actor, and he helped me become another one.  The one I wanted to be.”

Shutter Island, the mystery thriller based on the Dennis Lehane novel, which opens this month, is the fourth time DiCaprio has teamed with the famed director.  The other collaborations have been increasingly more fruitful.  They are Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), with DiCaprio’s Oscar-nominated performance as Howard Hughes, and The Departed, the 2006 Best Picture for which Scorsese at last won an Oscar for directing.

Scorsese first heard about DiCaprio from Robert De Niro, another frequent collaborator, when the two actors worked on This Boy’s Life (1993).  DiCaprio, still a teen, won critical raves as the young Tobias Wolff, the writer-to-be who suffers from an abusive, domineering stepfather.  The same year, in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, DiCaprio played Arnie, the handicapped kid brother of Johnny Depp’s title character, who causes a commotion when he climbs the town’s water tower.  The performance opened a lot of eyes and earned DiCaprio his first Oscar nomination.

DiCaprio followed up with some offbeat roles, as Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries, and as poet Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclipse, both in 1995.  The next year he gained new fans opposite Claire Danes in Baz Luhrmann’s modern update to Shakespeare, Romeo + Juliet.  The role that broke it open for the actor was Jack Dawson, in Titanic (1997).  “I’m king of the world!” he cried.  Hard to argue with that.  The movie was a big risk, actually, but its huge success opened doors in the careers of many involved.

Perhaps uncertain what to do next, DiCaprio made a mix of movies, large and small, over the next few years.  In Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can (2002), he was pitch-perfect as the young imposter on the run from a troubled childhood and an FBI agent played by Tom Hanks.

DiCaprio’s interest in political causes was on display in a couple of films set in faraway wars.  Blood Diamond (2006) looked at the exploitation of Africa caused by the jewelry trade, and Body of Lies (2008) at the fight against terrorists in the Middle East. 

Revolutionary Road (2008) was an adaptation of Richard Yates’s acclaimed novel about the price paid for living in suburban society in 1950s America.  DiCaprio reunited with Titanic co-star Kate Winslet, and their fine acting is among the many virtues of the film.

At this point in his career, Leonardo DiCaprio doesn’t need to be saved.  Just watched.

Beyond the final credits
Partners in crime (frequent collaborators):
4 films — Martin Scorsese (includes Shutter Island)
2 films — Kathy Bates, Robert De Niro, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, Kate Winslet

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What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Leonardo DiCaprio, Darlene Cates

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The Aviator (2004)
Leonardo DiCaprio, Alec Baldwin 

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Quote of Note
Frank Abagnale Sr.:  “You know why the Yankees always win, Frank?”
Frank Abagnale Jr.:  “‘Cause they have Mickey Mantle?”
Frank Abagnale Sr.:  ”No, it’s ’cause the other teams can’t stop staring at those damn pinstripes.”
—Frank Abagnale Sr. (Christopher Walken), Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), Catch Me If You Can (2002)

…58…59…60.

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