Morgan Freeman is someone you want on your side. He’s hunted serial killers, helped Batman, led the US, drove Miss Daisy and been God.
In the action sequel London Has Fallen, he returns to play the vice-president (a slight demotion from Deep Impact) to Aaron Eckhart’s US leader, who finds himself in a spot of bother as terrorists destroy most of the English capital. Freeman might be disappointingly powerless in the film (as is everyone, compared to Gerard Butler’s swaggeringly xenophobic hero), but he still injects the regressive film with some class.
What have been his finest performances elsewhere?
Street Smart
For any actor worried about still making it in a young person’s game, Freeman’s delayed ascent to the A-list remains a story worth retelling. It took him an unusual 50 years to finally breakout and garner the attention of Hollywood, and this was the film that did it in 1987. He plays a tough pimp who serves as the antagonist to an ambitious reporter, a post-Superman Christopher Reeve. Freeman’s ferocious performance led to a best supporting actor nomination at the Oscars.
Lean on Me
Just two years later, he was given his first leading role in this biographical drama about a tough but dedicated principal who revolutionises a deprived school. The film lingers in cliched territory but Freeman is dynamite, imbuing an alternately abrasive and inspirational character with strength and power. He showed that he can rise above the material and emerge as the most memorable element to whatever film he attaches his name to.
The Shawshank Redemption
It’s easy to be snobbish about Frank Darabont’s prison-set drama, given its widespread popularity and all-too-frequent appearance on favourite film lists. But there’s a clear reason for such fervent fandom: it’s a near flawless example of great storytelling. It’s also a film that brought Morgan Freeman to the masses and served as proof of his commanding screen presence. He lost out on the best actor Oscar to Tom Hanks for Forrest Gump. Forrest. Gump.
Se7en
Never has one of this actor’s many weathered characters had a better reason to be so damn weathered. In the unnamed, grim, hopeless city in David Fincher’s dark thriller, apathy and depravity rule the streets, and Freeman’s beleaguered detective is a man struggling to believe in people’s capacity for good. It’s a difficult film with an unforgettably bleak ending, but Freeman keeps us grounded.
Million Dollar Baby
While in many ways his performance as a kindly ex-boxer was a prototypical role for Freeman, there’s still enough substance to make it one of his most memorable turns. He and Clint Eastwood boast undeniable chemistry as they team up again, while Freeman brings a soulfulness to the film that deservedly won him his first Oscar.
