3 Leo Movies that Could Have Won an Oscar Before The Revenant

The Internet can rest easy...for now. After nearly two decades of loss, paired with unrelenting online fan campaigning, the Academy gifted Leonardo DiCaprio gold in the form of his first Oscar last weekend.

The actor/activist has seemed to star or appear in the vast majority of blockbusters produced in the past ten years. (Which makes sense the way that Scorsese works him.) Dicaprio has played a schizophrenic, a survivalist, a slave owner, etc. Roger and Ebert have said, "his best is so good that you don't catch him acting, or you don't think of what he's doing as acting, even though it is." So why has it taken so long to give this man the one thing the Internet has begged for him for so long? Did he really have to get inside of an actual dead horse?

After his win, it was hard to navigate the Internet without being bombarded by jokes of its long overdueness, as it seemed like movie-goers and teen girls heaved a huge sigh of relief. But what exactly should have won before The Revenant? The physical stress upon his body for the movie is commendable, but where has his acting really shone through before this?

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

I was in highschool the first time I watched this, so I was well aware of Leo--aware of his profilic career and his arresting lifestyle. In fact, I had chosen the movie because I had no idea that Dicaprio and Johnny Depp were in a movie together, so finding out that this existed was a teenage girl dream come true. I did not know the task at hand for DiCaprio and Depp was so daunting. The two play brothers, Depp as the older Gilbert Grape and DiCaprio as the younger mentally challenged Ernie. In my head, I had a very set image of DiCaprio, a handsome, likable, and revered actor. In the case of a lot of others in the field, sometimes my own image of actors and actresses in reality have fogged their acting as I try to make a distinction between characters and people. In the case of DiCaprio, this habit is impossible. His portrayal of Ernie is honest and real. It is no way overdone, and its accuracy is only heightened by Depp's own depiction of a loving but struggling older brother. Not for a moment was I thinking about Depp's dreamy earrings in real life or DiCaprio's humanitarian efforts to save the Earth. Roger and Ebert even endorsed the role for an Oscar.

Titanic (1996)

I almost didn't want to put this one. I am relucant because I hold firmly in my belief that just because a movie is well-done or a blockbuster does not mean the acting neccesarily follows. A timely example would be the new Mad Max, which won an Oscar for pretty much everything aside from the acting. (Not sure if this was right or wrong; I love you, Tom Hardy.) And I also remain separately skeptical of a film like the Titanic because how much can an actor really bring to such a simple role? It's an uninvolved story of a poor boy, who falls in love with a woman outside of his social class, both doomed to the same disasterous ending. But DiCaprio, and James Cameron alike, remove the melodramatic romance from its box. This is peak DiCaprio endearment. Yes it's a failry simplistic role, but it's nearly impossible not to become infatuated with him in the same way Rose does.

Django Unchained (2012)

There is a difference between acting and making a charicature. In the role of Calvin Candie, it would have been easy to paint a cartoon. The character is talked about uneasily in conversation before he appears screen, and he owns the country's largest plantion where he pins slaves against one another to fight like dogs. He is the pinnacle of evil. He wears funny outfits, has a ridiculous accent, outlandish facial hair, and smokes out of a long skiny pipe--Candie has all of the makings of a Disney villain. But Disney villains are so archetypal that they are familiar. The audience knows the villain will always lose and their road to failure does not usually faulter from the villain before them. And while Tarantino made it very obvious that DiCaprio in some ways was playing the classic antagonist model, DiCaprio brought something different. His portrayal is chilling because he is able to depict the manipulation and internal rage neccesary to go through with such odious acts. His portrayal of Candie's personality is raw, although Tarantino made the character itself the villain we had become accustomed to.

Instead of neatly wrapping up this post, I want to end with a fun fact. Because after such a congratulatory post, I feel like I need to mention that Leo was in Critters 3. Now he saves the earth, dates only models, and stars in any and all of Martin Scorse's movies. But once upon a time, a young Leo's manager thought it was not only plausible, but actually acceptable, to put him in a movie that book-ended a trilogy of films about hairy and endearing aliens. So congratulations Leo. Congratulations on the Oscar and the process it took for you to get there.