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Best Actor Nominee - Daniel Day-Lewis
For those of us too young to remember Muhammad Ali`s triumphant return from exile to beat the stuffing out of George Foreman, we now have our own miraculous comeback saga. It had been five years since Daniel Day-Lewis starred in ``The Boxer.`` Five years since the man who`s arguably the greatest actor of his generation vanished into a whirlwind of rumors.
For those of us too young to remember Muhammad Ali's triumphant return from exile to beat the stuffing out of George Foreman, we now have our own miraculous comeback saga. It had been five years since Daniel Day-Lewis starred in ''The Boxer.'' Five years since the man who's arguably the greatest actor of his generation vanished into a whirlwind of rumors.
Had he burned out on intensity? Was he really making shoes in Florence? And, most importantly, was he ever coming back? Turns out the answers were yes, yes, and yes.
No doubt, we'd all still be speculating as to his whereabouts if it weren't for his ''Gangs of New York'' director, Martin Scorsese. ''Martin managed to track me down and he told me the story over the phone even though I wasn't really looking to do a movie,'' says Day-Lewis. ''And anyone who knows Martin also knows that it's impossible to resist him,'' he says, beginning to laugh. ''I thought I could resist, but I couldn't.''
It's easy to see why the AWOL actor would want to come out of hiding to play Bill ''the Butcher'' Cutting. After all, as the unofficial mayor of the Five Points, Day-Lewis' Bill is the pit-bull dictator in a neighborhood of petty scoundrels. But instead of turning the Butcher into a mustache-twirling peacock of a villain, Day-Lewis unleashes a scary arsenal of small details: a glass eye, which he unflinchingly taps with the tip of his knife; the butchered pig he uses to demonstrate the finer points of shanking someone in a fight; a hushed morning-lit soliloquy delivered while draped in an American flag that adds a disturbing dimension to his racism.
Yes, it may have been five years in coming since ''The Boxer,'' but Daniel Day-Lewis turns his long-awaited return into a cinematic Rumble in the Jungle.
Bureau Report
Had he burned out on intensity? Was he really making shoes in Florence? And, most importantly, was he ever coming back? Turns out the answers were yes, yes, and yes.
No doubt, we'd all still be speculating as to his whereabouts if it weren't for his ''Gangs of New York'' director, Martin Scorsese. ''Martin managed to track me down and he told me the story over the phone even though I wasn't really looking to do a movie,'' says Day-Lewis. ''And anyone who knows Martin also knows that it's impossible to resist him,'' he says, beginning to laugh. ''I thought I could resist, but I couldn't.''
It's easy to see why the AWOL actor would want to come out of hiding to play Bill ''the Butcher'' Cutting. After all, as the unofficial mayor of the Five Points, Day-Lewis' Bill is the pit-bull dictator in a neighborhood of petty scoundrels. But instead of turning the Butcher into a mustache-twirling peacock of a villain, Day-Lewis unleashes a scary arsenal of small details: a glass eye, which he unflinchingly taps with the tip of his knife; the butchered pig he uses to demonstrate the finer points of shanking someone in a fight; a hushed morning-lit soliloquy delivered while draped in an American flag that adds a disturbing dimension to his racism.
Yes, it may have been five years in coming since ''The Boxer,'' but Daniel Day-Lewis turns his long-awaited return into a cinematic Rumble in the Jungle.
Bureau Report