Who do you think was the best Ripley?

[deleted]

I've seen all those movies, and concerning those that are based on the first book (The Talented Mr. Ripley and Purple Noon), I must say that I prefer Dammon.

And that's not that I consider him a better actor than Alain Delon. (no way)It's simply because I think that Delon is too beautiful for the part. He is even more beautiful than Dickie (Phillipe in Purple Noon), while the Ripley in the book wears glasses and feels a little bit cast away, solitary and sad.
And Dickie is this gorgeous and vivid guy who facinates him from the very begginning.

It is funny that you didn't notice that there is a very clear homosexual subtext in "Ripley's Game". Why do you think Ripley asks his wife to turn over in bed? Why do you think he is shown as a man who can sew and cook? Why do you think his friend Reeves had a man sleeping in his bed?

Patricia Highsmith herself said: "MURDER IS A KIND OF MAKING LOVE, A KIND OF POSESSING". If you equate murder to sex in this movie, you will understand what it is really about.

Billy

P.S. I agree that Ripley's Game is by far the best Ripley movie.

Now that I've seen all of the first four Ripley movies and I've reread a couple of the novels, my opinion has changed somewhat.

Before I had even read the novels, I had read an interview with Patricia Highsmith in which she denied that there was a homosexual subtext to the Ripley novels and said that Ripley was heterosexual. At the time, I was largely ignorant of Highsmith's background and the culture she grew up in... so I was inclined to take her on her word, and this clouded my reading of the books somewhat... it's why I wasn't really thinking of the homosexual subtext the first time I read the books. I see it now, and am more sceptical of Highsmith's comments about her own work in general.

Also, the second time I read the books I became more aware of the changes (some subtle and some huge) that occur to Ripley's character over the course of the books... and taking this into account, it makes sense that actors and filmmakers have interpreted the character in such radically different ways.

Ripley is a needy and insecure neurotic in the first book - and Matt Damon conveys this very well. The problem with Matt Damon's Ripley is not his lack of self-confidence, or even that writer/director Anthony Minghella has taken the homo-erotic subtext and made it explicit.... no, the problem is that "The Talented Mr. Ripley" makes Ripley less culpable... the first killing is committed by accident and in self defence, the subsequent ones in order to cover up the first.

However, this more sensitive Ripley is quite a compelling creation in it's own right... as is Dennis Hopper's befuddled, drugged-out cowboy portrayal. Hopper's Ripley is a lost and bewildered outsider, a walking anachronism... and it's not hard to imagine this washed out wanderer as the grown up version of Damon's Ripley.

John Malkovich does seem like such a pulpish, comic-book villain in comparison... but I find what his performance lacks in depth he makes up for with screen presence.

Alain Delon, despite being very good looking and very French, strikes me as the best Ripley so far... his performance is a nice, even mixture of geeky insecurity and cold, calculating malice... he tries to capture both sides of Ripley's character whereas the other actors lean heavily on one or the other.

It must be said, that all of the actors have brought something of their own personality to the role, and having seen Delon and Hopper in action, I'm more curious than ever to see what Barry Pepper does with the part in the upcoming "Ripley Under Ground".

So my verdict is:


BEST PORTRAYAL OF RIPLEY
Alain Delon in "Purple Noon"

MOST GOOD LOOKING AND GOOD SOUNDING RIPLEY FILM
"The Talented Mr. Ripley"
(cinematography, sets n' costumes are all awesome and the jazz coundtrack is finger clickin' good)

BEST WRITTEN RIPEY FILM
"Ripley's Game"
(sharp dialogue, full of quotable gems... and has the most focused narrative of them all... the others, especially "The American Friend" contain a lot more unneccessary scenes that don't further the plot or characters)

Well I have seen three of the films so far- Talented Mr Ripley, Plein Soleil, and Ripley's Game.

I hated Ripley's Game, I thought it was a cheap, nasty film. Can't stand Ray Winstone, Malkovitch was repellent and chewed the scenery, and it had no production values whatsoever. I mean some of the locations were gorgeous but still it looked like it was made for TV in the eighties.

Plein Soleil I sort of liked, but found it too pleased with itself- all those lingering shots of eyes and food and impressionistic stuff just irritates me. It was beautiful, but being French and sixties, the story isn't as solid.

I really loved The Talented Mr Ripley though. There was so much more to it. It sounded great, looked great and really expensive, the actors seemed to relish their roles and I thought Matt Damon was so superb in his vulnerability and creepiness. The story was told excellently and it just thrilled me. Which is what set me on this path.

Well, The American Friend is next on my list, though I don't think I'll like it. Ripley Underground I can't seem to get hold of.

How interesting though, to be able to see so many so different takes on the same character.

it's so difficult to rank the different ripley characters, but when one analyzes each version of ripley strictly from a character depth perspective, it's hard not to see how matt damon incarnation doesn't rise to the top. while no one classifies any of the film versions of ripley as two-dimensional, minghella's version not only gave us the before-and-after of ripley, but also touched on psychological complexities that the other films didn't even approach. and from the perspective of great performances, matt damon played the hell out of the role he got handed....

Haven't seen Hopper or Pepper, but I'd rank the others...

1. DELON




2. MALKOVICH
3. DAMON

"Ripley's Game" sucked (although I liked Malkovich), "The Talented Mr. Ripley" was decent, and "Purple Noon" rules.

"I did cramps the way Meryl Streep did accents" - Calliope (Middlesex)

I was quite blown away by Malkovitch's portrayal of Ripley in Ripley's Game, although I was more touched by Dougray Scott's performance that was - although less sensational and lower keyed - so nuanced and subtle, that it cut away a bit from Malkovitch.

Having said that: I always found that Delon's beauty and apparent innocence added a very particular dimension to his Ripley and the amount of evil this character is capable of, making that one the creepiest, scariest Ripley ever.