5 Favorites: Morgan Freeman

Wednesday is February 1st, and the start of Black History Month. In honor of this, and the fact that the Academy Awards are at the end of the month, I'm going to do a full month of my Five Favorites dedicated to black Oscar winners. I'm going to start with Morgan Freeman, because he is a Grade A badass. Freeman won a  Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2004 for the film "Million Dollar Baby" after being nominated three other times (Best Supporting Actor - 'Street Smart" (1987), Best Actor - "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989), Best Actor - "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994)) He has since only been nominated once, for "Invictus" in 2009, and continues to roll out film after film, and narrate everything in sight, including every Visa commercial starting with the Summer Olympics in 2008.

5. The Dark Knight (2008)

It would be stupid of me to do a list of my favorite performances by anyone in either of Nolan's Batman films, and not put it on the list. Freeman plays Lucius Fox, the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, and enabler to Bruce Wayne's vigilante lifestyle. I picked this over "Batman Begins" because this is the film that Fox went from a simple R&D lab geek, to the voice of reason. He helps Batman set up a few elaborate plans, and even helps out in the field. Lucius is just an all around cool guy.

4. Deep Impact (1998)

Every now and then two movies will be released that mirror each other in so many ways. In 1998 it was "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon". "Armageddon" was terrible, and "Deep Impact" was superior in every way possible. It had a tense, realistic script, characters that resembled human beings, and actors that weren't Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler. Most of all it had Morgan Freeman. As the President! In 1998 a black president seemed like the most fictitious part of the film, but Freeman sold it. He had poise, grace, and told it like it was. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is Freeman 2012.

3. Glory (1989)

There isn't much I enjoy more than a group of people rising up against fascists that are holding them back. "Glory" was a great film about an all black volunteer Union regiment fighting against the South in the American Civil War. Freeman is Sgt. Maj. John Rawlins, a gravedigger turned soldier who acts as a conduit between the white officers and the black soldiers, and he plays him with force and intelligence. Denzel Washington may have won the Academy Award that year, but Freeman deserved it, at least a nomination. Instead he got it for "Driving Miss Daisy".


2. Unforgiven (1992)

"Unforgiven" is one of those films that seems to make people excited by the mere mention of it. It is easily the best film Clint Eastwood has directed, so far, and in a career that includes "Mystic River", "Million Dollar Baby", and "Letters from Iwo Jima", that may be a very bold statement. It's a western that dares to question its own violent nature. Ned Logan is a former associate of Eastwood's Will Munny, who is brought back into the gunslinging lifestyle to ride one last job. Freeman plays him so well, so brilliantly, you wonder why Eastwood ever bothers to act with anybody else.

1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Did you think it was going to be anything else? "Shawkshank" is number one on my list of films from the 1990's, and everybody in it is at the top of their game. Freeman may have lost the Oscar to Tom Hanks, for "Forrest Gump" of all things, but he deserved it. His portrayal of Red, an inmate who is able to get you anything you want, is even and beautiful. You watch him grow through his friendship with Tim Robbins' Andy Dufresne, as he watches him play the system until he breaks free of it. His narration of the story is some of the most well written in the history of Hollywood, and speaks every line like he is doing you a favor. So, thank the man. For he is truly the man!