Hoffman Film Fest, Day Three

There was a stretch of a few years where Philip got typecast as the kind-of-unhinged, almost-maniac who would do a lot of shouting from time to time.  This is not to detract from those performances–they were always nuanced, accurate portrayals of real characters, but for awhile it seemed it was almost all he was getting.  His performance in “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” came near the end of this phase, and it is one of his finest performances.  The film was directed by Sidney Lumet, an all-time great and a personal favorite of mine (“12 Angry Men”, “Dog Day Afternoon”, “Network”, and on and on) so it was exciting to see Mr. Hoffman in a Lumet film.  Additionally, one cannot now discuss this film without noting that in it, Phil played a heroin addict.  I implore you to watch this scene below, for what is now a chilling hindsight: