Who in your opinion is the best live-action Sherlock Holmes? There have been a lot of actors in the role of the legendary grandmaster detective (Wilmer, Cushing, Caine, Lee, Plummer, etc), but I’ve chosen the most notable actors on the poll. Rathbone – the first and definitely the most renowned Holmes. His lean hawkish looks and his lecturer approach in logically deducing the pieces of the puzzles set the precedent for future Sherlocks. Brett – the Holmes of the 1980s BBC show. He brought Holmes to faithful, fantastic life, as if he’d stepped out of Doyle’s pages himself. RDJ – he brings his own idiosyncrasy to the role, with the ability to see everything and miss nothing, and to think ahead of his opponents (most of them anyway) and outwit them. But admittedly RDJ Holmes is basically 18th-century English Tony Stark sans armour and with amped intelligence. Cumberbatch – An updated version of the character, being a consulting detective with a hint of sociopathy. He’s excellent, but perhaps just a bit too "Hannibal"-esque and handsome for the role – it’s not a criticism, but every girl in my community fawns on every Cumberbatch feature... I’d have to say Brett. Rathbone is my favourite, but Brett took the role of Holmes with utmost dedication and seriousness, and made it his own. He prepared an extensive biography of the character, and obsessed over him to the point where he himself could not tell whether he or Holmes was the role being played. This level of dedication paid off, and his performance as Holmes is recognized as one of the best ever. My most favourite Holmes of all time would have to be this version though: Sherlock Holmes English Opening - YouTube Seriously, why can’t Miyazaki return to TV?
Jeremy Brett is the clear winner for me, he WAS the character in the same way that Tom Baker personified the role of the Doctor. I think RDJ is awesome as Tony Stark/Iron Man but refuse to watch his Holmes films as from the clips I've seen they're generic action films set in that time period as opposed to proper Holmes stories. I think Benedict Cumberbatch is a good Holmes but I don't like the present day setting and couldn't watch more than one episode. I've never seen any of the Basil Rathbone stuff so I can't really comment on it.
I grew up with Rathbone and loved those old movies as a kid, but being a big fan of the books, Brett blew me away when I finally saw the Granada series. Has to be Jeremy Brett. It was really hard watching his health deteriorate through those last stories he did, but he really battled through and stuck with it. What a great actor and great portrayal. Both Watsons from that series were very good, too.
He was f'ing amazing and Watson wasn't far behind even when he regenerated. Acting styles and TV trends have changed a lot since then and I don't think it's been for the better.
I say Cumberbatch just beats out RDJ. One thing I feel like sharing though is that I can do a great impression of RDJ's Sherlock. Seriously, all my friends and family say it's spot on.
Brett is the best classic style Holmes. He embodied Holmes. His is the closest in tone and plot to the original stories. They were well filmed and very well acted. Cumberbatch is the best Modern interpretation. Sorry haven't made the figure yet. Rathbone, was the most famous for the longest time, and is probably the best known. He even did a series of Radio dramas at the same time he starred in the movies. His movies were rerun on TV for decades. He did a good job, but his Watson {Nigel Bruce} is a bit of a buffoon, but that was the style at the time. RDJ is fun, but not Holmes. They've twisted the stories and character too much. RDJ is Iron man not Holmes.
Cumberbatch and RDJ are tied, although I'm considering their characters to be completely different, since Sherlock is more of a re-imagining of the series than an actual adaptation.
Yeah but the movies and Radio Dramas made good use of it, and were written well. I have all the radio dramas, they were quite good, and most were original stories.
Cumberbatch, no contest. Sherlock is just amazing and he totally steals every scene he's in. Downey makes a good generic steampunk action hero, but he's a terrible Holmes.
Jeremy Brett, but even so... RDJ isn't even as close to "unfaithful" as people claim. It's like people never read the books and just think that the Basil Rathbone series was 100% faithful to the books and springboard off of that. Just read the Sign of Four. That book alone proves the point.
Yes, He is Holmes in those respects, but compared to the more accurate portrayal by Jeremy Brett, he falls down to a C. The movie plots Downy's in push it further down, and they took those aspects mentioned and put them on steroids and exaggerated them further than when he actually acted that way in the books. When Holmes was on a case he had less of those aspects because he was interested and he wasn't bored. Most of the crazier things Holmes did were often mentioned in passing by Watson as having happened when there wasn't on a case. Yes there were always those aspects, but not as much as the movies show it to be. Also I'm tired of all the gay jokes in the modern Holmes stories. Holmes didn't care about Women he considered them inferior.He didn't care about men either, he was basically a really smart guy who was bored out of his mind and had no social skills. He was basically the Sheldon cooper of his era. He had that type of personality. Everything was a logical problem to be solved. But Sheldon has TV, Video games,etc. Holmes didn't. So he came up with other means to entertain himself. He never had romantic feelings for Addler, he was just impressed with her because she out smarted him. He kept her picture to remind him not to underestimate women. Another thing they typically get wrong is Moriarty. Moriarty was a cold hearted business man. He wasn't Mantic, he didn't constantly try to get Holmes at first. He was a crime lord. He only went after Holmes in the end because the detective was costing him money. But before he tried to have him destroyed, he politely came to this man he respected and said please stop getting in my way, or I'll kill you. Holmes refused, so Moriarty went after him with a vengence. He basically hired hit men to take Holmes out at first, after they failed to kill Holmes,Moriarty then went after him himself. At the end at the falls before they supposedly fought to the death, he allowed Holmes to write a letter to Watson before they fought to the death, there was a lot of respect between the two of them. The sign of the four is a great Holmes book, I recommend the Bret movie version, it's pretty accurate to the book.
I have read the original stories (well, about half of them, anyway). RDJ's Holmes still just doesn't feel right to me.
I for one, think part of this is justified. A good chunk of Holmes' oddities were really freaking outrageous in Victorian times, but in this age and time, he'd be considered pretty normal [comparatively]. Amping up his madness drives the point home [pardon the pun] better than just leaving there as it is. Even then, I don't really think they amped things up all that much, him closing himself in his room in-between cases [shown in the first movie], getting bored out of his skull without a puzzle [first movie], playing violin excessively [also in the first], penchant for weird disguises [both movies], really freaking weird methods [both movies, again], acting like an arrogant asshole [both movies], analyzing everything obsessively [also both movies], a bit lacking in the social side [both movies] were all in the books. Hell, even his fighting skills was often mentioned in the stories [he just mostly didn't use them because...well...he didn't need them. Unlike the movies, where most of his foes are grade-A supervillains instead of common criminals]. While I do agree with what you said [and I find it one of the most interesting "Holmesian" traits], I pardon adaptations for the thing with Adler [and Adler alone, however, whenever he is shown as womanizing I will promptly walk out of the theather] because even in the book, Watson seems a little uncertain if Holmes is actually in love with Adler or not. Frankly, Moriarty appeared far too little in the original novel, so of course they'll change him up a bit, it's basically impossible to make a non-to-the-letter adaptation of the Final Problem without doing something to Moriarty's personality [unless you manage to have him off-screen for some 80% of the plot]. I am aware you haven't watched Game of Shadows [at least I think so], but I think you'd be quite happy with how that Moriarty turned out, played by the ever-so-magnificent Jared Harris, son of the great Richard Harris: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Meeting Moriarty Scene HD - YouTube [though yes, he seems to be more outright monstrous than the original one. But again, hard to make anything without changing up a few things]. Well, I wasn't going to vote, but after this lenghty post defending RDJ, I'll go with that version because why not.
Admittedly haven't seen game of shadows, the first movie was a disappointment, so I haven't gotten around to seeing the second one yet.
This.^ I just watched Season 2 Episode 1 last night (Season 2, now on Netflix, folks!) and I'm just blown away by how great the show is and how great Cumberbatch is. The only thing I hate about the show, is the super-short seasons. I liked RDJ's first Holmes movie, but the second was just terrible.
I assume it's Robert Downy Jr. because it's also the only one I've seen. Also, it's more accurate to the book because he's not wearing the brown jacket everyone thinks he always wears.