The Many Faces of Dustin

There's this thing called the Kuleshov effect which some of you film buffs that understand part of why this blog is called "The Trope" might know about. The idea of it, as exemplified by the picture on the right, is that the audience can accurately interpret the emotions of a character based on the editing used. Even if the actor has a completely expressionless face, one will believe he is displaying a certain emotion if it is juxtaposed with something using editing. So, on the right you can see this guy. You know he looks exactly the same in those three pictures, but when that face is juxtaposed with the little girl in the coffin, it will seem like his expression is sad. When he may or may not be looking at the soup, his expression seems hungry. His expression will even change to lustful when juxtaposed with the sultry woman on the couch.

The reason I'm giving this 101 course on the Kuleshov effect is to provide some background info before I state my opinion. When I first learned about the Kuleshov effect it was through my Intro to Film teacher, who took it so far as to say, "There is no such thing as actors." Maybe he doesn't really believe that but felt it would be more effective to shock us by saying something so resolute. If that's the case, well, then it worked. On me, anyway. Since then I've paid a lot more attention to acting in movies and realized that while we really do add a lot of the emotions ourselves because we can sympathize or understand what the emotions should be, there are and have been a few real, skilled actors, too. I've always thought a good actor is somebody that makes you forget he or she is an actor, but now I know he needs to shine on his own, too, rather than just with the editing, script, and whatever else.

Okay, now that I've written that little intro so that you don't think I throw the phrase around easily, I can continue.
Dustin Hoffman is a damn. good. actor. Here are just three reasons why:

The movie:                             The movie:                                The movie:
Tootsie                                   Rain Man                                   Kramer vs. Kramer
The role:                                The role:                                    The role:
An actor so desperate              An autistic savant that is            A workaholic father who
for work that he dresses          forced to travel with his             must adapt to being a single
as a woman to get a                 temperamental and highly         parent and have his first
role in a soap opera.                self-centered brother.                 meaningful relationship.
The challenge:                       The challenge:                           The challenge:
Playing a woman                    Controlling all speech,               Mirroring his own feelings.
convincingly as well               attitude, and mannerisms           At the time, he was going
as a man who begins              to create a very personal             through a divorce of his own
to understand the issues          picture of this autistic                 and was feeling many of
behind gender equality.          character.                                 the things his character was.
              
That man has some serious range. There's a lot of things that can be said about these movies and about Hoffman's acting in them, but nothing speaks better than the movies themselves, so go watch them if you haven't seen them already! Or rewatch them with his other roles in mind. Then come back here and let me know which one is your favorite in the comments.