Leonardo DiCaprio turns 40 today, which almost seems too young, as he has been a mainstay of Hollywood for many of those years. He has starred in some of the best Hollywood movies of the last 20 years or so, had four acting Oscar nominations, and has been in the limelight for the right reasons since he was 16. And yet he still doesn’t always get the credit he deserves.

 

Anyone who calls themself a “true” DiCaprio fan will point to his work on Growing Pains where he caught peoples’ (read young girls) eyes. While his ascension was largely thanks to those young ladies, DiCaprio has always kept himself grounded in making good film, after good film.

 

It was Robert De Niro who helped DiCaprio breakthrough to the big screen with This Boy’s Life (1993), but it was his Academy Award nominated performance in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) that would help define the actor’s career going forward. After Gilbert Grape, no one was going to doubt DiCaprio’s acting chops.

 

DiCaprio blew up again when he starred in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996), cementing himself as a heartthrob with young girls before Titanic (1997) took the ladies’ love for him to unseen levels. Titanic was a good and epic piece of filmmaking from James Cameron, but the reason it was as financially successful as it was is largely do to endless amount of girls seeing the film 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10+ times. In fact, these girls made Titanic such a gargantuan hit that they might have inadvertently made the film unavoidable to the Academy. Cameron is a deserving filmmaker; one of our best, but everyone on that film should worship the feet of DiCaprio and those baby blues.

 

DiCaprio continued to be financially successful at the box office after Titanic, but his next great film wasn’t until he worked with Steven Spielberg on Catch Me If You Can (2002). Working with the “Bearded One” and Tom Hanks on this true life tale of con-kid Frank Abagnale Jr. Spielberg’s film has become endlessly rewatchable, but for DiCaprio the film was a transition of growing-up, and out of just a teen heartthrob.

Post Inception, DiCaprio has hit one speed bump with Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar (2011). He gives a good performance in the film, but Eastwood’s direction is flat even if he is working with another anointed master director. DiCaprio quickly regains his footing though with one of his best performances yet in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (2012). DiCaprio has never been nastier in the role and is one of the best characters Tarantino’s put up on the screen.

 

To get us up to date, DiCaprio had a pretty good year last year too. The Great Gatsby (2013) was a fun, excessive and underrated reunion with Baz Luhrmann that is already being properly reclaimed for being as good as it is. His last released film was another Scorsese collaboration, The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and you really could make a strong argument that it is DiCaprio’s best work to date. The film might also be DiCaprio and Scorsese’s most important too, as it exposes such a giant black eye on our financial society. Sadly, the film was misinterpreted and people, shockingly, thought the film supported the depravity on the screen, but time will surely come down on the right side of the argument for this film.

 

DiCaprio has had quite the career and I am sure he will continue a number of great films out of him for many more. No actor since 2002 has had as high a batting average as DiCaprio when it comes to number of good films and even though his films might be generally underrated, time will surely tell on their legacy. 

 

by Zac Oldenburg

In the same year Catch Me If You Can was released, DiCaprio also began his partnership with Martin Scorsese with the epic and underrated Gangs of New York (2002). DiCaprio might not even be in the top 5 best things about Gangs, but his relationship with Scorsese will define the rest of his career to the present. The Aviator (2004), where DiCaprio plays millionaire Howard Hughes, was the next film in his filmography. Working with Scorsese, the film sees one of the best performances of his career. The film is still tremendous ten years later and is, again, a bit underrated in my opinion. DiCaprio and Scorsese made The Departed (2006) next and finally won Scorsese an Oscar, even if it is their weakest film.