Kevin Costner didn’t turn out to be the second coming of Gary Cooper that some people thought he would be in the late 1980s to early 1990s. A champion of sports films and westerns (genres he’s continued to revisit over and over during his four decade career), Costner’s meteoric rise, which peaked with the success of Dances With Wolves ended with legendarily horrific production nightmares on subsequent directorial efforts like Waterworld and The Postman. Costner’s star fell and fell hard. However, the actor has-in the past decade-reinvented himself as a supporting character actor and done better work there than he ever did as a leading man. Hidden Figures, Man of Steel, Molly’s Game, The Company Men, and more all feature Costner in strong supporting roles in ensemble films, and he’s become so good at it that his appearance in a film’s credits makes a film more appealing than it does when he was one of the biggest stars in the world.
Kevin Costner’s Best 10
1. Bull Durham (1988) Crash Davis
2. The Untouchables (1987) Elliot Ness
3. Molly’s Game (2017) Larry Bloom
4. Field of Dreams (1989) Ray Kinsella
5. Hatfields & McCoys (2012 -History) Devil “Anse” Hatfield
6. Thirteen Days (2000) Kenny O’Donnell
7. The Company Men (2010) Jack
8. Dances With Wolves (1990) Lt. Dunbar
9. Tin Cup (1996) Roy McAvoy
10. Hidden Figures (2016) Al Harrison
Honorable Mention: Man of Steel (2013) Jonathan Kent
Oscars, Golden Globes & Emmys
Oscar Wins (2): Dances With Wolves (1991 – Producer & Director)
Oscar Nominations (3): Dances With Wolves (1991 – Actor, Director & Producer)
Golden Globe Wins (2): Dances With Wolves (1991 – Director), Hatfields & McCoys (2013)
Golden Globe Nominations (5): Dances With Wolves (1991 – Actor & Director), JFK (1992), Tin Cup (1997), Hatfields & McCoys (2013)
Emmy Wins (1): Hatfields & McCoys (2013-Actor)
Emmy Nominations (2): Hatfields & McCoys (2013-Actor & Producer)
My Favorite Costner Scene:
“The Summit on the Mound” from Bull Durham (1988)
Next Film: Costner’s next project will return him to TV and to the West as he stars in the series Yellowstone. Filming for the new Paramount Network, the first season is set to premiere in June 2018.
I liked him in the bodyguard with Whitney Housten (R.I.P.)
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I have honestly never watched that all the way through. THE SONG kind of ended up overshadowing that film.
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Yeah, that’s true. It was a nice movie tho
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Only a truly mediocre movie could ever be overshadowed by a song. The Bodyguard is not a bad film, and the whole heroic aspect, of pledging to protect someone and then doing it, appeals to me. But you didn’t miss much by not finishing. I once read that Princess Diana was circling around the sequel, shortly before the tragedy that took her life. And I can safely say that having the former Princess of Wales co-star in the sequel would have been totally justified in overshadowing everything else about the movie.
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No arguments with your list, but I love the “I Believe” scene, too
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Classic!
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If I had directed Dances With Wolves it probably would have gone to my head, too. I’m sure he gets the mistake he made now. I’m glad he’s made a comeback.
Untouchables is an all-time favorite of mine. DePalma’s best. Baby carriage scene. I know, I know, callback to something else, but still incredible. While you’re watching you’re always aware that Capone did not go down in quite this way, but it’s framed as an American myth, and it becomes bigger and more heartfelt than most of the other homages of its kind.
I love Prince of Thieves. Yes, Costner temporarily forgot that he had charisma, it’s probably a really bad film, and it’s definitely a weird one (the scenes with the hag, and the “consummation of the marriage” part, are both so extraneous and inexplicable they make me wonder if a conk on the head was involved in their conception) but I love it when famous stories are told in fresh new ways no one ever would have thought of, except for one concussed filmmaker and his friends. Also, Rickman. Spoons are blunt, they hurt more.
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So, just above, I went from talking about the Battleship Potemkin baby carriage homage to the larger homage that is the The Untouchables itself, without providing a transition. I’m not calling the baby carriage scene an American myth, and I obviously know that Al Capone does not go down in the baby carriage scene.
I love that whole movie. People who talk about Scarface are misguided. And have you ever seen DePalma’s Phantom of the Paradise? Phantom of the Opera meets Faust, in a disco club. Plus the phantom is deformed when his face gets caught in a record press. It’s as bad as you can imagine. DePalma’s shining moment was Untouchables and Untouchables alone.
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I couldn’t agree more. DePalma’s masterpiece is The Untouchables and I think Scarface is laughably bad. I do not get the fascination with it.
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Prince of Thieves is a great BAD movie. Robin Hood sounds like he’s from Iowa. There’s the weird inexplicable witch. Alan Rickman clearly is hamming it to the nth degree which just makes it better, and I think it was the first time someone dropped an F-bomb and the movie got a PG-13 rating. The witch is worth it to see Morgan Freeman scimitar her weirdness at the end (ignoring the weirdness of his addition to the story in the first place). It also has one of the most gorgeous scores of the 1990s from the late Michael Kamen and a Bryan Adams song that broke the radio. Broke it.
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My favourite role of his is as Charley Waite in Open Range. In fact, Open Range is one of the movies I thoroughly enjoy regardless of Costner being in it. But he is perfect in this role.
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Open Range is a beautiful movie and I love Costner’s dedication to the West, but it’s pacing is so glacial that’s why it didn’t make the cut but it was the last one that was cut.
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No worries at all. Tin Cup is also one of those underrated movies isn’t it? Great list!
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Thank you!
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