Maybe it is just me but it hard to think of anyone as Sherlock Holmes other than Jeremy Brett, the late actor who played it to near absolute perfection in the BBC granada TV series. That was a work of art so near to the description of Holmes by Sir Doyle that you began to doubt if Sir Doyle had seen Brett through a time machine and written Holmes or vice versa. I have seen many movies and serials of Holmes by various productions but Brett can never be replaced as Holmes. For me, Holmes never dies at Reichenbach Falls (though Doyle was forced to get him back in the Adventure of the empty house). For me, Holmes died the day Brett died. Every great actor or director once in their lifetime gets buried under a tomb of immmortality because of one performance or movie (Ramesh Sippy could never shake off SHOLAY....never). Same with Brett...till his end, he could never be anyone other than Holmes. I tried seeing Holmes Part 1 as potrayed by Robert Downey jr.....How does one describe it?Too painful to watch one of the greatest fictional literary figures ever being massacred by mediocrity. I stopped after 20 minutes and went back to the comfort of youtube to see Brett in my favorite story of all...The Adventure of the Dancing Men. No offence against Downey Jr. He may be a fine actor but the nuances you need to play the mad genius of Holmes.....sorry....no way. It's like asking any actor of today to re-enact Vijay Verma of DEEWAR...That was a role that Amitabh was born to play.
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Maybe it is just me but it hard to think of anyone as Sherlock Holmes other than Jeremy Brett, the late actor who played it to near absolute perfection in the BBC granada TV series. That was a work of art so near to the description of Holmes by Sir Doyle that you began to doubt if Sir Doyle had seen Brett through a time machine and written Holmes or vice versa. I have seen many movies and serials of Holmes by various productions but Brett can never be replaced as Holmes. For me, Holmes never dies at Reichenbach Falls (though Doyle was forced to get him back in the Adventure of the empty house). For me, Holmes died the day Brett died. Every great actor or director once in their lifetime gets buried under a tomb of immmortality because of one performance or movie (Ramesh Sippy could never shake off SHOLAY....never). Same with Brett...till his end, he could never be anyone other than Holmes.
I tried seeing Holmes Part 1 as potrayed by Robert Downey jr.....How does one describe it?Too painful to watch one of the greatest fictional literary figures ever being massacred by mediocrity. I stopped after 20 minutes and went back to the comfort of youtube to see Brett in my favorite story of all...The Adventure of the Dancing Men. No offence against Downey Jr. He may be a fine actor but the nuances you need to play the mad genius of Holmes.....sorry....no way. It's like asking any actor of today to re-enact Vijay Verma of DEEWAR...That was a role that Amitabh was born to play.
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