"Sherlock Holmes": actors who most accurately embodied the image of a brilliant detective

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Literary character Holmes is about 125 years old, his film prototypes keep pace with the times, demonstrating the indefatigable imagination of contemporary directors. The image of the famous detective has long been torn off from the literary source, and his adventures have acquired amateurish sequels. The British detective is gradually turning into a true folk hero.

Tandem for ages

The cinematic demand of the duet of Holmes and Watson can be easily explained by the skill of Conan Doyle, because the description of adventures has a decent genre spectrum: from mystical detective story to thriller mixed with love drama. Smart, charming, brilliant detective Holmes and his only true and devoted friend Watson, albeit a little naive, sometimes stupid, perfectly harmonize, forming a tandem for centuries. And Sherlockiana continues to live its own life, generating more and more new stories, among which the British versions are the most famous on a global scale. Which is not surprising: after all, the Motherland of literary heroes.

British series

Series 1964-1968 produced in the UK "Sherlock Holmes" (the actor who played the role of a detective - Douglas Wilmer, Watson - Nigel Stock) was not the first film adaptation of Doyle's short story, broadcast on the BBC. 12 episodes are released in black and white, in 1968 another 16 episodes were filmed, but in color. Sherlock Holmes is played by Peter Cushing, who had the experience of playing such a responsible role in 1959 in the full meter "The Hound of the Baskervilles", and Nigel Stock invariably remains in the image of Watson. Although this film adaptation was very accurate, it was the most criticized.

Series 1984-1985 called "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes": the main character is truly English Sherlock Holmes - actor Mr. Jeremy Brett. It was he who managed to convey the highest tragedy of the hero - intellectual perfection. Brett played the genius really brilliantly: riot, obsession and poeticism of the highest level - everything is in his character.

Sherlock (2010 – …), a UK-US co-production series, offered the viewer an alternative version of events, transferred to our days. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. The creators have created a great show in which the hilarious Cumberbatch is truly amazing.

A curious incarnation

The series "Elementary" (2012 - …) produced in the USA can be safely called at least another incarnation. The project turned out to be quite successful, the free handling of the original idea did not spoil it. Sherlock Holmes -actor Jonny Lee Miller, but Watson with the light hand of the creators became a woman (actress Lucy Liu), however, Moriarty too - Natalie Dormer. Such an incident did not alienate fans, the series has high ratings, and critics are more than supportive of it.

There is also a 2013 domestic series "Sherlock Holmes". Actor Igor Petrenko played a controversial image, according to the idea of the creators, a brilliant detective is a hot-tempered young man who does not respect the law and etiquette. His faithful companion Watson (Andrey Panin) became roguish and began to open his fists. Lestrade (Mikhail Boyarsky) turned into a real despot, and Mrs. Hudson (Ingeborga Dapkunaite) not only looked younger, but also became the object of romantic sighs of others.

Full length

After the above experiments of filmmakers with the characters of Conan Doyle, full-length films do not exactly match the original idea. The clearest proof of this is the US-made film The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939). The plot of the picture was based on the play by William Gillette, which was once approved by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself. The events described in it are very far from the original narrative.

In 2009, the new "Sherlock Holmes" is released - a film whose actors embodied in something a parody rethinking of the classic Sherlockiana from Guy Ritchie. Throughout the entire duration of the film, the director managed to preserve not only the intellectual intrigue, but also the dynamism of the narrative, saturating the action with a fair share ofchaos, boxing matches and battle scenes. Guy Ritchie could not do otherwise after the triumphant films Rock and Roll and Cards, Money, Two Smoking Barrels. But all this does not spoil the story, on the contrary, makes the story universally realistic.

Richevsky's "Sherlock Holmes" is a film whose actors went through all nine circles of hell during the casting. If the choice of the performer for the role of Sherlock did not cause a stir (Robert Downey Jr. was immediately approved for the role), then more than 20 stage masters claimed to play the role of his partner Watson, including Chris Pine, Gerard Butler and John Cusack. Initially, they wanted to offer the role to Colin Farrell, but the director preferred to see Watson performed by Jude Law.

To be continued

If Guy Ritchie's first project was dashing, then the second film "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" (actors: R. Downey Jr., D. Lowe, N. Rapace, D. Harris, P. Anderson) became completely violent. The adventures of the brilliant detective and his faithful friend the doctor become even more powerful, dynamic and funnier, it seems that the director has injected a colossal dose of adrenaline into the nobly dusty original literary material.

In a revolutionary reimagining of Richie, Sherlock from Downey Jr. is a real outcast and adventurer who plays not on the violin, but on the nerves of those around him. The following actors were considered for the role of Moriarty's antagonist: the charismatic Javier Bardem, the demonic Daniel Day-Lewis, the magnetic Sean Penn, the consummate Brad Pitt and the enigmatic Gary Oldman. As a result of a worthy opponent, Holmes was embodied on the screen by JaredHarris.

But in this crazy miracle worker from Guy Ritchie there is no self-esteem and nobility inherent in the domestic Holmes performed by Vasily Livanov. Director Igor Maslennikov gave the world a series of films "Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson". The actors who played in this franchise presented the audience with characters that are more old-fashioned, nevertheless elegant, thoughtful and self-deprecating.