13 Intense Movie Performances That Are Incredibly Difficult To Watch

2. Christian Bale - The Machinist

Inevitably, the performances that are deemed to have had the most work put into them are proclaimed the most successful when they turn out to be actually watchable. DeNiro's weight fluctuation for Raging Bull is remembered far more than the intricacies of the rest of his performance, Ledger's tragedy will eventually be more memorable than his performance, and Daniel Day Lewis' method is far more note-worthy in the long-term than the subtleties of his roles.

That approach however can reduce the impact of those performances unfairly, and the same is true of Christian Bale's harrowing performance Trevor Reznik, which is remembered now mostly for the dangerous weight loss that transformed him action star in Equilibrium to the skeletal form that is the most enduring image from that entire film. That was an astonishing commitment to the method, but the performance itself is a lot more than a visual impact thing - the commitment continues through to his portrayal of Reznor and it is both spell-binding and viscerally difficult to accept.