5 Awesome Performances...
5. Han Solo - Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983)
Of course everyone's favorite shoot-first, revise-it-later, scruffy looking nerf herder has a place here. Strangely enough, Han is a tricky one for a list like this. Pure adoration and affection for the character would propel him naturally to the top, but at the same time there are critics that view Ford's work as simple and lacking definition, with accusations that he's all but sleepwalking through Return of the Jedi. Over the years we've had the opportunity to marvel at all the names that either turned down Solo or lost out to Ford; Christopher Walken, James Caan, Kurt Russell, and even Al Pacino often come up as might have-beens. It's my personal opinion that Star Wars simply wouldn't have been a hit with any of them in the role, although Russell might have come closest to making it work. Is that giving the character of Han, and Ford himself, too much credit in the face of Star Wars, the box-office juggernaut? Maybe, but Solo, the lovable, self-involved scamp of the galaxy, is one of the primary ways in which A New Hope gets to lighten up and gain traction in the action department. He's also arguably, next to Yoda, the emotional pivot of The Empire Strikes Back. He's sidelined in Return, and Ford felt he should have died a hero's death, but it's hard to deny the appeal of his bemusement as he must work with little bears to overthrow the Empire, keeping us engaged and smiling through to the end. It's easy to see this as a performance of being without any nuance or embellishment but that's to ignore what makes this character work; Ford's own sense of irascible charm, which doesn't really exist in any of the script treatments I've ever read of Star Wars. Ford takes a mostly one-note mercenary typethe tough-guy sidekickand gives him a sense of whimsy, sarcasm and, surprisingly, makes him amusingly overwhelmed. Watch him again explaining that the Force doesn't rule his destiny"It's all just a lot of simple tricks and nonsense"and you'll see that there's more character creation in Ford's performance than is easily visible. That he makes it look so damn easy doesn't negate the fact he's the reason that everyone loves Han Solo.