The Best of Michael Caine

2 months ago 18th Sep 10:37

Michael Caine has had a long and successful career that has seen him appear in some of cinema's most iconic movies including The Italian Job and The Dark Knight.

He returns this week with his new movie Is Anybody There so here at FemaleFirst we took a look back over some of his most memorable movies.

1. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Michael Caine provides the main romantic entanglement of the film when he embarks on an adulterous romance with his wife’s sister, Lee. Elliot (Michael Caine) is unhappy with his wife’s independence and jealous of her emotional strength, enough for it to cause him to look elsewhere.

Within a 12 month period, beginning and ending on Thanksgiving parties hosted by Elliot, (Caine) and his wife, Hannah, the story unravels through 3 main arcs.

2. The Dark Night (2008)

The Joker plans to reap havoc in Gotham City and Batman must fight for good. Alfred Pennyworth, (Caine) Batman’s trusted Butler who comes across more as a fatherly figure to Batman than any other character, supplies regular, useful advice, earning him the title of ‘Batman’s Batman’.

3. Zulu (1964)

His first starring role, Lieutenant Gonville Bromhea (Caine), has a different military background to his colleague, Chard. Their differences prove to be a problem when they are to prepare for an attack.

4. Batman Begins (2005)

Directed by Christopher Nolan who thought Michael Caine would portray the foster father element of the character effectively. Caine took the time to create his own back story; his character Alfred Pennyworth, served in the Special Air Service.

He became the Waynes’ family Butler after being wounded as Thomas Wayne, 'wanted a butler, but someone a bit tougher than that.' In Batman Begins it is clear that he is more to than a Butler to Batman and proves his ‘toughness’.

5. Children of Men (2006)

Jasper Palmer shows Caine’s diversity as an actor, portraying for the first time, someone who will pass gas or smoke cannabis ‘he believed he was this guy’. Theo, an activist turned apathetic bureaucrat, learns that the world's youngest human, an eighteen-year-old, has been stabbed to death.

Theo is kid-napped by an underground resistance group, on escaping to Jasper’s house he presents a plan to smuggle him into a detention camp for refugees. 

6. The Cider House Rules (1999)

An orphanage managed by Dr. Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine) plays home to Homer Wells, an orphan who was forced to grow up in Larch’s orphanage after being returned twice by foster parents.

Dr. Larch secretly trains Homer in the ‘science of women’ and abortions as an apprentice, even though Homer has never attended school. Michal Caine owes this film as reason to winning an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

7. Educating Rita (1983)

Michael Caine wins a BAFTA for best actor in this ‘comedy about a teacher and a very memorable student.’ Dr Frank Bryant (Caine), a middle-aged, alcoholic career academic takes on the task of tutoring to pay for his drinking habits and Rita, dissatisfied with the routine of her social life have a deep effect on one another.

It is said that both Walters and Caine are great, and their banter, their debates, and even their screaming matches are delights. Director Lewis Gilbert has taken a two-person play from stage to screen and cracked it open,  

8. The Italian Job (1969)

On Charlie Croker’s (Caine’s) release from prison he is given plans for a daring robbery. Croker decides to follow the plans and forget about the risks, but in order to pull it off he must put together a larger gang.