really bad: John Wayne as the preachy green beret commander in the film of that name. If he had treated troops like that he would have been fragged. best horrid casting mistake that worked great: Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly. If you read the book, Holly is a vapid cunning tramp from hicksville; Capote thought Monroe would be good for it and he was right. Hepburn pulled it off by recasting the character to her own talents. real bad but who cares: Fred Astaire as Hepburn's love interest in Funny Face; he was maybe thirty years older than her and looked like her granddad, but he could dance a little. Great: Anthony Quinn as Ayuda Abu Tai in Lawrence of Arabia. Very good: Depp in the pirate movies. I know he does it just for the money but getting a real good actor to camp it up in those frivolities was a master stroke.
Robert Duvall as Gus McCrae and Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker are two of the best I can think of; Glen Campbell as La Boeuf is the worst.
Agree that Jones was great as Call, but I can still picture him as other characters. I don't see Robert Duvall as anything other than Gus despite all the great roles he's had; in my mind he was that good.
the op addressed good and bad casting, so did my post. I thought Wayne was terrible in that role and in how he played it. The film did a good job making the argument why we should do what we were doing there (the matter of how we were doing it being a separate issue) and I understand why, in the face of the stream of anti war films being churned out, people who fought there might like the film. Wayne was way overaged, way overweight and played the role with his usual lack of respect for the other characters. The best example comes in the scene when they are grabbing the NVA general. He treats his subordinates like idiot kids. They are special forces for god's sake, not a bunch of mincing dopers. Try to imagine how good it might have been if Lee Marvin had been the lead actor. as it was, Wayne produced it, directed it in his usual slapdash fashion and stocked the cast with his bridge club so you had Bruce Cabot and a bunch of other superannuated bit players. The casting of the film sucked except for the kid and David Jansen. As for Platoon, it was an Oliver Stone film and therefore visually interesting but insane and unrealistic,
Ed Norton in American History X Denzel Washington - Crimson Tide, Man on Fire Keifer Sutherland - Young Guns (he played my great-great grandfather Josiah G. Scurlcok) biased of course Those are the good ones that I can think of off the top of my head.
