Whoa, whoa, whoa. People can have their opinions, but quotes like these need to be explained. Dicaprio is better "hands down"?
I have nothing against Dicaprio--I like him just fine--but Christian Bale is one of the best actors of all time. I repeat: OF... ALL... TIME! And I'm not an "internetian" who has only seen the two Batman films and Terminator and thinks that the "Bale voice" is "awesome." I'm actually a film director and I have been spellbound by Christian Bale's career long before Batman. In fact, his newfound A-list status has unfortunately decreased the quality of his roles in terms of creative curiosity, challenging himself, and pure performance level. I'm intensely dissapionted in the mainstream direction his career has gone because it's unadventurous and just plain repetitive.
That being said, anyone who says anything even close to "Leonardo Dicaprio is a better actor than Christian Bale" has not seen Bale's pre-Batman films. Either that or they have no grasp on quality acting when it's staring them in the face. I've seen every Christian Bale film and the body of work that he created between Empire of the Sun and Harsh Times (basically his "non-movie star" years) is one of the most impressive in film history. The reason is this:
Bale is a chameleon, a true film acting artist. He is nearly unrecognizable from film to film, portraying (amongst others) a reserved middle-class husband, an abused dim-witted innocent, a charming boy-next-door, an LA street thug, a stalwart leader of a rebellion, a psychotic serial killer, the son of God, a racist petty criminal, an introverted musician, and a gaunt insomniac.
The key to this admittedly superficial summary is that Bale not only obviously creates a massive variety of characters with varying traits and psychological backgrounds, but that he transforms into each one differently, changing his appearnace, voice tone, speech pattern, and physical mannerisms and then brings them to life with a flair for creativity that is practically unparalleled. THAT is what makes Christian Bale so great, the absolute authority over these roles--the ability to dissapear inside of them effortlessly when, in truth, every movement and vocal sound that he's making is a choice--and then the level of creativity that is displayed within those choices. This is an actor who completely turns his body into the instrument of his expression.
Dicaprio won't transform, he won't dazzle, he won't give you splendidly creative line readings or physical choices that jump off the screen. He can't make you forget that he's Leonardo Dicaprio. Christian Bale does all of these things with authority. He is in the highest echelon of modern actors, the very definition of greatness: a chameleon who creates every role from the ground up... capable of anything. He may have lost his way and become too much of a movie star for his own good, but he'll always be great, with the next jaw-dropping performance waiting in his back pocket.
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