The best Denzel Washington movies, ranked

Directed by Spike Lee

One of the very few cradle-to-grave biopics that not only justifies its epic sweep but brings a historical figure into better view, Spike Lee’s career highlight didn’t just elevate Denzel into the Hollywood A-list but managed to recentre Malcolm X himself in the conversation over racial strife in America – and not a moment too soon, given some of the other major events of 1992. Denzel so fully inhabits the role as the revolutionary Black activist that there is a whole generation who, when they think of the former Malcolm Little, see him in their mind’s eye. Now that’s an iconic performance.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua

It’s a paradox of sorts that this legendary leading man has won both his Oscars for supporting roles. Sitting next to his gong for Glory on the Washington mantlepiece is a statue won taking Ethan Hawke’s cop for a ride as Training Day’s bent LAPD ‘tec Alonzo Harris. Whether imparting the harsh lessons of the streets or spiking his partner with PCP, Washington supercharges Harris with sleazy magnetism and a vicious streak as wide as a Downtown freeway. He even ad-libbed that incredible King Kong line. 

Directed by Joel Coen

It took a while, but thanks to Joel ‘Hey, Where’s Ethan?’ Coen, we finally got to see Denzel in one of the most iconic acting roles in all the performing arts. Coen, in his solo directorial debut, strips Shakespeare’s classic story to its essentials, allowing Washington’s performance as the tormented King of Scotland to truly fill the screen. He doesn’t disappoint.

Directed by Tony Scott

His first team-up with regular partner in crime Tony Scott is one of the great submarine flicks. Denzel is the second in command who goes toe-to-toe with sub chief Gene Hackman when they receive a garbled order to launch nuclear missiles against Russian targets. Watching these two titans bellow macho dialogue at one another across a crowded engine room is pure joy.

Directed by Denzel Washington

Denzel’s third film as director saw him step both behind and in front of the camera for an adaptation of August Wilson’s early 1980s play ‘Fences’. Denzel plays Troy Maxson, a proud, loving but flawed husband and father in 1950s Pittsburgh whose disappointments and mistakes seriously affect his relationship with his family, including his wife Rose (Viola Davis) and two sons.

Directed by Edward Zwick

This sweeping American Civil War drama scored Denzel his first Oscar, for Best Supporting Actor (he’d been nominated for ‘Cry Freedom’ two years previousl). The tale of America’s first all-black volunteer army battalion, ‘Glory’ is a meaty Hollywood epic packed with great performances.

Directed by Tony Scott

‘Unstoppable’ is pure, old school thrills, starring Denzel as a wise railroad veteran (he’s almost at retirement, natch) who must risk his life to stop a train full of toxic gas from ploughing into a populated area. This was ‘Top Gun’ director Tony Scott’s last movie before his death and might just have been his best.

Directed by Spike Lee

Yet another Spike Lee collaboration, although very different from their other pairings, Inside Man was Lee’s first true big-budget genre picture, pitting Denzel as a tough New York cop against Clive Owen as the criminal mastermind behind a daring Wall Street bank heist. It was an unexpected critical and commercial hit – and probably the second-best Lee-Denzel pairing after Malcolm X.

Directed by Ridley Scott

Denzel teamed with Ridley Scott for this suitably epic crime saga about Frank Lucas, who in the 1960s trafficked huge amounts of heroin into the United States via the bodies of dead American soldiers in Vietnam. In this stylish biopic, Denzel plays Lucas while Russell Crowe is the cop determined to put him behind bars – a true clash of acting titans. 

Directed by Spike Lee

By the time he appeared in his first Spike Lee joint, Denzel had already won an Oscar for Glory, but he landed his first truly iconic role as Bleek Gilliam, a jazz trumpeter whose personal life is in the midst of spiraling out of control. The movie suffers from Lee’s tendency toward melodrama – and some unfortunate antisemitic caricatures – but Denzel is in top form, particularly when it comes to his interplay with Wesley Snipes as his sax-playing frenemy, Shadow Henderson.

Directed by Carl Franklin

Easy Rawlings is one of the great black fictional heroes: created by author Walter Mosley, he’s an LA-based private detective with all the effortless charm and fascinating flaws of white boys like Philip Marlowe. Sadly, Hollywood’s one attempt to bring Mosley’s stories to screen – this whip-smart thriller with Denzel on smooth form as Rawlings – didn’t do good enough box office to justify a series.

Directed by Spike Lee

Six years after ‘Malcolm X’ (see below), Denzel reunited with Spike Lee for a more personal story about an inmate on temporary release dealing with his son’s dream of going to college on a basketball scholarship. Less dewy-eyed about masculinity and fatherhood than, say, ‘Boyz N the Hood’, this is a stark, convincing family drama.

Directed by Jonathan Demme

The first Hollywood movie to tackle Aids, ‘Philadelphia’ was released when many people were still terrified that touching a gay person would give them HIV. That’s exactly how Denzel’s flashy TV lawyer Joe feels after meeting potential client Tom Hanks, who’s just been sacked from his job for being HIV positive. ‘I admit it,’ he says, ‘I’m prejudiced.’ Of course he takes the case.

Directed by Nick Cassavetes

Sometimes, the truest mark of a great actor is how well they do with subpar material. Director Nick Cassavetes’ melodramatic thriller, about a blue collar worker who holds a hospital hostage to get his daughter an emergency heart transplant, isn’t particularly great as a melodrama, thriller or a critique of America’s healthcare system. But Denzel elevates the film simply by being there. Even if nothing else here rings true, you fully believe him as the titular factory worker willing to do whatever it takes to save his child’s life.  

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Speaking of subpar material, this overheated melodrama about a troubled pilot who saves an airliner from crashing into the ground, only to have his heroism called into question by the revelation that he was drunk at the time, is about as subtle as, well, a plane crash. It’s an intriguing premise marred by an overly sentimental script – and several eye-rolling needle drops – but Washington, in the lead role as Capt William ‘Whip’ Whitaker, narrowly saves the film itself from complete disaster, earning a fourth Oscar nomination in the process.