One of the highest grossing actors in America,Harrison Fordhas starred in seminal cinematic marvels. He was the bounty hunter, Han Solo, inStar Wars;the whip-cracking archeologist,Indiana Jones, and thePresident of the United StatesinAir Force One. His portfolio marks the passion behind a stalwart career. Ford valued work ethic over superficial fame. Before he made a name for himself in film,Ford was a carpenterduring his transition out of television roles. That kind of dedication to artistry makes Ford one of the mostmemorable character actorsto date.
Before his blockbuster successes,the austere starhad his share of drama films. Ford got his start with Columbia Pictures. In his film debut that went uncredited, Ford played an understated, but straight-laced bellhop in the crime filmDead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round. He played a Confederate soldier the following year in the westernA Time for Killing. Since then, Ford has amassed a filmography with cultural touchstones, some of which have been his most dramatic.
8Heroes (1977)
Filmed before George Lucas' acclaimed space opera was released, Ford plays a Vietnam War veteran (alongside the Fonz, Henry Winkler, and the Flying Nun, Sally Field) who races stock cars with a purloined M16 rifle from his unit in the back trunk. At one point, he aims aimlessly at the night sky, trying to shoot a star. The disillusionment and daze of days gone by, followed up with dark comedy to buffer the crude and callous realities of war and civil life are felt here. The down-on-his-luck yet happy-go-lucky charm of Ford shines through in this pastoral, idyllic post-war film.
7Apocalypse Now (1979)
When it comes to war, Ford knows how to get down to the nitty-gritty. He plays Colonel G. Lucas (affectionately named after director Francis Ford Coppola’s film fellow, George Lucas, who also directed Ford inAmerican GraffitiandStar Wars) who gives the mission brief through uncomfortable clearings of his throat. They are given orders to infiltrate and terminate one of their colonels gone rogue during the Vietnam War. Through a twisted metaphor of destroying the self, subtlety with awkward confidence like this is what Ford delivers well in drama.
6The Conversation (1974)
A period piece at the time of President Richard Nixon’s resignation from office and the Watergate scandal,The Conversationdeals with surveillance and private information withheld that does more damage when hidden than expunged from the record. The ominous way he says, “Someone may get hurt” makes you think he is posing a threat rather than a warning. Another nuance performance from Ford.
Related:The Best Harrison Ford Movies, Ranked
5Regarding Henry (1991)
Henry Turner is a self-involved, workaholic lawyer who only cares about the bottom dollar until a robber’s gunshot to his frontal lobe causes him to have retrograde amnesia. He slowly learns who he was and decides to change who he is through his past interactions. Controversial for its bouts of manipulation, Ford’s performance paints an identity crisis with sincere hope and surly frustration.
4Witness (1985)
Ford plays a convincing detective disguised as an Amish man. He is tasked with protecting a mother and her son who becomes a target after witnessing a murder. Playing two roles in one, Ford blends two worlds well as they collide.Witnessis the only Oscar-nominated performance of Ford’s lengthy career.
Related:Harrison Ford’s Best Action Movies, Ranked
3Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Indy saving his father (Sean Connery) from an impending death by walking the three paths to drink from the Holy Grail is as dramatic as outwitting the Nazi regime or dating a Nazi. His test of faith, the obstinate fear across his brow, the brave steps he treats as if they were his last. All culminating in an ethereal act.
2The Mosquito Coast (1986)
Ford plays the radical idealist and inventor, Allie Fox, who condemns the rat race of America and takes his family to live in the jungles of Central America. He is a sad, but understandable, case of being too smart for his own good as he jeopardizes the livelihood of everyone else in an attempt to live a life with more meaning. Some might view Ford’s performance as hyperbolic, but it is the kind of energy that is both reasonable and untethered that draws you in and forces you to think twice about what really matters.
1Blade Runner (1982)
In Ridley Scott’s sensational avant-garde science fiction film, Rick Deckard is a former police officer, or blade runner, risking burnout as he tries to find and identify runaway replicants; bio-engineered, synthetic humans. He becomes beleaguered by the mystery that turns into a who’s who wild goose chase. Ford takes the concrete with a layman’s street smarts and the abstract with a philosopher’s book smarts in the face of an uncertain future that he has to live through and with, be he or it, human or replicant.
