Micky Rourke took to the screens in the late 1970s and built himself a reputation as a cool leading man in drama, action, and thriller films throughout the 1980s, when he received tremendous critical acclaim and cemented his place in the acting world alongside the likes of Robert De Niro, Gene Hackman, and Al Pacino. However, despite his rise to fame through the 80s, Rourke, who had previously trained as a boxer, decided to leave his acting career in 1991 and became a professional boxer for a time.
Nevertheless, he was soon back on our screens when he retired from boxing in 1994 and appeared in supporting roles in films such as Rainmaker and Buffalo ’66; and some say his much-loved character in The Wrestler helped him form his major comeback in 2008. We couldn’t imagine his movies without him and fans were surely grateful to have him back, so let’s take a look at the best Mickey Rourke movies.
8 The Pope of Greenwich Village
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
In The Pope of Greenwich Village, Rourke teams up with Eric Roberts to play two troublesome cousins who scheme to take a big bet on a racehorse, but there are big stakes. They believe they have a foolproof way of stealing $150,000, but despite successfully cracking the safe of a local business, things go terribly wrong, and they find themselves in a spot of trouble with the kind of people they should be avoiding; the local mafia and the police.
7 The Rainmaker
Paramount Pictures
Rourke teams up with director Francis Ford Coppola again, appearing as Bruiser Stone in The Rainmaker. This legal drama also stars Matt Damon as Rudy Baylor, an aspiring lawyer who starts working for Bruiser Stone while trying to get his first cases. However, Bruiser is a sleazy boss, using the ambulance-chaser method to gain cases, and he and his team have questionable ethics. This does not suit Rudy, who wants to be a legitimate and moral lawyer, but he does become emotionally invested in an insurance case that could be worth several million in damages.
6 Man on Fire
20th Century Fox
Man on Fire is an American action thriller film based on the 1980 novel of the same name by A. J. Quinnell. The film stars Denzel Washington as a former U.S Marine Corps Captain and CIA Officer now turned alcoholic bodyguard, who seeks revenge after nine-year-old Lupita “Pita” Ramos, who he was meant to be protecting, is kidnapped.
The story unfolds as he wages war against the kidnapers. Rourke plays Jordan Kalfus, lawyer to Samuel Ramos, Pita’s father. They have a close relationship and Kalfus is there for Ramos when he gets into deep water. However, when Kalfus suggests that they open a kidnapping insurance policy just before Pita is abducted, this leads to suspicion and suddenly, tension arises.
5 Sin City
Miramax Films
Sin City is a movie that is broken up into a few stories that are tied together by location and their modernistic neo-noir style, and is adapted from Frank Miller’s graphic novel. Perhaps the best segment follows Rourke, starring as Marv in a classic detective story, “The Hard Goodbye.”
After spending the night with a beautiful blonde named Goldie, Marv wakes to a great shock, finding her dead in his bed. He is automatically framed for her murder but swears to avenge her death. Rourke gives a standout performance in what is one of the biggest blockbusters he has been a part of in this century.
4 Barfly
The Cannon Group, Inc.
Rourke takes on the role of Henry Chinaski, an autobiographical character based on legendary alcoholic poet Charles Bukowski in the writer’s script for Barbet Schroeder’s film Barfly. Preparing for the role, Rourke is said to have not bathed or washed his hair for weeks in order to find a closer connection to his character.
It certainly worked, as he perfected both the limp and speech patterns of Bukowski, which helped Rourke transform into the alcoholic character. We watch as Chinaski spends his time stumbling from bar to bar in Los Angeles in this sad but funny masterpiece which earned Rourke an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actor.
3 Rumble Fish
Universal Pictures
Rumble Rish was based on the book of the same name by S.E Hinton, and is said to be one of Francis Ford Coppola’s best movies after his incredible run in the 70s. Rourke stars alongside a remarkable cast including Lawrence Fisburne, Dennis Hopper, and Matt Dillon as a troubled biker whose tension with his younger brother (Dillon) is heightened when he arrives back in town. Rourke is perfect as a tough guy grappling with deeply emotional suffering in this almost experimental, dreamy film.
2 Angel Heart
Tri-Star Pictures
Rourke stars as Harry Angel in this extremely original, Southern Gothic noir, Angel Heart. Playing a rugged, cocky private investigator, Rourke is hired to uncover a variety of mysterious murders in New Orleans. With its twists and turns and controversially explicit sex scene, we see Rourke display a whole range of emotions while trying to maintain his professional cool.
Rouke is perfect as a very different kind of private detective, and this is a very different kind of noir, combining horror with mystery and neo-noir style, along with a genuinely weird Robert De Niro performance.
1 The Wrestler
Fox Searchlight Pictures
In The Wrestler, we see Rourke play an aging wrester who struggles to accept his declining health and the state of his life, now that he is too old to continue with his wresting career. He realizes that it is time to move on and that he has to come to terms with what else life has to offer, including closer relationships with the women around him.
Rourke’s performance perfectly taps into his own life, a man who fell from grace after great success who is fighting to make a comeback, which enables him to brilliantly capture the exact physical and psychological struggles of a wrester who is past his heyday. It earned Rourke a Golden Glove Award, a BAFTA Award, as well as an Academy Award nomination for the best performance of his career. In any other year, he very well might have won, but he was up against Daniel-Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood, one of the most towering performances of all time.
