Top 10 Ensembles

Sylvester Stallone assembled a powerful action ensemble for The Expendables, but that list gets its ass kicked good and proper by these other ensembables. Our criteria was a blend of girth, greatness and gravitas – which meant that JFK, the Ocean’s movies and even The Dirty Dozen missed out. Here, in reverse order, we count down the top ten to the ultimate ensembable film...

Our Top 10 Picks

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Agatha Christie’s famous whodunnit has been adapted several times, but never more celebrity-ridden than this high-theatre version from the great Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, Serpico, Network). Albert Finney is Poirot, trying to track down the killer before the Orient Express goes terminal, and the suspects list is amazing: Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall, Anthony Perkins, Jacqueline Bisset, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York...

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The Towering Inferno (1974)

Clearly a good year for ensembles, this high-rise disaster movie was anything but. Warner Bros and Fox joined forces to produce, Steve McQueen and Paul Newman strained for top billing, and although dripping with impressive special effects, the film’s starry cast still shone through: architect Newman and fire-chief McQueen trying to stop Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Wagner, William Holden, Robert Vaughn and OJ Simpson (!) from going up in smoke...

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The Thin Red Line (1998)

Terrence Malick doesn’t make films that often, but when he does, actors rush to sign up. Which is why, after 20 years out of the fray, Malick was able to recruit so many men of such high-calibre. In the deadly but dreamlike Pacific islands of WWII, Charlie Company are charged with wresting Guadalcanal from the Japanese – reporting for duty are Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, John Cusack, James Caviezel, John Travolta, George Clooney, Adrien Brody, Woody Harrelson, John C Reilly, Jared Leto...

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Bobby (2006)

Emilio Estevez – son of Martin Sheen, brother of Charlie – is well respected and well connected. So when he shot this superb drama about the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, his cast read like a Who’s Who of modern-day Hollywood: Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, William H Macy, Laurence Fishburne, Shia LaBoeuf, Sharon Stone, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Lindsay Lohan, Christian Slater, Elijah Wood, Joshua Jackson, Heather Graham...

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A Bridge Too Far (1977)

Bobby is a glittering array of A-list cameos. A Bridge Too Far edges it (and torpedoes The Dirty Dozen out of the top ten) by being a stunning line-up of A-listers, who are somehow prepared to assemble and play character roles. Richard Attenborough directs Connery, Hopkins, Michael Caine, Robert Redford, Laurence Olivier, Gene Hackman, Dirk Bogarde, Edward Fox, Ryan O’Neal and James Caan, as the Allies mount an ill-fated attempt to retake the bridges of the Lower Rhine in WWII.

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Hamlet (1996)

Lord Attenborough shows up in front of the camera here – one of Kenneth Branagh’s many cameoing thespians, all more than willing to play their part in this salty adaptation of Shakespeare’s famous Danish tragedy. Kenny leads Derek Jacobi, Julie Christie, Kate Winslet and Richard Briers. Lord Dickie is joined in the supporting personae by Gerard Depardieu, Charlton Heston, Robin Williams, Brian Blessed, Jack Lemmon, Billy Crystal, Rufus Sewell, and (in flashbacks and dream sequences) Gielgud, Judi Dench, John Mills, and – tattyfilariously – Ken Dodd as Yorick.

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Platoon (1986)

War movies demand many things – authenticity, scale, compelling characters, and numbers. The challenge when mustering marquee names for the front-line is that their celebrity should still serve the story, and neither distract nor overshadow it. Oliver Stone emerges victorious on that front, directing raw recruit Charlie Sheen into the hell of Vietnam’s jungles, who becomes torn between ferocious Tom Berenger and Zen-like Willem Dafoe, and battles alongside Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, John C McGinley, Tony Todd, Kevin Dillon and Keith David.

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The Great Escape (1963)

Platoon excels in terms of cast, performance and palpability, but it’s pipped for a top three position by the sheer spirit bursting out of The Great Escape. And that motorbike sequence. Allied POWs attempt to spring from a German camp in an immensely satisfying wartime adventure, with Steve McQueen as the Cooler King, spearheading a battalion of star power that only adds to the class and momentum of the piece. Included in an amazing roster of names are James Garner, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasance, Lord Attenborough, James Coburn and David McCallum.

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The Departed (2006)

In penultimate position, and packing a formidable punch in the departments of size, power and actorly prowess, is Martin Scorsese’s bruised and bloody remake of Hong Kong actioner Internal Affairs. A cop goes undercover in the mob; a mobster infiltrates the police force. And Scorsese’s casting blends the very best of two movie-making generations: Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon leading Mark Wahlberg and Vera Farmiga, with some all-time heavyweights fleshing out the powers-that-be: Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone and Alec Baldwin.

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The Dark Knight (2008)

Claiming first place above films of such stature is a huge achievement, which is just what Christopher Nolan’s Bat-sequel turned out to be. A stunning crime-thriller, The Dark Knight challenges its ensemble to subjugate both their own A-list status AND the towering legacy of the comic book characters they portray, and let the acting eclipse it all. Heath Ledger’s show-stopping performance grabs the plaudits, of course, but every one of the following does sterling work: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal; plus there are cameos from Cillian Murphy, William Fichtner, Eric Roberts, and even Mandy from… Holy Oaks, Batman!!

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Darren Bignell