Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson has enjoyed success on the big and small screens throughout his five decades. Take a tour of our photo gallery ranking his 12 greatest feature films from worst to best.
Levinson began his career as a comedy writer on various variety shows in the 1970s ultimately landing a steady job writing for 72 episodes of “The Carol Burnett Show,” for which he won Emmys in 1974 and 1975, competing again in 1976. When that show ended he began writing screenplays and had a remarkably successful run co-writing two Mel Brooks movies — “Silent Movie” and “High Anxiety” — as well as two acclaimed dramas “Inside Moves” and “and Justice for All.” He would receive his first Oscar nomination for the screenplay of “And Justice for All.”
That success led Levinson to a feature film directing career. His semi-autobiographical film “Diner,” about a group of young men hanging out in his native Baltimore, became a sleeper hit in 1982. The screenplay brought Levinson his second Oscar nomination. He would go on to receive another screenplay nomination for his work on “Avalon” (1990). As a director he would be nominated for “Bugsy” (1991) and won for “Rain Man” (1988). He would also receive a producing nomination for Best Picture nominee “Bugsy.”
He’s found continued success on the small screen as well, winning Emmys for producing the children’s program “Displaced Person” in 1985 and for directing the pilot of “Homicide: Life on the Street” in 1993. He earned additional Emmy bids for directing and producing the TV movies “You Don’t Know Jack” (2010) and “Paterno” (2018), as well as for producing “Phil Spector” (2013), “The Wizard of Lies” (2017), “The Survivor” (2022) and “Dopesick” (2022).
Take a look back at Levinson’s big screen career with our photo gallery ranking his 12 greatest films.
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12. YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES (1985)
Image Credit: Paramount/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Writer: Chris Columbus. Starring Nicholas Rowe, Alan Cox, Sophie Ward.
Levinson’s third outing as a director was this story which features Sherlock Holmes as a teenager. It was reasonably well reviewed but proved to be a bit of a disappointment at the box office.
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11. DISCLOSURE (1994)
Image Credit: SNAP/REX/Shutterstock Writer: Paul Attansio. Starring Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, Donald Sutherland.
This film caused a lot of discussion on news programs and talk radio in the nineties. The film focusses on sexual harassment in the workplace but in this case, it was a man (Michael Douglas) who is being harassed by a woman (Demi Moore).
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10. SLEEPERS (1996)
Image Credit: Polygram/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Writer: Barry Levinson. Starring Robert De Niro, Kevin Bacon, Brad Pitt.
Levinson assembled a strong cast for this story of four boys who are sent to a juvenile detention center where they suffer severe trauma. They then reunite when they are adults to seek revenge.
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9. BANDITS (2001)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Writer: Harley Peyton. Starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett.
“Bandits” is an often-overlooked film that stars Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton as escaped convicts on a bank robbing spree. The film features a comic gem of a performance from Golden Globe nominee Cate Blanchett as a neurotic housewife who ends up in the middle of the duos’ plans.
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8. TIN MEN (1987)
Image Credit: Touchstone/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Writer: Barry Levinson. Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Danny DeVito, Barbara Hershey.
Many of Levinson’s films are set in his boyhood home of Baltimore. This film is the story of two rival aluminum siding salesmen and their petty feud after a minor car accident.
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7. WAG THE DOG (1997)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock Writers: Hilary Henkin, David Mamet. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche.
“Wag the Dog” refers to when a president uses a military maneuver to distract attention from something else. This film was released at the height of the Bill Clinton impeachment scandal and earned an Oscar nomination for Dustin Hoffman for his semi-impersonation of famed film producer Robert Evans.
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6. AVALON (1990)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock Writer: Barry Levinson. Starring Aidan Quinn, Elizabeth Perkins, Armin Mueller-Stahl.
In another film set in Baltimore, Levinson tells the story of the struggles of a family who immigrates to the USA in the early part of the 20th Century in hopes of bettering their lives.
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5. BUGSY (1991)
Image Credit: SNAP/REX/Shutterstock Writers: James Toback, Dean Jennings. Starring Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Harvey Keitel.
Ten Oscar nominations went to this biopic of gangster Bugsy Siegel who brought gambling and show business to Las Vegas. The two stars of the film (Beatty and Bening) fell in love during the shooting and later married.
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4. GOOD MORNING, VIETMAN (1987)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Writer: Mitch Markowitz. Starring Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker, Bruno Kirby.
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Robin Williams earned his first Oscar nomination for this film about a comic D-Jay whose radio show entertains the troops in Vietnam. -
3. THE NATURAL (1984)
Image Credit: Tri-Star/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Writers: Roger Towne, Phil Dusenberry. Starring Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close.
Levinson mixed the supernatural and baseball in this lushly photographed story of a talented baseball player who disappears and then returns years later to try and regain his place in the sport. The scene where Glenn Close stands up in the bleachers as inspiration for Robert Redford to hit a home run is a classic movie moment.
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2. DINER (1982)
Image Credit: MGM/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Writer: Barry Levinson. Starring Steve Guttenberg, Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon.
“Diner” was Levinson’s first film as a director. It tells the tales of a bunch of friends navigating their post-high school life in Baltimore. The cast is particularly impressive and many were launched into successful careers by the film.
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1. RAIN MAN (1988)
Image Credit: SNAP/REX/Shutterstock Writer: Ronald Bass, Barry Morrow. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino.
Levinson won the Oscar for Best Director and the film itself took home Best Picture as well as Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman plays a severely autistic man who is reunited with his brother played by Tom Cruise.
