Monday 3 November 2014

Alternate Best Actor 1977: Results

5. Jack Nance in Eraserhead - Nance gives fine semi-straight man style of performance from the weirdness of the film but his work never stands beyond that weirdness.

Best Scene: Henry sees the "child's" insides
4. Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Dreyfuss was well cast as his average guy manner manages to make his character likable and easy to follow even as he does some questionable things.

Best Scene: Roy sees the mother ship.
3. Harvey Keitel in The Duellists - Keitel completely overcomes his apparent miscasting by giving an effective portrayal of a gentlemanly violent determination.

Best Scene: The final duel.
2. Alberto Sordi in An Average Little Man - Sordi for the first half of the film gives an entertaining comic performance then is extremely effective by subverting that into a disturbing portrait of a man's descent into despair and madness.

Best Scene: Giovanni sees the killer.
1. Art Carney in The Late Show - Good Predictions GM, and RatedRStar. Art Carney gives a great performance as he wonderfully balances the drama and comedy in his portrayal of an aging private detective.

Best Scene:  Ira gets the upper hand on the thug.
Overall Ranking:
  1. Art Carney in The Late Show
  2. Alberto Sordi in An Average Little Man
  3. Harvey Keitel in The Duellists
  4. Keith Carradine in The Duellists
  5. Bruno Ganz in The American Friend
  6. John Gielgud in Providence
  7. John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever
  8. Marcello Mastroianni in A Special Day
  9. James Coburn in Cross of Iron
  10. Paul Newman in Slap Shot 
  11. Robert Shaw in Black Sunday
  12. Bruce Dern in Black Sunday
  13. Sanjeev Kumar in The Chess Players
  14. Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
  15. Richard Burton in Equus
  16. Gergory Peck in MacArthur
  17. Mark Hamill in Star Wars
  18. Richard Dreyfuss in The Goodbye Girl
  19. Jack Nance in Eraserhead
  20. Roy Scheider in Sorcerer 
  21. Saeed Jaffrey in The Chess Players
  22. Peter Firth in Equus
  23. Woody Allen in Annie Hall
  24. George Burns in Oh God!
  25. Bob Newhart in The Rescuers
  26. George Segal in Fun With Dick and Jane 
  27. Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit
  28. Robert De Niro in New York, New York
  29. Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me
  30. Mel Brooks in High Anxiety
  31. John Denver in Oh God!
  32. Richard Burton in Exorcist II: The Heretic
  33. George Lauris in Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot
Next Year: 1977 Supporting

15 comments:

Michael Patison said...

For 1977 Supporting:
Richard Attenborough in The Chess Players
Peter Cushing in Star Wars
Bill Macy in The Late Show

Luke Higham said...

Louis: Your thoughts on Cross of Iron.

Your Rating & thoughts on:
Bruno Ganz in The American Friend
Paul Newman in Slap Shot
Robert Shaw in Black Sunday
James Coburn in Cross of Iron

Suggestions for 77 Supporting
Peter Cushing - Star Wars
Maximillian Schell - Cross of Iron
James Mason - Cross of Iron
Dennis Hopper - The American Friend
Albert Finney - The Duellists
Richard Attenborough - The Chess Players

Anonymous said...

I was sort of hoping that Marcello Mastroianni would have make it into the top 5, but that's okay anyway. Glad Sordi is your number 2 spot, he was amazing in that movie. What are your thoughts and ratings on Shelley Winters in An Average Little Man, Sophia Loren in A Special Day and Diane Keaton in both Annie Hall and Looking for Mr. Goodbar? Lastly, do you think that Lily Tomlin is leading or supporting in The Late Show?

Michael McCarthy said...

Maximillian Schell-Cross of Iron
Richard Attenborough-The Chess Players
James Mason-Cross of Iron
Dirk Bogarde-Providence

Also what were your ratings and thoughts for Paul Newman in Slap Shot, Robert Shaw and Bruce Dern in Black Sunday, and James Coburn in Cross of Iron?

Luke Higham said...

Another Suggestion would be Dirk Bogarde, Sean Connery, Gene Hackman or Anthony Hopkins in A Bridge Too Far.

RatedRStar said...

Amjad Khan - The Chess Players
Peter Cushing - Star Wars
Anthony Hopkins - A Bridge Too Far
Richard Attenborough - The Chess Players
James Mason - Cross Of Iron


Louis can I ask, which performances have taken up 2006 alternate best actor.

RatedRStar said...

Donald might know which 2006 performance I will request if there is any space left.

Luke Higham said...

RatedRStar: Requested Performances for 06' Lead
Leonardo Dicaprio - The Departed
Christian Bale - The Prestige
Ulrich Muhe - The Lives of Others
Ken Watanabe - Letters to Iwo Jima
Jean Dujardin - OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
Cillian Murphy - The Wind That Shakes The Barley

If you're going to request anyone, please pick Clive Owen in Children of Men.

RatedRStar said...

Theres 6 requests lol ill think of someone else later, I might as well suggest someone that Louis has not seen so.

Maciej said...

Francois Truffaut - Close Encounters
anyone from A Bridge too Far
Peter Cushing - Star Wars

Robert MacFarlane said...

Amjad Khan in The Chess Players
David Warner in Cross of Iron
Richard Attenborough in The Chess Players
Dennis Hopper in The American Friend
Peter Cushing in Star Wars

Louis Morgan said...

Luke:

I find Cross of Iron to be quite terrific actually, and easily the best I've seen from Peckinpah so far. Although I would say a little bit of the action later on is slightly disjointed, many of the earlier sequences are quite remarkable. Beyond that though I love its portrait of the lives of the low ranking soldiers as well as the bitter officers brought to life beautifully by its great ensemble.

Ganz - 4.5(A harrowing bit of work from Ganz as he brings to life such an emotional poignancy to his character's severe desperation. Ganz is effective by giving such a powerfully honest portrayal of how a man in his situation could be driven to such measures)

Newman - 4(It's kinda a comic version of Hud as Newman doesn't mind playing unlikable yet because he's Paul Newman, he's still extremely likable. Newman has a great deal of fun portraying a particularly crude "inspiring" coach character)

Shaw - 4(Dern has the meatier role, but I feel Shaw does more with less. I have to admit loving seeing Shaw in a lead role as well as an action hero of sorts anyway, but he's good in the role as well. His performance is particularly cold for a hero, but it makes absolute sense for his character whose been involved in a war of vendettas for all too long. Shaw is very good though by showing the quiet reservations of his character but along with his usual intensity needed for such a killer. I particularly loved the look he gives the female terrorist at the end as his expression alone seemed to indicate her demise was inevitable)

Coburn - 4(Coburn is always so believable as a bad ass anyway, and just fits the role in that regard perfectly. Beyond that though Coburn usually is also so good in being able to infuse so much emotion in a single look. He does that here and a single close up by him can say so much)

Anonymous:

Winters - 5(An amazing performance. I loved her in the first half as she brought such genuine warmth and sweetness to her part. I especially loved her in the scene where the mother prays for her son. The first half of her performance makes the second half of her performance all the more heartbreaking. Her portrayal of the decaying of her character is incredibly moving, and her scene in the cabin was outstanding)

Loren - 4.5(Solid deglamorized performance from her. I quite enjoyed her unusual chemistry with Mastroianni here that moves from their casual friendship to a conflict of philosophy to the understanding of a mutual desperation at the end. Her role is technically cliched in many ways but I never allowed it to feel as such.)

Keaton - Annie Hall - 4.5(For me she is the best part of the film, which I don't love as a whole. I really do like her work a lot though as she makes Annie such a wonderful presence throughout the film, and acts as a great contrast to Allen's tightly wound performance)

I'd put Tomlin in lead.

Michael McCarthy:

Dern - 4(Preferred his performance as a deranged veteran here over his Oscar nominated one to be sure. Dern certainly has the right intensity in his scenes of the more overt madness, in his Bruce Dern sort of way. I find his best scenes though were his quieter ones, like when he goes to see his case worker, as he manages to be fairly affecting in portraying the actual loss that is behind his derangement)

GM said...

Edward Fox - A Bridge Too Far
Clemens Scheitz - Stroszek
David Warner - Providence
Dirk Bogarde - Providence
James Mason - Cross of Iron
Maximilian Schell - Cross of Iron

Anonymous said...

Louis, I'd like to ask you, do you take away points from a performance if it's dubbed? I'm not really sure about what I'd do... I think you can't really give all the credit to the actor, but at the same time Shelley Winters was dubbed in An Average Little Man and yet I can't help but give her either a 4.5 or a 5... What do you think?

Louis Morgan said...

Anonymous:

I take it into consideration, and unless there is a dubbing with their actual voice I treat their work as kinda like a silent performance. This works particularly well for Winters since the second half of her performance was silent to begin with.