Best Actor 1989: Results

5. Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July- I will give Cruise credit for trying but he never quite succeeds.

4. Robin Williams in Dead Poet's Society- Williams is okay as the supporting part of the inspiring teacher but his character just does not have a lot of depth.

3. Kenneth Branagh in Henry V- Branagh is very good as Henry, although he is slightly too theatrical in a few scenes, but he also has some truly great scenes that make up for it.

2. Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy- Morgan Freeman is incredibly good, and his chemistry with Jessica Tandy is perfect. He gives an incredibly charming and entertaining performance.

1. Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot- Day-Lewis is brilliant and completely compelling in the challenging role of Cristy Brown. Day-Lewis succeeds in every way and gives one of the greatest performances put on film.

Best Actor 1989: Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot

Daniel Day-Lewis won his first Oscar from his first nomination for playing Christy Brown a man from an Irish family of 13 children who suffers from cerebral palsy. Which causes Brown to physically disabled but not mentally.

My Left Foot is an interesting film about Cristy Brown who became a great artist and writer despite only being able to do anything with his left foot. The story works because it does not romanticize or sentimentalize Brown. Instead it shows him as not a fully positive character but a man with own faults and problems that have nothing to do with his cerebral palsy.

Daniel Day-Lewis is simply brilliant as Cristy Brown. First of all he gets the technical features of the performances perfectly. His mannerisms and movement never seem forced or awkward but rather completely natural. Doing a voice as Lewis does can become repetitive but it never does with Lewis is works and it fits. I like the way he develops the voice when he is in his early stages of speaking and then later when he develops greater vocal skills. But the technical aspects do not matter if the performance is not emotionally convincing.

 Lewis though is able to convey a fully emotional effective performance through all the physical requirements of the role. Every scene Lewis nails as well as possible. Lewis goes through so much in this performance that he could have fallen at his face at anytime but he never does. I love the joy he shows in his scene when he gets the coal with his brothers. His face is just perfect that he makes with such a limited ability in terms of body movement, yet he conveys more with his eyes and restricted mouth than most performances do with their entire body.

 Lewis has some brilliant stand out scenes that are basically incomparable such as his scene where he reacts to the doctor not returning his love. Lewis is so effecting in that scene. His emotion is just properly raw and realistic, despite his characters handicap. Lewis makes Brown into a fully realized person who it seems you meet and know from watching his performance, he is that good. My favorite scenes of his though my be at the end where he tries to ask the nurse out at the end of the film. His pleading to her, and frustrations are handled with the utmost brilliant care of Day-Lewis. When he finally convinces here it is perfectly satisfying and a great end to a great performance.

Best Actor 1989: Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July

Tom Cruise received his first nomination for playing Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July. Kovic is at first gungho to join the marines, then he is injured and wheel chair bound becoming one of the two handicap nominees from this year.

Born on the fourth of July follows Kovic from his hopeful days, then to his tragic days as a soldier in Vietnam, then to his return. He becomes incredibly depressed, suffers from Post traumatic stress, and then finally returns to become an anti-war protester. I am not a fan of Oliver Stone, and I like few of his films. I find he usually is too heavy handed and obvious. Born is included as one of the overly heavy handed ones in my opinion. Born depends a lot on Cruise who is almost every second of the film, which means Cruise really needs to be on the ball the whole time.

Which he is not. Cruise is not one of my favorite actors I will admit, I do not really like him when he doing lighter fair. He never seems very confidant in his performances, especially many of his early ones. Cruise was a big star when this film came out and this is his "give me an Oscar!" performance from that time. Cruise's performance always comes off as the "I'm acting" sort of way. I always saw him trying to be Ron Kovic rather than being Ron Kovic. He is always over acting the pain rather really seeming to have the pain. In his big yelling scenes like with his mother, all those scenes came off as false for me rather than realistic. Cruise just over did it, and rather seeming to be truly disturbed, he is trying to act like being disturbed but really is not. Cruise never gets the proper tone to these scenes at all. When he seems more into the war and saying love it or leave it, he is acting in a one dimensional character, and again everything rings false. His conviction to the role just does not seem to be true. Every different phase of Kovic Cruise goes through, Cruise fails to succeed in a single phase of the character. I will give him some credit that he tries he tries a lot with every scream and every fall the character has, but he never succeeds.

Best Actor 1989: Kenneth Branagh in Henry V

Kenneth Branagh received his first and second nomination for playing and directing Henry V.

Henry V is a film version of the Shakespeare play, which is directed well by Branagh. He allows the audience to understand the language, and the play very well. The film has a very effective score, and it is peppered with some great actors and their performances.

Branagh's is not the greatest Shakespearean actor ever. He certainly is no Laurence Olivier but he still is good. He speaks the language understandably and knowingly. He never seems to be pantomiming. He gives the proper amount of strength in the role of Henry, and most of the time his performance works well. A few times though he seems slightly too theatrical in his speaking. He still is effective in the role, and this role seems to strike up a question, on the effect of the film on the performance. For example his big speech to his troops there is that score which supports his speech so well, that I do not how much of it was his acting and how much of it was the rousing score. Either way it still is how the performance comes off which is very well most of the time. He has some great scenes though after he fought in a very violent battle, and laments over the death on the field. That scene is great and most of his scenes are good. He has a nice romantic scene with Emma Thompson, and he actually covers quite a bit of ground in this performance. He shows a lot of Henry and only slightly falters for a few moments. For this Branagh gets:

Best Actor 1989: Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy

Morgan Freeman received his second Oscar nomination of five for playing Hoke Colburn the chauffeur of t Miss Daisy in Driving Miss Daisy.

Driving Miss Daisy is a very enjoyable film about the relationship between a Jewish Southern elderly Lady and her African American. It follows as their relationship grows from the initial hostile stages, to the later stages where they form a truly emotional bond with one another.

A whole lot of the film depends on the lead actors and their chemistry. Freeman's and Jessica Tandy's chemistry is incredibly effective, and their conversations together are just perfect. Freeman plays an older character who ages even more as the film goes along and he does that without any fault. His aging his natural, and proper. Freeman really gives just an enjoyable performance the whole way through. Freeman does certain mannerisms and voice as Hoke but they all work just to make a thoroughly enjoyable performance. It is not just enjoyable thought, but his performance also contains a lot of depth. Freeman shows the characters deeper aspects through subtle expressions, rather than anything heavy handed. Freeman handles the development of his relationship with Tandy to an expert degree, their feuding at first to their true friendship at the end is as eloquently done as possible and the credit needs to go to Tandy and Freeman for this. His performance has heart, depth, and is just fun to watch. For this Freeman gets:

Best Actor 1989: Robin Williams in Dead Poet's Society

Robin Williams received his second nomination of four (so far) for playing John Keating an inspirational English Teacher in the Dead Poet's Society.

The Dead Poet's society is not a very original movie in any regard. It enjoyable I suppose in its standard way though. In Williams plays the standard role of the inspirational teacher who teaches his students to be individuals rather than conformists. Williams actually is hardly the focus of the movie and is really just a supporting player to the main students.

Williams performance here is not anything that special. He plays the inspirational teacher as you would expect, he would. He gives the dramatic and inspirational speeches well enough, but his character itself lacks very much depth. He just is just the teacher nothing more, why does he force the students to call him Captain, My Captain, because he loves Poetry I guess, why does he act the way he does precisely, you never truly find out from William's performance.I wish there was more to his performance but instead we get very little. He is okay in a mostly restrained performance, but one thing brought this performance down for me. That was one scene where he completely breaks character and does Robin Williams' comedy routine.