Best Actor 1979: Roy Scheider in All That Jazz

Roy Scheider received his second and final Oscar nomination for portraying Joe Gideon in All That Jazz.

All That Jazz is essentially Bob Fosse writing his own eulogy as we follow a stage director go through the trials of production while dealing with his messy personal life and with death. 

Roy Scheider isn't the guy anyone would've imagined to be the first to play Bob Fosse most likely. Scheider really made his name as the quiet authority type typically in films like The French Connection and Jaws, both where he plays a lawman who is often the voice of reason against more passionate and eccentric voices. Scheider often just seems like your go-to calm kind of everyman, something Fosse, and his all-but name-only surrogate Joe Gideon would be. Scheider is fully against type, but this is one of those performances where you don't need to be slowly led into the concept of this surprising choice. Scheider rather surprisingly just seems completely at home with Joe Gideon, from the opening scene where we see Joe looking over the auditions for his new musical. What is truly remarkable about this is that simply through his physical performance in this scene you instantly forget the idea of the more reserved restrained men you've come to know him as. Scheider has this kind of physical buoyancy that differs so greatly from those other roles. There's an outward natural expressiveness as his manners are of that of a dancer turned choreographer turned theater director. There is that expressiveness in his face and his physical being that is so open as maneuvers through the crowd. What is so particularly incredible about this is that Scheider doesn't have a hint of mannerism even though this is so different from what he is known for it just seems to be who Scheider is as a performer, and really in this, he achieves an immediate ideal in that it makes you wonder what Scheider's natural being is more like, the withdrawn cops or the extroverted Gideon. Of course what both show is just a tremendous performer who can adjust himself to this very different role and seem completely at home in this part.

Scheider's performance basically is this kind of rush of everything just as we see through Gideon's life as this non-stop marathon of work, inspiration, vice, and drama. Scheider's work then needs to be a whole lot of things all at once, while also not faltering within the shifts of the character, which are moment to moment, scene to scene even second to second. Scheider is brilliant in achieving each separate state of Gideon per whatever given moment he is dealing with, and again this is a performance where the shifts are merely the constant state in a way reflective of Gideon's constantly changing state. What all of it is in a way, at a pivotal point, is that Gideon is a hypocrite of ideas, and what Scheider has to do is make the contrasting points both vivid and wholly believable even when contrasting. Take really the most public persona of the character as the brilliant stage director. There Scheider is amazing by just being a natural force of will, but a force of will at ease. When he is making a choice, or watching his creation, Scheider shows the utmost command of someone just in their element where every idea seems the genius of a genius. That is in blunt contrast to his character constantly looking over the edit of his new film about a stand-up comedian, a stand-in for Lenny, where there is this constant state of quiet anxiety pestering Scheider's face. A man who truly believes within himself that he has no idea what he is doing. What is great about Scheider is this shift never feels unnatural, rather it is who the man is, so capable of genius yet so terrified of failure. 

In his personal relationships, the same hypocrisy exists given that Gideon loves every woman he encounters he can't love everyone that he encounters. Scheider again though is amazing as the hypocrite, and again we see the tremendous range that Scheider really has as a performer. This with the exuberant charm he does bring in the moments of Gideon's casual seductions, which are most convincing in Scheider's charisma he brings here. Again a charisma that is so extroverted and really potent on its own, is notable given how different it is than Scheider's traditional appeal. Scheider makes us see wholly both the lusty drives in the man as he seems to be mentally undressing most everyone with his penetrating eyes, but his smooth smile makes it so most are fairly willing to accommodate his desires. Still though at the same time Scheider is as convinced that this act feels like an act of a desperate man at times. Scheider shows at the same time the defeated and really rather a meek man whenever he is called upon his ability to be loyal to anyone or anything. Scheider contrasts nearly a shyness, but in these reactions, particularly when pressed by Joe's wife, there's a little bit of just a boy recognizing his faults. Scheider shows no innate confidence in really providing any depth of understanding of his relationships, and desperation within the man when he is asked to really think deeper beyond his basic frustrations. Scheider again makes both aspects of Gideon tangible in themselves and wholly logical in showing the different shades of Gideon who really at a very basic level is a mess of a man. 

The strangest hypocrisy though is in his relationship with death, here personified by a beautiful woman (Jessica Lange) who he converses with throughout the film. The conversation itself is Gideon being himself again where Scheider's delivery of his words towards death is always with a flirtation edge. Scheider's performance creates the idea of the man seems to love the idea of death with every word towards her as though he wants to embrace her like a lover. Always the hypocrite Scheider shows that any real movement in the direction of death though is filled with a petrifying fear in Scheider's expression and that behind all the bluster is a man terribly afraid of death. Gideon we see in the less supernatural moments though is in fact playing with death as he goes head first into every aspect of himself and Scheider is downright amazing in creating the physical state of the man. Every moment we see the intensity of his drive in moment, his whole body is at work in crafting the flamboyance of the man and the force that he puts into his work. In every successive scene though within Scheider's eyes are that of a man slowly draining himself and you can feel exhaustive just looking at Scheider the longer the film goes on. The degradation is best emphasized, in perhaps the greatest bit of acting of Scheider throughout the film, which is Joe's repeated "it's showtime folks" to the mirror as his day-starting ritual. The act itself is this brilliant bit of hypocrisy in Scheider's performance as the smile and the delivery of the line is a man ready to entertain and please, but within his expression is a man slowly dying. Scheider is incredible in each time coming back to this beat we see a desperation growing and in each successive delivery it is harder to convey the proclaimed idea of joy, and we see more so all that is weighing the man down towards his own demise. 

The one aspect where it seems Gideon is mostly bereft of hypocrisy, except perhaps his refusal to be truly concerned about his health, is in his relationship with his daughter where we just see some genuine tenderness. Scheider is great in these moments by in a way showing that there is mostly little flair within his performance in terms of expressing his love for his daughter. The showman aspects of the character are there, but more limited in these moments of tenderness. I think here in a way a key to Scheider's performance is that he does win you over as Gideon as much as Gideon has more reasons to dislike him than like him, but he manages to create the needed degree of investment into him as frustrating of a figure as he can be at times. Scheider though thrives by showing every aspect of his appealing personality just as he does every aspect of his personality that is far from that. Scheider is extremely charming here and brings that showman's energy to the proceedings as a near constant that is endearing in itself. He also does have those moments of genuine either love, particularly with his daughter, that gives the degree of substance even within his antics as the constant womanizer. Gideon is a complete mess of a man but Scheider manages to so brilliantly articulate every messy quality within the man. Scheider shows where the man does have his appeal, his charisma, his engaging energy, even within all his faults, his anxieties, and his complete self-destructive tendencies. Scheider is everything that Gideon should be, and everything that is is a whole lot of a man to put it lightly. 

I think the last segment of the film, which I probably weighted far too greatly in my original review, is where the film most strongly goes in a most idiosyncratic vision and where the fantastical elements become stronger than the moments in "reality", although the film never stops jumping back and forth between the elements. A sequence that worked in general better for me on re-watch, but particularly in regards to Scheider's performance. Scheider's performance in a certain way becomes more limited in the fantasy scenes, however not in the sense that it anyway limits what he is able to do with these scenes which are most impressive. We get great contrasting and striking performances essentially from Scheider as we see him both as Gideon the man dying from his heart condition, while he watches a fantasy version directing basically a musical revue for his demise. Scheider as the "director" is magnificent in the sort of callous dominance as he bosses even himself around and seems so casually cruel towards his own plight. Scheider's wonderful though in bringing this gleeful and sinister quality to this "side" of Gideon. He is actually extremely powerful in contrast, even in a limited state, in showing the Gideon dying in a hospital bed with just the weakest of deliveries of any words he can say, and more so such poignancy in fully exhibiting a man without pretense. There is just this sad sense of a man truly not only feeling his physical pain but also sensing all that will be lost in his life from his death. We cut between these scenes of Gideon living out his last days seeing the falling apart of his show, the commercial success but critical flop of his film, and just the slow degradation of his medical state. Scheider is terrific in these scenes by showing the weakening of the man, though always still with the hint of the mischievousness of that spirit of self-destructiveness even as it becomes clear it will destroy him. Scheider shows that less of a sense of that joy left in the man in each successive scene and finally such power is from his work as he truly reveals all his desperations coming to the surface that was always bubbling underneath. Leaving in the end only one final contrast beween Scheider giving a full bodied musical performance as he sings about his upcoming death with joy and excitement, putting himself within every word and a man carelessly giving into it. Bluntly against this the death of Gideon, unceremoniously and rather coldly being put in a body bag, now dead. This is an oustanding performance by Roy Scheider, because he reflexively realizes every aspects of the character with an ease and grace, managing to be a frustrating yet also oddly appealing individual in equal measure. A neat trick in particular since Scheider turned what seemed like maybe a miscast role into what ended up being a perfectly cast role.