Best Scene: Testing the Death Star.
4. Dirk Bogarde in Providence - Bogarde is good enough in his rather broad scenes as an excessively cold man, but his best scene is in portraying the warm version of the man.
Best Scene: Clive's Birthday.
3. Richard Attenborough in The Chess Players - Attenborough has a limited part but makes a strong impact as usual with his powerful screen presence.
Best Scene: Outram's introduction.
2. James Mason in Cross of Iron - Mason gives a great portrait of the quiet exasperation and sadness of a man who still fulfills his duties while having no real passion for it.
Best Scene: Colonel Brandt sends Captain Kiesel away.
1. Dennis Hopper in The American Friend - Well this was no contest for me as Hopper just stood easily above the rest. Hopper's version of Tom Ripley is absolutely compelling, chilling and yet surprisingly moving.
Best Scene: The Train Murder.
- Dennis Hopper in The American Friend
- Maximilian Schell in Cross of Iron
- Harvey Keitel in The Duellists
- Harrison Ford in Star Wars
- James Mason in Cross of Iron
- David Warner in Cross of Iron
- Alec Guinness in Star Wars
- James Caan in A Bridge Too Far
- Anthony Hopkins in A Bridge Too Far
- Barry Miller in Saturday Night Fever
- Richard Attenborough in The Chess Players
- Anatoly Solonitsyn in The Ascent
- Jeroen Krabbe in Solider of Orange
- Robert Redford in A Bridge Too Far
- John Cassavetes in Opening Night
- David Gulpilil in The Last Wave
- Edward Fox in A Bridge Too Far
- Dirk Bogarde in Providence
- Gerard Blain in The American Friend
- Jason Robards in Julia
- Robert Fortier in 3 Women
- Tom Conti in The Duellists
- Sean Connery in A Bridge Too Far
- Peter Cushing in Star Wars
- Maximilian Schell in A Bridge Too Far
- Fancisco Rabel in Sorcerer
- James Earl Jones in Star Wars
- James Whitmore in The Serpent's Egg
- Oleg Basilashvili in Office Romance
- Bill Macy in The Late Show
- Edward Fox in Soldier of Orange
- Amidou in Sorcerer
- Laurence Olivier in A Bridge Too Far
- Martin Shakar in Saturday Night Fever
- Norman Alden in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
- Bob Balaban in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Klaus Lowitsch in Cross of Iron
- Edward Fox in The Duellists
- Christopher Walken in Annie Hall
- Dirk Bogarde in A Bridge Too Far
- Alun Armstrong in The Duellists
- Francois Trauffaut in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Albert Finney in The Duellists
- Klaus Kinski in Operation Thunderbolt
- Gene Hackman in A Bridge Too Far
- Eugene Roche in The Late Show
- David Warner in Providence
- Michael Caine in A Bridge Too Far
- Vincenzo Crocitti in An Average Little Man
- Hardy Kruger in A Bridge Too Far
- Bruno Cremer in Sorcerer
- Vas Bisoglio in Saturday Night Fever
- Romolo Valli in An Average Little Man
- Amjad Kahn in The Chess Players
- Tommy Lee Jones in Rolling Thunder
- Warren Oates in Sleeping Dogs
- Tony Roberts in Annie Hall
- Vadim Glowna in Cross of Iron
- Victor Banerjee in The Chess Players
- Roberts Blossom in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Maximilian Schell in Julia
- Tom Skerritt in The Turning Point
- Curd Jurgens in The Spy Who Loved Me
- John Considine in The Late Show
- Strother Martin in Slap Shot
- Paul Benedict in The Goodbye Girl
- Geoffrey Hearn in The Spy Who Loved Me
- Anthony Daniels in Star Wars
- James Earl Jones in The Exorcist II: The Heretic
- Ed McMahon in Fun With Dick and Jane
- Dick van Patten in High Anxiety
- Desmond Llewelyn in The Spy Who Loved Me
- Denholm Elliot in A Bridge Too Far
- Harvey Korman in High Anxiety
- Lou Gossett Jr. in The Deep
- James Stewart in Airport '77
- Bernard Lee in The Spy Who Loved Me
- Nicholas Ray in The American Friend
- Roger Fritz in Cross of Iron
- Elliot Gould in A Bridge Too Far
- Tom Berenger in Looking For Mr. Goodbar
- Fritz Weaver in Black Sunday
- Christopher Lee in Airport '77
- Paul Sorvino in Oh, God!
- Jim Jordan in The Rescuers
- Michael V. Gazzo in Black Sunday
- Ralph Bellamy in Oh, God!
- Jackie Gleason in Smokey and The Bandit
- Richard Kiel in The Spy Who Loved Me
- Max von Sydow in The Exorcist II: The Heretic
- Rena Santoni in I Never Promised You A Rose Garden
- John Vernon in A Special Day
- Jeff Carlson in Slap Shot
- Steve Hanson in Slap Shot
- William Atherton in Looking For Mr. Goodbar
- Colin Blakely in Equus
- Harrison Ford in Heroes
- Donald Pleasence in Oh, God!
- Mike Henry in Smokey and The Bandit
- Ryan O'Neal in A Bridge Too Far
- Mickey Rooney in Pete's Dragon
- Lionel Stander in New York, New York
- Ron Carey in High Anxiety
- Alan Feinstein in Looking For Mr. Goodbar
- James Mitchell in The Turning Point
- Lawrason Driscoll in Rolling Thunder
- Harry Andrews in Equus
- Lou Salerni in Sasquatch The Legend of Bigfoot
- Mikhail Baryshnikov in The Turning Point
- Richard Gere in Looking For Mr. Goodbar
16 comments:
Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep
Dana Andrews in The Best Years of Our Lives
David Niven in A Matter of Life and Death
Cary Grant in Notorious
Edward G. Robinson - The Stranger
Orson Welles - The Stranger
David Niven - A Matter of Life and Death
John Garfield - Humoresque
Henry Fonda - My Darling Clementine
Dana Andrews - The Best Years of Our Lives
Louis: Ratings & thoughts on Fox, Olivier, Schell, Connery, Redford, Hopkins and Caan in A Bridge Too Far.
The only suggestion I can come up with right now is Cary Grant in Notorious.
Your general thoughts on A Bridge Too Far as well.
Oh, RatedRStar, I'm really looking forward to Your rant, when Rains gets thrown off his mantlepiece by Barrymore.
Luke:
I actually was rather pleasantly surprised by the film which I might put as Attenborough's best. Many of the large scale scenes are quite impressive and well done. I found the various stories surprisingly easy to follow and I thought the star casting contributed to that well. I liked that even though it was about a failed mission Attenborough had some uplifting moments making it so the overall failure is even more powerfully felt. I do feel the ending is a bit a letdown, but not enough to hurt the film all that much.
Fox - 3(When Fox goes broad it usually goes badly, but in this case I thought it worked. He brings the right proper ego and larger than life conviction and delivers his big speech quite effectively)
Olivier - 3.5(He comes in a bit late but I felt his mostly reactionary performance was quite moving and helped to bring the needed weight to the loss of life in the film)
Schell - 3.5(Schell for the most part just needs to be the German menace, which he certainly is. Schell brings a greater complexity though in a very subtle fashion as he seems to suggest some humanity in his character, and I particularly loved his final scene with Hopkins)
Connery - 3.5(Connery's role is pretty straight forward but Connery's pretty good in that straight forwardness. He brings his usual strong presence and command and is quite good in portraying the growing frustrations of his character as the battle wages on)
Redford - 3.5(Rather than being peppered throughout like most of the stars he just is in one long sequence which happened to be one of my favorite sequences in the film. I thought Redford was great in creating his character in a matter of minutes and carried his scene wonderfully well)
Hopkins - 4(Strong work from Hopkins as he kinda portrays the deterioration of his force through his performance and is effective in portraying the way the battle takes a toll on his character mentally and physicaly. He also is particularly moving in his later scenes as he shows the quiet resignation of his character, yet Hopkins is terrific in portraying that the passion of the man never goes away. His last scene with Schell is so great as Hopkins still portrays such a striking defiance in his character even after he's been completely defeated)
Caan - 4.5(Caan's character doesn't have a major card to play and technically his scenes could have been disposed, but Caan makes them worthwhile. Caan's already a perfect fit for this sorta gruff Sergeant role anyway and in a typical tough guy side he does well. He does more than that though and I love every second of his pivotal scene. He's terrific, and rather funny as the Sergeant evades the Germans particularly the moment where he and a German soldier seem to have an understanding for a moment. He's outstanding as he brings so much heart later on in the scene when the Sergeant insists that the Army Surgeon take care of his fellow soldier or he'll kill him. A great almost one scene wonder.)
Louis, I know you love a good "One Scene Wonder", as do I, so I was wondering what your ratings and thoughts are on the following (if you can remember them):
Christopher Walken in Sleepy Hollow
William Fichtner in The Dark Knight
Jude Law in The Aviator
Pete Postlethwaite in Inception
SPOILER: Bill Murray in Zombieland
JUDGEMENT DAY IS SOON UPON US
Jean Marais - La Belle Et La Bete (One of my winning requests)
Cary Grant - Notorious
Dana Andrews - The Best Years Of Our Lives
Henry Fonda - My Darling Clementine
David Niven - A Matter Of Life and Death
So now what would your top 10 films of 1977 be Louis?
Also Louis, I'd like to know your top 5 for Best Actress and Supporting Actress for 1977
Jean Marais in La Belle Et La Bete
Yeah, that's really it.
Matt:
Walken - 3(To be frank I prefer Walken when he's not being weird. That being said even his weird performances usually offer some entertainment value and that's the case for this one as well)
Fichtner - 2.5(It think his face makes his role more memorable here than anything he does performance wise)
Law - (I don't really remember him all that well)
Postlethwaite - 3(Felt he and Murphy kinda stole the emotional heft away from DiCaprio in the film. Their one scene together was perhaps my favorite moment from that film as they both brought such a poignancy to the relationship of their two characters that technically did not matter that much to the main story)
Murray - 3.5(Hilarious performance to be sure and turns his whole appearance into the best scene from that film)
Anonymous:
Top Ten:
1. The Duellists
2. The Late Show
3. Cross of Iron
4. The American Friend
5. Star Wars
6. Sorcerer
7. A Bridge Too Far
8. An Average Little Man
9. Eraserhead
10. Black Sunday
Actress:
1. Diane Keaton - Annie Hall
2. Lily Tomlin - The Late Show
3. Sophia Loren - A Special Day
4. Jane Fonda - Julia
5. Marsha Mason - The Goodbye Girl
Supporting Actress:
1. Shelley Winters - An Average Little Man
2. Vanessa Redgrave - Julia
3. Liv Ullmann - A Bridge Too Far
4. Melinda Dillon - Close Encounters of the Third Kind
5. Cloris Leachman - High Anxiety
Dana Andrews - The Best Years of Our Lives
Also, I can't imagine Barrymore shooing Rains off from the top spot. It's A Wonderful Life is my favourite film of all time, and Notorious is one of my least favourite Hitchocks, but even I have to concur that Rains is simply fantastic in his role, and has a lot more to do than Barrymore, who is still great.
If anything, I think Travers has the better chance of ursurping Rains, although that might just be my subjective opinion :)
Also rewatching Star Wars original trilogy again has really made me appreciate Mark Hammill more, I've always found him rather underrated in holding the film together with what is frankly, a rather poorly writte (underwritten, even) character.
Also, I love the Ewoks now :)
Thoughts/ratings on:
Christopher Walken in Annie Hall
Gene Hackman in A Bridge Too Far
Ratings/thoughts on Cloris Leachman in High Anxiety and Liv Ullmann in A Bridge Too Far. Also, it looks like you upgraded Vanessa Redgrave's rating for Julia, can I have your new rating and thoughts on her?
Dana Andrews, The Best Years of Our Lives
Groucho Marx, A Night in Casablanca
Anonymous:
Walken - 3(An enjoyable bit of Walken strangeness to be sure)
Hackman - 3(A thankless role to be sure, he should have been given Ryan O'Neal's part, as his character is given like a minute every thirty minutes. It's made even more thankless as the script rather randomly decides whether or not he will speak broken English making some problems for the accent Hackman uses as it is random when his character should have a thicker or thinner accent. Hackman still does just fine with that though, and is particularly good with his various reactions throughout that bring some weight to any scene that he is in)
Anonymous:
Leachman - 3.5(High Anxiety for the most part is a lot failed puns and Mel Brooks failing to capture Hitchcock's visual the way he managed to capture James Whale's. Leachman's absurd portrayal of an excessively wretched and bizarre nurse I thought was easily the highlight)
Ullman - 3.5(Like Olivier she comes in rather later but offers some fine support when she does. Her performance manages to be quietly moving portrayal of a civilian being forced into watch the intense suffering of the conflict)
Redgrave - 3.5(Not really new thoughts but I do feel she does deserve credit for her major scene which she handles very well)
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