Alternate Best Actor 1970: Nicol Williamson in The Reckoning

Nicol Williamson did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Michael Marler in The Reckoning. 

The Reckoning is a mostly effective character study, despite not everything exactly tying together, about an Irish/Englishman businessman dealing with the death of his father.

 

We return to Nicol Williamson, once again teamed with director Jack Gold, as an idiosyncratic figure, though a seemingly different type of man from his self-destructive soldier in The Bofors Gun. Here instead we have his Michael Marler, a successful businessman. We open the film though getting a glimpse of Michael in his relationship with his seemingly quite horrid wife. In this opening the one can already see the sheer command of self that Williamson has a performer that is pretty incredible all its own. This as we have each moment within his wife behavior that is equally disdainful and lusty towards Michael. Williamson's portrayal is brilliant, in presenting in a way both how Michael is complicit within the relationship but also how he isn't exactly interacting in what would deem a healthy one. This in her more immediate insult there is amazing moment in the twitch that Williamson realizes within his face just for a moment to convey how his wife's behavior does irk him. This all the same more verbally unleashing her disdain to match her own though wrapped within this strange lust. Williamson bringing to life an instance the intensity of the relationship. This as Williamson brings the viciousness of a lust based upon this certain hatred, as he lashes out in truth against her barbs towards him as an Irishman, while still prodding him sexually. Williamson's eyes capture a mania befitting the insanity of the relationship and showing the raw lust yet also painful nature of their tryst. 

Williamson artfully changes gears as we see him go off to work. Williamson providing a greater refinement within the man fitting of a proper Englishman living as a businessman. Although with a fantastic intensity within his work, something that Williamson is one of the very best at, as in his eyes there is a strict conviction even just as he drives to get to work on time. Williamson within the office is simply brilliant and absolutely magnetic in crafting the man who moves through organization less like an office worker, and more of a warrior. This as Williamson brings a cutthroat quality within every moment within this sequence. This as he notes every strategy or idea within the company Williamson doesn't just merely say to someone, he seems to almost weaponize the words each time. This with a powerful lack of hesitation or concern. His articulation of every mistake of his boss Williamson brings this certain relish of a kill as though he's a hunter. Williamson treating every moment as though it is a battle within which Michael will eat whatever other dog he needs to survive. Williamson being exceptionally compelling in making this manner though seem so natural to the state of the man. This state of an innate intensity granting the history of a man almost as a sense of the immediate background of coming from a place or at least idea that one must fight to survive. Williamson brings this idea in every moment in showing a man who has fought for his place and aims to keep it. 

Hearing from an injury of his Irish father though Michael must return home, and even as entering to see his sister and mother, it is of a different man. This as Williamson walks with a calmer step and there is a fare more purer kind joy in just his gentle greeting to his mother, than we had seen previously in Michael. This is followed by just an astonishing scene with Williamson as he sees his bedridden father, who has died in the meantime. Williamson brings such a tenderness in the greeting and a complete sense of the affection he feels for his father. In the moment of realizing his father has died Williamson's reaction is heartbreaking as he brings the tears slowly from his eyes, in realizing a man suddenly experiencing more vulnerable emotions that he's likely suppressed in his marriage and job. Williamson's work is simply stunning as he manages to create the moment with such honest of this sort of crafted naturalism within the emotion suddenly hitting the man as the tears begin to flow. Williamson is effectively quiet, in almost showing the boy who once lived within this realm, as we see him deal with his father's sudden death, and later hears of the cause of it from his father's realm, who reveals he was killed in a bar fight by a young hooligan. Williamson is fantastic by actually reducing his own intensity to moments of quiet contemplation of the news, filled with hatred for English police in the story, where Williamson reflects a more submissive and somber state of Michael. 

Without the film stating it right away, what we see of what defines Michael through Williamson's deft performance. This as his heritage as an Irishman, to his English hating father whom he loves. In that Williamson creates two sides to the man, even though both sides Williamson shows is defined by this single aspect that create both sides. This as we follow Michael at home, where he has a brief affair with an older woman (Rachel Roberts). This where we see the tenderness of the young son seemingly trying to connect with his past on a more nostalgic quality. This even as he speaks of his father mainly speaking of his hatred with the English Williamson delivers it with a sentimental quality, earning this as his expression of a man thinking back upon his father whom he loved. This relationship, albeit brief, is contrast to his married one, though with a similar lustful quality within it at times. This also is in stark contrast though when we see Michael return to his job once again in the meantime before his father's funeral, and before he is expected to wreck havoc on the man who caused his father's death. Williamson is again rather astonishing in this sequence, this as he shows still the Irishman's son, as the savage businessman, this as man who designed his life believing, as his father taught him, that he must fight for everything. Williamson is compelling within himself. This in his striking barrage as he takes down a corporate rival and seems to shrink the man just through his verbal edge. This followed by an even greater moment, this just his eyes filled with this pure understated glee for the "kill" as he watches the man further defeated within a meeting. Williamson playing it so perfectly by both being incisive in a moment, then blithe in the next, almost twisting the knife into the other man, as though the man defeat shouldn't take up too much of his time.

Williamson finds a natural complexity though in creating the man that is Michael really is a mess of loyalties, expectations, and circumstance. This as in a later moment Michael ponders on the idea of needing to beat down a man for his father's death. He does this with a very honest and quite normal disbelief and exasperation of the whole idea. This as he expresses a man somewhat aware of being caught within his own strange situation. We see later as we watch him at a dinner party hosted by his wife. Williamson brings this tension within himself as he interacts guest with an increasingly hostile attitude. Williamson playing as man almost trying to attack what they represent to him still, just in his cutting sophisticated way, at first. Eventually Michael recognizes his father by singing a tune, much like his father, and this just an amazing moment for Williamson. This as he sings with a sense of pride in his voice, a sadness in his eyes, but also an awkwardness in his manner in this tribute. This as Williamson in this moment shows the strange tribute that Michael is to his father, this as he is trying to recognize him, but also not quite knowing how to do it. This becoming all the more evident right afterwards with a guest call him Irish in a derogatory way, leading to a rather instinctual violent reaction from Michael. Michael once again being the man designed by his father, in his own very sloppy way. This state of the man though is perhaps best revealed when Michael goes about his "revenge" by finding the young man with the intention of beating him with a blunt instrument. When he gets the man cornered, who pleads for mercy, Williamson's reaction is amazing. This as for a moment all the sense of real empathy and hesitation for the strange action comes to him, albeit briefly before he returns to beat the man for his father's name essentially. Williamson delivers an outstanding performance, particularly since I think he makes better sense of the central idea more so than the film itself does. This in Williamson's portrait of Michael, he creates a captivating realizing of a man defined by his father. This though in finding such complexity that even in a loving relationship, hatred can conspire into a broken man. Williamson not only making sense of this difficult idea but doing so with such masterful precision and power.