Alternate Best Actor 1979: Ben Gazzara in Saint Jack

Ben Gazzara did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Jack Flowers in Saint Jack. 

Saint Jack is an intriguing character study about an American pimp in Singapore. 

Ben Gazzara's performance is what makes this film really, which on its own merits isn't bad, but somewhat scattershot in its storytelling. Gazzara is what holds it together and really elevates to the point of interest. This is a performance where there is just so much life inherent within his performance. Gazzara coming onto the screen you just immediately get a sense of his Jack Flowers. His face wears a world-weariness of a man who is exiled in a way to his spot in the world, and while we don't exactly learn what the man's been through, there is a strong sense of it just in Gazzara's manner. He just exudes this time of alienation, but also with that a particular sense of a kind of strange sort of understanding with this state at the same time. It is an essential trick that Gazzara pulls off as his performance develops an immediate history with Jack Flowers from the moment you see him. You sense this guy who has been making his way in this peculiar state for a long time and the ease about it. Different from comfort though as Gazzara never shows Jack as a happy man exactly or someone truly content, but there is the sense in every frame that this is a man who clearly knows his life and has been living it his way for a long time. The idiosyncrasy then of the man and in turn Gazzara's performance is what makes him such a fascinating figure to follow throughout his film, and importantly engages you into this world through the unique nature of the perspective offered by Jack. 

Everything that Gazzara does here in terms of his performance is kind of a fascinating sort of lie while doing so always suggests a truth. And if that doesn't exactly make sense, well it really shouldn't but it completely does when viewing Gazzara's performance. One is that in a certain sense Jack, as this tired aging pimp could be or maybe even should be a boring man as he seems somewhat done with life. What makes Gazzara so good is he wholly embodies that state of distaste for life, while wholly being this man so filled with life all the same. A key truth to this performance, and perhaps why you don't become tired from watching Jack, despite Jack being a tired man in a lot of ways, is that Gazzara's whole performance in a way is playing from a deep core of the man that in a way is the opposite from the most immediate surface of him. This is as we see him going around being the pimp, he is the man whose face says "I don't give a damn about anyone or anything". Yet in the moments where Jack is interacting with some of the women or some of his clients, there is a charm in his little smile that appears in his greetings. It isn't false, rather there seems to be a man beaming with a long-forgotten life, and a man that once was Jack who probably loved life, at least as much as he could. There is that hint though that makes Jack, despite his better or worse nature, likable in his strange way that is essential in crafting the investment in Jack and in turn investment in his little world of his. 

A part of the strangely endearing quality in Gazzara's performance is very much in the personal style that is so distinct within the character, a man of specific words, with often an incisive comment or story to be mentioned from him that just speaks to years of experience, whether misspent or not. Gazzara just breaths a natural life about every moment that makes Jack so tangible in the best of ways. It's a performance that is captivating in such a unique way because there's nothing about Gazzara's performance that is traditional kind of aggressive energy or charisma. Don't get me wrong there is charisma and there is energy, but Gazzara makes it all this exact rather style for the man that is Jack, that just feels right for the man that is Jack. What makes this an intriguing character study more than anything is Gazzara because he just so much IS Jack in a way that makes it easy to be fascinated by this one of a kind character as he goes around his seedy world, yet does it in a way that makes at least his space strangely friendly. Gazzara's nuance is what is so substantial here, as that setting of the slight exasperated grump, isn't who Jack is, even if that what his face suggests. This in every word Gazzara brings that sense of living, sense of wisdom and personal sense of style. Gazzara pulls off the trick as it is in those slight changes that in one moment he can be just one of the guys hanging out, and the next can stare down a gang of violent men with the same sense of that peculiar kind of "Cool" of sorts. 

Now the key to all of this might be the brilliant execution of Gazzara's performance that is in showing, somewhat almost seemingly hypocritically, the decent nature of Jack that continually reveals itself even as he seems to present himself as the cynical ex-patriot. Gazzara's work is pitch perfect in the specific realization of this, take the moment where an associate of his is murdered, Gazzara's reaction isn't big, in fact a cursory look might make one think he doesn't care, but for a man like Jack, who has seen too much, it's heartbreak. Gazzara's expression does reveal this quiet sadness, and really his low key but oh oh so perfect near whisper of "pricks" says it all in a way. His humanity is revealed the most in his relationship with a milquetoast English accountant William (Denholm Elliott), where Gazzara's small reactions to Gazzara reveal a genuine care for the man that slowly grows the more they interact and the more William shows himself to be a bluntly decent human being. What is so great again is that Gazzara is so low key, yet in the low key style does he so naturally reveal the way a guy like Jack reveals his care and affection for another human being. It is then a profound moment when William collapses and Jack goes to his aid. Gazzara's performance is remarkable, and quietly powerful, because in the moment he releases all cynicism and is tremendous in showing Jack truly care for a moment. It is still a muted reaction, yet for a guy like Jack it is though he is yelling in anguish. And that is the brilliance of this work is where Gazzara teaches us a lot about this guy, while always being honest to the character. He finds the right detailed nuance in the minor of changes in his work, while creating such a vivid sense of the history of the man that defines his more static state. It is terrific work that really makes the film worth watching. Although the story Jack exists in isn't incredible, just being with Jack is something special, and Gazzara is the essential ingredient in making it so.