Alternate Best Actor 1998: Christopher Lee in Jinnah

Christopher Lee did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Jinnah. 

Jinnah depicts the life of the founder of Pakistan. 

Jinnah is two things as a film, one being an attempt to fit a puzzle piece in or perhaps offer a different perspective of the film Gandhi, that depicted Jinnah not exactly as a full-on villain, however a cold patrician man who sews the seeds of dissent to create the partition of India, and where that film fairly quickly leaped to the results of the partition, rather than specifying more details within the reasons and the essential figure within it, this film attempts to rectify that. The other thing it is though is the rectification not as a straight biopic but rather in a Heaven Can Wait, 1943 Heaven Can Wait that is, where a man needs to explain himself to a representative of the afterlife in order to determine whether his actions were righteous or not. I would say as trying to fill in what Gandhi left out, it doesn't entirely work and often seems like "Gandhi at home", particularly due to  "not Ben Kingsley" in that role, than a fully successful film, in part because that framing device feels more like a gimmick rather than something it could've fully explored, since the moments that do play with the idea have potential, albeit never fully explored. Christopher Lee in a way plays two sorts of roles therefore as Jinnah, who much of the film is also played by a younger actor depicting him in his early years, as both Jinnah of the man of history and the man in the afterlife attempting to explain himself to the court of eternity. 

Lee on the former half of the performance unquestionably delivers his usual striking presence particular via his always powerful voice in order to reinforce the command of Jinnah as we see him trying to fight for the Muslim in the next phase of India, for what he believes is the best way, via the creation of Pakistan. Lee is a force to be reckoned with and is captivating to watch every moment we see Jinnah go about addressing a crowd of people, whether Hindu or Muslim, both groups that often question Jinnah's intention the former for his obvious support of the Muslim population of India and his refusal to treat Gandhi as more than a man, and the latter for his non-extremist views on the doctrines of Islam, particularly that of the roles of women. Lee is terrific in just having that quiet passion that does exude in every moment of specifying where there is a real natural controlled intensity, where Lee manages to basically paint the perspective of Jinnah of Gandhi and the perspective of the film. A great moment to illustrate this is when we see an early scene where his sense of humor is question, where before that cold and incisive stare seems to speak of a cold man, but then Lee's casual way of dismissing such charges by being humorous himself is a wonderful bit of bringing more humanity to the role than we saw in Gandhi. Lee is able to articulate a perceived image of Jinnah that some might've obscured and the image of a man of a more gracious charismatic ruler at the same time. 

A flaw in the film though is where Gandhi even struggled to a degree to tell the tale of India's fight for independence in over three hours, this film obviously was never going to do it in less than two hours, even when allowed to just hone in a bit more on Jinnah, but there is so much to tell, one thinks perhaps just telling the partition progression probably would've made the most sense. Instead the film has very brief moments that don't add up to too much where it covers Jinnah's personal relationships with his wife who died young, his willful sister, and even his daughter, who wants to marry out of Islam against his wishes despite essentially doing that himself. In the present phases, Lee's effective in presenting a certain degree of deficiency in the scenes of trying to admonish his daughter or his sister, and presenting a less passionate man as he speaks the specific dogma that leads to these conflicts. In each Lee presents the hardness of this belief, though in these instances creating a greater sense of conflict by speaking the words with a degree of hesitation and weakness that is far from the nature of the man we see the rest of the time. As quick as these moments are, Lee does what he can to bring a bit more depth, as we also see the man as he deals with the very difficult question of partition and the unexpected results of it. One great moment is when Jinnah is offered evidence of an affair between India's expected first prime minister Nehru and the wife of the final viceroy of India. Lee's great in creating the sense of old loyalties and friendship, and this sickening refusal to sink to basic politics with a sense of blunt disgust as he refuses to use the blackmail for his gains. Lee is equally powerful in the final moments of the film where we see Jinnah react to the violence of the partition, where Lee brings in his reactions such a striking sense of the horror and heartbreak in the man as he sees the results of India's independence bluntly in front of him. Lee's very moving in showing the weight of decision on the man as this existential crisis regardless of his beliefs. 

Speaking of existentialism, that crisis is the forefront of the judgment on Jinnah as he attempts to defend his actions to a representative of an afterlife. An idea that fluctuates between a silly gimmick you might find in a bad history channel special and to something far more striking and potent. The gimmick moments are of the direct conversations with his guide that feel too simplistic at times and too straightforward as though Jinnah is explaining his performance review. Regardless, Lee gives as much gravity as he can to these scenes by presenting a man still steadfast in his belief he did the right thing, and elevates the concepts as much as he can, bringing that understated passion to every word of his defense. Equally effective is even his wistful commentary on the relationship with his wife, where Lee brings that haunted sense of reflection to a man who managed to live on past the relationship but never emotionally removed himself from it. The most striking moments though are those of interaction with the past, such as when older Jinnah speaks to his younger self to promote the concept of non-violence, where Lee is moving in being more supernatural himself in showing the convictions of a man who can now look at the past rather than life in it as the present. We also have an all too brief scene where Jinnah becomes a prosecutor himself of the British viceroy on his failure to stop the partition violence, which seems like perhaps where the film should've started as it seems like a lot of potential if it had been set up as a trial where Jinnah both defends himself and lays blame on others, however this is swiftly rushed through. Although to Lee's credit he does deliver on the sheer power of his performance and brings the force of a man seemingly fighting with more than just his own experience but the whole of history. That is however essentially the entirety of Lee's performance, which is elevating what he has but can only do so much due to the limits of the film.