Alternate Best Actor 2004: Shah Rukh Khan in Swades

Shah Rukh Khan did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Mohan Bhargav in Swades.

Swades follows a NASA scientist who returns to India to see his surrogate mother who raised him after his parents’ deaths. 

My third time reviewing a Khan performance comes in the form of a I’d say more classical kind of setup for a star where you have the return home scenario for a character. Although the nature of the situation is a bit different as often the individual should be maybe more troubled outside of the home, which isn’t the case for Khan’s Mohan Bhargav in this film. Rather we see him as part of NASA and a key part of a specialized team making great advances as a scientist. He’s a successful man and Khan’s portrayal of Mohan emphasizes someone who is more or less fine with the circumstances. Khan rather presents a more subtle state of while not in any way being burdened by his existence in the United States, he is instead just quietly not particularly spirited in his manner or demeanor. It’s all “fine” in Khan’s presentation of his life, no more, no less. So when he decides to visit back home, really with just a mission to do right by his nanny/surrogate mother Kaveri (Kishori Ballal), Khan delivers the lines regarding this as essentially a passive duty. Khan suggests he does care but his emphasis makes it mostly just as a general responsibility of someone who considers himself a good man, but it is not a fundamental desire of someone wishing to reunite with his home and the people there. 

Mohan leaves for India initially searching for Kaveri at a retirement home in Delhi only to find that she left a more rural village. Something that he searches for to continue in his duty and where Khan’s performance emphasizes a more low key distance. Khan doesn’t present himself as above the village rather portrays Mohan as just more fixated on doing what he believes is his simple task to take care of Kaveri by bringing him back with her. There is a nuanced emotion Khan naturally brings to discover Indian again after being away for so many years but there’s a modest quality of someone who really isn’t trying to face them at the moment. Naturally things get more complicated when he learns that it is Kaveri’s mission to find a husband for Mohan’s childhood friend, Gita (Gayatri Joshi), naturally, a beautiful school teacher at this point who has no desire to become a subservient wife and is devoted to the idea of bringing an education to this rural area. Khan’s very good in striking the right kind of chemistry with Joshi, where initially it is the warmth of an old pair of friends, though there is a subtle glint in Khan’s eyes of someone who obviously sees a bit more in her than just a friend in this surprising reunion. Particularly when he hears about potential, not particularly impressive suitors, where Khan brings a natural comedy in his fairly dismissive reactions to the idea of her marrying some forgettable guy. 

In these interactions of course Gita is more than willing to herself denounce anyone who wants to place her in a box and we do get some properly attuned reactions from Khan where you see how impressed he is with her multiple ways. Khan has the right ease of being intrigued in moments, while also comedic asides where he gets a bit of her directness or just takes joy in it when he gives it to others. This however still doesn’t change Mohan’s overall approach as he soon calls NASA which Khan still presents as Mohan fixated on still going back, but just in this instance thinking he’ll be able to go back with her as his wife. Gita though is steadfast in wanting to bring education for all despite some in the village protesting the notions. Mohan doesn’t need to be changed to help rather we see the innate goodness of the man come out. Khan is very good in the way he plays the quiet building supportive passion of the man as he stands firm in his beliefs with Gita and goes about helping her. What he does so well is not present it as any kind of patronizing support to lust after her, rather playing it as a straight honest support. Importantly going further in playing the quiet growing joy in the man sharing his own expertise to help the village. Something that comes out in one of the film’s musical sequences, where Mohan entertains the village after a power loss by showing his knowledge of the sky. A sequence that is of course dubbed, but Khan’s portrayal of the sheer infectious energy as he physically motions every bit of it, completely still comes across throughout the sequence. It is a wonderful bit where you absolutely see the full star charisma of Khan and is a standout moment within the film thanks to every bit of work where you see really the fun of his knowledge as he convincingly pulls everyone into it even beyond the song that goes with it. 

The more dramatic edges of the story come as Khan travels further to collect a debt for Gita where he finds continued hardship due to the lack of fundamental resources. The key to these scenes are Khan’s reactions. He builds on each scene of learning about it with such a palatable sense of empathy towards those he is getting to know and learn about. Each scene Khan shows the growth of the concern from just a general interest to a real devotion. Bringing then a building passion that becomes more expressed in his overall performance as he becomes more than just an observer and begins to make plans to build essentially an hydroelectric dam. Khan’s portrayal of his devotion in this works best as the natural expression of the growing concern and love for the land. It is less of a man completely changing rather than a certain strength and passion of the man revealing itself more openly, even to himself. As something we keep coming back to is his check ins with NASA. At first Khan brings a casual interest to his delay, then we see the split burdens as he speaks trust that he will return but there is the conflict in his eyes, until then it becomes NASA is his burden and the village is truly what he cares about. Khan having the moment of acceptance brings the right exuberance to the man essentially finding his calling by bringing his knowledge home essentially. It is a performance that isn’t about this raw transformation, rather a leading man’s charisma, with just the right Capraish determination, though with maybe a bit less dramatic hardship to overcome. Regardless, I wholly enjoyed Khan’s work here, from his quiet romantic moments, to his more comedic reactions, and his energy within the musical moments. 

Alternate Best Actor 2004: Gael García Bernal in The Motorcycle Diaries

Gael García Bernal did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite receiving a BAFTA nomination, for portraying Ernesto “Che” Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries. 

The Motorcycle Diaries follows a younger Che Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado as they take a purposeful trek across South America. 

The notion of the film exists within “and now you know the rest of the story” as the main character of Che Guevara would obviously become important to world politics latter in life, where here he is just a younger man wishing to explore his continent to gain a better understanding of it, while also very much still existing as just a man in a sort of flight of fancy in its own way. The film is purposefully playing with both notions of Che as just a young man and the inklings of where Che will end up later on. As Che we have Gael García Bernal, who is an actor who fits into a specific frame for me. An actor who I rarely ever dislike his performances but at the same time his performances never quite stand out for me beyond being essentially good. A strange consistency that one could argue is both criticism and praise in a way. Which leads me to his performance in this film, where I have to be honest, I wouldn’t say I feel massively different about much of the work of García Bernal here. Which largely isn’t a truly detrimental thing. As García Bernal’s mostly low key performance works in favor of playing Che just as a man most of the time without crafting some symbol of a person first. The film itself takes an often naturalistic approach to the journey where we just witness the man go from person to person, place to place and have an experience with those people there. Sometimes it is theoretically a bit more dramatic, but it is all presented as a calm type of discovery.

García Bernal gives a good performance in playing the moment more so than the man as we see him early on with his journey where we see him interact with girlfriend, where García Bernal plays with genuine tenderness but with just a bit of extra lust of a young man trying to get a bit further with her in terms of pace. García Bernal has the right casual ease that it isn’t necessarily the most important thing to him in his life at this moment yet there is still a quiet devotion in his way regardless. We have his friendship with Alberto where they too are just friendly, represented in the ease they have with each other where the chemistry the two actors share have that innate sense of history. While this is a fundamental and important journey for both men, there is also the proper sense that this is an ongoing story between the men as a pair. García Bernal’s effective as well in specifically having the sense of taking in what they are witnessing as they go through their journey. A journey that at times has a sight seeing quality of just paying witness to the land, where Bernal exudes the right love of the land, but it ends up becoming more complex of a journey when they also spend time with persecuted communists and even an isolated leper colony. 

García Bernal’s performance within experiencing the tougher elements is where he does bring shades of the revolutionary that would come from this journey in part. García Bernal brings again largely in quiet moments of reaction though a bit more pointed and an instance of García Bernal really taking hold of the screen. These moments are remarkable because García Bernal does a few things in crafting the later Che, without just becoming him. The first is where you see the dogged conviction of moments of dealing with his asthma, even making a  very long swim with his condition, where García Bernal brings within his eyes the eyes of a man who will be willing to wage war in multiple countries. While the tasks in this instance are not war, García Bernal brings that kind of incisiveness. Combining that are the moments of reacting to the poverty he sees which García Bernal brings the right nuance and variety to. There is sadness and empathy as he sees the pain of others but there is more than that, as García García Bernal’s performance internalizes and cultivates a certain intensity. An intensity that is more than just caring about the people, but rather a vengeful anger for the people where García Bernal creates this sense of a building fire in the man. Leading to his one major monologue within the film where Che speaks to his dream of uniting the people of the Americas to a common cause. A scene where García García Bernal is great because suddenly he speaks with this determination, but combined with a passionate drive. There’s a man not just angry, rather it is with a pointed vision in mind with a method beyond every word that García Bernal speaks that articulates the revolutionary from just the younger man we knew the rest of the time. It’s a great scene for García Bernal and one very obvious moment where García Bernal, for me, stepped beyond my usual expectation of consistency for something more. And while leading up to that, García Bernal maybe supported that idea a bit more, even then it still worked well for the character and helped to contribute to the impact of the change in Che throughout the film. A striking portrait of a man who is just a man and finding the path of someone willing and wishing to change history. 

Alternate Best Actor 2004

 And the Nominees Were Not:

Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice

Christian Bale in The Machinist

Gael García Bernal in The Motorcycle Diaries

Mads Mikkelsen in Pusher II

Paddy Considine in Dead Man's Shoes

nor

Irrfan Khan in Maqbool

Tony Leung Chiu Wai in 2046

Yuya Yagira in Nobody Knows

Shah Rukh Khan in Swades

Bill Murray in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

Predict either set or both.

And an out of competition review of Daniel Brühl in The Edukators.

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1967: Donald Pleasence in Will Penny, Kenneth Mars & Dick Shawn in The Producers & Results

Donald Pleasence did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Preacher Quint in Will Penny. 

Will Penny is an off-beat and effective western about an aging trail hand (Charlton Heston).

Donald Pleasence takes up the role of the heel required for the western and a very peculiar one. Pleasence after all isn’t necessarily an actor you’d instantly envision as a western actor given his Englishness is readily evident. The atypical nature of the casting plays effectively into the weirdness of his character. A character who suddenly appears as the ranch hands try to claim an elk only to be suddenly advanced upon by Pleasence’s Preacher Quint and his family. Pleasence as per usual, and not too surprisingly given that he is playing in a western setting, fashions a new accent for himself, something that isn’t quite American or English but completely works for the character. It is a strange ramshackle quality that denotes a man who has lived much of his life in very low circumstances but strives yet fails to present himself as some strange learned man of God. It is instantly ear catching as is his whole physical performance, where there is a scavenger like energy that Pleasence exudes as he peers upon the men whose only crime was to come across the same elk. Pleasence delivers a raw intensity and insanity though tempered with a particularly devious edge. Pleasence plays into the whole idea of the “Preacher” as very much a fire brimstone center of town square type preacher, although Quint is just in some random places trying to harass people who aren’t part of his family. Pleasence’s sermons are magnificent bits of performance from him as they are full bodied in just announcing himself as though he is about to leap out of his body as he implores some kind of divine intervention for his hideous actions. 

Every time Pleasence speaks it. It is as though he is trying to call upon the forces beyond nature to destroy his enemies with the mania in his piercing eyes. There’s a bit of subversion by Pleasence though, just a bit that is a brilliant little touch where kind of between the overtures there’s like a glint in his eyes of a knowing or just a moment where his voice falls a little where he suggests that even the preacher bit is nothing more than a game that Quint plays around with as part of a madcap act to lead his family. Pleasence has a great hideousness within his character as initially Will saves his friends by killing one of Quint’s family, where we get a standout moment of Pleasence praying to God to wreak vengeance on them where he makes the words sing as this blinded madness. Pleasence comes in and out of the film after this confrontation as this unwanted parasitic force of evil. Pleasence creates a vicious terror in his menace that isn’t so much defined by confidence but rather the rabid madness of the character. Pleasence creating almost a darkly comic quality to the character by playing into the grotesquery with such glee. Something that is particularly unnerving after a long loving sequence of Will helping and falling in love with a fatherless family, where Pleasence storms in with his delivery of “Merry Christmas” being as though the devil has come to call. Followed by one of his most disturbing acts as forces the widow to choose between his sons, while also disparaging his sons, the energy Pleasence brings creates such incredible distress by how much he seems within this moment to the point of a true demented hysteria. My only complaint about the character would be he doesn’t really have a great final moment to really let Pleasence sink his teeth into one more time, as the confrontation is relatively quick. But that is a case of only wanting more of a good thing, and really this is an amazing turn by Pleasence through the impact he makes. As he takes a germ of the false preacher and runs with it for his relatively limited screentime, making a tremendous impact, and in a role that I think many lesser actors would’ve made some forgettable rote heavy, Pleasence turns him into something more unique and impressive. 

Kenneth Mars did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Franz Liebkind nor did Dick Shawn receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Lorenzo St. DuBois but his friends call him L.S.D. in The Producers. 

Maybe The Producers as a film is a bit like the old Beatles or Elvis or Beatles or Rolling Stones debate where either you’re a Max (Zero Mostel) or a Leo (Gene Wilder) person, or you’re a Franz Liebkind or an LSD person. Not that you don’t like them all, but there is some degree of preference, although I think this largely speaks to the treasure trove of comedy evident within the film regardless. In terms of the supporting competition each play the broadest of the characters perhaps with Mars first to appear as the author of the play, “Springtime for Hitler” chosen by the titular producers as a surefire flop. A character who is patently absurd from the get go as we meet him pretending to be a proper “good American” going so far as two terribly sing Yankee Doodle Dandy, while of course also donning a German war helmet that might confuse the issue just a bit. Mars’s performance very much plays into this ridiculousness in many ways playing his role as an over the top German soldier in a war auctioneer just with different ends. As his German accent is just as over the top thick with the emphasis on that particular harshness used for more villainous characters, however something he instantly subverts with his silliness from the outset. An idea that expands when the producers surprise him with wanting to actually put on his play where Mars begins to espouse his views more openly though his exact perspective on Hitler and the whole Nazi regime seems a bit tilted even as ridiculous Nazis go. Mars's performance as the drunken Liebkind brings to it this combination between a lost love’s adoration towards Hitler against his unbridled, though wholly hilarious, rage against Winston Churchill as a comparison. Going off on all the ways Hitler was better based mostly on their paintings (though maybe a little mixed up on what type of painting Hitler did exactly), their dancing of course and Chruchill’s way of pronouncing Nazi. Mars’s performance of playing between basically what is best described as lovey dovey towards Hitler, then a sourpuss to Churchill is a magnificent silly dance of switching expressions and physical manner as he goes from wistfully dancing for Hitler to become ogre-like as he looks down upon Churchill. It’s a grand bit of ridiculousness.

Unfortunately for the Producers, they perhaps go too all in with their scheme and instead of just choosing the worst play they seem intent on choosing the worst of everything including the worst possible Hitler. Leading us to the introduction of Dick Shawn as Lorenzo St. DuBois aka LSD played by Dick Shawn where I’ll actually start with the later scenes of his performance, where his star turn as Hitler turns Liebkind’s straightforward adoration to that of a satire. Shawn is absolutely hilarious in pulling off basically proving the concept that this swerve would make the play a success as he brings his specific beatnik energy to the dictator. Where Shawn is outrageous through every swing of his performance as he opens with his anxiety over losing the war by serenading himself by piano, and using the word “baby” far more than Liebkind or history would support. Shawn’s portrayal of that specific distress is particularly funny by just how weirdly distressed he is in such a bizarre yet perfectly funny way. But his Hitler expands on that as we also get him with his troops, where Shawn once again is great in just playing up the stupidity as he so earnestly delivers the line that “we can’t attack Germany, we’re Germany”. But we also get the marvelous scene of his whole sequence of dealing with his “Little Joey” to cheer him up, Joey being Joseph Goebbels, we’re they’re best buds, proper beatnik best buds however in every overly chummy interaction, with even an all important high five, that is pure comedy gold as they “man” and “baby” each other in such joy as Joey lays out his new track, that being a propaganda piece where they beat England. 

Something that gets interrupted by Liebkind, whose distress at seeing the play matches the comedy on stage wonderfully well, playing it with this sincerity of his distress close to crying baby in every bit of being distraught at seeing “his Fuhrer” saying “Baby”. Leading to two great bits as Franz first dresses down an audience member for interrupting his bemoaning by noting that he’s the author and “outranks her” with all the same billowing as his Churchill rant, followed though by his knocking out of stage hand where Mars is hilarious by being frankly so silly in his “you please be unconscious” so gently before physically assaulting a man. And honestly where Franz goes through the last bits of the film are more looney tunes than anything, not a criticism mind you as Mars delivers it with aplomb from coming in to shoot the producers like Yosemite Sam as sneers his way through trying to kill them to a more Elmer Fudd pathos as he admits his failures and attempts suicide, which while about suicide still wholly funny through the silliness of Mar’s over the top somberness as he decides his own fate…only to be thwarted by his own lack of bullets. Even that continues though as we get him to try to blow up the theater to stop the show, where we get Mars’s portrayal of attempted intelligence, which is Franz being particularly stupid, as he analyzes his fuses. The sudden insightful manner in his eyes and the way he stares so intently as he discovers his short fuse for dynamite, by naturally lighting, before the great reaction of realizing his error, is a most pleasant cherry on the top of the performance. 

Now I held off on LSD’s audition because for me it just might be my favorite scene in a hilarious film. Although I think this brings up something about “dated” and whatever it really means because the character of Lorenzo St. DuBois is specifically a sendup of Beatnik/Hippie types, yet despite being so specific it doesn’t really matter because what he is doing is funny regardless if you connect to specificity or just enjoy the insanity of it. Well I enjoy the insanity of thanks in large part due to everything that Shawn does in the part, particularly the swings of the part in the audition scene. From as he strolls in with such casual ease asking if the Hitler auditions were the auditions for Boomerang, only to be told of his error leading to Shawn’s immediate and strangely natural switch to such anxiety as he seems to ridicule his own, one would assume, drug addled brain. Combined with his perfect hat in hand demeanor when admitting to his six months in prison and his insistence that he’s clean. But he gets the audition where somehow LSD summons a band to play his performance of “Love Flower”. A performance that is amazing every second of it. From his initial intensely hippie loving everyone manner as he opens the song about giving people his love flower, before switching to a more hostile love flower to cops and landlords, where Shawn’s switch to such raging intensity of a man hating the “man” of society to such a degree and in such a contrast to his “loving” side it is absolutely beautiful comedy. Only perhaps topped as he continues that intensity to such comedy genius to one of my all time favorite bits of physical comedy as he announces that he will dance in song, leading to Shawn’s somehow frozen yet free bodied movement of everything but his legs in this singular form that is utterly ludicrous yet utterly amazing. Followed again by his switch to suddenly some existential fear around the love flower, where Shawn is intense now through that terror rather than anger before collapsing to the floor, where he peels a banana peel like it is a life line before dismissing it to instead suckle his mini cymbals instead with a face of best described as wacky contentment. After such a display one can only say “THAT's OUR HITLER!”. Or really this is just an incredibly funny performance that never ceases to make me laugh despite how many times I've seen his bit. 

(Mars)

(Shawn)

UPDATED OVERALL

Next: 2004 Lead