Alternate Best Actor 1979: Results

10. James Mason in Murder By Decree - Mason gives one of the best turns as Watson, emphasizing the character's low key manner compared to Christopher Plummer's Sherlock. 

Best Scene: Dealing with the prostitute. 

9. Steve Martin in The Jerk - Martin gives an entertaining turn of just emphasizing the blunt dumbness of his character. 

Best Scene: Unearned excitement. 

8. Frank Langella in Dracula - Langella successfully reworks the role of Dracula to that of a cunning and alluring romantic figure, though still vicious in his own right.  

Best Scene: Introduction. 

7. George C. Scott in Hardcore - Although I wouldn't say the film around him is the strongest, Scott gives a compelling portrayal of a man descent into both violence and the world of pornography.  

Best Scene: Attempted apology.

6. Klaus Kinski in Woyzeck - Kinski gives one of his most subdued performances, powerfully showing a man pushed around until  he's pushed too far.  

Best Scene: The murder. 

5. Malcolm McDowell in Time After Time - McDowell delivers a surprisingly charming and endearing turn that makes for a proper hero, a proper romantic and a proper man out of his time. 

Best Scene: Negotiations with Ripper.

4. Ben Gazzara in Saint Jack -  Gazzara gives a vivid characterization that so well realizes this man who seems to not care, but probably cares more than anyone would ever believe. 

Best Scene: CPR

3. Alexander Kaidanovsky in Stalker - Kaidanovsky gives a brilliant portrayal of a guide who treats his particular expertise with a religious like reverence, conviction and even anxiety. 

Best Scene: Ending. 

2. Patrick Dewaere in Série Noire - Dewaere delivers a brilliant completely off the wall performance, that just has so many weird choices yet they all pay off so wonderfully well. 

Best Scene: Final conversation with his wife.

1. Ken Ogata in Vengeance is Mine - Good prediction Bryan. Ogata gives a great uncompromising depiction of a serial killer, showing the callousness of the man through ever step of his merciless journey. I'll admit in this list, and the overall, my winner isn't decided by unanimous thought, nor is this even an example of having to choose between two performances, I could make a case in my mind for any of my top five. Ogata's cold brilliance, Burns's heartbreaking earnestness, Dourif's pure id, Dewaere's off the wall insanity, or Scheider going against type and achieving sheer greatness. I could swing to any five on the right day, I'll admit that but for now #1 is the #1. 

Best Scene: Final conversation with his father. 

Updated Overall

Next: 1979 Supporting

Alternate Best Actor 1979: Klaus Kinski in Woyzeck

Klaus Kinski did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying  Friedrich Johann Franz Woyzeck in Woyzeck. 

Woyzeck is perhaps an overly brief, though still intriguing, film about a soldier in a rural town. 

This film was made by the team that made Nosferatu, with production starting immediately after that larger-scale production, compared to this shorter, smaller-scale film. What you have though is said to be an exhausted crew and an exhausted star in Klaus Kinski. The quiet and solemn, though still animalistic turn, from Kinksi, offered a bit of a swerve from his innate presence, though it certainly used elements from it. That is the case here again in the role of Woyzeck, who to say is put upon is an understatement. Kinski's trademark intensity is of course present, however, utilized quite differently here as seen from the opening scene of the film. We see Woyzeck as he is put through the soldiers' paces but alone, making it almost look like a comical affair. Kinski has a kind of intensity as he physically straightens up and moves around with all the required soldiering you'd expect. His face though is of exhaustion and desperation within the paces. He's not having fun, nor is he determined in his task, he's rather moving around as a fearful schoolboy just doing what he has to because he's too scared not to do so. 

Kinski's performance here is fascinating because he really is not at all the fearsome warrior, despite playing a soldier, rather he's this rather weak-willed man and while Kinski is many things, that is probably on the bottom of the list when it comes to potential descriptors. Yet here it wholly works in Kinski's performance, where he presents this timid and exhaustive state in his performance. Kinski shows Woyzeck both as a soldier, and often the jack of no trades around town, with a glint of terror in his eyes at all times. He's a man just discomforted in his life and discomforted in his place, yet really too weak to do anything about it. There is that trademark madness in Kinski here yet where we see it is not in outward rage, but rather this kind of internalized petrified quality. He's a man stuck within himself and within anxieties. His whole performance is stiff and overly modest in the right way as someone just defined by his constant fear of the world along with everyone else. Woyzeck basically being this town fool, which Kinski delivers in a uniquely potent way. 

The one area where Woyzeck doesn't seem completely lost is a relatively brief scene of the man with his wife and son as they watch clever Hans the mathematician horse. A notable scene in a way in that for once in his career it seems that Kinski might be just a normal man, however, if that wasn't enough of a stretch, Kinski goes further by bringing this kindly meekness of the moment. He portrays this quiet joy of the man at the moment who does seem to enjoy his family, even as there is still the constant undercurrent of fear still present upon his brow in this moment of comfort. This is quickly subverted as we see his wife entertains another local soldier, who gifts her earrings. This leaving Woyzeck just to ask about them, and even in this Kinski's delivery is remarkable because he manages to be so painfully timid. There is a shyness in this confrontation even and continues to show a man who is basically beaten down by every aspect of the world. 

Naturally being a film that stars Kinski there is going to be a point of no return and this comes as he confronts his wife again, dragging her to a river to murder her for her infidelities. Kinski is downright amazing in this scene. First, as the actual motion of the stabbing is different from usual Kinski's rage, there is such a sense of desperation and kind of confusion about it. Even in this unquestionably permanent act, there is still such a sense of uncertainty in his eyes. The expression on his face is truly what is so incredible about his acting in this scene as it immediately and so naturally segues towards the moment of realization and sadness for his act. His face falls into the man coming into his sense to look even more lost than he already was. Kinski's final scene of him raving as he tries and fails to halfheartedly move on from the crime is still with this weakness even in this state. Kinski shows the man even more cowering than he was before, wholly defeated as he tries to explain to himself the truth of the matter. Kinski portrays just a terrified creature with nothing but his fear to hold on to. Although a relatively brief performance due to the brevity of the film, Kinski delivers a memorable turn here. A performance that contains the intensity he's known for, however, mutilated in a different direction to create such a striking portrait of a man breaking from his confines to become only more pathetic and desperate than he already was. 

Alternate Best Actor 1979

And the Nominees Were Not:

Frank Langella in Dracula

 

Malcolm McDowell in Time After Time 

Steve Martin in The Jerk

 

Alexander Kaidanovsky in Stalker

James Mason in Murder By Decree

Predict Those Five, These Five or Both:

Ken Ogata in Vengeance is Mine

 

Patrick Dewaere in Série Noire

 

Ben Gazzara in Saint Jack

Klaus Kinski in Woyzeck

George C. Scott in Hardcore

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1970: Results

5. Klaus Kinski in Count Dracula - Kinski's in an uninspired adaptation, but gives an inspired portrayal of a vampire victim of a different sort.

Best Scene: Going to the window.

4. Christopher Plummer in Waterloo - Plummer gives the right degree of levity and grace to leave a strong impression as Napoleon's opponent, even if his co-star doesn't meet him halfway.

Best Scene: After the battle.

3. Bernard Cribbins in The Railway Children - Cribbins gives a wonderfully charming and funny portrayal that finds just the right tone for the material.

Best Scene: Surprise party.

2. David Warner in The Ballad of Cable Hogue - Warner, easily the best truly supporting turn of this lineup, that wonderfully plays with his usual dignified presence with great comedy as a shameless preacher.

Best Scene: "Consoling" the "widow"

1. Warren Oates in Barquero - Oates gives a great performance here delivering a surprising command in his presence, before slowly peeling that away to show the mad desperate man beneath it all.

Best Scene: Shooting the river.

Updated Overall

 

Next: Unfinished business....(though recommendation period also starts, so please feel free to recommend a film from a year that I've already done, a film from 2020  or a documentary/animated film from any year).

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1970: Klaus Kinski in Count Dracula

Klaus Kinski did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Renfield in Count Dracula. 

Count Dracula is a forgettable, if not pretty bad (unless they meant for the zooming dramatically at taxidermy scene to be hilarious), version of the oft told story. 

This version is aggressively perfunctory as there is little to no inspiration in the adaptation or direction. I suppose you get to hear Christopher Lee as Dracula speak, but even that isn't something one should get too hopeful about. It largely is just bland and a "going through the motions" style adaptation where the filmmakers seemed to make the film because "why not" I guess. The only person who seems to be doing anything remotely inspired is Herr Kinski as Renfield. This version that follows closer to the novel as we find the character institutionalized as a collateral damage type of victim of Dracula. Kinski's performance though seems out of another movie, a better one as we see him as basically a mute in his locked room. Kinski's performance is remarkable in the physicality of it. This sort of mentally deranged state as he shy's away from human contact and seems fixated elsewhere in every movement. This as though his mind is indeed elsewhere. Well the film juxtaposes elements to draw it as though he's fixated on Dracula, frankly Kinski's performance could just be a man broken by trauma and guilt. This as there is such a palatable undercurrent of pain within his eyes as he writhes around in his cell, and looks out towards "something". Kinski's performance delivering of course his trademark intensity, that is well used in making Renfield not just some standard drone, but a man stripped of all sense of his own mind. Sadly the film doesn't really have much sense for his work, as his screentime is quite limited. Kinski's performance, which honestly he'd find a familiar road with when he himself took on the Count in Nosferatu, seeks to bring a very human reality to the fantastical horror story. This idea of Renfield as intended as this victim of Dracula, but given a greater substance in creating a tangible idea of how a real man would come to be from such abuse. 

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1970

And the Nominees Were Not:

Bernard Cribbins in The Railway Children

 

Klaus Kinski in Count Dracula 

 

Christopher Plummer in Waterloo

 

Warren Oates in Barquero

 

David Warner in The Ballad of Cable Hogue

Alternate Best Actor 1987: Results

10. Gaspard Manesse in Au Revoir Les Enfants -Manesse gives a fine natural turn however his performance is largely limited as the perspective of a mostly naive young boy.

Best Scene: The ending.

9. Steve Martin in Roxanne - Martin gives a surprisingly respectful sendoff of the Cyrano character re-imagined as a fireman, though I perhaps wish he stayed even truer to the spirit of the original.

Best Scene: Smelling fire.

8. Joe Mantegna in House of Games - Mantegna is limited by the character however he gives effective portrayals of the many different sides of a con man, from the sucker, to the smooth operator, and even just the slime ball beneath it all.

Best Scene: "Thank you sir, may I have another"

7. Klaus Kinski in Cobra Verde - Kinski as usually makes an impact in his emotionally raw turn however his work is constricted by the film's distant perspective character.

Best Scene: How to spear

6. Martin Short in Innerspace - Short gives an absolutely hilarious portrayal of an especially unlikely hero, but he also naturally finds some dramatic substance in his character's journey towards confidence.

Best Scene: The dream in reality.

5. Christian Bale in Empire of the Son - Bale gives a dramatic and compelling portrayal of the gradual maturation of a young boy through the horrors of war. His work though often seems strangely at odds with Steven Spielberg who seems often too timid to make a story about the loss of innocence.

Best Scene: After the bombings. 

4. Terry O'Quinn in The Stepfather - O'Quinn is in a garbage film however he breaths a genuinely chilling life into a man who thrives on the love of family but does so through killing them.

Best Scene: Who am I?

3. Cary Elwes in The Princess Bride - Elwes gives a somewhat underrated turn, in a highly regarded film, as his work captures just the perfect tone between earnest charisma, and sly comedy.

Best Scene: "Drop your sword"

2. Richard E. Grant in Withnail and I - Richard E. Grant delivers a marvelous feature film debut in his varied comical, yet not without pathos, portrayal of an actor trying his best to play the play that is his life.

Best Scene: Hamlet in the rain.

1. Mickey Rourke in Angel Heart - Rourke tops this list with ease in his charismatic yet also brilliantly exhaustive portrayal of a vicious mental and moral decay of a man as he descends towards hell.

Best Scene: "I know who I am"

Updated Overall

Next Year: 1987 supporting

Alternate Best Actor 1987: Klaus Kinski in Cobra Verde

Klaus Kinski did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Francisco Manoel da Silva aka the titular character of Cobra Verde.

Cobra Verde, as per usual with Werner Herzog film, frequently has compelling and unique visual imagery, though dramatically it doesn't feel quite fully realized in the story of a bandit being sent to African to attempt to reopen the slave trade.

With this film I come to the fifth and final collaboration between the German mad men of Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, though I shall return to this for the two I've missed. In the matching of this pair though you have something most unusual as the two are as noted for their off screen conflict as they are known for their onscreen success. Kinski as an actor is a fascinating force all on his lonesome, but with Herzog he seems an essential element in part of his tapestries relating to the chaos and cruelty of nature. Of course Kinski plays a man, but a man inflicted with a madness to somehow break the bonds of that to reach perhaps resulting in an even greater insanity in the attempt. Of course this results in a not particularly sympathetic figure, in fact so far the most sympathetic role I've covered for Kinski was as the blood sucking vampire in Nosferatu. It is then a testament though to the natural power of the performer that there is something inherently transfixing about our central character even as despicable as he may be.

Kinski portrays many evil men here just in the form of one man. In the film's opening we see an vicious bandit who terrorizes those around him, though only after having suffered some tragedy alluded by the opening of the film. It is with this that Kinski works his magic in a sense as there is such an emotional intensity inherent within his portrayal of Silva that it makes him captivating even as we know little of him other than the terrors he inflicts. Of course what he initially inflicts is quite random as he interacts with other despicable exploiters initially. Kinski of course is compelling and even perhaps too convincing in portraying such a deranged sort. Although the act he commits seem random there is an internal logic through Kinski's performance that creates this sense of chaos within the man demeanor and eyes that makes him this force that refuses to conform to the norm, even when the norms themselves are hopelessly deranged as well. This inability for Silva to to even exist in this world leads him to an exile of sorts, by being sent to African to attempt to reopen the slave trade with a local African king.

Once Silva arrives to Africa the film becomes even more distant towards Silva who is rather reactionary for much of it. Kinski is effective in terms of capturing this certain attitude in Silva as he begrudgingly shows off the firearms, and attempts to posture as a proper colonial. Kinski does this with certain reserve, which notable for him, representing a man who is doing his act very much as an obligation for his life than a real passion. This changes though when he comes afoul of the king and becomes his prisoner. We get a proper Kinski intensity represented in his fear and anger as he remains the King's prisoner, being prepared for execution. Kinski captures really the brunt of this torture in only the way he can. This is in terms of his full physical and mental exhaustion of it all. Eventually Silva is released where he works with the King's rivals to stage a revolt and complete his mission. His training of the local women is quite easily the highlight of his performance. Kinski is outstanding in the moment in throwing himself fully into this warriors ferocity as he displays lunging with a spear. He shows more than just the technique but the requirement to properly deliver the determination to find victory on the battlefield. This leads to his victory, and to some rather horrible moments of Silva showing his "success" via the slaves from the king. Eventually the slave trade ends and Silva is essentially exiled. This leaves a moment of pondering and sadness, however well performed they are distant as is the character. This is not on Kinski's front who does provide something through the sheer will of his ability as a performer, the character's personal journey remains a little too vague even within Herzog's typical style. As it seems to assume we know who Cobra Verde is, even though we don't and what his story even meant to him beyond the clues garnered by Kinski's work. It is still a compelling turn as to be expected but the character is a little too nebulous even for the mad German.

Alternate Best Actor 1987

And the Nominees Were Not:

Cary Elwes in The Princess Bride

Joe Mantegna in House of Games

Richard E. Grant in Withnail and I

Steve Martin in Roxanne

Gaspard Manesse in Au Revoir Les Enfants

Predict those five, these five or both.

Mickey Rourke in Angel Heart

Terry O'Quinn in The Stepfather

Klaus Kinski in Cobra Verde

Martin Short in Innerspace

Christian Bale in Empire of the Sun

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1968: Results

5. Trevor Howard in The Charge of the Light Brigade - Howard gives a properly strict and slightly ridiculous portrayal fitting to a man who cares more about his stature as an officer than for any of his men. 

Best Scene: Strange seduction.

4. Klaus Kinski in The Great Silence - Kinski gives an effective villainous performance interestingly by taking a rather low key approach showing his Loco as always taking a calm and easy approach to his killings.

Best Scene: Loco wins.

3. Ian Holm in The Bofors Gun - Holm makes an impact through his limited screentime by so effectively presenting the incisiveness of the one man willing to confront both his immediate superior and his out of control fellow soldier.

Best Scene: Flynn confronts O'Rourke.

2. Tom Courtenay in A Dandy in Aspic - Courtenay gives a brilliant performance that creates a complex portrait of a spy who purposefully hates everything and everyone as a means of defense, and rises far above the one note villain the film likely would have settled for.

Best Scene: Gatiss visits Eberline in the hotel. 

1. Tony Curtis in The Boston Strangler - Curtis gives a chilling and effective performance which never relishes in the idea of playing a serial killer, instead offering a haunting and vivid depiction of a psychotic.

Best Scene: DeSalvo's breakdown. 

Updated Overall

Next Year: 2003 Lead

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1968: Klaus Kinski in The Great SIlence

Klaus Kinski did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Loco in The Great Silence.

In this film we are unfortunately not granted the proper Kinski vicious growl in his voice, being overdubbed as per usual for a spaghetti western. Luckily Kinski is not exactly an actor who struggles to speak without his voice. Kinski here plays the lead villain for the film, the evil bounty hunter that stands against Jean-Louis Trintignant's Silent bounty hunter named Silence who only kills in self-defense. Kinski's Loco on the other hand kills without much reservation at all. This is actually a rather interesting performance for Kinski, given it's Kinski and he's playing a character called Loco. Kinski actually takes a pretty low key approach to Loco never delving into his sort of madness found in so many of his performances. Even with the name of the character though Kinski's approach absolutely makes sense for the character given that Silence's greatest challenge in attempting to defeat Loco is that Loco knows Silence's methods, so Loco's plan is to merely avoid ever picking an even handed gunfight with the man.

Kinski makes for a good villain here in that he actually also downplays even the villainy in his performance, as even in his method of killing Kinski portrays this certain ease in Loco's behavior. An ease of a man not of some sort of sociopath indifference but rather that of man just doing his job the easiest way he knows how to. Kinski's portrayal emphasizes the idea almost as a man who has sort of figured out the way to manage the old west, and that is to take things as they come. Kinski's performance actually is a little oddly endearing in a way because of how honestly he presents Loco's behavior as a bounty hunter. When he collects the men he kills, he portrays no sadism in it, in fact his portrayal would actually almost be acceptable as a hero in another western as long as all those he killed were criminals. Kinski never plays Loco as an exact villain in his manner and his facial expressions are always of technically what would just be a cool customer nor more no less. Even in one of his worst actions, where he kills a woman, Kinski does show such earnest emphasis as he clears the killing as self defense since the woman did try to shoot him. Kinski is actually even rather humorous in his interactions with Trintignant's Silence by portraying such curiosity in his reactions, showing Loco's method to analyze rather than get emotional over the man trying to kill him. What Kinski's performance does so effectively is suggest why Loco's should be the one who wins over the day since he offers such a calm and carefully collected man throughout the film. Kinski gives a strong performance that offers a striking presence be presenting one man in the film he seems to be able to take everything in stride. 

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1968

And the Nominees Were Not:

Ian Holm in Bofors Gun

Trevor Howard in The Charge of the Light Brigade

Tony Curtis in The Boston Strangler

Tom Courtenay in A Dandy In Aspic 

Klaus Kinski in The Great Silence

Alternate Best Actor 1972: Results

5. Burt Reynolds in Deliverance - Reynolds gives an interesting portrayal that matches yet quietly subverts his character's view of masculinity.

Best Scene: Lewis rescues Bobby and Ed.

4. Jon Voight in Deliverance - Voight gives a sympathetic and moving portrayal of a man who is both physically and mentally damaged by his journey.

Best Scene: Ed shoots the Hillbilly.

3. Robert Redford in The Candidate - Redford gives a strong performance where he transforms from a somewhat acerbic though passionate man to a charismatic though vapid politician.

Best Scene: McKay's laughing fit.

2. Max von Sydow in The New Land - Max von Sydow gives a great performance of beautiful simplicity through a honest depiction of a man's life in a new land.

Best Scene: Karl-Oskar's final moments with his wife.

1. Klaus Kinski in Aguirre, The Wrath of God - Good Predictions Michael McCarthy, Kevin, Luke, GetDonaldSutherlandAnOscar, RatedRStar, and GM. Kinski gives a mesmerizing portrayal of a man's descent into madness. 1972 was filled with some great performances but I went with the one I simply loved watching the most out of all them.

Best Scene: Alone on the raft. 

Overall Rank:

1. Al Pacino in The Godfather 
2. Laurence Olivier in Sleuth
3. Klaus Kinski in Aguirre, The Wrath of God
4. Max von Sydow in The New Land
5. Bruce Dern in Silent Running
6. Stacy Keach in Fat City
7. Robert Redford in The Candidate
8. Jon Voight in Deliverance
9. Michael Caine in Sleuth
10. Marlon Brando in The Godfather
11. Burt Reynolds in Deliverance
12. Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris
13. John Wayne in The Cowboys
14. Paul Newman in The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean
15. Gene Hackman in The Poseidon Adventure
16. Peter O'Toole in The Ruling Class
17. Michael York in Cabaret 
18. Charles Grodin in The Heartbreak Kid
19. Jeff Bridges in Fat City
20. Clint Eastwood in Joe Kidd
21. Lee Marvin in Prime Cut
22. Jack Lemmon in Avanti!
23. Woody Allen in Play it Again, Sam
24. Steve McQueen in The Getaway
25. Cliff Robertson in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid
26. William Daniels in 1776
27. Kevin Hooks in Sounder
28. Ryan O'Neal in What's Up Doc?
29. Jon Finch in Frenzy
30. Simon Ward in Young Winston

Next Year: 1972 Supporting