Alternate Best Actor 1970: Results

5. Jean Louis Trintignant in The Conformist- Trintignant fails to find consistency in his performance, and simply gives an uninteresting portrayal of a character with potential.

Best Scene: Marcello watches the assassination.

4. Alejandro Jodorowsky in El Topo- Jodorowsky gives an effective performance as a cool headed gunfighter then a repentant monk, but he never stands out past his own direction.

Best Scene: El Topo creates a new exit out of the cave.

3. Peter Boyle in Joe- Boyle gives a good performance as working class loud mouth by showing the man behind the bluster, but the film's shortcomings keep him from giving a great performance.

Best Scene: Joe's introduction.

2. Albert Finney in Scrooge- Finney overplays a moment here and there, but his alternate take on Ebenezer Scrooge does manage to work for the most part.

Best Scene: The redemption medley.

1. Gian Maria Volontè in Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion- The only alternate that really brought much excitement for me is Volontè's work. Volontè gives an interesting and entertaining performance that cleverly manages to make sense of his character's seemingly random behavior.

Best Scene: The inspector openly confesses to his crime.

Overall Rank:

1. George C. Scott in Patton
2. Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces
3. Nicol Williamson in The Reckoning 
4. Warren Oates in Barquero
5. Jason Robards in The Ballad of Cable Hogue
   
6. Gene Hackman in I Never Sang For My Father 
7. Peter Sellers in Hoffman
   
8. Gian Maria Volontè in Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
9. Alec Guinness in Cromwell
10. Melvyn Douglas in I Never Sang For My Father
11. Richard Harris in The Molly Maguires
12. James Fox in Performance 
13. Sergei Bondarchuk in Uncle Vanya
14. Jüri Järvet in King Lear
15. Yves Montand in The Confession
    
16. Tom Courtenay in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
    
17. Innokenty Smoktunovsky in Uncle Vanya
18. Lee Marvin in Monte Walsh 
19. Alain Delon in Le Cercle Rouge
20. Jean-Pierre Cassel in La Rupture
    
21. Albert Finney in Scrooge
22. Ron Moody in Twelve Chairs
23. Peter Boyle in Joe  
24. Marcello Mastroianni in Sunflower
    
25. Robert Mitchum in Ryan's Daughter 
26. David Bradley in Kes
    
27. Donald Sutherland in MASH 
28. Richard Harris in A Man Called Horse 
29. Sean Connery in The Molly Maguires
    
30. Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man  
31. Dhritiman Chatterjee in Pratidwandi
    
32. Richard Harris in Cromwell 
    
33. Fernando Rey in Tristana 
34. Michel Piccoli in Les Choses de la Vie
    
35. Jean-Pierre Leaud in Bed and Board
36. Marcello Mastroianni in The Pizza Triangle
    
37. Telly Savalas in Kelly's Heroes
38. Paul Newman in Sometimes A Great Notion
39. James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope
    
40. Alejandro Jodorowsky in El Topo 
41. Jean Yanne in Le Boucher
    
42. Clint Eastwood in Kelly's Heroes
43. Elliot Gould in MASH
44. Frank Langella in Twelve Chairs 
45. Robert Stephens in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
46. Tony Lo Bianco in The Honeymoon Killers
47. François Truffaut in The Wild Child
    
48. John Moulder-Brown in First Love
    
49. Ryan O'Neal in Love Story 
50. Lee Van Cleef in Barquero
    
51. Kenneth Nelson in The Boys in the Band 
52. Jean-Pierre Cargol in The Wild Child
53. Alan Arkin in Catch-22
    
54. Ben Gazzara in Husbands
    
55. Peter Falk in Husbands 
56. John Cassavetes in Husbands 
57. Jean-Claude Brialy in Claire's Knee
    
58. Michael Sarrazin in Sometimes a Great Notion 
59. Dennis Patrick in Joe 
60. Christopher Lee in Count Dracula
    
61. Rock Hudson in Darling Lili
    
62. Jean Louis Trintignant in The Conformist
63. Beau Bridges in Landlord
    
64. Frank Langella in Diary of a Mad Housewife 
65. Rod Steiger in Waterloo
    
66. Christopher Jones in Ryan's Daughter 
67. Richard Benjamin in Diary of a Mad Housewife 
68. Frederick Williams in Count Dracula
    
69. Jason Robards in Julius Caesar
    

Next Year: 1970 Supporting

Alternate Best Actor 1970: Peter Boyle in Joe

Peter Boyle did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Joe Curran in Joe.

Joe tells the story of a wealthy man Bill (Dennis Patrick) who befriends a working class man after he accidentally kills his daughter's drug dealer boyfriend. It is an interesting enough film even though it is very dated, and not in a good way.

Peter Boyle plays the working class man who comes later into the picture than Dennis Patrick, but the film is very much about both of their stories. Boyle plays the titular Joe who we first meet in a bar that Bill runs into after having killed a man. We meet Joe in the middle of a tirade about everything that he hates from politics, to race, to young people, to music, he pretty much hates everything. Boyle handles this scene while conveying the casual discontent he has. Boyle shows that Joe is very much ticked off and the anger is real, but Boyle says every line as if Joe has been saying it his whole life and he is. In the scene Boyle is just a bit much, but a bit much in a wholly natural fashion to the character of Joe.

Boyle importantly tones it down when we meet Joe in his day to day life showing properly that his bar rant was what he does at the bar with a few drinks in him. Boyle is effective in making Joe a well average Joe the rest of the time. He is rather genuine with his wife and at home. Boyle does not make him a great guy by any means but he does not have that intensity in the bar, and shows him to be a man who is able to function in his day to day time with even a certain charm. Boyle importantly in these scenes shows there nothing all that special about Joe making him a man who does seem to take his life in stride most of the time, even if there is always that barroom Joe within him.

The film takes a turn when Joe figures out that Bill murdered a man and decides to meet with him, not to blackmail him but rather to merely meet a man who has done something that he always talks about. Boyle has an effective chemistry with Patrick. They both have a certain nervousness and disconnect in regards to their differing social perspective, but where they connect is their connection of a hatred. What I like is that neither overplay this hate, keeping it the underlying tissue of their friendship, but still making it obviously what keeps the two together as they always keep their social disconnect a very strong factor between them throughout.

The film eventually follows them into the world of the young people which they hate, but they eventually embrace. This whole section of the film does feel somewhat contrived, but Boyle does well with these scenes nevertheless. Boyle once again calls back onto Joe as just a normal man when you get right down to it. He is very good in giving Joe just standard needs for a man that leads him into trying just about everything that he hates. Although the film does portrays it as far too swift of a transition, Boyle realizes the very human elements in the situation as something believable drives Joe to this behavior, something that Dennis Patrick fails to do.

Joe and Bill's fall into the antics of though is swift, but just as swift is the violent of the film when Joe and Bill go after the property the hippies stole from them. Boyle is good in this scene as he reverts to the barroom Joe, and it is is believable because Boyle established this side to Joe so well in that first scene. It does not quite carry the impact it should though mostly because of how instant it is. Yes it's trying to be jarring by how fast it is, but in doing so it does not make the ending as powerful as it could have it was a little more character based. Boyle still is solid in his performance at the end, as he is throughout his performance, but the way the film ends fails to realize the full potential of this performance.

Alternate Best Actor 1970

And the Nominees Were Not:

Albert Finney in Scrooge

Alejandro Jodorowsky in El Topo

Gian Maria Volontè in Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

Jean Louis Trintignant in The Conformist

Peter Boyle in Joe