Best Actor 1978: Results

5. Warren Beatty in Heaven Can Wait- Beatty does not give the most complicated performance in this film, but it is a properly charming, romantic, and sometimes funny performance.

4. Laurence Olivier in The Boys From Brazil- Olivier is in an odd film, and in some ways follow suit with his performance, but still he gives a entertaining performance as well as one with some power when it is required for the part.

3. Gary Busey in The Buddy Holly Story- Gary Busey gives an effective performance as Buddy Holly. He brings the appropriate life to his character, without ever forcing a needless impersonation, instead appropriately personifying the character particularly in his scenes where he is performing Holly's songs.

2. Jon Voight in Coming Home- Voight's performance is a strong one throughout the film showing a slow change over time of his character who slowly finds ways to deal with the pain he has suffered. It is in many ways a low key performance, that realistically portrays the troubles of his character.

1. Robert De Niro in The Deer Hunter- Although I think Voight's work is quite strong, for me De Niro stands out as the best of the year with the incredible challenge he in portraying the rather withdrawn character he must portray. De Niro realistically portrays this introverted characterization in subtle fashion, that never fails to bring out the power of any scene in the film that requires it. De Niro simply is great throughout and is absolutely amazing in so many moments such as the Russian Roulette scenes.

Best Actor 1978: Warren Beatty in Heaven Can Wait

Warren Beatty received his second acting nomination for portraying Joe Pendleton in Heaven Can Wait.

Heaven can Wait is a remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan this time a football player finds himself taken to the afterlife to early, and is put in the body of a rich man.

Warren Beatty is not an actor that I can say has fared especially well in my reviews so far. I did like him in Bonnie and Clyde, but in his other two nominated performances have been lacking in confidant characterizations. Here with Joe Pendleton Beatty technically has his least complicated, and in some ways least challenging character. This though may be the reason that Beatty actually gives one of his better performances here.

Pendleton does not require much from Beatty actually, just as it required little from Robert Montgomery although even less for Montgomery because of the way the plot basically rammed through as fast as possible. Beatty is given a little more time to develop Pendleton but in the end Joe Pendleton is just an average decent guy who wants to do the right thing, as well as achieve his life dream in this case be the quarterback for a football team in the Super Bowl. 

What is required of Beatty as Pendleton is just to give a charming, nicely handled performance, and well Beatty most certianly does do that. He is not all that complex of a character, and Beatty knows that making it so he just focuses on giving a charismatic romantic lead performance. Beatty honestly does give one too, he never tries to make Joe Pendleton what he is but what he is is nice enough to watch due to Beatty.

When Beatty needs to be romantic he is well enough, although I won't say the romance in this film is amazing by any means since both characters are rather simple but it still works at being just a nice romance. Julie Christie and Beatty are not the greatest of on screen couples but what they do together is properly sweet, and it certianly works well enough for the film.

Beatty, although does not do a great deal as Pendleton what he does do is enjoyable enough. He is funny when he needs to be particularly in his reactions to his rather bizarre situation. He certainly is charming, and is just an easy person to watch through every moment, and the entire strange journey of Joe Pendleton. What Beatty does here is not the greatest characterization ever seen on film, but it is an entirely likable performance, and exactly as it should be.

Best Actor 1978

And the Nominees Were:

Gary Busey in The Buddy Holly Story

Warren Beatty in Heaven Can Wait

Jon Voight in Coming Home

Laurence Olivier in The Boys from Brazil

Robert De Niro in The Deer Hunter

Best Actor 1981: Results

5. Warren Beatty in Reds- Warren Beatty fails ever to do anything with John Reed, and never was believable for me. His performance is always underwhelming and never gets inside of his character.

4. Paul Newman in Absence of Malice- Newman is surprisingly dull in this movie. He just really seems to be going through the motions for the entire film save one scene which he is really good, but that is the only scene where he is not dull.

3. Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond- Henry Fonda gives an incredibly memorable, humorous, and poignant performance that is worthy of being his final film performance.

 2. Burt Lancaster in Atlantic City- Lancaster gives a good energetic performance that works well.

1. Dudley Moore in Arthur-This was really a close one for me between Fonda, and Moore. I thought both excelled equally in their roles. Moore is terrific, he is charming, incredibly funny, and still finds time to bring a certain poignancy to the role. Overall simply a great performance.

Deserving Performances:Ben Cross in Chariots of Fire
Ian Charleson in Chariots of Fire

Best Actor 1981: Warren Beatty in Reds

Warren Beatty received his third acting Oscar nomination for portraying John Reed in Reds.

Reds is an extremely overrated film in my book. It is overly long prodding, and since it chooses to take it rather romantic view of its subject, it fails to get into the actual depth of it which would probably be a more interesting film for me anyways.

Warren Beatty is an actor I never find myself able to believe. He always seems to want to play himself rather than character he is playing. That seems to be no different here as John Reed, a troubled writer who is devoted to the communist cause. This is particularly troublesome for this role because it really seems that he needed to be the driving force of the film. The man you could really identify with and follow throughout all his trials and troubles, or he could have been a man who is completely fascinating and really gets under the skin of John Reed. Unfortunately Beatty does not do either of these.

It is not that his emotions are exactly wrong, he has technically the correct emotional reactions in scenes. All the emotions though in this performance seem to be solely on the surface. Beatty never really shows anything past Beatty himself. He never seems to shed his own image to take on the image of John Reed. This on the surface is not  exactly an incorrect performance, but it fails in anyway beyond that.There is certainly nothing special about it, his chemistry with Keaton is nothing astounding, nor is his passion for Reed's cause. Beatty always seems to be acting the part for me, and simply is never that convincing because of this.  Beatty is an actor who can be good very good in fact but he has to willing to really get inside the character which he does not do in this performance.

Best Actor 1981

And the Nominees Were:

Dudley Moore in Arthur

Warren Beatty in Reds

Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond

Paul Newman in Absence of Malice 

Burt Lancaster in Atlantic City

Who do you pick and predict?

Best Actor 1991: Results

5. Warren Beatty in Bugsy- Simply a bad performance which fails at its core. He never finds the right tone for Bugsy, and never seems to be authentic, and many times comes off unintentionally funny in his worst scenes.

4. Nick Nolte in The Prince of Tides- Nolte has a few scenes where he is okay, they are his quiet confession scenes, but everything else he does either comes off as completely false or just weird. He always plays his character artificially and never really gets down to the heart of him.

3. Robert De Niro in Cape Fear. De Niro has some good scenes early on despite his terrible accent, but as the film goes on he simply hams it up way too much.

2. Robin Williams in The Fisher King- Robin Williams at first over plays the role, and cannot stay in character, but as he goes on he gets a bit better in the crazy scenes, and he actually is fairly effective in his quiet scenes.

1. Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs- This ought to be a surprise to no one, but Hopkins by far gave the best lead actor performance nominated this year and he can even be argued as not a lead. Still Hopkins is brilliant in every minute of his relatively short performance. He creates a fascinating, memorable, and truly effective character from Hannibal Lecter. Every scene he handles with perfection, never going over the top, or even seeming calculated since all of his motions are brilliant.

Deserving Performances:
John Turturro in Barton Fink

Best Actor 1991: Warren Beatty in Bugsy

Warren Beatty received his fourth acting Oscar nomination for portraying Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel in Bugsy.

I will admit to being a sucker for fact based period pieces, but even that fact cannot save this film for me. It is simply poorly directed in many ways, its story seems poorly focused at times,and its tonal shifts are terrible.

Warren Beatty is an almost always an actor for me who does not seem to ever get that deep into his roles and almost always seems to rely on his charisma. This is particularly ineffective in this performance because he is portraying a real person, and he simply never ever seems to be Bugsy Malone. I never once for a moment believed he was the really person at all. There were times that I believed he was Clyde in Bonnie and Clyde but not here at all. He just seems wrong for the part, and clearly is because he never personifies the real man, which is a huge problem, but unfortunately not the biggest problem with this performance.

Warren Beatty though has even bigger problems because he does not seem to know how to even start to portray Bugsy. I do not know what he was going for in this performance. Some of the time it seemed he wanted to be the real deal gangster but I felt at other times he wanted to almost parody the gangster style character. That does not work either but it seems that he wants to almost mock the over the top personality of someone like Siegel. I am not sure if he was but it comes off as that way, and really just makes for a very poor performance. He also has his bizarre "romance" scenes with Annette Bening. The movie did not seem to know what to do precisely with their performance, and neither do Beatty and Bening. It simply is another factor that does not work.

Finally the work part of his performance is his scenes where he is suppose to show the darker, and more sensitive side of Bugsy. When Beatty goes for these scenes he seems to shoot high and miss completely. He never is convincing at all in these sides, and just comes off as weird at times. He at times gets unintentionally funny in scenes where he is suppose to be menacing. Nothing really works in this performance, it just starts out poorly, and goes no where from there. This is a performance that fails from its simplest technique. Beatty does not give a good performance, I am sure some of what made it so bad came from the film being so strange in its tone, but Beatty is never better than the film itself.

Best Actor 1991

And the Nominees Were:

Robert De Niro in Cape Fear

Warren Beatty in Bugsy

Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs

Robin Williams in The Fisher King

Nick Nolte in The Prince of Tides

Here is the special Halloween edition of Best Actor, since there is not anything scarier than Bugsy, The Fisher King, and the Prince of Tides.

Best Actor 1967: The Results

5. Spencer Tracy in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner- Tracy is very effective a lot of the time in his last performance. He overacts a little bit at times but his last speech is brilliant.

4. Warren Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde- Warren Beatty relies to little on his acting skills at times, but he certainly shows he does have them at other times, making a good although uneven performance. I upped his score because I felt he deserved more credit for what he did right.

3. Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate- Hoffman is very good in the Graduate using just the right amount of uneasiness to create Braddock in a memorable character. His scenes with Bancroft are brilliant and he carries the film very well.

2. Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke- No one could have played Luke like Newman. Newman finds the right way to create Luke using his presence, making a memorable character. 

1. Rod Steiger in In the Heat of the Night- I will admit maybe some do not see what I see in this performance, but I see it nonetheless. I believe Steiger brilliant creates the depth of Gillespie so perfectly, and he and Poitier create incredibly memorable scenes together because of their perfectly attuned performances.

Deserving Performances:
Sidney Poitier in In the Heat of the Night

Best Actor 1967: Warren Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde

Warren Beatty received his first acting nomination for infamous bank robber Clyde Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde.

Bonnie and Clyde is an incredibly interesting film that gives a unique perspective on the two bank robbers.  I never liked them as the movie seemed to want but it was a fascinating portrait of the people nonetheless.

Warren Beatty is an actor that gives performances which I do not hate but I never really get that involved with. He sometimes relies too much on just his own charisma, and does not try to fuse with the character like say Jack Nicholson does in Chinatown. Beatty here does some of that but this still is one of his better performances.

Warren Beatty is a little mixed as Clyde Barrow at times he is quite good but at the other times he seems slightly off and does seem to be investing enough effort into the character. His accent is never quite assured and seems a little off but not enough to be distracting though. He never quite seems to be Barrow, and maybe another actor probably could have really exceeded in the role. Some of his scenes he just smiles a little too much and seems to be acting like Barrow instead of really being him. I thought he did that the most in the opening and a few times throughout.

He is almost always overshadowed by the rest of the cast. Faye Dunaway as Bonnie always takes the attention away from Clyde when their in the same scene. Beatty's Clyde just a slightly too relaxed in his own way and never seems to really understand their situation, which causing Beatty to not have a lot depth in some scenes such as when they visit Bonnie's mother. Also the supporting players like Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons really stole attention very well from Beatty, making him a bit of the weaker link in the cast.

Although he certainly does have some strong sequences anyways. He is particularly strong in the scenes after he shoots the bank teller for example, and his realization of what he has done is very well handled by Beatty. Also the scene where he is unable to return affections with Bonnie is very well and realistically handled. Beatty really does have a lot of good little moments and he never is bad, but he probably could have been better.

Best Actor 1967

And the Nominees Were:

Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate

Rod Steiger  in In the Heat of the Night

Warren Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde

Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke

Spencer Tracy in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Who Do you Pick? Who do you Predict?