Oscars 1990: Best Supporting Actor

1990's Best Supporting Actor race is full of surprises. The first is Al Pacino's nomination for the comic strip adaptation Dick Tracy, where he goes big as gangster Big Boy Caprice. Pacino being nominated wasn't the surprise - the Golden Globes so honored him earlier - it was the fact that he got in for Dick Tracy and not in Best Actor for The Godfather: Part III that shocked.

The bigger surprise was the winner. Before there were 105 "precursors," common wisdom still held that the New York Film Critics held a lot of sway with Academy voters; this year's winner was Bruce Davison in Longtime Companion. He also won the Golden Glove and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male. The only thing he didn't win was the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, though he was named runner-up to Joe Pesci in GoodFellas (Pesci was reportedly runner-up to Davison's NYFCC win). If you wanted to win your Oscar pool, you were predicting Davison.

And you would have lost:

Well, here's how I'd rank 'em:

1972: Joel Grey and Best Supporting Actor

With Eileen Heckart having won, the ceremony continued. Elke Sommer (of Baron Blood) and Jack Valenti (head of the MPAA) presented the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar to The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, while John Gavin and Katharine Ross (who had two movies out, Get to Know Your Rabbit and They Only Kill Their Masters) revealed that The Hot Rock lost its only Oscar bid to, wouldn't you know it, Cabaret. Then Diana Ross, nominated this evening in Best Actress for Lady Sings the Blues, took the stage alongside James Coburn, having a very prolific year of US releases with Duck You Sucker, The Carey Treatment, The Honkers and A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die. The category? Best Supporting Actor, which accounted for three of The Godfather's ten nominations. The mob blockbuster already lost two categories to Cabaret ... this one would make it a third.

I'll have more to say about The Godfather and Cabaret when we discuss Adapted Screenplay, Director, and Picture. Let's look at the individual nominees:

1992, Day Seven: Actor

Personally, I think it's interesting to look at the 1992 Best Actor lineup and not only see that there is one former winner, but that it is neither Clint Eastwood (this was his first acting nomination), nor is it Al Pacino (though that would soon be corrected). It's Denzel Washington.

Washington was already on his third nomination in 1992, having been nominated as a Supporting Actor for Cry Freedom and Glory; it was the latter that resulted in his first Oscar win. Malcolm X was his first nod for Lead Actor; his next five nominations would all follow suit: 1999's The Hurricane, 2001's Training Day (another win), 2012's Flight, 2016's Fences (for which he should have won a third Oscar) and 2017's Roman J. Israel, Esq. All told, that's eight nominations, exactly the tally Pacino had before he finally won his first:

Since then, there's been some debate over who should have won this year. Hell, it's a debate that goes even further back, to 1974-75: if Pacino won for either The Godfather: Part Two (as he could've) or Dog Day Afternoon (as he should've), would there have been less pressure to give him a career Oscar, thereby allowing Washington to take what Spike Lee claimed was rightfully his? Would Washington have even won? A second Oscar in three years doesn't always happen, and there were three other nominees, all on their first time; I can especially see a case for veteran Eastwood becoming the first actor-director to claim both prizes in one night. And what about Stephen Rea, star of the indie film du jour and Best Picture contender The Crying Game?

Fortunately, I'm here to settle once and for all not just the coulda-woulda - but more importantly, the shoulda:

1992, Day Four: Supporting Actor

Like Emma Thompson's Best Actress win, Best Supporting Actor was a march towards the inevitable:

But does inevitable mean deserved? Let's talk:

The 2019 Hollmann Awards: Part One

The first part of the 2019 Hollmann Awards. Familiarize yourself with the nominees first, then come back here to see nine of the eighteen categories, presented as they came up in my random draw (I write the categories on scraps of paper, roll them round in a collectible Storm Trooper popcorn bucket from Solo, then select at random to decide the order). Beginning with...

Two Uniforms, a Con Man, and a Pair of Middle-Aged Sadsacks: Actor, 1973

The five men nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role all walked away with an Oscar -- in different years, of course, and some in different categories. Only for Jack Lemmon was it this year, this category.

Tony Predictions; Or, Gettin' My Fix

Land sakes, here the Tony Award Nominations are barely six hours away and I haven't even posted my predictions!

The 1975 Hollmann Awards: The First Half

Finally, the first part of my Hollmann Awards for 1975! Nine of the eighteen categories are represented here, along with five previous nominees and one previous winner! I tell you, though, I needed those extra days just to finally whittle everything down to these choices. 1975 may not have been the strongest year, but it still hurt to leave some things out (Sorry, ensemble of Switchblade Sisters! Better luck next time, screenplay for Teenage Hitchhikers!). Luckily, though, I managed to find a slate of nominees and winners I really like. Hopefully, you'll feel the same; hopefully, too, you'll disagree and we can have a heated discussion in the comments.

Men of Dishonor: Actor, 1975

The nominees for Best Actor are:

Walter Matthau in The Sunshine Boys

***

Matthau's an odd duck when it comes to comedy. He can go completely deadpan and subtle, or he can go hammy and demand a laugh. Much of The Sunshine Boys is spent in the latter, which is appropriate for the hammy, old-fashioned Willie Clark, a vaudevillian who refuses to retire. It's annoying as hell, of course, but it is appropriate. It's an amusing performance that kills when paired with George Burns, but some of his interactions with the other cast members -- his nephew, his nurse -- come off as more forced, more "acted", if you will.

Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

*****

What, like I need to tell you what a great performance this is? I love how Nicholson never tries to make McMurphy smarter, kinder or more selfless than he really is; instead, the small ways in which he saves and inspires the people around him come almost by chance through his arrogance and self-aggrandizement. He's an uneducated, vulgar, manipulative man, but he believes in the patients' ability to help themselves and even delays his own escape to allow the happiness of one of them. From his narrating an imaginary World Series to wiping snot from his nose during a basketball game, Nicholson's deft handling of big moments and little details illustrate an uncomplicated yet somewhat complex human being.

Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon

*****

I love everything about this performance. Pacino gives Sonny a bizarre energy, like an easily-distracted child making his own rules to a game everyone else has played. His various forms of self-delusion and self-pity are fascinating to watch, particularly in his interactions with his "wife". The slow slide from energized media hero to exhausted Man is subtly charted, so that Pacino's eventual hopeless acceptance at the end is organic, disquieting, and inevitable.

Maximilian Schell in The Man in the Glass Booth

**

The film is a bizarre, pretentious, dull mess, based upon the stage play by great actor Robert Shaw: a Jewish sculptor living in New York is arrested and tried as, and confesses to being, a notorious concentration camp official. But is he? Half the film leads up to the arrest, exploring this odd millionaire with the uncomfortable, gallows humor; the second half is the trial. Schell's performance is mesmerizing at times, but it also plateaus a bit, as he shouts with a mad expression throughout much of the runtime. He's getting a kick out of playing this mysterious and eccentric character, but it's exhausting.

James Whitmore in Give 'Em Hell, Harry!

**

The one-man show starring Whitmore as President Truman is quite literally a taped stage performance, often stopping to accommodate laughter and applause. One could forgive this were it a more challenging role, yet Whitmore is given little more to do than channel GREAT and AMAZING and OH IF ONLY OL' HARRY WAS STILL AROUND, with some sideswipes at then-recently disgraced Nixon. Honestly, I kind of wanted to yell at him every time he stopped himself to go, "Now, wait, now, hold on, just a minute, there, HOLD ON!" It happens constantly, and comes off more as poor improv than scripted mannerism.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

In one of the most deserving Oscars ever received, Nicholson won the Academy Award. And yet....I have to give credit to the colorful, engaging, fearless performance from another great actor. My Oscar vote goes to:

AL PACINO

in

DOG DAY AFTERNOON

Casting Coup Tuesdays: The Exorcist

I remember seeing The Exorcist in the middle of the afternoon with my family in high school. All I could think about afterward was that face and the line, "Fuck me Jesus." My parents weren't strict, but there were certain films we were not allowed to see at certain ages, so imagine my surprise when such a scene was considered appropriate viewing for my fourteen-year-old self. (Then again, Mom and Dad were always willing to break their own rules if they felt it was a quality film -- thus Ed Wood in elementary school and Rocky Horror in middle school). There was much of the movie I forgot over the years, but those graphic images of Regan masturbating with the cross never left. It was weird. It was scary. It was horrifying. So, of course, it had to be one of the greatest horror flicks of all time.

As it turns out, it's considered more than just one of the greatest horror flicks, but one of the greatest films all around. Winner of two of its ten nominations at the Academy Awards, number two at the box office, considered for placement among AFI's 100 Greatest Films (both the original and the anniversary), and still rated in the Top 250 by IMDb Users, the film's got legs. Almost forty years later, it still has the potential to shock and amaze. How did they do that? one wonders, usually followed by a Oh my God oh my God what's happening aaaaaccccckkkk!!!!

Last year, The Exorcist returned to select screens for a one night engagement. My best friend/roommate and I were only two of the twelve people in the theater. It was even better this time around. I finally appreciated the sound design, the cinematography, the writing, the performances. Jason Miller in particular startled me as Father Damien Karras, the priest-psychologist dealing with the death of his mother, his loss of faith, and a possessed 12-year-old -- it just hurts so much to watch him. Meanwhile, we brought a friend with us who had never seen it before. Needless to say, she was clutching the armrests, covering her eyes, and I think I heard her praying. That's fine: so was I.

The film is lightning in a bottle, often imitated, never duplicated. Yet here we are, doing a Casting Coup for a film that is already pretty perfect. Why?

Because we can!!!

SHARON SPENCER

Who is She: Chris's assistant. Keeps the MacNeils' life in order and cares for Regan while Chris is on set. Understandably upset when things take a turn for the demonic, she nevertheless remains.

Originally played by:

Kitty Winn (The Panic in Needle Park, The Exorcist II: The Heretic)

My Choice:

Stella Maeve (Transamerica, The Runaways)

Oddly magnetic presence in The Runaways, with a natural, modest performance that sometimes stole the show away from some the more mannered co-stars. Not on purpose, she just seems so natural and chill. I appreciate comfort like that, especially in assistants and babysitters.

FATHER JOSEPH DYER

Who is He: A Georgetown priest, he counsels Karras after the death of his mother. He remains good friends with Karras, and quite an entertainer besides: he plays piano at one of Chris's parties, as he's helping out on the set of her film.

Originally played by:

Father William O'Malley (real priest, but he also wrote the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Me", one of the great Christmas songs; great actor, too)

My Choice:

Bryan Cranston (Little Miss Sunshine, Drive)

Truly would not have thought of this if it hadn't been for my two viewings of Drive, but damn Cranston is impressive. So why such a small role? Because it's an important one, and Cranston is a phenomenal character actor. Also, I don't know any real priests off the top of my head.

BURKE DENNINGS

Who is He: Chris's director and friend, an eccentric little Englishman who likes to loosen up with a drink. Things take a turn for the weird when, while staying at the MacNeils' to look after Regan, his body is found at the bottom of the steps outside her window. Almost like he was hurled out of her room...

Originally played by:

Jack MacGowran (Cul-de-sac, Age of Consent)

My Choice:

Eddie Izzard (The Cat's Meow, Valkyrie)

LT. WILLIAM KINDERMAN

Who is He: Aging policeman investigating Burke's death. Understands that there's a connection between a weird girl, a dead director, and a desecrated church. Kindly and wise.

Originally played by: Academy Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (On the Waterfront, The Brothers Karamazov), Golden Globe Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (12 Angry Men, Come Blow Your Horn)

Lee J. Cobb (Exodus, How the West Was Won)

My Choice: Academy Award Winner for Best Actor (Scent of a Woman), BAFTA Award Winner for Best Actor (Dog Day Afternoon/The Godfather: Part II), DGA Award Winner for Best Director - Documentary (Looking for Richard), Golden Globe Winner for Best Actor - Drama (Serpico, Scent of a Woman)

Al Pacino (The Godfather, Cruising)

Pacino still gets to play lawmen, so I figure this might be a good way to retire that. It's an interesting role that would give him a chance to underplay. He's so great at that.

REGAN MACNEIL

Who is She: Chris's daughter, a nice twelve-year-old girl who becomes possessed by a demon named Pazuzu.

Originally played by: Academy Award Nominee/Golden Globe Winner for Best Supporting Actress (The Exorcist)

Linda Blair (Hell Night, Repossessed)

My Choice:

Kiernan Shipka (Carriers, "Mad Men")

Well, she's already dealt with some very adult themes on "Mad Men". Just add a cross! Ok, tasteless joke aside, she really does have a natural presence, and she looks like she could have come from my Chris MacNeil. Speaking of...

CHRIS MACNEIL

Who is She: Regan's mother, a divorced actress living in the Georgetown area so she can shoot a new picture. While not a religious woman, Chris has no fucking clue what else to do, especially since the doctors and medicos have no idea what's up with Regan.

Originally played by: Academy Award/BAFTA Award Winner for Best Actress (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore), Golden Globe Winner for Best Actress - Musical/Comedy (Same Time, Next Year), Indie Spirit Winner for Best Actress (Requiem for a Dream), SAG Award Nominee for Best Actress (Requiem for a Dream) and Best Ensemble (How to Make an American Quilt), Hollmann Award Nominee for Best Actress (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore)

Ellen Burstyn (Resurrection, Lovely, Still)

My Choice: Academy Award/Golden Globe/Indie Spirit/SAG Award Winner for Best Actress [Drama] (Monster), BAFTA Award Nominee for Best Actress (Monster, North Country), Indie Spirit Winner for Best First Feature (Monster)

Charlize Theron (The Astronaut's Wife, Young Adult)

Never thought of anyone else for this role. Actually thought while watching The Exorcist: "Damn. Charlize would be great in this."

FATHER LANKESTER MERRIN

Who is He: Priest, archeologist, exorcist. He's dealt with the demon Pazuzu before, most notably while in Iraq, and so is fully aware of the dangerous power he's facing. Merrin charges forward, even with a mouthful of green vomit. Merrin is so awesome.

Originally played by: Academy Award Nominee for Best Actor (Pelle the Conqueror), Golden Globe Nominee for Best Actor - Drama (Hawaii) and Best Supporting Actor (The Exorcist)

Max Von Sydow (Minority Report, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

My Choice: Academy Award Nominee for Best Actor (The Great White Hope), Golden Globe Nominee for Best Actor - Drama and Musical/Comedy (The Great White Hope, Claudine), Indie Spirit Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (Matewan), SAG Award Nominee for Best Actor (Cry, the Beloved Country)

James Earl Jones (Star Wars, The Lion King)
I wound up with a copy of the original screenplay, and while reading it, I kept picturing just Max Von Sydow, now old enough to take on the role without makeup. But that would be silly, I thought. Is there another elderly actor who I would believe as a scholar, a savior, an exorcist with a voice that could cast out the Devil? Of course, the answer is yes.

FATHER DAMIEN KARRAS

Who is He: The real protagonist of the film. Having just lost his mother, who he feels he neglected, Father Karras begins to doubt his vocation and his faith. How can he be the psychiatrist of the congregation if he himself is plagued with such doubts? Well, he winds up meeting Chris, and assists Father Merrin in the exorcism of Regan MacNeil.

Originally played by: Academy Award Nominee for Best Supporting [?] Actor (The Exorcist)

Jason Miller (The Ninth Configuration, Finding Home)

My Choice: Academy Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (Revolutionary Road), Hollmann Award Winner for Best Supporting Actor (The Runaways)

Michael Shannon (Bug, My Son My Son What Have Ye Done?)
Shannon is actually just as magnificent when he dials down the crazy, as in Take Shelter (for the most part, anyway).  Like Charlize, his was an automatic no-brainer. If anyone was to take the reins from the magnificent Mr. Miller, it has to Shannon.

The Men In Charge: Best Actor, 1974

Let us begin with the men.

 
1974 was dominated by male-centric films, whether focusing on an ensemble of Hollywood stars saving the women and children from disaster (Earthquake, The Towering Inferno), a mafia don and the saga of his sons (The Godfather: Part II), a vengeful father (Death Wish), or a parody of the classic Hollywood cowboy (Blazing Saddles). It was also dominated by a slew of classics and cult flicks -- how many times have The Godfather: Part II, Young Frankenstein and Chinatown appeared on "best of film" lists? These are movies we have memorized before we even see them, and they needed someone with balls in charge. In the case of these five films, quite literally.

Art Carney in Harry and Tonto

**

Check out the other performances and you'll see actors headlining a murder mystery with a morally ambiguous ending, a warts-and-all biopic with a sad ending, a cynical noir with a pessimistic ending, and a crime epic with a exhaustingly tragic ending. Then there's this film, a light-hearted road movie centering on an octagenarian going cross-country with his cat after his New York apartment is demolished. I'll get into what I feel about the movie itself when I cover its screenplay nomination, but let me preface my take on Carney's performance with these words: I just don't like this movie. It means well, but as a whole I just don't care for it.

Not that Carney is the issue. I think he's quite capable in the role of Harry, subtly underplaying it most of the time so that his outbursts of real emotion are all the more effective. When I think about what I like about Harry and Tonto, I think about his forcing a Greyhound bus to stop because his cat needs to pee. Or his tearful exit after identifying a body at the morgue. Or, my favorite scene, his visit to a nursing home that ends in a dance with an old flame. That moment is just beautiful enough to make me like the film and performance a little more. In the end, though, I don't think the role is challenging, and I don't think Carney's performance is either.

Albert Finney in Murder on the Orient Express

***

Agatha Christie once stated that she could never write her popular detective Hercule Poirot for the stage because he was too over-the-top. In close-up the role is just as jarring as Christie expected. Heavily made-up and speaking with a gruff accent, it's hard to believe this is Albert Finney. He gets Poirot's watchfulness, ego, and amusement, in ways both subtle and not very subtle at all. The challenge, of course, is to make an interesting character out of someone who is conducting interviews for two hours, and Finney rises to the occasion. He's soothing here, accusatory there; Poirot adapts to the occasion spontaneously.

This also makes Poirot pretty inscrutable. When David Suchet went from righteous anger to soothing calm in the television version, you could chart that progress. Finney's Poirot, on the other hand, is a cartoon, yelling at inappropriate moments and muttering Shirley Temple tunes under his breath. His individual interviews are great, and he nails that final ten-minute monologue, but the performance rests on the mannerisms.

Dustin Hoffman in Lenny

*****

Is there a more perfect marriage of actor and role? Hoffman, as we've seen, is a notorious improviser who never plays the same scene twice. Lenny Bruce, according to Albert Goldman, was a notorious improviser "whose ideal was to walk out there like Charlie Parker, take that mike in his hand like a horn and blow, blow, blow everything that came into his head just as it came into his head with nothing censored, nothing translated, nothing mediated". Bring the two together and you get a performance that just sizzles.

I don't know how to express my love for this performance. Never before have I seen Hoffman this hilarious, vulnerable, adorable, maddening and charming. His nerdy exuberance when romancing Honey is infectious; his single-minded obsession with his obscenity trials is frustrating. His performance makes the disparate images of the responsible father and the drug-abuser just different parts of the same man. I really just want to show you the movie and yell, "SEE? LOOK AT THIS!" every scene. But that would be annoying, so I won't.

Jack Nicholson in Chinatown

*****

I imagine it must be difficult to play a gumshoe, since your role is either to react or offer exposition. Yet it's not hard to see why Nicholson was the frontrunner this year. Of course, Robert Towne's screenplay and Roman Polanski's direction lay enough groundwork for Nicholson to work with, but it takes a special kind of actor to make the private dick effective. I'm not talking charm, I'm talking smarm, and Nicholson has it. It's a sleazy job -- and that defense at the barbershop seems to be more for his benefit than his neighbor's -- but dammit he's good at it.

Perhaps the strongest element of his performance is his incredulity. Jake Gittes can usually weasel his way into anything, but this case, taking him from a simple case of adultery into a conspiracy within the Los Angeles County Water Department, manages to catch him off guard at every turn. He trusts the wrong people, follows the wrong leads, accuses the wrong culprit. Gittes is as human as you or I, a man whose past hurts inform his present relationships. He's vulgar, quick-witted, suspicious...really, there are few I'd rather spend two hours watching. Indeed, this was one of the few movies that I never took my eyes off of once, and Nicholson's performance is a HUGE part of the fascination.

Al Pacino in The Godfather: Part II

****

Pacino ups his game from the original. There's no trace of the Michael Corleone who once assured Diane Keaton, "That's my family, Kay, that's not me." Michael is calculating and cold-blooded. The man calmly orders the assassination of Hyman Roth, gives his brother the kiss of death, and manipulates the witnesses of a grand jury investigation. He rages at his wife and his consigliere -- powerful moments, indeed, for they go against his usually controlled demeanor. It's fascinating to see a man so changed, yet refusing to acknowledge that his relationships have. The aforementioned argument with Kay is rightfully legendary, and that final shot of Michael sitting alone after "settling business" haunts me still, a full two months since I saw the movie.

------------------------

Oscar chose Art Carney, but if I had to choose between these five, the Oscar goes to...

DUSTIN HOFFMAN

in

LENNY

a magnetic performance, beautiful and ugly, triumphant and tragic