Here are the five nominees: (Winner in Bold)
Biggest Snub:
Gregory Peck – The Boys From Brazil
My Overall Thoughts:
This year has 5 great nominated performances but one of them is clearly much more powerful than the other 4.
My Rankings:
Supporting Actor
5. Richard Farnsworth
4. John Hurt
3. Jack Warden
2. Bruce Dern
1. Christopher Walken
Movies
5. Comes a Horseman – Pretty boring film that moves along at a snail’s pace. The characters aren’t very interesting to watch and the story itself is not very engaging at all. The cast is quite talented, but they aren’t really given enough to do. The three main actors in this film (Fonda, Caan and Robards) all seem completely wasted in this story. Farnsworth is the best thing about this film (and that’s not saying much) and he was deservingly nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in this film.
4. Midnight Express – Powerful story of having to deal with such a horrendous sentence for a mistake. The way that the prison system is shown to us can make anyone scared of committing a crime there. Stone showed even here how great a storyteller he can be which is no surprise once you realize that he wrote this script.
3. Coming Home – Excellent anti-war film that deals with soldiers returning to their lives after seeing combat. Great performances by everyone involved. Voight and Fonda won Oscars for this movie.
2. Heaven Can Wait – Beatty and Henry wrote a superb modern adaptation of Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) that is funnier and even more poignant than the original. Excellent cast keeps this funny yet interesting. Loved the chemistry between Beatty and Christie but the best relationship actually is between Beattty and Warden. Such a fun premise gets done right here.
1. The Deer Hunter – Very well made movie, but be warned that it’s very powerful. Very deserving of its numerous awards including BP and BD at the Oscars.
Do I agree with the Oscar winner? – Most Definitely! CW is superb in this role and as great as some of the other nominated performances were, none could compare to this vert powerful one.
Let me know what you think about these films and my rankings!
