View Full Version : They should have won an Oscar


soundmotor
06-30-2006, 03:39 PM
(Or at least been nominated for one!)

Here are my picks:

Val Kilmer / Doc Holliday / Tombstone

Rutger Hauer / Roy Batty / Bladerunner

After having watched both of the above recently, I was again struck by the acting Kilmer & Hauer. Tombstone is a good movie but not a great movie. Kilmer's performance however is spectacular and elevates the rest of the film because of it. So much has been said about Hauer's performance in Bladerunner that I can't add much except to comment that he should have been recognized for his work there via the Oscar process.

I could think of others, but I'm curious if I've missed a few along the way.

Whattayagot?

cosmicdust
06-30-2006, 04:06 PM
I'm your Huckehberry.

Andyman
06-30-2006, 04:51 PM
I'm your Huckehberry.

Ya beat me to it, CD! :thmbsp:

OK, here's the scoop on the Oscars:

1982 Blade Runner's year

Winner:
Officer and a Gentleman, An (1982) - Louis Gossett Jr.

Other Nominees:
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The (1982) - Charles Durning
Verdict, The (1982) - James Mason (I)
Victor/Victoria (1982) - Robert Preston (I)
World According to Garp, The (1982) - John Lithgow

1993, Tombstones' year

Winner: Fugitive, The (1993) - Tommy Lee Jones

Other nominees
* In the Line of Fire (1993) - John Malkovich
* In the Name of the Father (1993) - Pete Postlethwaite
* Schindler's List (1993) - Ralph Fiennes
* What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) - Leonardo DiCaprio

I haven't seen all those flicks, but there's some darn fine performances there :yes:

Jack Lord
07-05-2006, 12:46 PM
Eric Roberts (yes Julia's brother and much more talented) in The Pope of Greenwich Village."

Duffinator
07-05-2006, 02:58 PM
I'm there with both of these performances.

Bladerunner is one of my top five favorite movies of all time (probably my favorite but it's hard to pick a single favorite) so I'm in total agreement. Especially the scene were he dies on the rooftop. Simply beautiful.

My wife and I watched Tombstone for the first time earlier this year and were completely blown away by Kilmer's performance. I had no idea he could act that well and he stold every scene he was in.

I forgot to add one not mentioned. Not sure how this would be recognized but Craig T. Nelson as the voice of Bob Parr in the Incredibles.

slow_jazz
07-05-2006, 03:58 PM
blade runner is also one of my top movies of all time. rutger hauer was great and sean young never looked better....

i read where harrison ford didn't like the movie at all.

skippy_ps
07-05-2006, 04:28 PM
The first time I saw Blade Runner, it was the version narrated by Harrison Ford, which I thought made more sense than the Director's Cut. I just checked at Amazon and it seems that the narrated version is not reasonably available.

Great flick, btw, and Rutger Hauer's performance is indeed great. And yes, Sean Young is stunning in this movie.

Murray

Duffinator
07-05-2006, 07:59 PM
I just checked at Amazon and it seems that the narrated version is not reasonably available.It's not available at all on DVD. I had always hoped they would make it available but Ridley Scott hates that version and I doubt we'll ever see it. :no: A friend of mine made me a copy from a VHS so I have it on DVD but no Dolby Digital. It looks good enough to watch though. :yes: :tresbon:

soundmotor
07-05-2006, 09:55 PM
The first time I saw Blade Runner, it was the version narrated by Harrison Ford, which I thought made more sense than the Director's Cut. I just checked at Amazon and it seems that the narrated version is not reasonably available.

Great flick, btw, and Rutger Hauer's performance is indeed great. And yes, Sean Young is stunning in this movie.

Murray

First time I saw it was in '82 (I think) on limited release. Really, it could not have been in the theater for more than a month. I was nuts about anything containing Harrison Ford thanks to Star Wars & Raiders. So I saw the film with my old GF. She hated it, I was stunned & blown away. However, there was one aspect about the film that surprised me. That being the incredible violence in 3 scenes. A year or so later, the film comes around again. I get a bunch of my buddies together and we go see it. I came away thinking that I must have really been in an odd way the first time I saw it because it was nowhere near as violent as I recalled it. Hmmmm.

In '95 or thereabouts, I borrowed the Criterion Laser Disc of Bladerunner. By now, I had the movie on VHS & RCA Selectavision CED! They were the watered down versions that I saw in '83. And which version do you think the Criterion LD version was? Yep, the very first version I had seen in '82.

There is Leon pushing his fingers deep into Deckards eyes, Roy Batty doing the same to Tyrell with blood rushing past, & Pris beating the living crap out of Deckard & lowering him to the floor with her fingers jammed up his nose before he plugs her 3 times & then gives her the coup de gras!

Is this the version you were referring to? AFAIK, the only version like this is on the LD.

Duffinator
07-05-2006, 10:47 PM
There is Leon pushing his fingers deep into Deckards eyes, Roy Batty doing the same to Tyrell with blood rushing past, & Pris beating the living crap out of Deckard & lowering him to the floor with her fingers jammed up his nose before he plugs her 3 times & then gives her the coup de gras!

Is this the version you were referring to? AFAIK, the only version like this is on the LD.I would love to get my hands on that version. I see LD players advertised on craigslist all the time for under $100. I'd be worth the price just to watch that version of the movie.

Here's a copy of the Criterion disc (http://cgi.ebay.com/Blade-Runner-Criterion-Collection-69-LASERDISC-LD_W0QQitemZ110003810373QQihZ001QQcategoryZ381QQss PageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

speidi1
07-05-2006, 10:54 PM
Joaquin Phoenix -- Gladiator {"Commodus"} - nominated, should have won. You just hated the character.

Benicio Del Toro -- Traffic {"Javier Rodriguez"} - winner.

Duffinator
07-05-2006, 11:09 PM
After thinking about it I called a friend of mine and confirmed that we can copy the S-video output to a PC and make a DVD version. So I purchased that copy. I'll let you know how it goes. Anybody got a LD player I can borrow? :D

JerryM
07-06-2006, 10:51 AM
British actress Emily Watson was nominated for Best Actress in 1996 for Breaking the Waves. One of the best film performaces I've ever seen. (Though I can't find fault with the winner that year--Francis McDormand for her great portrayal of Police Chief Marge in Fargo.)

danj
07-07-2006, 12:04 AM
John Wayne in "The Searchers" is one of the great iconic performances of all time. Didn't get the Oscar but should have.

Gregory Peck as General Savage in "Twelve O'Clock High" is as good as it gets. His performance is splendid. So is Dean Jagger's, who did win a nod for best supporting actor.

Betty Davis was absolutely perfect in "All About Eve" but didn't win anything. Celeste Holm deserved her supporting actress nod. This is a splendid film with every cast member turning in noteworthy performances. Davis, who could be a real ham, turned in the performance of a lifetime and was, at least in 1950, America's greatest actor.

soundmotor
07-07-2006, 07:16 AM
After thinking about it I called a friend of mine and confirmed that we can copy the S-video output to a PC and make a DVD version. So I purchased that copy. I'll let you know how it goes. Anybody got a LD player I can borrow? :D

One wonders how many other films on LD's, or VHS even, that have never made it onto DVD?

Filmboydoug
07-07-2006, 08:41 AM
I agree with some of the screw jobs posted, especially Bette Davis. I think the all time screw job has to be Anthony Quinn not winning for Zorba The Greek.

birddog
07-07-2006, 11:15 AM
"Eric Roberts (yes Julia's brother and much more talented) in The Pope of Greenwich Village."

"Charlie, Dey took my Tumbs..."

A classic, haven't seen it since it first came out.

skippy_ps
07-07-2006, 06:44 PM
First time I saw it was in '82 (I think) on limited release. Really, it could not have been in the theater for more than a month. I was nuts about anything containing Harrison Ford thanks to Star Wars & Raiders. So I saw the film with my old GF. She hated it, I was stunned & blown away. However, there was one aspect about the film that surprised me. That being the incredible violence in 3 scenes. A year or so later, the film comes around again. I get a bunch of my buddies together and we go see it. I came away thinking that I must have really been in an odd way the first time I saw it because it was nowhere near as violent as I recalled it. Hmmmm.

In '95 or thereabouts, I borrowed the Criterion Laser Disc of Bladerunner. By now, I had the movie on VHS & RCA Selectavision CED! They were the watered down versions that I saw in '83. And which version do you think the Criterion LD version was? Yep, the very first version I had seen in '82.

There is Leon pushing his fingers deep into Deckards eyes, Roy Batty doing the same to Tyrell with blood rushing past, & Pris beating the living crap out of Deckard & lowering him to the floor with her fingers jammed up his nose before he plugs her 3 times & then gives her the coup de gras!

Is this the version you were referring to? AFAIK, the only version like this is on the LD.
I have the director's cut dvd and I think I have the narrated version on vhs. I'll have to watch the dvd again (I just watched it a week ago) to check on the "extra violence" and see if it's there. :D

It seems that the narrated vhs version is no longer available new - at Amazon, anyway.

Murray

danj
07-10-2006, 11:13 PM
I agree with some of the screw jobs posted, especially Bette Davis. I think the all time screw job has to be Anthony Quinn not winning for Zorba The Greek.

Definitely!

whell
07-20-2006, 09:04 AM
I'd consider George C Scott for his performance in Dr. Strangelove, but he'd probably give the Oscar back.

Wornears
07-20-2006, 10:35 AM
Robert Mitchum: The Night of the Hunter

B&W and only film directed by Charles Laughton (Captain Bly of an early "Mutiny on the Bounty" -- not the one with Mel Gibson <G>) and has Mitchum as the psychotic preacher with L-O-V-E tattoed on one hand and H-A-T-E on the other trying to get $10K hidden by two kids. Unbelievably intense and beyond scary.

Another vote for Bette Davis as Margo Channing,too. Just saw "All About Eve" again the other day on cable: "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night!" Has a great cameo of Marilyn Monroe, too. Here's an exchange with her in "Eve" as Claudia Caswell as the consort of acidic Addison DeWitt (The Wit, get it? perfectly played by Russian-born Brit George Sanders):

[a butler passes by]
Miss Claudia Caswell: Oh, waiter!
Addison DeWitt: That is not a waiter, my dear, that is a butler.
Miss Claudia Caswell: Well, I can't yell "Oh butler!" can I? Maybe somebody's name is Butler.
Addison DeWitt: You have a point. An idiotic one, but a point.
Miss Claudia Caswell: I don't want to make trouble. All I want is a drink.
Max Fabian: Leave it to me. I'll get you one.
Miss Claudia Caswell: Thank you, Mr. Fabian.
Addison DeWitt: Well done! I can see your career rise in the east like the sun.

They don't make films like these anymore.

soundmotor
07-21-2006, 02:16 PM
Robert Mitchum: The Night of the Hunter

Films like this are one of the reasons I toy with subscribing to Netflix. I've never seen it but everytime I read the commentary on it, I know I need to.

Night of the Hunter (http://www.filmsite.org/nightof.html)

Thanks for the nudge. Mitchum is an all time favorite.

(See also "Mr. Moses" & "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison" for other great & offbeat Mitchum films.)

Wornears
07-21-2006, 02:38 PM
My daughter and her boyfriend are big movie buffs, not so much into the older ones like I am, and they've had Netflix for a couple of months and are very pleased with it. I have too many external addictions as it is...

soundmotor
07-21-2006, 02:44 PM
My daughter and her boyfriend are big movie buffs, not so much into the older ones like I am, and they've had Netflix for a couple of months and are very pleased with it. I have too many external addictions as it is...

OT -

We usually just buy the DVD at Best Buy, Wally World, or Amazon when they hit the ~$7 threshold. I figure I'll watch it at least one more time and the rental is near $5 at Blockbuster. My local Blockbuster just closed so Netflix is beginning to look viable.

I had it in 1998 but let it go. What I didn't like is that to really make it economical you need to watch the movies as they come in. We often rent on the weekends, not plow into a film on a Tuesday.

Wornears
07-21-2006, 02:46 PM
I don't know the Oscar pedigree of this film, but it is one of my all-timers:

Orson Wells -- A Touch of Evil

see: http://www.filmsite.org/touc.html

Has Charlton Heston playing a Mexican detective (!!), whose attractive wife is kidnapped by local thugs, and Wells as the long-time corruptible lawman of the border town. This movie is the definition of film noir -- just incredible B&W photography and an opening tracking shot (aka dolly shot) that is unbelievable. Check this out from Wikipedia on "tracking shot"

"Studio mangling by superimposing credits and titles over the opening tracking shot in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil was not resolved until the fourth release of the film."

Wells was not a studio boy, that's for sure, so I doubt he got an Oscar for this film. In fact, according to the link -- the whole film was snubbed. Shows you what the Academy knew.

donoghue
07-21-2006, 03:47 PM
I love "All about Eve", I haven't seen Sunset Boulevard so I can't comment on whether Bette Davis was robbed or not, but she might be my all-time fave actress. I'm also a fan of "A Touch of Evil", one of the few Orson Welles films you can see the way he meant it to be, or pretty close anyways. There is a deluxe edition of Citizen Kane with documentaries about Welles where you can learn the sad story of his rise and fall, some his own fault, mostly the interference of others. My nomination for the most unjustly snubbed film is "M", a 1931 film by Fritz Lang, who also directed Metropolis, maybe the best silent film. M stars Peter Lorre as a serial child killer, which is probably why Hollywood snubbed the film, along with the fact that it was a German film. The energy in this film and the virtuosic filmaking is unmatched in modern films imo. Fritz Lang had it going on to the nth degree

Wornears
07-21-2006, 04:30 PM
oops. Sunset Blvd by the incomparable Billy Wilder starred Gloria Swanson as has-been screen star, Norma Desmond, and a young William Holden as her kept man. Very twisted movie and more unmatched B&W photography. See it.

see: http://www.filmsite.org/suns.html

soundmotor
07-21-2006, 06:21 PM
oops. Sunset Blvd by the incomparable Billy Wilder starred Gloria Swanson as has-been screen star, Norma Desmond, and a young William Holden as her kept man. Very twisted movie and more unmatched B&W photography. See it.

see: http://www.filmsite.org/suns.html

Beat me to it.

"And they fished me gently, ever so gently, from the swimming pool with a pruning hook."

Holden had a lot of great lines over the years but few came close to that one in Sunset.

Stratguy
08-05-2006, 04:17 PM
My biggest Oscar disappointment was Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth in Schindler's List. He was nominated, but Tommy Lee Jones won that year for The Fugitive. What a joke.

As far as Bladerunner goes, one of my absolute favorite films ever. The narrated version is so much better in my opinion. The monologue that Rutger Hauer delivers at the end in brilliant.

donoghue
08-05-2006, 04:55 PM
How about Marty Scorsese? Nominated for best director many times but never won. Wasn't nominated for Taxi Driver. He's destined for an "honorary" oscar, or has he already got one?

RussinOhio
08-05-2006, 10:29 PM
Actor Wes Studi should have won an oscar for playing Magua in "Last Of The Mohichans" (1992).

Most credible American Indian portrayal I've ever seen.


Russ

rallycat
08-06-2006, 01:18 PM
Russell Crowe did an outstanding job in 'A Beautiful Mind'. I guess the academy has no problem with bad guys being psycho, but not a good guy.

Tom

donoghue
08-19-2006, 09:06 AM
Akira Kurosawa received an honorary oscar and was nominated once in his career, "Ran" 1986. Here's a list of my favorites of his films, I think they all could be considered nomination worthy and many oscar worthy, obviously oscars have traditionally been a "local" affair. If you haven't seen any do yourself a favor and check out one of the classics from the fifties like 7 samurai, hidden fortress, throne of blood, ikiru, rashomon, etc. And if you haven't heard of Toshiro Mifune he probably had one of the best acting careers ever, so he would go on the snubbed list as well.

Rashomon 1950 (won best foreign film oscar)
Ikiru 1952
Seven Samurai 1954
Throne of Blood 1957
The Hidden Fortress 1958
Yojimbo 1961
High & Low 1963
Red Beard 1965
Dersu Uzala 1975 (won best foreign film oscar)
Kagemusha 1980
Ran 1986

cosmicdust
08-19-2006, 10:32 AM
Hi Donoghue,

There is a Japanese movie. They play some on the Sundance Channel all the time. Well, there is this particular movie (I forget the title) which centers around a brothel. About the lifes of the prostitutes. It's a sad story :-) One lady is waiting for her true love to show up. As hope fades and almost died, a man showed up ... apparently her true love. Story is about hope and love. I will try and look it up on the Sundance Channels to get the title.

Thanks :-)
cosmicdust.

dew042
08-19-2006, 11:56 PM
Akira Kurosawa received an honorary oscar and was nominated once in his career, "Ran" 1986. Here's a list of my favorites of his films, I think they all could be considered nomination worthy and many oscar worthy, obviously oscars have traditionally been a "local" affair. If you haven't seen any do yourself a favor and check out one of the classics from the fifties like 7 samurai, hidden fortress, throne of blood, ikiru, rashomon, etc. And if you haven't heard of Toshiro Mifune he probably had one of the best acting careers ever, so he would go on the snubbed list as well.

Rashomon 1950 (won best foreign film oscar)
Ikiru 1952
Seven Samurai 1954
Throne of Blood 1957
The Hidden Fortress 1958
Yojimbo 1961
High & Low 1963
Red Beard 1965
Dersu Uzala 1975 (won best foreign film oscar)
Kagemusha 1980
Ran 1986

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, being that Yojimbo = A Fistful of Dollars, Seven Samurai = The Magnificent Seven, Yojimbo = High Plains Drifter = Last Man Standing and many parts of the original Stars Wars themes, characters, scenes, and imagery were lifted The Hidden Fortress & Yojimbo as well as other Kurosawa films. It shows Kurosawa's mastery of imagery and univeral nature of his work.

Mifune is great as well, very fun to watch.

dew.