4:18 am - 02/27/2013
8 Actors Robbed Of An Oscar
The Oscars have passed us again and it’s time to get ready to complain about the winners and losers. Let’s be honest: we all love complaining about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’s decisions each year and arguing about why this actor wasn’t nominated or that actress should have won the award.
Don’t feel bad about criticizing The Academy’s selections, though, because everyone does it. Come to think of it – everyone just loves complaining in general. In this spirit of complaining, here is a list of 8 actors, in no particular order, who were blatantly robbed of the acting world’s highest plaudit.
There are countless blunders and oversights that are crying out to be analysed and dissected to the nth degree. In one way or another, these acting performances were all denied their rightful Oscar glory. So read on, and by all means, have a rant of your own and vent about the decisions that have really got under your skin in previous years.
Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth, 1999)
Cate Blanchett gives a towering performance as the young Queen Elizabeth I in Shekhar Kapur’s 1998 film Elizabeth. It is truly a commanding and revelatory turn as she channels the spirit and tenacity of one of England’s most famous monarchs. Blanchett plays, with aplomb, the part a young woman finding her way in life and learning what is required to be a monarch.
She allowed her character to blossom before our eyes, slowly transforming from girlhood into maturity as she grasped the role of Queen, while impressively emparting her Elizabeth with great heart and tenderness.Yet she was unthinkably denied the Oscar win by Gwyneth Paltrow’s insipid and one note performance in Shakespeare in Love. Paltrow’s performance was by no means poor but it was something that you would find in an above average romantic comedy.
Blanchett’s performance was full of fire and steely intelligence. She exuded an inner power that lit up the screen where as Paltrow’s role, while at times charming, was bland in comparison. The Academy also chose to honor to Shakespeare in Love, giving it the gong for Best Picture over more serious contenders such as Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line and Elizabeth. There is no other rational explanation; the Academy are blatant romantics.
Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler, 2008)
Mickey Rourke astounded critics and viewers alike with his transformative role as a broken down professional wrestler in Darren Aronofsky’s intimate yet powerful drama. Rourke made Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson part of himself, so much so that he seemed to dissolve into his character. Its one of those performances where you have to believe that only he could have played it. As wonderful as this role was it wasn’t enough to edge out Sean Penn, who walked away with the statue for playing gay activist and Mayor of the Castro, Harvey Milk.
The Academy is always a sucker for a performance based on a real person and this year was no exception. Make no mistake Sean Penn’s performance was one of quality. He does a fine job of capturing the immense humanism and contagious positivity of Harvey Milk. However Rourke’s role was one of rare understated beauty and nuance. It was the tiny mannerisms and almost fleeting indefinable qualities of character that made his wrestler so honest and raw.
The parallels between Rourke’s own failing career and his down and out character lend a sensitivity and a subtleness to the performance that it into something very special. The Academy sure bungled the decision that year, even Sean Penn looked a little surprised on hearing his name read out.
Dustin Hoffman (Midnight Cowboy, 1970)
Dustin Hoffman is sublime as the iconic character “Ratso” Rizzo in John Schelsinger ‘s bleak and disturbing 1969 film Midnight Cowboy. Joe Buck, played by Jon Voight who is also outstanding in the film, is a naive young man who has come to New York City in the hopes of making it big by being a male prostitute. After a string of frustrating encounters Buck meets and eventually befriends crippled conman Enrico Salvatore “Ratso” Rizzo who offers to be his manager.
Rizzo is a sleezy, coughing mess and the two lost souls find comfort in each other’s company. Hoffman is at the top of his game as the desperate and lonely Rizzo. At first Hoffman is brash and full of false confidence, as a taxi almost crashes into the pair while walking down the street he yells the famous improvised line, “I’m walking here! I’m walking here!” Yet as his role develops we sees cracks appearing in Rizzo’s facade and Hoffman delicately reveals how scared and alone Rizzo really is.
The interplay between the two actors is truly unforgettable. It is outrageous then that Hoffman lost his Oscar to the glorified life time achievement award that was John Wayne’s Best Actor award for True Grit. At this point in time John Wayne was a legend towards the end of his career and was the archetypal image of the rugged western cowboy.
Yet his performance in True Grit was rather uninspiring and lacking in depth compared to the exceptional Hoffman. It is such a shame that the Academy had to rewrite its wrongs by giving Wayne a belated Oscar which he should have earned for films like The Searchers, Rio Bravo or Red River.
Edward Norton (American History X, 1999)
Edward Norton gives a courageous and fierce performance as Derek Vinyard in Tony Kaye’s directorial debut American History X. Vinyard is a neo-nazi skinhead who is sent to prison for manslaughter after brutally gunning down two young black men who were stealing his car. The film is an uncompromising study of the realities of racial hatred and violence in America. Norton’s portrayal of Derek is forceful and persuasive.
While Derek is in prison he gradually befriends a black laundry co-worker named Lamont who makes him question his values and misplaced faith in the white power cause. As loathesome and offensive as Derek is we are forced to pity him as he realises how destructive and useless his life has been. Norton imparts a humanity and futility to his character that makes his struggle to adapt to situations that arise on the outside heartbreaking.
It is quite stinging then that Norton left the awards empty handed after Roberto Benigni stole the show for his role in Life Is Beautiful. Benigni was likeable in his soppy role as a father who tries to find a funny side of a Nazi death camp to protect his son yet no match for the blistering Norton performance.
Russell Crowe (A Beautiful Mind, 2002)
Russell Crowe turns in a consummate performance in A Beautiful Mind as the genius mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. who is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The authenticity of Crowe’s role as Nash is astounding and entirely believable. He takes the audience into the world of someone who has a metal illness and shows the reality of how it affects the people around him.
At no point does Crowe go over the top or descend into caricature but rather provides an increasingly unsettling picture of schizophrenia one that depicts the downward spiral of Nash’s mind superbly His facial expressions and tiny changes in demeanour are what make the performance. Crowe frighteningly shifts from a vacant look or a look of creative turmoil to one of bewilderment and terror, making his performance shockingly effective.
It has to be said that Denzel Washington gave a commanding performance in Training Day and he exuded swagger with his smooth-talking, corrupt detective Alonzo Harris. However his performance had none of the range or complexity that Crowe’s had. The Academy was making things right with Denzel for their 1993 blunder when they overlooked him for Malcolm X. Crowe’s character felt singular like he had forged it from somewhere deep inside himself whereas Washington’s felt like a pastiche of other celluloid villains.
Source.
Don’t feel bad about criticizing The Academy’s selections, though, because everyone does it. Come to think of it – everyone just loves complaining in general. In this spirit of complaining, here is a list of 8 actors, in no particular order, who were blatantly robbed of the acting world’s highest plaudit.
There are countless blunders and oversights that are crying out to be analysed and dissected to the nth degree. In one way or another, these acting performances were all denied their rightful Oscar glory. So read on, and by all means, have a rant of your own and vent about the decisions that have really got under your skin in previous years.
Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth, 1999)
Cate Blanchett gives a towering performance as the young Queen Elizabeth I in Shekhar Kapur’s 1998 film Elizabeth. It is truly a commanding and revelatory turn as she channels the spirit and tenacity of one of England’s most famous monarchs. Blanchett plays, with aplomb, the part a young woman finding her way in life and learning what is required to be a monarch.
She allowed her character to blossom before our eyes, slowly transforming from girlhood into maturity as she grasped the role of Queen, while impressively emparting her Elizabeth with great heart and tenderness.Yet she was unthinkably denied the Oscar win by Gwyneth Paltrow’s insipid and one note performance in Shakespeare in Love. Paltrow’s performance was by no means poor but it was something that you would find in an above average romantic comedy.
Blanchett’s performance was full of fire and steely intelligence. She exuded an inner power that lit up the screen where as Paltrow’s role, while at times charming, was bland in comparison. The Academy also chose to honor to Shakespeare in Love, giving it the gong for Best Picture over more serious contenders such as Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line and Elizabeth. There is no other rational explanation; the Academy are blatant romantics.
Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler, 2008)
Mickey Rourke astounded critics and viewers alike with his transformative role as a broken down professional wrestler in Darren Aronofsky’s intimate yet powerful drama. Rourke made Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson part of himself, so much so that he seemed to dissolve into his character. Its one of those performances where you have to believe that only he could have played it. As wonderful as this role was it wasn’t enough to edge out Sean Penn, who walked away with the statue for playing gay activist and Mayor of the Castro, Harvey Milk.
The Academy is always a sucker for a performance based on a real person and this year was no exception. Make no mistake Sean Penn’s performance was one of quality. He does a fine job of capturing the immense humanism and contagious positivity of Harvey Milk. However Rourke’s role was one of rare understated beauty and nuance. It was the tiny mannerisms and almost fleeting indefinable qualities of character that made his wrestler so honest and raw.
The parallels between Rourke’s own failing career and his down and out character lend a sensitivity and a subtleness to the performance that it into something very special. The Academy sure bungled the decision that year, even Sean Penn looked a little surprised on hearing his name read out.
Dustin Hoffman (Midnight Cowboy, 1970)
Dustin Hoffman is sublime as the iconic character “Ratso” Rizzo in John Schelsinger ‘s bleak and disturbing 1969 film Midnight Cowboy. Joe Buck, played by Jon Voight who is also outstanding in the film, is a naive young man who has come to New York City in the hopes of making it big by being a male prostitute. After a string of frustrating encounters Buck meets and eventually befriends crippled conman Enrico Salvatore “Ratso” Rizzo who offers to be his manager.
Rizzo is a sleezy, coughing mess and the two lost souls find comfort in each other’s company. Hoffman is at the top of his game as the desperate and lonely Rizzo. At first Hoffman is brash and full of false confidence, as a taxi almost crashes into the pair while walking down the street he yells the famous improvised line, “I’m walking here! I’m walking here!” Yet as his role develops we sees cracks appearing in Rizzo’s facade and Hoffman delicately reveals how scared and alone Rizzo really is.
The interplay between the two actors is truly unforgettable. It is outrageous then that Hoffman lost his Oscar to the glorified life time achievement award that was John Wayne’s Best Actor award for True Grit. At this point in time John Wayne was a legend towards the end of his career and was the archetypal image of the rugged western cowboy.
Yet his performance in True Grit was rather uninspiring and lacking in depth compared to the exceptional Hoffman. It is such a shame that the Academy had to rewrite its wrongs by giving Wayne a belated Oscar which he should have earned for films like The Searchers, Rio Bravo or Red River.
Edward Norton (American History X, 1999)
Edward Norton gives a courageous and fierce performance as Derek Vinyard in Tony Kaye’s directorial debut American History X. Vinyard is a neo-nazi skinhead who is sent to prison for manslaughter after brutally gunning down two young black men who were stealing his car. The film is an uncompromising study of the realities of racial hatred and violence in America. Norton’s portrayal of Derek is forceful and persuasive.
While Derek is in prison he gradually befriends a black laundry co-worker named Lamont who makes him question his values and misplaced faith in the white power cause. As loathesome and offensive as Derek is we are forced to pity him as he realises how destructive and useless his life has been. Norton imparts a humanity and futility to his character that makes his struggle to adapt to situations that arise on the outside heartbreaking.
It is quite stinging then that Norton left the awards empty handed after Roberto Benigni stole the show for his role in Life Is Beautiful. Benigni was likeable in his soppy role as a father who tries to find a funny side of a Nazi death camp to protect his son yet no match for the blistering Norton performance.
Russell Crowe (A Beautiful Mind, 2002)
Russell Crowe turns in a consummate performance in A Beautiful Mind as the genius mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. who is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The authenticity of Crowe’s role as Nash is astounding and entirely believable. He takes the audience into the world of someone who has a metal illness and shows the reality of how it affects the people around him.
At no point does Crowe go over the top or descend into caricature but rather provides an increasingly unsettling picture of schizophrenia one that depicts the downward spiral of Nash’s mind superbly His facial expressions and tiny changes in demeanour are what make the performance. Crowe frighteningly shifts from a vacant look or a look of creative turmoil to one of bewilderment and terror, making his performance shockingly effective.
It has to be said that Denzel Washington gave a commanding performance in Training Day and he exuded swagger with his smooth-talking, corrupt detective Alonzo Harris. However his performance had none of the range or complexity that Crowe’s had. The Academy was making things right with Denzel for their 1993 blunder when they overlooked him for Malcolm X. Crowe’s character felt singular like he had forged it from somewhere deep inside himself whereas Washington’s felt like a pastiche of other celluloid villains.
Source.
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