Best Actor 1972

1927/28 through 1997

Who was the Best Actor of 1972?

Marlon Brando - The Godfather
10
33%
Michael Caine - Sleuth
0
No votes
Laurence Olivier - Sleuth
7
23%
Peter O'Toole - The Ruling Class
7
23%
Paul Winfield - Sounder
6
20%
 
Total votes: 30

ITALIANO
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Re: Best Actor 1972

Post by ITALIANO »

Marlon Brando's comeback belongs to the myth of cinema more than to the art of acting - it's actually a solid, charismatic performance, but also an often imitated (and spoofed) one, which isn't necessarily a good sign. And Brando will be actually great one year later, which in this game means we have only to wait a few days to reward - again - his talent. I'd say we can wait then.

The names of these actors could lead one to think of this as one of the best Best Actor races ever. It isn't - none of them is at his best, or even at his nominated best. The exception is Paul Winfield, whom I've only seen very rarely in movies, and who's good in Sounder but, yes, as others have pointed out, supporting.

Sleuth is an entertaining quirky talky piece of cinema - it gives its two stars showy if not exactly profound roles, and Olivier is showier than Caine and actually quite enjoyable. But, I mean, it's still an Anthony Shaffer thriller, and the "greatest actor ever" had previously dealt with, let's say, "slightly" better material.

The Ruling Class is a movie of its era - it would be unthinkable today. Except that it's really TOO long, it's a valuable document and should be seen by anyone interested in that period and its issues. For the same reasons, it's also badly dated - still its ferocious, iconoclastic attacks on any holy, untouchable target are so unusual these days that I tend to see them under a positive light. The movie as a whole isn't very good probably, but it's performances we are judging here, and O'Toole's is a real tour-de-force and gets my vote, definitely.
Mister Tee
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Re: Best Actor 1972

Post by Mister Tee »

This is, for me, the least interesting best actor race of the magnificent 70s -- chiefly because the clearly dominant male performance of the year, Al Pacino's in The Godfather, was disgracefully shunted to supporting (where voters were forced into a ridiculous Tatum O'Neal/Madeline Kahn-like "Best overall or best supporting?" choice vs. Joel Grey). No one else on the slate -- and few performances in Pacino's later career -- come close to his work here.

I'd also endorse Jon Voight in Deliverance or Charles Grodin in The Heartbreak Kid as preferable to any of the actual nominees.

Paul Winfield is perfectly fine in Sounder, but, Christ, talk about shoulda-been-supporting -- he must be off-screen 60% of the film. Kevin Hooks gave the outstanding male lead performance in Sounder...but of course suffered from the dread under-18 handicap.

I expected Marlon Brando to run away with this -- and he may yet, as Godfather devotees pop in. But I was never all that impressed with his performance (certainly not compared to the landmark work that showed up just a few months later). For me, the performance was based largely on a shtik -- that put-on raspy voice -- a shtik that felt utterly right after the shooting attempt (it made him seem like a powerful man vocally hobbled), but was just attention-getting prior to that. I see this Oscar as basically a Welcome back from a decade of dreck prize.

What I can say for Sleuth is, Mankiewicz did a surprisingly good job of expanding a one-set, flimsy piece of puffery into something that at least seemed vaguely real. He accomplished this visually by making the mansion and its environs into a virtual character, which eliminated the claustrophobic feeling. And he modulated the material by making his two central characters more human than they'd appeared on stage. In the theatre, the play was entirely about the mid-second act reveal -- it was so startling that the rest of the evening felt like it was spinning its wheels. The moment still had solid impact on screen, but, because the two actors had given decent life to their characters, it seemed only a partial piece of an ongoing duel.

That said, the piece is so shallow at the core that I can't offer its participants this prize.

Which leads me to Peter O'Toole in The Ruling Class. The Ruling Class is hardly a neat piece of work; it seems to ramble from topic to topic (it's truly hard to imagine how this looked onstage, where it had virtually the same barely-structured text), and I couldn't tell you now what it was all supposed to "mean". But -- and maybe this was just the times -- it felt like it had something at the core that captured the insanity of our lives in 1972. And Peter O'Toole, officially entering the second, more flamboyant phase of his career, carried it perfectly. He obviously has plenty of big, Oscar-y scenes, and he pulls them off with panache. But he also makes this varied character -- from Christ to Jack the Ripper -- hang together as a coherent concept if not person.

As I say, I'd rather vote for Pacino -- or perhaps one of the losers from the surrounding years. But, given the options I have on this ballot, O'Toole gets the nod.
mayukh
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Re: Best Actor 1972

Post by mayukh »

Call me crazy, but I voted for Winfield. Sounder struck me as a sort of harmless affair (I never really "got" Cicely Tyson in it, either), but Winfield was brilliant – so touching, so nuanced in his very short role. I was thrilled when I realized he was nominated.

Max von Sydow, Stacy Keach, and Charles Grodin certainly deserved consideration in this (very good) year.
MovieFan
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Re: Best Actor 1972

Post by MovieFan »

Olivier gets my vote. Brando was undoudtedly iconic but I always preferred Al Pacino
Big Magilla
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Best Actor 1972

Post by Big Magilla »

This is the one we all remember as the year Marlon Brando dispatched 1970 Miss American Vampire Sacheen Littlefeather AKA Maria Cruz to refuse his Oscar.

Brando was not the obvious choice he seems in retrospect. Laurence Olivier, who won the New York Film Critics Award for Sleuth had been considered a possibility, and Peter O'Toole, who had made a strong impression with The Ruling Class was an early favortie for the highly anticipated year-end release of Man of La Mancha, which turned out to be a bomb. He was nominated instead for the much more satisfying Ruling Class, though by the time of the actual awards, Brando was the odds-on favorite.

The other two nominees didn't figure in anybody's predictions. Paul Winfield was wonderful in Sounder, but he was hardly in the film, which was dominated by Cicely Tyson, Kevin Hooks and the dog. As for Michael Caine, I remember the local entertainment reporter on New York's Channel 5 asking why anyone would vote for Caine when Olivier was the whole show.

Others who might have been considered: Al Pacino, who was relegated to support for The Godfather even though his was a larger role than Brando's; James Mason, who came in second to Olivier in the New York Film Critics' polling for Child's Play and Stacy Keach, who actually won the NYFC for Fat City on the first ballot before a rules change rendered a recount.

I voted for Olivier.
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