Best Actor 1996

[OscarGuy]

Every performance is different and is going to affect each of us differently. I like Hoffman in Rain Man and Rush in Shine. I don't like Hanks in Forrest Gump.

I think our like or dislike of certain performances has more to do with A) how much we like the film itself, and B) how much we like the actor. If you don' t like either, you aren't going to like the performance. I know people who don't like Geoffrey Rush or Daniel Day Lewis and that's manifested in how much they like those performances. I like both actors, but find both capable of great injustice, neither of which were bad in their "stunt" performance films.

Let's put it this way, any time an actor takes on a role that's different from everything else they've done, you could consider it a stunt. Charlize Theron in Monster, Halle Berry in Monster's Ball, Christian Bale in The Fighter. I say it's an actor stretching his thespian muscles. Stunt sure, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating the performance. It's all subjective. One man's Olivier is another man's Jack Black.

[Reza]

I have to ask. Do you guys hate Dustin Hoffman's performance or his win? Because I've never found anything remotely problematic in his performance, just he never should have been considered for an award.

I have absolutely no problem if Hoffman has more than one Oscar.........for The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy or for K vs K, but for Rainman? No!! It's the performance I object to.........too much of a stunt !!

[Sabin]

I have to ask. Do you guys hate Dustin Hoffman's performance or his win? Because I've never found anything remotely problematic in his performance, just he never should have been considered for an award.

[Big Magilla]

Forgot about Wyman and Penn. Wyman, yes, she might well win. Also Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker was partially blind. She could be considered.

Coundn't stand I Am Sam, hideous film, hideous performance by Penn. Next to Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape is probably my second favorite among actors, though if Tom Hulce had been nominated for Dominic & Eugene, he would have been right up there as well. Hoffman and Pacino (Scent of a Woman) would be somewhere in the middle for me.

[Reza]

Maybe we should have a poll on the best/worst Oscar nominated portrayal of a handicapped person.

Among actors, Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot is probably my favorite and Geoffrey Rush in Shine probably my least favorite, but a lot of people, though not too many here, would cite Dustin Hoffmanin Rain Man. Among actresses, I imagine Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker would win hands down, but would the vote be for Duke or Helen Keller?

I loathed Dustin Hoffman (Rainman), Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) and Geoffrey Rush (Shine) but liked Jane Wyman (Johnny Belinda), Patty Duke (The Miracle Worker), Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot) and Sean Penn (I Am Sam).

[ksrymy]

Among actresses, I imagine Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker would win hands down, but would the vote be for Duke or Helen Keller?

I feel that Jane Wyman would give Duke a run for her money and if Holly Hunter's character weren't voluntarily-mute in The Piano she would win.

[Big Magilla]

Maybe we should have a poll on the best/worst Oscar nominated portrayal of a handicapped person.

Among actors, Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot is probably my favorite and Geoffrey Rush in Shine probably my least favorite, but a lot of people, though not too many here, would cite Dustin Hoffmanin Rain Man. Among actresses, I imagine Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker would win hands down, but would the vote be for Duke or Helen Keller?

[Mister Tee]

It's a matter of which cart comes before which horse. I'd argue that one should always be wary that one isn't rationalizing to justify one's own taste.

But isn't that what these posts are all about? Saying which nominee is one's preference and then explaining -- not rationalizing -- why, whether it's a handicap performance or not. For instance, here a plurality of people feel that Billy Bob Thornton created a true, inhabited person, whereas Rush was just an annoying bag of tricks. That's simply people's honest, subjective reactions.

I'm not saying these views are not honestly arrived at. An even bigger majority felt Daniel Day-Lewis was outstanding and real in My Left Foot, something with which you decisively disagree, just as I emphatically disagree with this result here. It's simply differing tastes.

I just find it notable that, when it comes to handicapped performances, there's a tendency for people to either vote for them, or be utterly contemptuous and dismissive in a "this is the worst aspect of the Academy Awards" vein. (I don't exclude myself from this dichotomy)

[Damien]

It's a matter of which cart comes before which horse. I'd argue that one should always be wary that one isn't rationalizing to justify one's own taste.

But isn't that what these posts are all about? Saying which nominee is one's preference and then explaining -- not rationalizing -- why, whether it's a handicap performance or not. For instance, here a plurality of people feel that Billy Bob Thornton created a true, inhabited person, whereas Rush was just an annoying bag of tricks. That's simply people's honest, subjective reactions.

[Mister Tee]

I think we can summarize the board's view of handicapped performances thusly: "If it's a performance I like, it's full of nuance and textured feeling, amd you're a tasteless moron if you don't appreciate it. If it's one I don't like, it's a pathetic stunt, one of the worst choices in Academy history, and you're a tasteless moron if you disagree."

Pretty much. You should win an award for those two sentences.

No, it's backwards. One likes a performance because it's nuanced. It's not nuanced because one likes it. And the same with the pathetic Geoffrey Rush style of acting. This quote is cart-before-horse reasoning.

It's a matter of which cart comes before which horse. I'd argue that one should always be wary that one isn't rationalizing to justify one's own taste.

[Damien]

I think we can summarize the board's view of handicapped performances thusly: "If it's a performance I like, it's full of nuance and textured feeling, amd you're a tasteless moron if you don't appreciate it. If it's one I don't like, it's a pathetic stunt, one of the worst choices in Academy history, and you're a tasteless moron if you disagree."

Pretty much. You should win an award for those two sentences.

No, it's backwards. One likes a performance because it's nuanced. It's not nuanced because one likes it. And the same with the pathetic Geoffrey Rush style of acting. This quote is cart-before-horse reasoning.

[ksrymy]

I think we can summarize the board's view of handicapped performances thusly: "If it's a performance I like, it's full of nuance and textured feeling, amd you're a tasteless moron if you don't appreciate it. If it's one I don't like, it's a pathetic stunt, one of the worst choices in Academy history, and you're a tasteless moron if you disagree."

Pretty much. You should win an award for those two sentences.

[ITALIANO]

Let's face it - none is really great, none is really bad (even Tom Cruise, though clearly the worst, and not an actor, has a few moments when he's more relaxed than usual. Impossible to vote for such a performance, of course).

Geoffrey Rush is hated here, and I can see why - but there's a part of me that kind of enjoys hams, especially technically expert hams, and there aren't that many left in this period, so I sort of consider Rush as an endangered animal. I may even vote for him once when it comes to Best Supporting Actor - the much-praised, quickly forgotten Shine certainly isn't his best turn as an actor.

Billy Bob Thornton. Very good actor, but that little movie - which I saw after reading all those glowing reviews, leading me to expect a masterpiece - never meant much to me, and Mister Tee this time is basically right - I mean, it's THAT kind of role.

So - and I realize this only now - it's between Fiennes and Harrelson for me. And while I think that Ralph Fiennes was - and, I guess, still is, but definitely was - an extremely interesting actor and potentially a great one, even, if we must compare THESE performances, I must admit that Woody Harrelson, an actor I never thought I'd vote for, has the more powerful, more challenging role, and plays it well. Harrelson is, by the way, a certainly talented man, who has had a strange, sometimes frustrating film career, but who can be very good. He's my pick for this year, though a bit by default.

[Reza]

Voted for Harrelson.

My picks for 1996:

Dennis Hopper, Carried Away
Woody Harrelson, The People Vs Larry Flynt
Tom Cruise, Jerry Maguire
Ralph Fiennes, The English Patient
Denzel Washington, Courage Under Fire

The 6th Spot: Ewan McGregor, Trainspotting

[Sabin]

Coming off of last summer which brought nominations from Apollo 13, Babe, Braveheart, The Bridges of Madison County, or The Postman, 1996 was something of a disappointment. It is also the summer that would pretty much set the tempo for every summer since, if not every weekend we have seen for the past decade and a half.