For example, I’d say Fargo.
Don’t get me wrong. Frances McDormand was great as Marge Gunderson, but I didn’t think she was the one who really deserved the hardware. William H. Macy absolutely carried that movie, and played a much harder role with absolutely staggering brilliance.
Can you think of any other movies where one actor won an Oscar but you think about actor in the same movie deserved it more?
Well Tom Cruise wasn’t even nominated, even for a supporting role, for Rain Man but I think he had by far the harder part in that movie. He had to be the nasty self-serving asshole but at the same time not lose the audience while Dustin Hoffman got to do his stuff. People seem not to realize the story is about Charlie Babbit not Raymond.
As outstanding as Daniel Day-Lewis was in My Left Foot, I thought that Hugh O’Conor, who played the young Christie Browne, was even better.
And while Geoffrey Rush is a first-rate actor, he got his Oscar for a one-note performance in Shine. Noah Taylor, who played the young David Helfgott, had a much more demanding role.
But my biggest gripe? Al Pacino had a much bigger role than Marlon Brando did in The Godfather, and his performance MADE that movie. It made no sense that Pacino was nominated as a Supporting Actor (and didn’t even win).
I agree. Pacino should have won the Best Actor award. And James Caan should have won the Best Supporting Actor award.
Frances McD deserved and got Best Actress/Lead Role.
Bill Macy deserved Best Actor/Lead Role. I think it was outrageous that he was nominated for Supporting Actor, and equally outrageous that he didn’t win.
I agree that his performance was more deserving.
LA Confidential. Kim Bassinger got the award, but while she was good in her part, Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe & above all, Kevin Spacey were great in their roles.
I don’t know if John Travolta won an Oscar for Pulp Fiction but he’s the one who got the accolades. But it was Samuel L. Jackson who was the protagonist, changed, the crux of any plot. And he did it real as shit.
The travesty is that the only Oscar won for Pulp Fiction (though it was nominated for seven) was for the screenplay. Travolta was nominated for best actor, and Jackson for best supporting, but neither won. Still, neither can really complain. Pulp Fiction revived Travolta’s sagging career, and made Jackson’s. He has been a major star ever since.
maplekiwi writes:
> LA Confidential. Kim Bassinger got the award, but while she was good in her
> part, Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe & above all, Kevin Spacey were great in their
> roles.
Actually, I think that the best performance was by James Cromwell, who is the one I think should have won Best Supporting Actor.
I think that Billy Bob Thornton should have won an Oscar rather than Halle Berry in Monster’s Ball, although she was quite good too.
Toby Jones’ Capote was far superior to Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s. and last year his Hitchcock was much better than Anthony Hopkins’.
Russ Tamblyn instead of George Chakiris for Supporting Actor in West Side Story.
Frederic March and Harold Russell both won Oscars for The Best Years of Our Lives, but of the three returning servicemen, Dana Andrews has the toughest part and the best performance.
Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed won for playing against type in From Here to Eternity but that movie belongs to Montgomery Clift.
Anthony Quinn is fun as Gaugin in Lust for Life, but it’s almost a glorified cameo. Kirk Douglas never won a competitive Oscar and is searing in the film, as Van Gogh.
Michael V. Gazzo, Lee Strasberg and especially Robert DeNiro give terrific (nominated) performances in The Godfather, Part II, but that movie is owned by John Cazale, the true supporting anchor of that film.
Ruth Gordon is garish fun in Rosemary’s Baby but Mia Farrow (never nominated) is haunting in that film and makes it as powerful as it continues to be.
Ellen Burstyn would go on to win an Oscar a few years later, but her part and performance is more nuanced than the winner Cloris Leachman in The Last Picture Show.
Jessica Lange is a cheat as supporting actress for an obviously lead part in Tootsie, and co-nominee Teri Garr is far funnier (and wiser) in the long run, too.
I disagree about Basinger (IMO she was as awful as always, the Oscar nomination and win being a bad joke), but agree about Pearce, Crowe, and Spacey.
And Cromwell. I would have a hard time deciding which of the four should have gotten the gold.
As long as I’m ranting:
Paper Moon.
Shouldn’t have: Tatum O’Neal
Should have: Madeline Kahn
Possibly should have: Peter Bogdanovich
I thought Ingrid Bergman was atrocious in “Murder on the Orient Express”. Not sure if the other women such as Vanessa Redgrave or Wendy Hiller should have won it. But the academy probably wanted to apologize for what happened to her in the 50s.
How about wrong director? William Wyler won for “Ben Hur” but the famous chariot race was by second unit director Andrew Mertens.
Yeah, he was nominated but lost. It was the performance of the year for sure. Apparently, only Christoph Waltz can win for Tarantino movies.
Oh, and Sam Jackson lost to Martin Landau for Ed Wood. That was a career Oscar more than a “actual movie” Oscar.
I saw “Silver Linings Playbook” only recently, and was amazed to look it up and see that Jennifer Lawrence had won Best Actress. While watching the film I thought she was a little wooden, while Bradley Cooper impressed me with his ability to capture the ups and downs of bipolar disorder. He deserved an Oscar far more than she did.
I think she was deeply miscast in that movie. Then again, I also think it was massively overrated.
It’s nearly a cliché - Whoopee Goldberg in The Color Purple.
The whole film was stiffed.
ETA: To expand. Oprah’s character was engaging and well done but I think Whoopee should have gotten Best Actress.
But no other actor in that film won an Oscar.
The idea in this thread is movies where one actor DID win an Oscar, but you feel a different actor in the same film should have won an Oscar instead.
Nonsense. Martin Landau may have been a Hollywood veteran, but he was brilliant as Bela Lugosi and richly deserved it. In fact, all the critics groups that year thought so, too–and they typically don’t award “career” sympathies the way the industry does.