Just re-watched this movie. Susan Sarandon, IMHO, deserved her Oscar for the role of Helen Prejean. And I think that there’s NO WAY IN HELL that Nicholas Cage should have won for “Leaving Las Vegas.” He did a good job, sure. But watch the sequence from where Penn is taken from his cell to the gurney where he’s executed. Watch his face go from defiant to scared to regretting to lost without saying a word. Watch his body start trembling once he’s strapped down on the table, displaying a fear so deep that no one can POSSIBLY comprehend. The tears that form in his eyes brought tears to mine watching him. This was, without a doubt, one of the best acting performances I have ever seen.
I can’t. I agree 100% He was robbed. Few actors could have made such a hateful character so compelling. You didn’t feel sympathy for him, Penn’s too good to pull out the cheap shots. He does make you feel regret, as Sister Helen does, for his everlasting soul. I say that as an atheist, because Susan Sarandon did her job so well too.
He was also robbed of a win for Sweet and Lowdown (sorry Kevin and Russell), nominations for Bad Boys, The Falcon and the Snowman, At Close Range, Hurlyburly and probably some other performances I haven’t seen. What can you do? I hope he gets his due someday. No doubt someone will bring up his politics and use that to belittle his acting ability. It won’t work. He really is one of the best actors working today (unfortunate material, such as I Am Sam, which really wasn’t all that bad, aside).
I agree 100 percent as well. Sean Penn has been one of my favorite actors for a long time; he is really very gifted, but you don’t see him acting much as I think he’s concentrating on directing now. It makes no difference what his politics are, IMHO; he’s a fine actor, and he will hopefully get his due (an Academy Award) soon.
He’s a very good director too, so as moviegoers we’re doubly blessed to have his talents.
IMDB lists the following upcoming projects.
It’s All About Love with Claire Danes and Joaquin Phoenix. Sean plays a character named Marciello. It seems to be a small role, perhaps much like his small but potent (and woefully overlooked) role in Before Night Falls. Synopsis: It’s All About Love is the story of two lovers and their attempts to save their relationship in a near-future world on the brink of cosmic collapse. John, and world-famous ice skating star, Elena, are about to sign divorce papers when they realise that, in spite of everything happening around them, their love is worth fighting for. It’s All About Love is a fresh take on modern love and future life as two lovers struggle in a conspiracy of epic proportions. 21 Grams - also stars Benicio Del Toro, and Naomi Watts. Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, and written by Guillermo Arriaga, the director/writer team responsible for Amores perros. (No description available) Mystic River - directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential). Also stars Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney. Synopsis from Yahoo’s Upcoming Movies: Three childhood friends, Sean (Bacon), Dave (Robbins) and Jimmy (Penn) are reunited in Boston 25 years later when they become linked together in the murder investigation of Jimmy’s oldest daughter, Katie (Rossum). Sean is a police detective investigating the case (Fishburne plays his partner), while Dave is a man with psychological problems caused when he was kidnapped and sexually abused in 1975 when he was a child, who is now a possible suspect in Katie’s death. Jimmy, meanwhile, is a violent ex-con seeking to take justice and retribution into his own hands. (Linney plays Jimmy’s wife and Katie’s mother.)
There’s also You’ll Never Wiez in This Town Again which looks to be some sort of documentary by Pauly Shore(!) and Why Men Shouldn’t Marry, written and directed by Steve Bing, the guy who flaked out on Elizabeth Hurley.
Add me to the “I agree he was robbed” pile. I don’t think I’ll ever see a movie that will move me more than “Dead Man Walking.” I mean, I CAN’T be moved more than that.
“I Am Sam” merely proves that all anyone has to do to get an Oscar nomination is portray a retarded or handicapped person. Penn’s nomination for THAT piece of PC garbage was a travesty. As one movie cirtic I read put it, how can any film or person claim with a straight face that a person with the mental ability of an 8-year-old is as qualified to raise a child to adulthood as anyone else?
Notwithstanding that. Penn is one of the great American actors of his generation, and quite underrated. Anyone else seen his great work in “Carlito’s Way”?
I can tell you why: the Academy Awards are an enourmous circle-jerk of self-congratualtion, which gives out awards to movies based on politicking and studio influence, not artistic merit. The Oscars are a meaningless farce that amounts to nothing more than a bunch of free advertising for Hollywood dinosaurs. Why didn’t Sean Penn win the Oscar? Precisely because he deserved it. I learned on these very boards the best thing you can do about the Oscars. Ignore them. DNFTA.