Showing posts with label Peter O'Toole. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peter O'Toole. Show all posts

Best Actor 1980: Results

5. Jack Lemmon in Tribute- Lemmon's whole performance seems like Oscar baiting at its worst. It is hammy all the way, which might be okay if it worked, but it does not.
4. Peter O'Toole in The Stunt Man- I actually upped O'Toole rating because I thought about my main criticism, that I wanted more of him, that is hardly a criticism. His performance is pretty much a supporting, and a very funny and effective one as a crazed director.
3. Robert Duvall in The Great Santini- I genuinely liked Duvall portrait of the abusive Bull Meechum. He created an interesting family dynamic through his performance, and never turned his character into a one dimensional figure which it easily could have been.
2. John Hurt in The Elephant Man- I can easily see the philosophy behind giving Hurt the win here. He certainly is by far the most pleasant of the characters here, which is funny since it shows how low the other characters are since Merrick is such a nice man despite being given such a hindering deformity. Also Hurt's performance is brilliant in how much emotion he conveys through only his eyes and his voice, and also how honestly human he is as John Merrick.
1. Robert De Niro in Raging Bull- De Niro performance is quite a remarkable achievement. He creates a fascinating complex portrait of a man who at heart is simple thug. He takes this thug though a realizes a complete human being, who is made by De Niro to be both frighteningly effective in his exterior anger and jealousy, and subtly honest in Lamotta's hidden sensitivity and vulnerability. Simply a great performance.
Deserving Performances:
Donald Sutherland in Ordinary People

Best Actor 1980: Peter O'Toole in The Stunt Man

Peter O'Toole received his sixth Oscar nomination for portraying film director Eli Cross in The Stunt Man.

The Stunt Man is a story of a man who hides from the police acting as the stunt man to a manipulative domineering director. The film is certainly an interesting effort as well as entertaining at times, but it sort of loses its way in the second half.

It is rather interesting that Timothy Hutton was nominated and won for his clearly leading role in the Supporting role for Ordinary People, yet Peter O'Toole here is really a supporting performance, although a domineering supporting performance. O'Toole's character knows the secret of the stunt man who is hiding from the police, and chooses to exploit him just as he exploits and manipulates the rest of his cast and crew.

I really enjoyed O'Toole performance at first with the all knowing director, who always wants to get his shot, anyway he can get his shot. O'Toole really does command every moment with his domineering presence. He is very enjoyable in fact as he acts gleefully, and practically insanely around the movie set. O 'Toole always has the right demeanor, of brilliant but insane ambition.

O'Toole performance is also quite amusing early on, and certainly has the right amount of fun as well with his performance. I particularly like one moment when his crew is talking about how the film will end up being cut in the end by the studio. Eli Cross though says he knows they will not cut his film, or else he will kill him. O'Toole delivers this line with such insane glee, that is both hilarious and brilliant.

Unfortunately the performance takes a back seat to the rest of the film, and he only comes in and out, since it is a supporting performance. His scenes are the best but they are too few and far between to really allow his character to grow. His character also takes a down turn where the film decides to show him as the villain of the film which I think was a mistake.

O'Toole is still entirely great as Cross becomes even more devious, and demented, but the film leaves him little to do besides this. I just really preferred when he was certainly devious and demented, but in an insane director sort of way rather than in an evil director sort of way. Still O'Toole performance is an effective, sometimes amusing supporting performance, that is the best part of this film.

Best Actor 1980

And the Nominees Were:

Peter O'Toole in The Stunt Man

Robert Duvall in The Great Santini

Robert De Niro in Raging Bull

John Hurt in The Elephant Man

Jack Lemmon in Tribute

Best Actor 1982: Results

5. Jack Lemmon in Missing- Lemmon has a few moments of strong emotional impact, but the script calls for very little of him most of the time. Also I felt there was a lack in a natural flow in his performance.
4. Peter O'Toole in My Favorite Year- Peter O'Toole is good, and charming as a washed up movie star. His performance is not incredible but it is a nice funny and entertaining performance by O'Toole.
3. Ben Kingsley in Gandhi- Kingsley is quite good in the challenging role of Gandhi. He always seems completely authentic as Gandhi, in every scene and at every age. I never once doubted him as Gandhi, which is a spectacular achievement of Kingsley's.
2. Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie- An incredibly enjoyable performance by Hoffman here. He makes sure every joke hits home with his perfect delivery, and timing. He makes the film also believable despite playing a man playing woman. Many scenes could have come off as just odd, by Hoffman makes them humorous, and also adds even more with the oddly poignant transformation caused by being a woman for awhile. 
1. Paul Newman in The Verdict- Newman gives a full portrait of a man from being tired and broken down, but slowly growing toward a redemption of sorts. I personally finds this performance to be an outstanding and powerful performance which is incredibly true and authentic. A heartbreaking performance which may not have the technical challenges of Kingsley and Hoffman's characters, but Newman is the who made Galvin a truly empathetic man to me which is something a performance rarely does for me, but this one did completely.
Deserving Performances:
I decided to change other deserving performances since rewriting the performances in my ranking in my nominees is rather redundant. For the deserving performances this year I cannot think of any but I am open to suggestions.

Best Actor 1982: Peter O'Toole in My Favorite Year

Peter O'Toole received his seventh Oscar nomination for portraying washed up movie star Alan Swann in My Favorite Year.
My Favorite Year is unfortunately not that funny of a comedy the lead that is not O'Toole gets rather annoying, but there still is O'Toole to make the film enjoyable enough.

Peter O'Toole plays Alan Swann a Erroll Flynn esque movie star who is past his prime and allows his vices to get the best of him quite easily. Peter O'Toole as soon he walks on seem right for the part of Swann. He has the right cocky swagger even when he drunk, the right swagger of a over the top movie star. I like the fashion in which he played Swann as a drunk which is colorful since it is a comedy, but I do not think he over did it. I think his drunken mannerisms worked well, and he really did derive a good amount of humor from Swann's drunkenness.

Alan Swann when he is not drunk is looking for women. O'Toole really walks a careful line with Swann here, because Swann could very easily of been a completely obnoxious character, or seemed a little too slimy. But under O'Toole care Swann comes off a charming even if slimy man that simply is interesting to and rather entertaining to watch. I think he is entertaining to watch in just about every scene he tries to be so, the only problem is the film fails to focus on him enough, and spends a little too much time perhaps with the writer who looks after him played rather impressively by Mark Lynn-Baker, since O'Toole really is the film.

Swann has more than simply his entertaining antics though and has a little more to his character. A lack of a relationship with an estranged daughter that he finds trouble confronting. O'Toole adds the right poignancy to these quiet moments of Swann's without making these scenes seem disconnected with his scenes of antics. I will say the majority of his performance are his antics which are most entertaining at the end when he gets stage fright. O'Toole shows Swann anxiety with a nice amount of humor and delivers the "I'm not and actor, I'm a movie star line" as well as possible. He rounds out his performance with showing the swashbuckler actor part of Swann rather comically at the end, making O'Toole performance a nice comedic turn even if not amazing by any standards. 

Best Actor 1982

And the Nominees Were:

Peter O'Toole in My Favorite Year

Paul Newman in The Verdict

Ben Kingsley in Gandhi 

Jack Lemmon in Missing

Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie

Best Actor 1962: Results

5. Burt Lancaster in Birdman of Alcatraz- Burt Lancaster does his best despite Robert Stroud being an incredibly oddly written character. Lancaster does succeed as much as he can with his material, and does show his charisma and star quality almost throughout the film.
4. Marcello Mastroianni in Divorce Italian Style- Mastroianni is downright hilarious, and creates a brilliant performance of deadpan brilliance. His performance is simple at times by always appropriately so, and always to maximize the hilarity of his performance.
3. Gregory Peck in To Kill A Mockingbird- Gregory Peck gives an especially effective and just about perfect performance as Atticus Finch. He is especially brilliant in his creation of Atticus which is absolutely magnificent. He also adds the right heart in his scenes with the children, and the right power and passion especially in his final speech at the trial.
2. Jack Lemmon in Days of Wine and Roses- Lemmon gives a brilliant and searing performance. Lemmon excels in all of his scenes, first carefully suggesting his alcoholism early on, but later having truly chilling moments involving his most troubled moments of alcoholism. A truly brilliant performance that is sometimes hard to watch simply because he is so good.
1. Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia- Peter O'Toole gives a performance of true greatness as Lawrence. He not only holds interest throughout his long running film, but he also shows an incredible unique portrait of a fascinating man. His transition of all forms are brilliantly shown, and he gives a performance of utter brilliance. O'Toole is absolutely perfect in every moment of his incredible performance, that I think is one of the greatest, and certainly O'Toole's best.

Deserving Performances:
James Mason in Lolita

Best Actor 1962: Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia

Peter O'Toole received his first Oscar nomination for portraying T.E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia.

Lawrence of Arabia is simply a fantastic film, a true epic, that is both a spectacular sight to behold, but also is brilliantly written, showing the interesting relationships between nations, and creating incredibly complex and memorable characters. On an interesting Oscar related side note this film has  not only Peter O'Toole who has the most unsuccessful Best Actor Nominations but also Claude Rains and Arthur Kennedy who share the most unsuccessful supporting actor Oscar nominations.   

Peter O'Toole seemed to be tailor made to play Lawrence, if it was not for their height difference I would say O'Toole is almost a dead ringer for the real Lawrence in this film. Like Gregory Peck from this year, O'Toole from the creation of the part just seems perfect for the part. I never for a moment question him as Lawrence, and this is something that is very good for his performance. He never needs to try to convince me he is Lawrence and merely is this saves time for O'Toole in a way, and adds no unneeded distractions in his performance such as a voice or mannerisms. Again like Gregory Peck seemed to be the only person who could be Atticus Finch, and only Peter O'Toole could really be T.E. Lawrence, which is a true achievement since unlike Atticus Finch, Lawrence was a real person.

Peter O'Toole also does something that seems rather simple in this part, but is essential to the success of the film. That is he is always completely watchable for the entire length of this very long film. His performance always remains interesting throughout the film, never loses his charisma or energy for a moment. This is very much needed for a long epic such as this, since O'Toole stays watchable he and the film never become at all boring, or tiresome, and the film stays interesting for its whole running time. O'Toole stays watchable therefore he stays as a character you can follow throughout this gigantic epic in a very similar way one could follow Vivien Leigh through Gone With The Wind, which is a true achievement. 

Peter O'Toole fulfills the role of a lead in an epic completely but his role is not that of a simple hero in anyway. O'Toole shows the various aspects of Lawrence brilliantly despite how strange and complicated some aspects of the character can be. O'Toole is particularly effective in showing Lawrence and his transformations throughout the film which are many and many different complications. One of his transformation is his original position of a fairly unassuming solider, who follows his orders and goes deep into the desert. He is a rather plain spoken man who wishes to learn and O'Toole early shows the proper earnestness and understanding of Lawrence as he finds out more about the Arab people. He shows both a great interest in their ways but later and distaste when his original guide is killed simply because the guide drank from the wrong water well. O'Toole mixes Lawrence feeling well, it seems fairly simple at times, but O'Toole is also the viewers guide into this life and O'Toole excels in this spectacularly well.

Lawrence though soon gains more knowledge of the Arabs, and transitions from an outsider to not one of them but something different. He becomes of Arabia but not an Arab in a odd but fascinating fashion. He gains their trust through his ability, and his connection with them. O'Toole here creates another presence that is larger than life. His gain in confidence and control is shown to have always been there by O'Toole and something that finally needed a chance to be realized. He becomes a hero of sorts to the Arabs, because of his command and charisma. It is certainly a challenge for O'Toole to have the right charisma and power in his performance but he does. I never questioned his ability to calm and lead the people who were incredibly energetic, and very much unsubdued. O'Toole is able to prove this great ability of Lawrence without absolutely no faults which is simply incredible.

O'Toole is fascinating also in showing an aspect of Lawrence that the film did not even need to draw attention but it does, and adds greatly to the character of Lawrence. This is the idea of Lawrence's masochism at first that slowly turns into sadism. The film does not draw that much attention to the film but it is shown with incredibly subtlety by O'Toole, the film overtly mentions briefly but the transition is all up tot O'Toole. Early on he shows his ability to hold a match for long, and his slight strange pleasure he clearly shows in his face when he blows out his match.

He changes over the film to sadism, a sadism that grows within in Lawrence, which O'Toole shows carefully and all too effectively. His pleasure he shows when he executes a friend of his is chilling because O'Toole shows it with complete naturalism. His love of killing grows and O'Toole is coldly realistic despite this oddity of Lawrence especially in his scene where he tells the General that he enjoyed killing. It is truly fascinating because O'Toole does not turn him into a psychopath but rather a man who simply gets an odd pleasure from killing which seems far more chilling than if he was just a psychopath. O'Toole is particularly haunting in his revenge scene where the purest brutality of Lawrence comes out when he calls for no prisoners. A that whole sequence O'Toole is truly freighting showing how Lawrence has changed and how his enjoyment of causing pain had grown to such a point.

O'Toole still has one last point of his performance which is the most compelling and essential. That is Lawrence's growing madness of sorts. Not the traditional madness of going insane or his sadism, but his growth of his belief that he is some sort of savior to the Arab people. O'Toole brilliantly suggests this early by Lawrence's confidence in his plans and his abilities. He brilliantly leads this to his own view of himself growing larger and larger in his eyes. He is especially strong because Lawrence starts fairly unsure at the first moment. He grows though but not completely after an early victory. But he shows both a confidence and fear when he announces his victory to his command. He shows that Lawrence seems partially afraid and partially astounded by what he has done and what he is becoming. Lawrence even more so develops his own image of being this odd savior to these people. O'Toole excels in showing Lawrence's larger than life dementia of sorts, something that seems completely odd and impossible, but isn't because O'Toole makes it so. He becomes a man of complete power and control, over these people, a man who believes many serve his cause simply because he is the one in charge. This aspect of his performance is awe inspiring to behold, and simple magnificent.

Here is a performance that is simply perfect, yet all too incredible because Lawrence is a complex character, one of the most complex in a film. O'Toole finds the right tone, the right madness, and the right reality for every aspect of Lawrence's psyche. O'Toole performance is one that I could write and write about because there is simply so much to it. Every single scene O'Toole shows such magnificence in his performance, that only the greatest of performances can have. O'Toole never seems false or strange but real, and makes Lawrence completely as Lawrence should be. O'Toole's performance has so much to it that I could not really even described completely everything there is to his performance. I did not even mention many of his incredible individual scenes showing Lawrence's history with Ali (Omar Sharif),or spectacular single scenes such as when he fakes the proper British mannerisms in an odd attempt to fit in with the world where he is not more than a man. This is performance that I find is something that is truly awesome to behold. O'Toole performance is one that I believe should be considered even more legendary than it is, it is that great and perfect in my opinion.

Best Actor 1962

And the Nominees Were:

Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia

Jack Lemmon in Days of Wine and Roses

Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird

Marcello Mastroianni in Divorce, Italian Style

Burt Lancaster in Birdman of Alcatraz  

Who do you predict, who do you pick?

Best Actor 2006: Results

5. Will Smith  in The Pursuit of Happyness- Smith simply is not very good here, he simply never is authentic as the person he is suppose to be playing, he always stays as just Will Smith, rather than Chris Gardner.
4. Peter O'Toole in Venus- Peter O'Toole is very strong showing the life, and lust of a washed up actor. The film is not particularly good, but O'Toole always stands out well despite this.
3. Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson- Gosling gives a brilliant understated performance, as a drug addict teacher. He never overplays single scene, and stays subtle almost throughout, except a few key scenes where he stands out incredibly well.
2. Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond- DiCaprio despite some weakness of the film's script, is incredibly strong here, in both a sense of creating interesting character and dealing with the changes of the character very well, and giving a strong leading man performance, which few actors could do as well.
1. Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland- Forest Whitaker is absolutely brilliant in every single scene in his film. He shows a man who is both absolutely insane, but also incredibly charismatic. It is an incredible challenge, and Whitaker achieves completely despite every challenge he must accomplish.
Deserving Performances:Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed
James McAvoy in The Last King of Scotland
Daniel Craig in Casino Royale

Best Actor 2006: Peter O'Toole in Venus

Peter O'Toole received his eight Oscar nomination for portraying Maurice in Venus.

Venus is not a particularly good film, it is directed quite poorly, and the relationship between the main characters comes off as far too creepy on the old man's side, and cruel and the young woman's side. A relationship like this could possibly work if was written or done very well, but that simply is not the case here.

Peter O'Toole plays an actor here, a rather washed up an tired actor suffering from colon cancer, and his old age. In the opening of the film O'Toole plays the washed up actor as a man basically drifting through his old age, along with his other aged actor friends. He is reduced to basically taking roles as corpses, talking about various depressing topic with his friends, and occasionally visiting with his estranged wife (Vanessa Redgrave). Peter O'Toole is very strong in showing this weary man, who is not completely dead but obviously very tired. O'Toole is a perfect choice for the role, utilizing his own image, to add to Maurice. He really just is Maurice from the get go, completely believable as a more obscure actor. He could have made Maurice a completely depressed individual and it could have been a little too heavy, but O'Toole does show it in the right amount, but always giving a old glimpse of the character and his own original charm of his youth.

The character gets a bit of a strange new lease on his life when he meets the niece (Jodie Whittaker) of his friend(Leslie Phillips). He instantly becomes very attracted to the young woman, despite her being very hostile to him from the start. O'Toole really is incredibly good here, in his attempt to woo the young woman despite his old age. He really is fascinating in the way O'Toole shows the old man using all of his potential charm in his attempts with her. He recites every seeming intelligent in his head, and quote he knows, and O'Toole properly displays the true lust the old man feels, and how he tries to be even more than he is. O'Toole though unfortunately is hindered a bit by the script, and by his co-star Whittaker. The script leaves their relationship far too artificial, and based mostly on physical favors. Whittaker does not help since she makes her part a complete prude, which makes it so the only feasible reason he likes her is her body. She also for most of the film only suggests that she is not even more creeped out by him is the fact that he does favors for him, but even once when she does not get exactly what she wanted she attacks him.

O'Toole despite these problems still stays very strong. He still makes Maurice interesting to follow, even if the relationship he seeks is rather shallow due to the script. O'Toole conveys the old man's lust for his life, as his relationship grows, but also his remaining sorrow of sorts, very well with a real truth to his performance. He is particular effective in the end of his performance where the two characters finally meet at a little fuller of a relationship even though I felt that the change was rather forced, and not really earned. Still O'Toole shows the changes of his character, from his frustration with her near the end, then their final affection is well earned by O'Toole, and does make for as good of conclusion by himself, without help from the film itself. All in all O'Toole gives an effective performance, and if he had one his long deserved Oscar for it, I certainly would not have minded.

Best Actor 2006

And the Nominees Were:

Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond

Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson

Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland

Peter O'Toole in Venus

Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness

So who do you pick, or predict? The mercenary, the teacher who has some problems, the Dictator with very severe problems, the old Actor, or the man who goes from rags to riches.
 

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