Best Actor 1983: Results

5. Tom Conti in Reuben, Reuben- Conti's first scene is absolutely brilliant 5 material in my book, he has the perfect charm, and intelligence in that scene, he is also great in his last scene, but between these two scenes his performance becomes a bit redundant, and just not all that interesting.

4. Micheal Caine in Educating Rita- I like Caine's performance and he realistically portrays the tired, disinterested nature of the character. He just is not given enough to do though, and the very nature of the character forces him to be almost an entirely reactive character.

3. Albert Finney in The Dresser- This was a somewhat difficult choice to make, as Finney is very good in portraying his domineering, as well as very much vulnerable actor, extremely well. It is a very challenging role especially in the constant pain of Sir only alleviated briefly by his duties for the show. but Finney meets the challenge well. 

2. Tom Courtenay in The Dresser- Courtenay is flawed in a minor fashion, in that some of his physical movements seem planned, yet for me he still topped Finney because of the pure energy, and effectiveness of everything else he did in the role. He made the dresser a fascinating character, and made a lasting impression with his heartbreaking final speech showing how much Sir meant to Norman.

1. Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies- This was an extremely easy choice for me,  He never strikes a single false note with Mac Sledge, he is always completely on the mark, without every seeming to act, which is an outstanding achievement. This is a brilliant performance by Duvall, that never comprises for a cheap trick, but always stays true and honest to his character, creating one of the best performances of this kind or any kind.

Deserving Performances:
Christopher Walken in The Dead Zone

Best Actor 1983: Tom Conti in Reuben, Reuben

Tom Conti received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Gowan McGland in Reuben, Reuben.

Reuben, Reuben is not a particularly good, but not really an overly bad film about a famous drinking Scottish poet.

Tom Conti's performance is positioned a bit strangely to begin with. Firstly he is made up with his rather unique hair, as well as his unique, and than he is made up to look like a walking corpse. In his opening scene, which unfortunately for the film and his performance is his best scene where he is reading some of his poetry at a women's literary gathering. Conti makes his very unique look and manner work very well in this one scene, showing a slick charm of the poet, and his incredible ease in talking about his work and other literature as well as life.

Tom Conti's whole performance goes very much downhill from here, along with the film itself. He stops seeming like an actual poet and becomes much too much of a movie character poet. He starts living in a rural town and interacting with the various characters there, not quite colorful characters since it is a mostly dramatic film with small comedic elements, so they are not funny characters, but perhaps underwritten characters, played in an overdone manner.

The downturn of the film, and his performance create scene after seem of him being a colorful poet fellow who walks around the town, stealing tips from waiters, seducing women, and either befriending or making enemies with the local men of the town. Although I do think Conti is at all bad with being the always at least half drunk poet, but I do feel the film overuses  or wrongly uses his performance putting too much always in the forefront leading to his constant semi-comedic banter to become extremely tiresome fairly quickly.

Gowan though mostly uses his joking exterior to hide a deeply sad man on the inside. Well I know this anyways because well he does look like a corpse most of the time, and of course there is the cliched scene where after joking in public he goes into private and starts crying. Although Conti cries realistically technically his whole portrayal of the sadness of Gowan never really gets deep enough to be anything all that special. That is until his final scene where he thinks over his life quite effectively well that is until just before the end of the scene where he goes and becomes far too theatrical.

Overall this is a performance that shows some very strong moments, particularly in the opening scene and closing scene. Unfortunately in between is tiresome and repetitive. I did not say he was bad in the middle, but he most certainly could have been much better. His performance, besides the first scene, lacks the right charm, as well as the right power, except for in the last scene, to make an honestly compelling or effective performance.

Best Actor 1983

And the Nominees were:

Michael Caine in Educating Rita

Tom Conti in Reuben, Reuben

Robert Duvall in Tender Mercies

Albert Finney in The Dresser

Tom Courtenay in The Dresser