Best Actor 1981: Results

5. Warren Beatty in Reds- Warren Beatty fails ever to do anything with John Reed, and never was believable for me. His performance is always underwhelming and never gets inside of his character.

4. Paul Newman in Absence of Malice- Newman is surprisingly dull in this movie. He just really seems to be going through the motions for the entire film save one scene which he is really good, but that is the only scene where he is not dull.

3. Burt Lancaster in Atlantic City- Lancaster gives a good energetic performance that works fairly well, unfortunately I felt his character a tad simple, and the films simply too poor for him to really excel.

2. Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond- Henry Fonda gives an incredibly memorable, humorous, and poignant performance that is worthy of being his final film performance.

1. Dudley Moore in Arthur-This was really a close one for me between Fonda, and Moore. I thought both excelled equally in their roles. Moore is terrific, he is charming, incredibly funny, and still finds time to bring a certain poignancy to the role. Overall simply a great performance.

Deserving Performances:Ben Cross in Chariots of Fire
Ian Charleson in Chariots of Fire

Best Actor 1981: Warren Beatty in Reds

Warren Beatty received his third acting Oscar nomination for portraying John Reed in Reds.

Reds is an extremely overrated film in my book. It is overly long prodding, and since it chooses to take it rather romantic view of its subject, it fails to get into the actual depth of it which would probably be a more interesting film for me anyways.

Warren Beatty is an actor I never find myself able to believe. He always seems to want to play himself rather than character he is playing. That seems to be no different here as John Reed, a troubled writer who is devoted to the communist cause. This is particularly troublesome for this role because it really seems that he needed to be the driving force of the film. The man you could really identify with and follow throughout all his trials and troubles, or he could have been a man who is completely fascinating and really gets under the skin of John Reed. Unfortunately Beatty does not do either of these.

It is not that his emotions are exactly wrong, he has technically the correct emotional reactions in scenes. All the emotions though in this performance seem to be solely on the surface. Beatty never really shows anything past Beatty himself. He never seems to shed his own image to take on the image of John Reed. This on the surface is not  exactly an incorrect performance, but it fails in anyway beyond that.There is certainly nothing special about it, his chemistry with Keaton is nothing astounding, nor is his passion for Reed's cause. Beatty always seems to be acting the part for me, and simply is never that convincing because of this.  Beatty is an actor who can be good very good in fact but he has to willing to really get inside the character which he does not do in this performance.

Best Actor 1981

And the Nominees Were:

Dudley Moore in Arthur

Warren Beatty in Reds

Henry Fonda in On Golden Pond

Paul Newman in Absence of Malice 

Burt Lancaster in Atlantic City

Who do you pick and predict?

Best Actor 1991: Results

5. Warren Beatty in Bugsy- Simply a bad performance which fails at its core. He never finds the right tone for Bugsy, and never seems to be authentic, and many times comes off unintentionally funny in his worst scenes.

4. Nick Nolte in The Prince of Tides- Nolte has a few scenes where his is okay, they are his quiet confession scenes, but everything else he does either comes off as completely false or just weird. He always plays his character artificially and never really gets down to the heart of him.

3. Robert De Niro in Cape Fear. De Niro has some good scenes early on despite his terrible accent, but as the film goes on he simply hams it up way too much.

2. Robin Williams in The Fisher King- Robin Williams at first over plays the role, and cannot stay in character, but as he goes on he gets a bit better in the crazy scenes, and he actually is fairly effective in his quiet scenes.

1. Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs- This ought to be a surprise to no one, but Hopkins by far gave the best lead actor performance nominated this year and he can even be argued as not a lead. Still Hopkins is brilliant in every minute of his relatively short performance. He creates a fascinating, memorable, and truly effective character from Hannibal Lecter. Every scene he handles with perfection, never going over the top, or even seeming calculated since all of his motions are brilliant.

Deserving Performances:
John Turturro in Barton Fink

Best Actor 1991: Warren Beatty in Bugsy

Warren Beatty received his fourth acting Oscar nomination for portraying Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel in Bugsy.

I will admit to being a sucker for fact based period pieces, but even that fact cannot save this film for me. It is simply poorly directed in many ways, its story seems poorly focused at times,and its tonal shifts are terrible.

Warren Beatty is an almost always an actor for me who does not seem to ever get that deep into his roles and almost always seems to rely on his charisma. This is particularly ineffective in this performance because he is portraying a real person, and he simply never ever seems to be Bugsy Malone. I never once for a moment believed he was the really person at all. There were times that I believed he was Clyde in Bonnie and Clyde but not here at all. He just seems wrong for the part, and clearly is because he never personifies the real man, which is a huge problem, but unfortunately not the biggest problem with this performance.

Warren Beatty though has even bigger problems because he does not seem to know how to even start to portray Bugsy. I do not know what he was going for in this performance. Some of the time it seemed he wanted to be the real deal gangster but I felt at other times he wanted to almost parody the gangster style character. That does not work either but it seems that he wants to almost mock the over the top personality of someone like Siegel. I am not sure if he was but it comes off as that way, and really just makes for a very poor performance. He also has his bizarre "romance" scenes with Annette Bening. The movie did not seem to know what to do precisely with their performance, and neither do Beatty and Bening. It simply is another factor that does not work.

Finally the work part of his performance is his scenes where he is suppose to show the darker, and more sensitive side of Bugsy. When Beatty goes for these scenes he seems to shoot high and miss completely. He never is convincing at all in these sides, and just comes off as weird at times. He at times gets unintentionally funny in scenes where he is suppose to be menacing. Nothing really works in this performance, it just starts out poorly, and goes no where from there. This is a performance that fails from its simplest technique. Beatty does not give a good performance, I am sure some of what made it so bad came from the film being so strange in its tone, but Beatty is never better than the film itself.

Best Actor 1991

And the Nominees Were:

Robert De Niro in Cape Fear

Warren Beatty in Bugsy

Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs

Robin Williams in The Fisher King

Nick Nolte in The Prince of Tides

Here is the special Halloween edition of Best Actor, since there is not anything scarier than Bugsy, The Fisher King, and the Prince of Tides.