Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1980: Results

5. Mark Hamill in The Big Red One- Hamill plays his character well and has stand out moments even within the vignette nature of the film. 

Best Scene: The Concentration Camp.

4. Harrison Ford in The Empire Strikes Back- Ford gives one of his best action hero performances making Han Solo the great hero he should be.

Best Scene: "I Know".

3. Leslie Nielsen in Airplane!- Nielsen gives an one note performance of utter comedic brilliance, being incredibly funny by playing his part as deadly serious as possible.

Best Scene: "I am serious and don't call me Shirley".

2. Bryan Brown in Breaker Morant- Brown gives an effective performance finding his own place in the film as the soldier whose rough exterior hides a deeper sadness.

Best Scene: Hancock writes his farewell letter to his wife.

1. Tsutomu Yamazaki in Kagemusha- Good Prediction Maciej. Well I've come to the conclusion that Tsutomu Yamazaki is the greatest actor to have a Wikipedia page with no more than three sentences. Once again he delivers an incredible supporting performance. He always finds a way to stand out even when he is in a group of actors. Yamazaki gives a great supporting performance that plays off of and supports Tatsuya Nakadai's lead performance beautifully.

Best Scene: Nobukado predicts the fate of Kagemusha.

Overall Rank:

1. Tsutomu Yamzaki in Kagemusha
2. Joe Pesci in Raging Bull
3. Peter O'Toole in The Stunt Man
4. Bryan Brown in Breaker Morant
5. Leslie Nielsen in Airplane!
6. Harrison Ford in The Empire Strikes Back
7. Mark Hamill in The Big Red One
8. Freddie Jones in The Elephant Man 
9. Robert Stack in Airplane!
10. Brian Blessed in Flash Gordon 
11. Bill Murray in Caddyshack
12. Lewis Fitz-Gerald in Breaker Morant
13. Jason Robards in Melvin and Howard
14. James Earl Jones in The Empire Strikes Back 
15. John Gielgud in The Elephant Man
16. Gene Hackman in Superman II
17. Lloyd Bridges in Airplane!
18. Levon Helm in Coal Miner's Daughter
19. Max von Sydow in Flash Gordon
20. Billy Dee Williams in The Empire Strikes Back
21. Timothy Dalton in Flash Gordon
22. Michael Caine in Dressed to Kill  
23. Henry Gibson in The Blues Brothers
24. Terence Stamp in Superman II
25. Scatman Crothers in The Shining
26. Cab Calloway in The Blues Brothers
27. Philip Stone in The Shining
28. Peter Graves in Airplane!
29. Melvyn Douglas in Changeling
30. John Candy in The Blues Brothers
31. Judd Hirsch in Ordinary People
32. Frank Vincent in Raging Bull
33. Allen Garfield in The Stunt Man
34. Robert Carradine in The Big Red One
35. Frank Oz in The Empire Strikes Back
36. Kenichi Hagiwara in Kagemusha 
37. Siegfried Rauch in The Big Red One
38. Topol in Flash Gordon
39. Chevy Chase in Caddyshack
40. Keith Gordon in Dressed to Kill 
41. Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack
42. Anthony Daniels in The Empire Strikes Back
43. Dennis Franz in Dressed to Kill
44. Danny Lloyd in The Shining 
45. Alex Rocco in The Stunt Man
46. Bob Balaban in Altered States
47. Stephen Stucker in Airplane!
48. Jinpachi Nezu in Kagemusha
49. Jackie Gleason in Smokey and the Bandit II
50. John Marley in Tribute
51. Ted Knight in Caddyshack
52. Jerry Reed in Smokey and the Bandit II
53. Charles Haid in Altered States
54. Robby Benson in Tribute

Next Year: 1952 lead

Read More

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1980: Harrison Ford in The Empire Strikes Back

Harrison Ford did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back.

I am not the biggest fan but I like the original films well enough. 

This film was made just one year before the first Indiana Jones film so Harrison Ford was just one year from pure super stardom. This film he remains still as almost the supporting lead of the film, the action hero who technically is the side character action hero. Where Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is the noble hero of the trilogy with his personal journey being to stay on the righteous moral path while fighting evil, Han Solo is the guy who would shoot first in much the same manner as Clint Eastwood's Man with no Name. 

Harrison Ford's style as an action hero is pretty much perfect for how Han Solo should be in the film. Han Solo is of course a bad ass who take his enemies down without a second thought, but there is a heart in the guy as well who has a conscience even he perhaps would rather not have one at times. Ford is perfect for this because in his best action performances there is usually a certain lighter humorous touch in his portrayal. In the best way though Ford never seems uninterested in what is going on around him as he is able to make a one liner well still making the situation serious in the same scene.

Ford's just great at being the cool action hero Solo should be and has some of his best moments here. Something that Ford does particularly well is making Solo very competant while sorta being incompetant at the same time. He is very good in showing the imperfect nature of the hero as well as really the effort he has to put in to accomplish his goals. Solo fails plenty of times and he uses these moments particularly well to make Han actually extremely likable but at the same time these moments of failure never compromises his awesomeness as a hero either.

That awesomeness really does come to the way that Ford makes him a man who will always try to do things his way which even includes the romance with Leia (Carrie Fisher). I think Ford's very best moment in the film was the one that was his own ad lib which is the classic last moment expression of love which Han's only response to Leia's "I love you" is "I Know". It is pretty much the summation of the attitude Ford's espouses throughout the film which is a true individualistic streak who always will do things his own way.

This is a very good performance by Harrison Ford and the best of his three performances in the Star Wars film. I would not put it quite as his very best performance in this sort of role, that would come when he became the undisputed lead of a film, but this is a great example of this type of performance from Ford nevertheless. He has just a natural likability as well as believability that succeeds in making a great character to follow through this large scale sci fi adventure, and Ford makes it fully understandable why Solo became such a popular character. 

Read More

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1980: Leslie Nielsen in Airplane!

Leslie Nielsen did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Dr. Barry Rumack in Airplane!.

Airplane! is of course the scatter shot comedy in which they throw a gag at you constantly, and unlike the ones they make today most of the gags are funny.

One of the keys to the success of Airplane is in its casting as well as the general nature of the performances. Many of the actors cast were serious actors before this film like Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, and of course Leslie Nielsen. Interestingly enough Bridges and particularly Nielsen became almost exclusively comedic actors after this point, and both of them appeared in several more spoof films. Of course the first of something often is the best, and this is certainly true of Nielsen's comedy career. Now as I said though it is not merely the casting which works, but what also makes the film is the way that these actors perform in this comedy.

Most of the actors give a dead serious performance who stay dead serious even when delivering completely absurd lines or completely absurd scenes. Nielsen does this the very best out of the whole cast, and I suppose it is pretty obvious how he managed to make a whole other career out of it. Now the key is that while it is never comedic, it also isn't dramatic so to speak. Nielsen tailor makes his performance it be extremely funny but not that he ever seems like he is playing for laughs even though he always is. The thing is you probably could not just take this and put it in another disaster serious movie there is an extra element that amplifies the comedy further than if he only played it straight.

What it is is that he does not seem to be taking just seriously, but so seriously that his life is depending on delivery every line with the utmost conviction. Nielsen never strives once from this code keeping that expression of the seasoned doctor who is adamant that the passengers made sick by fish must be gotten help very soon. Nielsen because of his steadfast manner is absolutely hilarious because it doesn't matter what the line is he is going to act like it is the most important thing possible. Because of this he makes every line very funny, as the immortal line "I am serious, and don't call be Shirley" could have just been a bad pun, but Nielsen makes it comedic gold because Nielsen acts like there isn't anything funny about it.

This is technically a one note performance, but that one note is a note of brilliance. Every time Nielsen is on screen he made me smile and elicited laughter. His consistently dead pan style makes every scene shine all the brighter, and despite technically doing the same thing throughout the film Nielsen never seems to become repetitive in the role. He stays endearing and his character is enduring throughout it all even manages to perhaps be even a little inspiring with his go out an with one for the Zipper speech. Its just an incredibly enjoyable performance that is the funniest part of this very funny film.

Read More

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1980: Mark Hamill in The Big Red One

Mark Hamill did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Pvt. Griff in The Big Red One.

The Big Red One is a pretty good World War II that focuses closely on just a small group of men as they make their way through various situations in the war.

Mark Hamill is an actor best know first and foremost as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars trilogy, then second for voicing the Joker in various animated forms, and thirdly if your making a joke Corvette Summer. Not much else gets mentioned about his filmography and to be truthful he mostly has voice work to his credit. He did manage to appear in this film as the technically rather cliche role of the one guy who doesn't want to murder in the role and looks poorly upon the other soldiers who treat life with so little care. I've seen this role before, but this film's depiction of the role is considerably better because we don't get constantly reminded of his character's nature over and over again unlike some other war films.

It is interesting to see Hamill in a purely dramatic role in a mostly serious war film like this, and actually he proves himself quite capable. Why this is a better portrayal of the usual sort of character, even though he follows a rather similar path, is that a lot is left unsaid. Hamill has his scenes where he outright says it, but even then he never forces the sentiment in an artificial fashion. He makes it a short passionate moment that is not at all sanctimonious as he keeps it entirely within his empathizing eyes never making any accusations at the other men. Hamill leaves it as something that is Griff's own personal issue that he must deal with and not something he pesters his comrades with.

The film does well though not to keep bringing this point up and actually leaves it to Hamill to express as they make their way through the war.  Out of the supporting men Hamill always manages to have the strongest presence and frankly brings the most power to various scenes in the film. This film technically speaking does not have a lot of connective tissue in the traditional sense instead we kind of jump from one circumstance to another during the war and therefore the actors have to kind of jump around quite a lot in terms of their character's particular feelings during a particular scene. Hamill is the best at this bringing whatever is needed in a particular scenes whether it is some light humor or more profound gravitas. 

The highlight of his performance is easily the required scene where the man who does not want to murder not only kills but does it in a way that particularly seems like murder. In this film it comes about when the men are liberating a concentration camp and Griff is going through the ovens finding the human remains until eventually he finds a German soldier hiding among them. Griff kills the man but then proceeds to continue shooting the man long after he is dead. Hamill manages to sell the scene because he builds up to it through the horror he expresses as Griff sees what is inside the ovens. As he kills the man Hamill is quite chilling actually as we see almost a pent up anger as well as almost an insanity in him as continues to shoot the man.

The film as well as Hamill kind of takes Griff's moment as just temporary insanity though and there really is not any follow up to the scene afterwards as he just kind of becomes the same old Griff. This is fine enough I suppose, but I do think it would have been more interesting to have seen Griff reflect on what he had done after the fact. Hamill's work here still is quite effective throughout adding to some of the strength of this film, and does manage to create one of the better character's of this kind even with the film structure which does not allow for a more traditional sort of character arc. It also is an indication that perhaps Hamill was capable of more in terms of live action then what he ended up doing through his relatively limited feature film career.

Read More

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1980: Tsutomu Yamazaki in Kagemusha

Tsutomu Yamazaki did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Takeda Nobukado in Kagemusha.

Akira Kurosawa is a director who has his own style and you know its a Kurosawa picture when your watching it. Although it is very easy to argue that most if not all his films are director's pictures, yet he is always able to allow at least one performance to truly shine something that cannot be said about many director's films. I mention this because Tsutomu Yamazaki's performance is something in this film that could have completely have been overshadowed by what Kurosawa is doing with the character. Yamazaki in some scenes is almost indistinguishable, in term of appearance, from Tatsuya Nakadai in his duel role. The reason though is that Yamazaki here plays the brother of the warlord that Nakadai plays Takeda Shingen who at times acted as the lord's double before the even better Kagemusha was found.

Yamazaki, as he did so well in High and Low as well, is able to work within Kurosawa's direction marvelously and never lets himself be enveloped by it. You could argue that Yamazaki role actually might not be the third most important role past those plays by Nakadai, but Yamazaki's portrayal of Nobukado takes his place as the best supporting character either way. Just like his role in High and Low Yamazaki manages rip right into scenes even when his character is at somewhat of distance. Like the opening scene which is a great showcase for both Yamazaki and Nakadai as Kagemusha, Shingen and Nobukado all together in a single scene. Yamazaki is almost a dead ringer in this scene yet he still establishes his own character right as Nakadai is establishing both of his.

Yamazaki finds the right character for Nobukado that has elements of Nakadai's Shingen but is his own man as well. Yamazaki as did Nikadai convey a certain cunning in his portrayal that feels entirely natural as well as makes it believable that this man would try such a ruse. Yamazaki in his smile suggests an assured intelligent fellow, but it is not exactly the same as Nakadai portrayed it. Yamazaki shows something different in Nubukado which is that there is not the weight of responsibility in this man. Yamazaki is lighter in his approach and portrays a different style in this man who is merely trying to help his brother become the ruler of  a country rather than trying to become the ruler of a country himself.

Yamazaki dispersal for awhile until the death of the warlord and the generals of Shingen gather to decide what must be done. The strength of Yamazaki performance really comes through in these scenes because the other actors ill define their characters and for the most part they just kind of fade together in their scenes. Yamazaki is the only one who stands out among them. Where the other men seem more angry than anything else as they are trying Kagemusha to take up the role of Shingen, Yamazaki though brings much more weight through his more somber approach. Although it is not said through his quiet passion and underlying sadness Yamazaki conveys the idea that without the Kagemusha they will lose everything that his brother fighting for making his death the end of the clan.

Honestly without the depth of feeling that Yamazaki gives the death you would almost think his death was meaningless. Yamazaki brings the point home though and as well makes it far more believable that Kagemusha would actually take on the duty. After Kagemusha accepts to pretend to be the lord Nobukado becomes basically his mentor as he tries to teach him the ways of the lord as well as keep him in line at the same time. Yamazaki is great in his scenes with Nakadai as he acts the part of the teacher with Nobukado telling Kagemusha everything he can so he can perform the task. Yamazaki importantly as he does this in a most forceful fashion also has a bit of a nostalgia in his delivery and again he properly shows that the loss of the lord certainly means something particularly to Nobukado.

Yamazaki as with his earlier work makes the most of even the slightest of motions and even something as simply as looking at one of the lord's old rooms can be something special. It would be simple enough just to show the room off quickly and to the point. Yamazaki is still relatively fast about it but he stops for a moment and looks at the room reflecting on the past. Yamazaki does not shed a tear in his portrayal but just his physical manner in this slight action does portray the heartbreak in Nobukado from the death of his brother. There is another element as he tells the trade and that is Nobukado is also thinking about when he was the lord's double. In just a short speech Yamazaki suggests Nobukado's own difficultly with the task as well as indicates some of the problems Kagemusha will face.

Not all is serious though and he actually has some great comedic moments in his performance in the scenes where Nobukado is keeping Kagemusha in check. The two have some terrific chemistry together as they trade various stares. Yamazaki is fantastic in his reactions whether it is enjoying seeing the man he trained perform, or somewhat taken aback when Kagemusha makes an unusual move. One of my favorite particular scenes is when Kagemusha meets Shingen's mistresses and makes a joke saying he is not the real lord. Yamazaki is very amusing as he starts with an intense expression at Kagemusha for risking the ruse, but then changes it into a face of distinct pleasure as he punishes him by denying Kagemusha both of the lord's mistresses. 

Yamazaki's performance is a perfect supporting performance and just like the last time I reviewed him he seems to be the go to man for making the most out of very little. Nobukado ceratinly could have been very little and Nakadai's work could have easily been the only performance that stood out. Yamazaki again refuses to be forgotten even when he is in the background and gives a great performance that complements and amplifies Nakadai's performance. He consistently adds more to Nakadai's work because he is always there showing a former double empathizing with the new one. His last scene is particularly strong as Nobukado almost mourns Kagemusha as he knows what his fate will be. Yamazaki's delivery is powerful in the bleakness he creates and once again makes that connection that Nobukado feels with Kagemusha's plight come to fruition.

Read More

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1980: Bryan Brown in Breaker Morant

Bryan Brown did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite winning the AFI award, for portraying Lt. Peter Hancock in Breaker Morant.

Bryan Brown plays one of the three men on trail for murder during the Boer war. Each of the three men fit into a certain category with Breaker Morant (Edward Woodward) being one without regrets for his actions and seeing it as being part of the harsh life soldier as well as always keeping the manner of a good soldier. The youngest is Witton (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) who regrets the killing as well as regrets having become a soldier in the first place. This leave Hancock who comes off as the least savory of the men for a variety of reasons. Hancock is a man who does not know how to be quiet and is the loudest of the men particularly when they sit in the courtroom.

Hancock is the brash one and Brown rightfully gives a Brash performance particularly in the courtroom scenes. Although Jack Thompson as their defense gets the big speeches Brown has a great deal of quick one liners. Hancock early during the trial does not hold back and will quickly try to shoot down lies. Brown is very good in these moments because he does not do this as a righteous man in any way. Brown instead does it like a man trying to shoot someone down in a bar he does it crudely and in a brash manner. Brown has him keep back ever so slightly as he still is a trained soldier though finding the right style for a man who is a soldier, but the type who will forget that without too much provocation.

Outside of the courtroom Hancock is just as brash and his attitude differs from the somber Witton and the steadfast Morant. Brown plays Hancock as probably the most angry in their circumstance. When it comes to him and the killing there is not the duty expressed in Morant or the regret in Witton. Hancock is left as a man with a dog eat dog attitude, since the Boer killed many of their men and tried to kill them he does not have any regrets about what he did. Brown portrays pretty stone cold in just a sentiment filled with exasperation and hatred toward the enemy. Brown properly makes Hancock a man who is able with what he did because of his experiences that he went through.

Like Morant we do get little glimpses of Hancock's personal life which Brown handles quite effectively. Again Brown is rather blunt in just showing how harsh Hancock's life really was. There is one quick flashback to his family and we only get a hint of this relationship. Brown portrays it as a rather sad relationship. There is perhaps a love there but not in a way that seems with much warmth if any. Brown is very subtle as he suggests a considerable sadness is in this man's life. We do not learn what it all is but Brown suggests it beautifully. Brown shows the sadness as really the true man which lies beneath his anger and discontent he expresses otherwise.

Bryan Brown's performance is a strong facet of this film and fills his place as the soldier who was willing to murder as his experience in the war never suggested that he should do anything else. I will say out of the three soldiers on trial in the film Edward Woodward did hold my attention the most and I found his personal story to be the most powerful. Bryan Brown and to a similar extent Lewis Fitz-Gerald still give two interesting and moving portrayals on their own because each of them find what exactly motivates each of the soldiers and both what exactly brought them together to this trial but as well what exactly separates them in their attitudes. Brown might not be the best part of the film but he is one of the reasons why this is a great film.

Read More

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1980

And the Nominees Were:

Tsutomu Yamazaki in Kagemusha

Leslie Nielsen in Airplane

Bryan Brown in Breaker Morant

Harrison Ford in The Empire Strikes Back

Mark Hamill in The Big Red One

Read More