Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1978: Results

6. Sam Shepard in Days of Heaven- Sam Shepard doesn't completely escape the limitations put upon him by Terrence Malick's style but he still gives an intriguing performances within these confines.

Best Scene: The farmer figures out Bill and Abby.

5. John Vernon in Animal House- Vernon gives a hilarious performance through his deadly intensity as a particularly hateful Dean.

Best Scene: Dean Wormer tells the members of Delta their GPAs.

4. Harry Dean Stanton in Straight Time- Stanton has a limited role, but steals the film with his portrayal of a down to earth professional criminal.

Best Scene: Max and Jerry hold up a bank.

3. John Cazale in The Deer Hunter- John Cazale in his final performance gives an effective portrayal of the pathetic member of the group of friends.

Best Scene: Stan is forced to play a game of Russian roulette by Michael.

2. John Savage in The Deer Hunter- John Savage gives a moving portrayal of the most easy going member of the group of friends who has to bear terrible trauma from his time in the Vietnam war.

Best Scene: Steven is unable to bear the idea of playing Russian roulette.

1. Gene Hackman in Superman- Good Prediction Michael Patison, RatedRStar, Lezlie. Gene Hackman gives a great performance as always this time being absolutely hilarious with just the right amount of menace thrown in. 

Best Scene: Lex Luthor reveals the Kryptonite.

Overall Rank:

1. Christopher Walken in The Deer Hunter
2. Gene Hackman in Superman
3. John Savage in The Deer Hunter
4. John Cazale in The Deer Hunter
5. Harry Dean Stanton in Straight Time 
6. John Vernon in Animal House
7. James Mason in The Boys From Brazil
8. Richard Farnsworth in Comes a Horseman
9. Sam Shepard in Days of Heaven
10. Ned Beatty in Superman 
11. James Mason in Heaven Can Wait
12. John Hurt in Midnight Express
13. Robert Morley in Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?
14. George Dzundza in The Deer Hunter
15. M. Emmet Walsh in Straight Time
16. John Hurt in The Lord of the Rings
17. Edward Fox in Force 10 From Navarone
18. Glenn Ford in Superman 
19. Jackie Cooper in Superman
20. Jeff Goldblum in Invasion of the Body Snatchers
21. Jason Robards in Comes a Horseman 
22. John Belushi in Animal House 
23. Burgess Meredith in Magic
24. Marlon Brando in Superman
25. Stephen Furst in Animal House 
26. Chuck Aspegren in The Deer Hunter
27. Jack Warden in Heaven Can Wait
28. Terrence Stamp in Superman
29. Bruce Dern in Coming Home
30. David Niven in Death on the Nile
31. Buck Henry in Heaven Can Wait
32. Simon MacCorkindale in Death on the Nile
33. Bruce McGill in Animal House
34. Leonard Nimoy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers
35. Randy Quaid in Midnight Express
36. Kevin McCarthy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers 
37. Robert J. Wilke in Days of Heaven
38. Kevin Bacon in Animal House
39. Sid Caesar in Grease
40. Charles Grodin in Heaven Can Wait 
41. Bruno Ganz in The Boys From Brazil
42. Donald Sutherland in Animal House
43. Denholm Elliot in The Boys From Brazil
44. Gary Busey in Straight Time
45. Carl Weathers in From 10 From Navarone
46. Ed Lauter in Magic
47. Tom Hulce in Animal House 
48. Murray Hamilton in Jaws 2
49. Jack Warden in Death on the Nile
50. Marc McClure in Superman 
51. Charles Cyphers in Halloween
52. Trevor Howard in Superman
53. William Squire in The Lord of the Rings
54. George Kennedy in Death on the Nile
55. Robert Carradine in Coming Home 
56. Jon Finch in Death on the Nile
57. James Widdoes in Animal House
58. Harry Andrews in Superman
59. Brian Andrews in Halloween
60. Charles Martin Smith in The Buddy Holly Story
61. Jeff Conaway in Grease
62. Steven Guttenberg in The Boys From Brazil
63. Don Stroud in The Buddy Holly Story
64. Peter Riegert in Animal House
65. Tim Matheson in Animal House
66. Joseph Mascolo in Jaws 2
67. Mark Metcalf in Animal House 
68. Jeffrey Kramer in Jaws 2
69. James Daughton in Animal House
70. Barry Pearl in Grease 
71. Richard Kiel in Force 10 from Navarone
72. Michael Tucci in Grease
73. Michael Scholes in The Lord of the Rings

Next Year: 1931 lead

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Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1978: John Cazale and John Savage in The Deer Hunter

John Cazale and John Savage did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Stan and Steven respectively in The Deer Hunter.

John Cazale and John Savage both play two men in the group of friends, most of whom work at a steel mill, in a small town in Pennsylvania. We meet the group just before two big changes in their lives will occur. One being that one of them, Steven, will be getting married, and that Michael (Robert De Niro), Nick (Christopher Walken), and Steven will be going to Vietnam. Cazale and Savage both do take the back seat to the primary relationship between Michael and Nick and it is no surprise that De Niro and Walken were the Oscar nominated actors. They do both have specific purposes within the film and stand out in their own ways during the film.

Something that the Deer Hunter does so well is paint a very realistic portrait of a group of long time friends. All the actors have a very natural chemistry between each other and their scenes together are very special as they really suggest a long history between all of them through the unique dynamics they all share. Interestingly Savage and Cazale can of are at two ends of things with Savage playing Steven the groom to be as really the one who is the easiest to get along with. Savage has an effective understated gentleness with his performance that portrays Steven as just a nice guy who would be alright hanging around all the guys, and that he would alright with marrying a woman whose been impregnated by another man.

John Cazale, giving his final film performance, plays Stan the guy who is easiest not to get along with. Cazale, just like Savage, gets the nature of the guy across very effectively. Cazale once again plays a pathetic character, but Cazale of course does not feel like he is treading any water with his characterization of Stan. What Cazale does really well with Stan is make it so most of the time he is just alright in being around. He is one of the guys like the rest of them and is never totally out of it. Cazale still stays within the realm of everyone else, and has the right reactionary moments showing that Stan is not oblivious in any way even though he can be a bit of a jerk at times.

Cazale's exceptional moments though are of course the exceptions where Stan's insecurities come and he starts being a rather despicable sort of man who insults others as well as touts a gun around in an attempt to seem tough. Cazale is always such a heartbreaking loser, and although this is his least sympathetic performance, he achieves the same thing he did in all of his other performances. What Cazale does so well is show where the bad actions of his character comes from. Yes Stan is a coward who treats a gun like his personal toy, but Cazale always is able to show where that this behavior comes from a very human weakness. It does far from excuse Stan's behavior but Cazale brings such depth to the character's weakness.

Savage's exceptional scenes come once Steven, Nick and Michael go to Vietnam where they quickly are imprisoned and forced to play Russian roulette. Savage does not get to be in the greatest acted scene of 1978, but Savage is very effective in the proceeding scenes. Savage is incredibly moving by just being extremely blunt in the fears expressed by Steven as he faces the fateful game. Where Michael can face it directly and Nick can do his best Steven can barely keep his composure. Savage is outstanding by just getting to the bare basics of human emotions in his portrayal of the disabling terror in Steven reaction that represents what would probably be most people's reactions to being forced into a game of life and death.

Cazale also does get a bit of a Russian roulette scene himself after Michael comes home and they go hunting where Stan once again tries to act tough with gun again. It is a relatively quick moment but Cazale is great in just the quick very visceral quality he brings when Stan has to face the wrong end of the gun. There is not a great deal of Stan after this point, but Steven if found by Michael in a veterans hospital as Steven had to have  his legs amputated. Savage actually has only two fairly brief scenes in showing Steven's state after facing the war. Savage is very moving in both scenes though by portraying that Steven more then anything does not want to have to face his old friends as he is.

Both John Cazale and John Savage give very strong performances. Although neither of the them quite make the impact that Christopher Walken makes with his performance, they both add a great deal to the film with their performances. It would have been easy for everyone else to be forgotten in the face of the central friendship portrayed by Walken and De Niro, and the film probably still would have been pretty good, but this film does more then that. Cazale and Savage round out a fuller picture of the friends before the war and the tragedies they face afterwards with Cazale portraying the worst tendencies of a man who did not face the hardships and Savage portraying the honest emotional pains of a man who had to face the worst hardships.

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Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1978

And the Nominees Were Not:

John Cazale in The Deer Hunter

John Savage in The Deer Hunter

Gene Hackman in Superman

Sam Shepard in Days of Heaven

Harry Dean Stanton in Straight Time

John Vernon in Animal House

Out of the The Deer Hunter men I'll give the honors to the actor giving his final performance.

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