Alternate Best Actor 1966: Results

5. Oskar Werner in Fahrenheit 451- Werner gives a fairly effective performance as a man who goes to a cog in the machine to a free thinker but the power of his work is somewhat muted when the director basically takes over for him at the end of the film.

Best Scene: Montag confronts his wife and her friends.

4. David Hemmings in Blow-Up- Hemmings gives a good performance as a photographer in a haze who is forced to drift out of it when he discovers something unusual in a photograph.

Best Scene: Thomas tries to tell his agent about the murder. 

3. James Mason in The Deadly Affair- James Mason gives a great and surprisingly emotionally charged performance as a government agent who lives through too many double crosses in both his professional and private life.

Best Scene: Dobbs figures out who his wife's most current affair is with.

2. Tatsuya Nakadai in The Sword of Doom- See Wallach's summary.

Best Scene: Ryunosuke "confronts" his past.

1. Eli Wallach in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly- Good Prediction Psifonian. Well this was not an easy choice to make as this year came down to Eli Wallach's and Tatsuya Nakadai's performances for me. Both are brilliant very physical performances that both excel in leading films even though they technically play reprehensible characters, in Nakadai's case extremely reprehensible. They are both outstanding in very different ways with Wallach giving a hilarious and very entertaining performance, and Nakdai is absolutely magnetic while being uncompromising in his depiction of the evil nature of his character. To try to decide between the two I re-watched my favorite scenes of each of their performances well that did not help either only reassuring the fact that I love both of their performances. I have to choose one though therefore I choose Wallach... I guess for the moment right now at this second.

Best Scene: Tuco meets with his brother.

Overall Rank:

1. Eli Wallach in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
2. Tatsuya Nakadai in The Sword of Doom
3. Richard Burton in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
4. Michael Caine in Alfie
5. Paul Scofield in A Man For All Seasons
6. James Mason in The Deadly Affair
7. Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
8. Tatsuya Nakadai in The Face of Another
9. Peter O'Toole in How To Steal a Million
10. David Hemmings in Blow-Up
11. Lee Marvin in The Professionals
12. Burt Lancaster in The Professionals
13. Adam West in Batman
14. Jack Lemmon in The Fortune Cookie
15. Jean-Louis Trintignant in A Man and a Woman
16. Oskar Werner in Fahrenheit 451 
17. Steve McQueen in The Sand Pebbles
18. Alan Arkin in The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming
19. Charlton Heston in Khartoum
20. Zero Mostel in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
21. Franco Nero in Django
22. Carl Reiner in The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming

Next Year: 1966 Supporting

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Alternate Best Actor 1966: Oskar Werner in Fahrenheit 451

Oskar Werner did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Guy Montag in Fahrenheit 451.

Fahrenheit 451 is a bit of an odd adaptation of Ray Bradbury's novel about a dystopian future where firemen burn books which have been banned. The film frankly looks too 60's for its futuristic setting, and the changes from the novel don't really work for the most part. Also the choice to have Julie Christie play both Guy Montag's wife and the free spirited Clarisse seems quite unnecessary coming off as distracting more than anything. Having said that it still does hold some interest as at least one attempt to adapt the novel to the screen. 

Another strange choice made in this film is the casting of Oskar Werner as Guy Montag. He definitely is not the first name that comes to my mind when I think of an average man of the 60's. Stuart Whitman, if was in The Mark type form, probably would have been the ideal man for the part of Guy Montag who at the beginning of the story is suppose to be just an average cog in the machine of society. He works as a fireman and does his job just as he should without any problems. Werner though is a very good actor and despite maybe not being the perfect choice in terms of casting he still commits himself particularly early on in the film as Guy pretty much just does what he is told, and doesn't seem to have an qualms about it.

Werner, as he apparently stated himself, plays Montag in almost a robotic manner early on. This actually fits perfectly for Montag's role in the film as he just is fitting in his place and nothing more. Werner plays him repressed in his emotions quite effectively because he is a man who not only seems to care nothing about the things that he is burning and the ideas they represent, but as well at home where he should be happy he still seems aloof just a man going through the motions. Werner importantly doesn't make him sad really just almost in trance of indifference to all that is going on around him and being exactly the servant that the society wishes him to be.

The transition of Montag is still handled pretty well by Oskar Werner at least in the beginning as he starts to question just burning the books and starts to read them. Werner brings a quiet emotional resonance as he frankly just loosens on the robotics of the man and we see a fire instead building in Montag. Werner actually keeps it rather subtle which works well for Montag's character since after all Montag still must keep his revelation to himself. Werner builds the emotional pressure in Montag as well as the interest in the nature of books as well as his anger involving the treatment of the books, and his initial bursts of emotion at his wife and her friends as their behavior still fits to what society desires.

A problem though arises later in the film as the development of Montag almost seems to stop and unfortunately Francois Truffaut seems to take over for Oskar Werner in the development of Montag. One of the most pivotal scenes in which it is discovered that Montag has been hiding books and reading them and he is instructed by his chief to destroy his own home Werner is barely shown. This is particularly notable when Montag turns his flamethrower to one of his fellow fire men where it is hard to notice what Montag feels in the scene since Werner is not really allowed to even show his reactions. This continues pretty much to the end where Werner is given very little to do and it is a shame as Montag final transition to a man away from his old shell could have been truly powerful if Werner had been allowed to honestly portray this.

I should note that whenever Werner is allowed to show how Montag is feeling toward the end he is good and believable still. Werner portrayal though mostly is just glimpses of the man. These are fairly basic reactions to just what is going on around him. To be completely fair Werner is always believable in these reactions and never once does he fall short in terms of his actual performance. His character arc though is cut short due to Truffaut basically putting his performance to the side for the ending. Werner really could have made Guy Montag's story from drone to a free man something very special if he had been allowed to bring Montag fully to the end of the journey. Oskar Werner certainly showed the promise of this in the first 2/3rds of his performance, but Werner's work is cut short.

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Alternate Best Actor 1966

And the Nominees Were Not:

James Mason in The Deadly Affair

Eli Wallach in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Tatsuya Nakadai in The Sword of Doom

David Hemmings in Blow-Up

Oskar Werner in Fahrenheit 451

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