The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1987
1987 is one of the more forgotten years of the Academy. Just because — while The Last Emperor is a great film and I can see why it won Best Picture and Best Director for Bernardo Bertolucci (talked about here), it’s just not a very interesting film. A film like this is a film like Gandhi — sure it’s good and all, but, Academy-wise, it’s just not an interesting choice. Broadcast News or Hope and Glory — those would have been interesting choices (more so the latter). This — just standard business. Which is why most people forget about it.
As for the rest of the year, both Cher and Olympia Dukakis win Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively, for Moonstruck (Best Actress was talked about here), which, I consider weak decisions. I think there were better decisions to be made in both categories. Then, Sean Connery wins Best Supporting Actor for The Untouchables, which, I don’t think anyone can really disagree with that. Even if they don’t like the film and don’t like the performance — which, how many people does that leave? — I don’t think anyone can really call giving Sean Connery a career Oscar a bad thing (regardless of how great Morgan Freeman was in Street Smart). That’s the Chicago way.
And then there’s this category. No one can call this a bad decision. No one. First — it’s Gordon fucking Gekko. Right there — done. But even if you don’t think the performance was that great — look at the rest of the category. Who the hell else was gonna win? This was a great decision, through and through.
BEST ACTOR – 1987
And the nominees were…
Michael Douglas, Wall Street
William Hurt, Broadcast News
Marcello Mastroianni, Dark Eyes
Jack Nicholson, Ironweed (more…)
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