Best Actor 1998

1998 through 2007

Best Actor 1998

Roberto Benigni - Life is Beautiful
3
7%
Tom Hanks - Saving Private Ryan
3
7%
Ian McKellen - Gods and Monsters
28
61%
Nick Nolte - Affliction
6
13%
Edward Norton - American History X
6
13%
 
Total votes: 46

Uri
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Re: Best Actor 1998

Post by Uri »

I feel privilege to be the one bestowing Damien with the Emily Post Badge of Honor.
Big Magilla
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Re: Best Actor 1998

Post by Big Magilla »

I suppose it comes down to whether you liked Gods and Monsters or Life Is Beautiful better.

Gods and Monsters was unque, a perfectly realized film about the slow death of one of the great under-appreciated talents of classic Hollywood. It beautifully captures the Hollywood of the 1950s as well as the Hollywood of the 1930s in flashback. Ian McKellen may not resemble James Whale in the least , but his acting is pitch perfect. It's a towering achievement of under-statement.

Life Is Beautiful was one of many films that have looked at the Holocast through the eyes of the innocent over the years. From The Mortal Storm to The Garden of the Finzi-Continies to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, there have been many such films that have been at least as compelling. Roberto Benigni is quite affecting, and deserving of his multiple nominations for writing, directing and producing as well as starring in the film, but here's the rub - his is not the single best achievement this year in any of those categories. He was, however, better than anyone else this year except McKellen.

Tom Hanks, as Uri points out, gives a fine measured, journeyman performance in Saving Private Ryan. I don't know whether I'd call it beautiful, but it was certainly good. He deserved the nomination.

Nick Nolte I'd liked since the 1970s, but as Ryan points out, his performance in Affliction was mostly yelling. Yes, you could feel the pain beneath the yelling, but it was still a lot of yelling. The film, which I haven't seen since it came out, has faded pretty much from memory, but I do recall thinking Nolte did deserve the nomination at the time. The same can't be said for Edward Norton who just yells in American History X.

Joseph Fiennes in Shakespeare in Love; Brendan Gleeson in The General and Stephen Fry in Wilde are acors I'd rather have seen nominated in place of Norton this year.
Damien
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Re: Best Actor 1998

Post by Damien »

I think Ian McKellen was absolutely splendid in Gods and Monsters, but I didn't particularly care for the winner, Roberto Benigni, or his movie.

Nick Nolte is a wonderful actor, but I thought that everything in Affliction was so overwrought as to be risible, including his performance (though he wasn't as goofily awful as James Coburn).

Edward Norton was excellent, but to little ultimate effect as American History X isn't much of a film. And Tom Hanks was fine in Private Ryan, but he didn't do anything that such earlier platoon leaders as Dana Andrews, Van Heflin, Gregory Peck, Jeff Chandler, even Rod Cameron, hadn't done before him.

I voted for Ian McKellen.

My Own Top 5:
1. Ian McKellen in Gods and Monsters
2. Tobey Maguire in Pleasantville
3. Jason Schwartzman in Rushmore
3. Jeremy Irons in Chinese Box
4. Ethan Hawke in Great Expectations
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Sabin
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Re: Best Actor 1998

Post by Sabin »

Yeah, I don't want to do this again. I like Life is Beautiful just fine, but I don't think Benigni deserves to win or a nomination; and considering that the actor who was "robbed" was Jim Carrey for his solid work in The Truman Show in lieu of the usual lineup of other contenders, I don't feel the particular needs to continue.

Best Actor
1. Ian McKellan, Gods and Monsters
2. Jason Schwartzman, Rushmore
3. Jeff Bridges, The Big Lebowski
4. Edward Norton, American History X
5. George Clooney, Out of Sight

Number five could go to any number of performances. I think Tom Hanks is pretty underrated for his work in Saving Private Ryan. I don't think that Nick Nolte brings anything particularly personal to Affliction, just a litany of increasingly embarrassing baggage, which I blame more on Paul Schrader than Nolte. I just couldn't get into it. It felt like Nick Nolte Performance: The Movie. But George Clooney is a great movie star and his greatest performance is in Out of Sight, the moment he tapped into the cool of Elmore Leonard and, in spite of having the right director and the right script, it felt like the cadence of his voice and the wink of his eye did the old school Movie Star heavy-lifting for one of the great pieces of entertainment of the 90s.
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Reza
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Re: Best Actor 1998

Post by Reza »

Benigni's best performance(s) took place on and off stage at the assorted awards shows during early 1999. However, he is good in Life is Beautiful as well. Hanks is bland in Saving Private Ryan. Nolte wasn't bad but he was overshadowed by Coburn in the film. Norton is extremely good and I was surprised the Academy recognised his performance. But I'm voting for McKellan who brings James Whale to life and gives a witty and extremely moving performance.

My picks for 1999:

Ian McKellen, Gods and Monsters
Warren Beatty, Bulworth
Jim Carrey, The Truman Show
Edward Norton, American History XXX
Roberto Benigni, Life Is Beautiful

The 6th Spot: Nick Nolte, Affliction
Uri
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Re: Best Actor 1998

Post by Uri »

Funny – the order I'd put these five performances is practically exactly like ksrymy's, only in the opposite direction.

The issues I have with this year winner go way pass liking or disliking him and his acting – they approach crimes-against-humanity territory. I'll leave it at this.

McKellen is an exceptionally good stage actor – I can state this even though I've never seen him in a theater since I did see him in films. And here too, he gives a very well studied, extremely stylized intelligent performance I can appreciate but not truly admire. (I must admit that after so many years here on this board, it might be a little bit the contrarian in me that feels obliged to somehow under rate this O So celebrated turn).

I'd replace these two with the fine comic turns by (obviously) Bridges and George Clooney in Out of Sight.

I'm totally fine with the other three nominees.

Norton projects the right combination of rawness and intellectual ability which manages to overcome the didactic, at time schematic nature of his film.

SPR is a very good film despite its director desperate attempt to ruin it with his over sentimentalized touches, and one of the main reasons it works is Hanks' beautiful, measured, journeyman performance.

But I go with Nolte – for me it was always a case of WTF is this Benigni vs McKellen bullshit all about when right in front of us there's this excellent turn by this very fine and sadly too often underrated, very American actor. It's a performance filled with pain, rage and longing, and it's very enthusiastically gets my vote.
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Re: Best Actor 1998

Post by FilmFan720 »

And so it begins...again.

And no, this is not going to be a blowout for Norton. In fact, I don't think he is going to play much of a factor here at all.
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ksrymy
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Best Actor 1998

Post by ksrymy »

Here's the year we've been waiting for forever. I personally believe that this is an extremely strong lineup.

First off my list is Nick Nolte. I thought Affliction was alright but James Coburn is who really caught my attention. Otherwise, Nolte just yells a lot ("This town needs me!). I've never really liked Nolte either.

Next off my list is Tom Hanks. I liked him in this film a lot. It was a very different kind of role for him. We'd never seen him in a military role before and his nomination is not the cause of him playing opposite his normal roles. Hanks is just simply outshined by the other three nominees.

I'll probably be massacred for this, but Ed Norton will not be in my top two. Don't get me wrong, I think his Derek Vineyard is a fantastic, original, profound role but, once again, it's just a lot of yelling. He has a lot of well-acted scenes which everyone seems to forget amongst the rapes and curb-stomps but I prefer the other two nominees.

It's between Benigni and McKellen for me as it always has been. I do not understand everyone's hatred for Benigni's performance. I can understand the hatred of his win because he was up against very solid competition. The one complaint I haven't seen about his win is the "it's-about-time-a-foreign-language-performance-wins" excuse. And how does the infamous Weinstein push make a performance worse? It doesn't. Benigni's performance is not nuanced or subtle in any way and I completely understand that and the board's undying love for nuance and subtlety. This role is entirely original (if you don't count Jerry Lewis' similar performance in The Day the Clown Cried) and well-written, well-acted, and well-performed.

But it's not as great as Ian McKellen's haunting, debonair performance as James Whale in Gods and Monsters. I went into this film expecting a solid performance but was entirely blown away by what McKellen was able to do with his character. I don't think any other actor could have pulled this role off (not even Anthony Hopkins) with such success. Everything McKellen does from the way he smokes his cigars to his flashy speeches is grade A. The absolutely straightforward way he asks Brendan Fraser to pose nude is magnificent. He performs the role with such class! This is the role an actor would kill to have. Whale has some perfect line readings and he didn't let Lynn Redgrave's amazing performance take away from his at all.

This belongs to McKellen hands down even though I expect a blowout win for Norton.
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