Best Supporting Actor 1990

[Mister Tee]

Just because I haven't posted this yet, I see that instead of Graham Greene the Golden Globes cited Armande Assante for Q&A, a Sidney Lumet movie I've never seen but I always confuse with Night Falls on Manhattan, and Hector Elizondo for Pretty Woman. And as I look at the Golden Globes for 1990, I'm astonished by three facts: 1) Green Card beat Pretty Woman for Best Comedic/Musical Picture, 2) Green Card beat Ghost for Best Comedic/Musical Picture, and 3) Ghost was nominated for Best Comedic/Musical Picture!

Q&A has in common with Night Falls on Manhattan (and Before the Devil Knows Your Dead, for that matter) being a post-The Verdict Lumet effort that was singled out with "Hey, maybe the old guy's still got it" reviews -- reviews that were, in my estimation, overly enthusiastic, probably because the films reminded critics of earier Lumet movies they'd REALLY liked. Assante, though, was quite good -- at least to my taste, as someone who'd thought him utterly useless up till then.

The buzz around Green Card's Golden Globe win was that the "foreigners trying to stay in the U.S." subject was very close to home for HFPA voters.

The real shock about Ghost wasn't the Globe nomination; it was that it made the Academy's top five, something that completely shocked me on nominations morning. Ghost had been a very middlingly-reviewed, strictly popcorn summer movie whose sole compelling feature was its enormous gross. The Academy really hadn't nominated something of that ilk since The Towering Inferno (the Spielberg/Lucas films had all been all highly critically acclaimed).

[Sabin]

Just because I haven't posted this yet, I see that instead of Graham Greene the Golden Globes cited Armande Assante for Q&A, a Sidney Lumet movie I've never seen but I always confuse with Night Falls on Manhattan, and Hector Elizondo for Pretty Woman. And as I look at the Golden Globes for 1990, I'm astonished by three facts: 1) Green Card beat Pretty Woman for Best Comedic/Musical Picture, 2) Green Card beat Ghost for Best Comedic/Musical Picture, and 3) Ghost was nominated for Best Comedic/Musical Picture!

[The Original BJ]

As a time capsule piece, Longtime Companion is a VERY important movie. As cinema, it belongs to the late '80's/early '90's school of solid but fairly bland indie filmmaking.

Not exactly. Longtime Companion was made for PBS' American Playhouse in 1989, but turned out so well that it was shopped for film distribution first. It was distributed in the U.S. by the Goldwyn Company, coming off the success of Branagh's Henry V.

I was mainly referring to the film's aesthetics, as I was unfamiliar with its production history, but I say anything that won a Sundance Award and an Independent Spirit counts as an indie, especially in this era.

[mlrg]

Joe Pesci - GoodFellas

[Big Magilla]

As a time capsule piece, Longtime Companion is a VERY important movie. As cinema, it belongs to the late '80's/early '90's school of solid but fairly bland indie filmmaking.

Not exactly. Longtime Companion was made for PBS' American Playhouse in 1989, but turned out so well that it was shopped for film distribution first. It was distributed in the U.S. by the Goldwyn Company, coming off the success of Branagh's Henry V.

[The Original BJ]

Not the most exciting year or category.

I think this is Al Pacino's worst nomination. Caked up in all that makeup, he huffs and puffs and chews the scenery like his life depended on it. This was Pacino at his most over-the-top. I wasn't thrilled by Pacino's Scent of a Woman win, but at least that got him the leading statue he'd long deserved, and for a role that had some humanity to it. It would have been a real shame for him to win a supporting trophy for his silly, comic book villain in Dick Tracy.

Andy Garcia is definitely the life of the party in The Godfather III, filling essentially the same role -- the charismatic young bullhead -- that James Caan played in the original. I think the extent to which Godfather III DOES work relies a lot upon the investment the audience has built up over the years with its characters -- Michael, Kay, Connie. It's a bit easier to forgive the film some of its more tired narrative elements when you genuinely care about what happens to these people. But a new character like Garcia's didn't involve me emotionally in the same way.

Dances With Wolves is one of those movies that, despite its sentimentality, can fairly easily sweep me away. And I think Graham Greene is very touching in this role, as the kind and steadfast leader willing to reach out to others, but gravely concerned about the future of his people. It's not win-level work -- he just doesn't have enough truly challenging acting moments -- but he's solid throughout.

As a time capsule piece, Longtime Companion is a VERY important movie. As cinema, it belongs to the late '80's/early '90's school of solid but fairly bland indie filmmaking. And, perhaps as a result, I can't say that Bruce Davison's performance affected me in the way it did others here. For most of the film, I kept wondering how he landed the nomination, and (correctly) assumed he had to have a big scene coming late in the movie. And, of course, it did, and he was very touching in his final beats in the film. But even there, I can't say I found his work as breathtaking or emotionally shattering as I'd anticipated, given the acclaim (on this board and elsewhere) he's received. So, like the movie it appears in, I find his work more important than exceptional.

So I land with the Joe Pesci gang on this one. As I wrote when discussing Pesci's last nomination, he's an actor of limited type -- I honestly don't think this role was all that much of a departure from the one he played in Raging Bull -- but I would vociferously disagree with the statement that he's one-note in Goodfellas. I think he's a life force in the movie, a total loose cannon who makes the audience uncertain whether we should laugh at or be utterly shocked by his behavior. The "funny like a clown" bit is sensational, but so, I think is his final "Oh shit!" which completely stunned me the first time I saw the movie. I had a hard time voting against Pesci in this game in 1980, and so I'm happy to vote for him this year, as tribute to his invaluable contributions to these Scorsese masterpieces.

[ITALIANO]

There isn't much to say about Al Pacino, Graham Greene and especially Andy Garcia. At least I can understand why Pacino and Greene were nominated, and both certainly were quite effective in their movies, but I'm sure that other, maybe more deserving performers could have been there in their place. Garcia was considered a promising new actor, and The Godfather Part III HAD to get at least one acting nod; but there's nothing very interesting in his character or in his way of playing it.

But Bruce Davison and Joe Pesci are both very good though - completely different but both very good. It's probably true - but I haven't seen the movie in a lifetine - that Longtime Companions works better as a deeply-felt document of that era than as a truly good movie, but Davison is certainly very moving in it and, in a general, a versatile, subtle actor. "Subtle" may not be the word we tend to associate with Joe Pesci, but he's extremely effective in Goodfellas, and the movie is, of course, the better one.

I'm sure that Davison will win here, and I don't have anything against it. But this time I'm voting for Pesci.

[Sabin]

Today, there would be a push for Robin Williams in this category for Awakenings. Because it's really Robert De Niro's story! And of course Ray Liotta would get the same supporting push because everybody's supporting in Goodfellas!

[Mister Tee]

It was a great year for tough guys. In addition to Pesci, John Turturro had his film breakthrough in Miller's Crossing; Armand Assante gave his first really notable performance in Q&A; and Gary Oldman's head-case in State of Grace was one place I agree with his fans he should have been cited prior to this past year.

Graham Greene seems to me to be everything Dan Aykroyd was accused of being in last year's colloquium: a perfectly respectable but un-thrilling presence, carried into the race by the power of best picture pull.

Al Pacino was funny enough, but he runs into my hatred of big stars slumming in supporting slots. For me, had he won here, it would actually have been worse than the place he did win.

Andy Garcia in 1990, following The Untouchables and Internal Affairs, seemed he might be on the threshhold of a greater career than has actually transpired. Still, he's certainly the best thing about Godfather III, and rates the nomination -- though he's not in consideration for the win. Godfather III got (apart from Ms. Coppola) rather kinder reviews than it deserved: this is a huge comedown from the previous two films. It's not a dud, exactly, but it's a much diminished version of what preceded (and it follows the model rather slavishly: at the end, when someone says, "Tonight, the Corleone family settles accounts", the only proper response is "Again?")

I'm rather astonished by Bruce Davison's overwhelming dominance here. I like Davison -- I advocated him as best suporting actor in 1977 -- and he's perfectly fine here, especially in his bedside 11 o'clock number. But Longtime Companion, on the whole a fairly banal effort, doesn't offer him a great role; mostly he just hangs around. There was certainly an inherent sympathy for the situation being portrayed -- many at the time had just gone through scenes similar to the bedside scene (we had, with my wife's long-time best friend, a year earlier). But I didn't think there was any great dramatic achievement here.

And Joe Pesci is just fucking terrific -- terrifying and hilarious throughout (which, by the way, is at least two notes). His "How am I funny?' scene has now been so over-played that it may have lost its original juice, but the first time through it was incredible to sit through...gruelingly tense, relieved at last by Iaughter, but only partly -- because you knew this guy could go off again at any time. I was sure Pesci'd win: partly because he had the decade-earlier loss under his belt, partly because it was a way of not ignoring Good Fellas entirely. I'm glad to see Sabin, at least, agrees with me and the plurality of voters.

[Sabin]

The only one of these games I've seen in the past five or ten years is Goodfellas, which I suppose it's possible I am a bigger fan of than anybody else on this Board now. I can't imagine Joe Pesci was the front-runner going into Oscar night, but then again I can't see Graham Greene or Andy Garcia either. Or Al Pacino. I'm trying to think of a precedent for a one nomination film as low-grossing as Longtime Companion winning an acting award. Christopher Plummer?

I recall Bruce Davison being great, but I only really remember one scene where he triumphs. The rest of the film, he's part of an excellent ensemble. In a way, I feel the same way about Al Pacino. He's just one freakshow of many in Dick Tracy, and I this his "snub" for The Godfather: Part III says more about Andy Garcia's chances than Pacino's for Dick Tracy. Garcia is quite good, and while I haven't seen his film in ages, I recall many scenes (like where he disarms those two assassins) where he stands out quite well.

I am going to vote for Joe Pesci, even though his career has been a cautionary tale about plastic surgery and otherwise wouldn't have been much to speak of anyway. I've heard him described as one note, but I don't think that's fair. We watch the story unfold from Henry Hill's eyes, and in his eyes Tommy is anything but one note. Were I to watch all the films again, I might feel differently, but it's not just Pesci's physical presence but his voice that at times carries the film like a third voice-over chorus, like when from off-camera he shoots Spider. I think he's an integral part of a brilliant film's success.

[Reza]

My picks for 1990:

1. Bruce Davison, Longtime Companion
2. Joe Pesci, GoodFellas
3. Andy Garcia, The Godfather Part III
4. Albert Finney, Miller's Crossing
5. Robert De Niro, GoodFellas

The 6th Spot: John Turturro, Miller's Crossing

[Big Magilla]

1990 was one of Oscar's worst years overall. GoodFellas was my pick of the year's Best Picture, pretty much by default. And, yes, Joe Pesci's performance is one-night, but it works. It deserved to be among the year's top five in this category, but how anyone could prefer his short fused gangster over Bruce Davison's unofgettable work in Longtime Companion is beyond me.

I liked both Andy Garcia in Godfather III and Graham Greene in Dances With Wolves, but Al Pacino was nominated in the wrong category for the wrong performance. His work in Godfather III was in line with his work in the previous Godfather films, but I thought Dustin Hoffman and others were just as good as he was in Dick Tracy.

The other performances I like this year were both veteran stars in supporting gangster roles: Albert finney as the Irish mob boss in Miller's Crossing and Marlon Brando spoofing himself in The Freshman.

[FilmFan720]

This is a strong line-up, but not a very insipiring one.

Graham Greene and Andy Garcia are both strong actors, and it is nice that they each got a nomination along the way. They also both take stock characters and give them some life, but their movies aren't that great and they can only do so much in the confines of them.

Joe Pesci does his thing, but he does it very well and I think there is a lot more to his GoodFellas role than some here will give him credit for...it is big, but it is also honest and gives a lot of life to the movie. Still, if someone from the supporting cast deserved a nomination, I would have given it to Paul Sorvino.

Dick Tracy is a movie that has a lot of meaning to me from my childhood, so I have a hard time being too negative on it. Al Pacino is a lot of fun in the movie, and it is one of the times where his broad, Whoo-Haaa personality really works...it's a live action comic strip, and Pacino fills that world perfectly. He is my guilt-free runner-up.

But then we have Bruce Davison. Damien once called him our greatest living actor, and this role is proof of that hands down. His "Let Go" scene alone should get him an Oscar, but his whole role in the film is so meticulously crafted, yet never feels calculated or forced. It is pure honesty.

[rudeboy]

I couldn't stand Pacino in Dick Tracy. Pesci sure IS one-note, but he does at least manage to make an impression. Garcia is fine but forgettable.

I love Graham Greene in Dances with Wolves, the best thing about the film by far. On paper its a stock character but Greene brings great charm and much-needed humour to it. I was very happy with his not certain nomination.

But its Davison all the way. A breathtaking, heartwrenching performance, man of the match in a movie that could all but fill this category by itself. His is one of the best performances nominated for supporting actor in the 90s.

[Precious Doll]

Whilst it's a good line-up, with the exception of Bruce Davison, they are hardly Oscar worthy performances.

My choices:

1. Campbell Scott for Longtime Companion
2. Fred Ward for Miami Blues
3. Bruce Davison for Longtime Companion
4. Crispin Glover for Where The Heart Is
6. Chris O'Donnell for Men Don't Leave