Alternate Best Actor 1968: Charles Bronson in Once Upon a Time in The West

Charles Bronson did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West.I must admit Charles Bronson's work in this film, which is one of my all time favorites, is something I've perhaps taken too much for granted given what he offers to the film. Bronson to begin with had some large shoes to fill in the form of Clint Eastwood as the man with no name in the dollars trilogy. Eastwood was the original choice for...

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Alternate Best Actor 1968: Burt Lancaster in The Swimmer

Burt Lancaster did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Ned Merrill in The Swimmer.The late 1960's offers a peculiar stage in filmmaking, representative of the greater cultural changes of the time. In the final few years there was a strange state in how different the films were as there were the old Hollywood mainstays still, in fact the featured actor of this review's other vehicle of 1968 was in the more traditional western The Scalphunters....

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Alternate Best Actor 1968: Toshiro Mifune and Lee Marvin in Hell in the Pacific

Toshiro Mifune and Lee Marvin did not receive Oscar nominations for portraying the Japanese Captain and the American pilot respectively in Hell in the Pacific.Hell in the Pacific is an effective film, other than its needlessly bleak ending, about an American and a Japanese soldier during World War II being stuck on a desert island together.The film features quite the starring pair with Mifune and Marvin, both real life veterans of World War II themselves,...

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Alternate Best Actor 1968: Burt Lancaster and Ossie Davis in The Scalphunters

Burt Lancaster and Ossie Davis did not receive Oscar nominations for portraying Joe Bass and Joseph Lee respectively in The Scalphunters. The Scalphunters is a very entertaining western about a fur trapper and a former slave attempting to take on a group of vicious scalp hunters. The Scalphunters fits into that apparently too rare sub-genre of the unlikely pair western, the western equivalent to the buddy cop movie. Like Red Sun and much later Shanghai...

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Alternate Best Actor 1968: Jean-Louis Trintignant in The Great Silence

Jean-Louis Trintignant did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Gordon aka "Silence" in The Great Silence.The Great Silence is a fairly effective spaghetti western, though its ending is more than a little questionable, about a bounty hunter who will only ever shoot in self-defense.A common factor in any spaghetti western is the issue of dubbing and the various languages of those involved particularly the star who often was of a different...

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Alternate Best Actor 1968: Vincent Price in Witchfinder General

Vincent Price did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Matthew Hopkins in Witchfinder General.Witchfinder General is a flimsy pseudo-exploitation film about an inquisitor during the reign of Oliver Cromwell.Vincent Price had perhaps a somewhat curious career progression as an actor. In that he started out in very much the prestige picture such as Laura and The Song of Bernadette, but eventually began to appear in a long series of b-movies...

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Alternate Best Actor 1968

And the Nominees Were Not:Lee Marvin in Hell in the PacificBurt Lancaster in The ScalphuntersCharles Bronson in Once Upon a Time in the WestMalcolm McDowell in If....Vincent Price in Witchfinder GeneralPredict Those Five or These Five.Toshiro Mifune in Hell in the PacificOssie Davis in The ScalphuntersJean-Louis Trintignant in The Great SilenceMax von Sydow in Shame Burt Lancaster in The Swimmer Or Both. ...

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Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2012: Results

5. Ronald Cheng in Vulgaria - Cheng is easily his film's highlight in his hilarious and appropriately ridiculous portrayal of an over the top gangster. Best Scene: Dinner time. 4. Cillian Murphy in Broken - Murphy gives a funny, moving and above all very honest portrayal of just unassuming teacher accidentally getting involved in some rather difficult situations.  Best Scene: Apology3. Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Gangs of Wasseypur - Although the...

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Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2012: Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Gangs of Wasseypur Part 2

Nawazuddin Siddiqui did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Faizal Khan iin Gangs of Wasseypur Part 2.Gangs of Wasseypur Part 2 I'm going to assume, I have not seen part one, continues the story of a gangster family in India.The film opens with the murder of the original patriarch then soon after the murder of the heir apparent of the Khan family in a series of reprisals. It is therefore left to Nawazuddin Siddiqui's Faizal to continue...

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Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2012: Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins in The Cabin in the Woods

Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford did not receive Oscar nominations for portraying Gary Sitterson and Steve Hadley respectively in The Cabin in the Woods. The Cabin in the Woods is an entertaining enough slasher movie satire, though I did rather hate its high school nihilist ending.The title suggests a standard trope in a horror film as a group of stereotyped teenagers or young adults go into a spooky cabin in the woods for the weekend. That set...

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Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2012: Ronald Cheng in Vulgaria

Ronald Cheng did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Tyranosaurus in Vulgaria.Vulgaria follows the misadventures of a film producer To Wai-cheung (Chapman To) attempting to get a movie made.The film itself starts out fairly well but flounders as it continues partially due to its leading man, partially due to its wavering tone with these semi-serious moments ill-fitting to the irreverent style of the overall film, and because Ronald Cheng...

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Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2012: Cillian Murphy in Broken

Cillian Murphy did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Mike Kiernan in Broken.Broken is a low key and I found to be rather effective coming of age story set in a pseudo To Kill a Mockingbird framework. Now it's pseudo in that we do have a lead young female character who goes by a nickname, this time Skunk, who has a brother, given far less focus than in "Mockingbird", a father (Tim Roth) who is a lawyer. Several of these elements though...

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Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2012: Thomas Bo Larsen in The Hunt

Thomas Bo Larsen did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Theo in The Hunt.One of the major reasons The Hunt is such a powerful film is how convincing it is in realizing its scenario of this kindergarten teacher Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) being ostracized and demonized due to false allegations of sexual abuse. In this it seeks no simplification even though Lucas is clearly innocent the whole time. The film though does not...

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Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2012

And the Nominees Were Not:Bradley Whitford in The Cabin in the WoodsRichard Jenkins in The Cabin in the Woods Thomas Bo Larsen in The HuntCillian Murphy in BrokenRonald Cheng in VulgariaNawazuddin Siddiqui in Gangs of Wasseypur Part 2For Prediction Purposes:Whitford in The Cabin in the Wo...

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Alternate Best Actor 2012: Results

5. Tom Courtenay in Quartet - Courtenay rises above his material and offers some dignity in his portrayal of an aging musician still holding a grudge. Best Scene: The church.4. Toby Jones in Berberian Sound Studio - Jones amplifies the best elements of his film through his unique and compelling portrayal of a man in a strange purgatory. Best Scene: Calling the airline. 3. Mads Mikkelsen in A Royal Affair - In his second best leading turn of the year...

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Alternate Best Actor 2012: Tom Courtenay in Quartet

Tom Courtenay did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Reginald "Reg" Paget in Quartet. Quartet is a tad cornball film about an aging quartet of opera singers coming back together to sing in a concert to save their retirement home for musicians. Tom Courtenay has fairly recently began reappearing in films after disappearing almost for the entirety of the seventies, purposefully apparently to focus on the stage, after his stellar...

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Alternate Best Actor 2012: Mads Mikkelsen in The Hunt

Mads Mikkelsen did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite winning Cannes, for portraying Lucas in The Hunt.The Hunt is an excellent film about a school teacher being accused of sexual abuse.The second leading turn from 2012 for Mads Mikkelsen comes in a modern set piece where rather than playing a doctor who changes a kingdom he plays a rather normal man, which is also in contrast to his supporting roles in his English Language films where he is...

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