Alternate Best Actor 1968: Results

10. Vincent Price - Witchfinder General - Price gives an interesting performance attempting to bring complexity to his morally compromised inquisitor, unfortunately the film decides to use him just as a one note villain.

Best Scene: Being convinced to give a reprieve.

9. Jean-Louis Trintignant in The Great Silence - Trintignant gives a good performance as he brings the steely gaze needed for his swift killer, along with a bit of pathos within his silence alluding to his motivations though he is a tad overshadowed by his more maniacal co-star.

 Best Scene: Silence remembers.

8. Malcolm McDowell in If.... in McDowell gives a good performance as he portrays the gradual breakdown of a student into essentially a psychopath even though if it might feel like a warm up to his more renowned turn as a juvenile killer.  

Best Scene: Killing spree

7. Burt Lancaster in The Scalphunters - Lancaster gives an enjoyable turn portraying the right comical frustrations within his more typical western hero, along with striking the right endearing chemistry with his co-star.

Best Scene: The final fight.

6. Lee Marvin in Hell in the Pacific - Marvin gives a memorable one man show as a man slowly losing his mind as well as a memorable two man show in realizing a most unique yet believable chemistry with Toshiro Mifune.

Best Scene: The curious showdown. 

5. Ossie Davis in The Scalphunters - Davis gives a very entertaining portrayal of his outgoing yet quietly cunning character, and again has great chemistry with his co-star Lancaster.

Best Scene: The final fight. 

4. Toshiro Mifune in Hell in the Pacific - Shares his scenes so well with Marvin, as well as stands out well with his own one man show as the refined soldier struggling through his ordeal.

Best Scene: Finding the magazine.

3. Max von Sydow in Shame - von Sydow as per usual creates such a convincing relationship with Liv Ullmann which is especially pivotal here as the two together offer such a natural and harrowing depiction of a married couple dealing with and being changed by war.

Best Scene: Killing a man.

2. Charles Bronson in Once Upon a Time in the West - Bronson more than fulfills the role of the badass gunslinger, he goes further though creating such an endearing and humorous chemistry with his co-star Jason Robards, then goes even further in offering such an underlying emotional poignancy to the film through his performance. 

Best Scene: The final duel.

1. Burt Lancaster in The Swimmer - This one for the overall came down two rather different performances though by both masterful in their separate intentions. Bronson being such a brilliant minimalist performance, and Lancaster being such a brilliant expressive tour de force. Both have their unique challenges and match every one of them. Lancaster's task is different. Bronson is an essential part to an amazing film. Lancaster though is the factor that makes his film work at all offering a reality and heartbreaking humanity to such a surreal concept. Once Upon a Time in the West would have probably still have been great with a lesser lead, but not as great. The Swimmer would probably have been a failure without what Lancaster does. Even with that somewhat flimsy reasoning though this is still sort of a toss up as I love both performances, but I have to choose one.

Best Scene: "This is my wagon"

Updated Overall

Next Year: 1968 Supporting