In fact, how did he not any ANY awards for this role? The speech he gives in this film, his testimony, is one of the most powerful and harrowing minutes I have ever seen on screen.
The Nameless
I am not what I am
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bl was fantastic--riveting, imo.
shareI thought Lancaster was the weak link and overacted terribly. Poor casting and a poor performance. Shell, Tracy, Garland, and Clift were incredible. Clift and Garland's breakdowns were so painful to watch. Shell was brilliant and Tracy was his usual tremendous self. Great movie, still very powerful. I love that Judge Heywood stands by his convictions regardless of who he is addressing. He believed what he believed and he would not pander to anyone.
shareI agree about Montgomery Clift. In a movie full of great performances (who knew Judy Garland could do more than "musical" act?), Clift's is my favorite. I'm not a Montgomery Clift fan, either. He generally drives me up the wall when I watch him, but his performance here gives me shivers every time. The first time I saw it I couldn't take my eyes off him. I really think he should have won the Oscar for that.
Lancaster is okay. I would have loved to see Olivier in that role, though. He still has some of that ham that you see in his earlier movies. In those moments of ham, and they are brief, it snaps me back to reality and his performance loses its punch.
I like Spencer Tracy's performance. It's very restrained yet very convincing. And it's great to see Marlene Dietrich in something other than the sexy siren. Richard Widmark is always the biggest surprise for me. Besides "Kiss of Death" (his debut) he never really showed anything that screamed "actor!". He goes over the top sometimes but in general does a good job.
He was great. In fact the whole cast was great and anyone could have been nominated and been worthy of winning. I think Shell deserved his oscar but if they had given it to Tracey he would have been deserving too. It was just that type of movie with so many great performances.
shareA couple of minutes delivering a monologue while spending the rest of the movie sitting relatively motionless does not an Oscar make. You think that beats what Shell did as the Defense attorney? He should have been denied the Oscar for allowing the idiots to put on his makeup.
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This is just my opinion, but I find Burt Lancaster's performance in this film- and in general- to be very one-note. People complain about actor's not having much range, I think that could be said for him as well.
shareIn comparison with many of his other roles I thought Lancaster was spot on in this role. His subtlety during most of the film was a perfect preface to his final passionate speech.
On the special features section of the disc, the commentator said that Schell played the role of Janning in a theater production years later and was "much better" than Lancaster. Oh, well.
For me, the best momment in the film is when Lancaster (Janning) fianly stands up when Rolfe (Shell) is attacking Garland (Irene Hoffman) and says, "Herr Rolfe! Are we going to do this again?"
"There's no such thing as a pretty good gator wrestler." Johnny Knoxville, Jackass
Agree very strongly. I despise this S.O.P. of the academy of giving awards as "consuelo de bobo" (a fool's award) to actors for not particularly good movies and performances to make up for the fact that the members bypassed him or voted him down in the past. Consider that Burt got an award for that hokey performance in Elmer Gantry. Julie Andrews finally got hers for the forgettable Mary Poppins when all agree she should have gotten it in The Sound of Music. And Scorsese got his recently for a movie whose plot and action scenes were lifted directly from a Chinese Hong Kong movie, Infernal Affairs, which was much better than what he made. There are dozens of Scorsese films for which he should have been awarded. And when the poor movie professional is near dying, they give him a Lifetime Award to assuage their guilt. Very obvious.
sharejust watched this great film, but im not too convinced by BL either, he goes from underacting to overacting. now montgommery clift, theres one of the most intense performances ive ever saw! that was oscar worthy
shareI thought Lancaster was great too. I guess the film got so many Oscar noms they just didn't have room for Burt, but I thought he gave one of, if not the film's best performance.
shareI totally agree... he shouldve gotten at least a nomination. Even though his actual screen time/speaking time was small, it was POWERFUL!
I think the biggest kudos though, goes to screenwriter Abby Mann. This whole movie is just amazing!!!!
I was all set to give the example of Lancaster's typical over-acting ("Were we deaf... dumb.... BLIND....???) as proof of why he did not deserve a nomination here but I can see another poster already cited that example. I love this movie, but his hammy performance really weakens the film. Everyone else brought their A-Game to this work but his was a joke.
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