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How About A Hand for Bruce Dern

posted 2 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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Nebraska ended up being a showcase role for Bruce Dern late in his life(and he's still alive as I post this almost 10 years after the movie's release.)

But he was not director Alexander Payne's first choice.

Evidently Payne first pitched the Oscar-bait old man role to his "About Schmidt" star Jack Nicholson, seeking to continue the "dulling down" of Nicholson that he had done in that good movie.

Nicholson passed. An attempt was made to lure Gene Hackman out of retirement. But Hackman wasn't budging.

Evidently Robert Duvall was considered. Easy to see him in the role..I don't know if he passed.

Nicholson had often, over the years, pitched his friend Bruce Dern for roles that Nicholson had to turn down. Like in Hitchcock's Family Plot.

I figure that Nicholson pitched Dern to Payne and Payne decided "close enough, I can't get anybody else.:

And Dern was a revelation.

Its a performance worthy of deep study, if you ask me. Bruce Dern was never a big star, but at his peak(in the 70s), he was always full of energy, a life-wire wild card who could be counted on to sneer a lot and project over-confidence and/or rage in a BIG way when called upon to. I am thinking of his bullying cop in "The Driver"(1978) and his bullying frontier killer in The Cowboys(1972) but also of lots of other roles.

Well, here the "live wire" has blown out, and we are left with a blank faced, frail shell of a man who doesn't seem to be able to react to ANYTHING (His responses are usually "What?" "Huh?" and "I don't know.") And yet...something's going on in there. In a sad replication of old people I have known in my life..just when Dern's Woody Grant seems incapable of thought or speech...he says a few knowledgeable sentences, his personality comes to life(often in anger)..he REMEMBERS. And then the battery dies, the light fades out...the face goes blank again.

Its just a great performance and if you want to see exactly how great it is, just plug in a few scenes from, say "The King of Marvin Gardens"(1972, with Nicholson) or The Driver and compare him to THIS.

Better still: look up some interviews with Dern made AT THE TIME he was promoting Nebraska and you can see that the real Bruce Dern -- 70 something at the time -- was much sharper and alert than Woody Grant.

The Academy nominated Bruce Dern for Best Actor(his only time) and probably felt it was enough -- a "career end life achievement nod." But in their rush to honor him with a nomination just to pat him on the head for his past work, the Academy just may have missed that Dern gave a PERFORMANCE of great skill and precision. We all have known -- and maybe lost -- a Woody Grant -- Dern got him down perfectly.

PS. I do believe that Jack Nicholson -- already into a retirement he had not announced -- took the time to host an Academy theater screening of Nebraska for his old pal Bruce.

[–] hoosiergirl (217) 2 years ago

I thought Bruce was brilliant in this and can't imagine anyone else in the role now. He mastered so many subtle facial expressions, for starters. My favorite is when they are ordering at the restaurant and he tells the waitress he wants the fried chicken but his wife overrides him and says "he'll have the flame-broiled". She snatches the menu out of his hands and his facial expression quickly goes from looking like he wants to smack her to tired resignation. He keeps his hands in the position in which he was holding the menu for a few seconds before turning back to staring down at the table and giving up.

Another example is when his wife is explaining to the sons that the Westendorfs are good people, Woody very subtly goes from seeming disinterested to looking over at her with the teeniest, tiniest hint of a smile in agreement and almost as if he's proud of her for saying something good for once. Brilliant.

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

I thought Bruce was brilliant in this and can't imagine anyone else in the role now.

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Yep. Nicholson, Hackman, and Duvall evidently all turned down the role and opened the door to give Dern a chance to show his stuff. It IS Dern's role.

---He mastered so many subtle facial expressions, for starters.

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Yes. Woody is often a "blank slate" and you can't tell what he is thinking at all. But then...something specific is communicated. Great acting.

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My favorite is when they are ordering at the restaurant and he tells the waitress he wants the fried chicken but his wife overrides him and says "he'll have the flame-broiled".

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She RUNS him. Tough love.

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She snatches the menu out of his hands and his facial expression quickly goes from looking like he wants to smack her to tired resignation. He keeps his hands in the position in which he was holding the menu for a few seconds before turning back to staring down at the table and giving up.

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Yep, I can see it now, perfectly done by Dern and you end up rooting for him.

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Another example is when his wife is explaining to the sons that the Westendorfs are good people, Woody very subtly goes from seeming disinterested to looking over at her with the teeniest, tiniest hint of a smile in agreement and almost as if he's proud of her for saying something good for once.

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I caught the menu and chicken order look...but not this one. Time for another viewing!

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Brilliant.

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Yes.