Hello and welcome to a special Academy Awards edition of Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!
Today I'll be talking about some of the great acting award snubs in Oscar's long and glorious history. Every year it seems there are at least one or two major films or performances that either go ignored by the Academy or lose to inferior competition. I can think of several films now heralded as all-time classics that were shown little Oscar love back in the day -
Citizen Kane,
It's a Wonderful Life, and the original
Star Wars for example.
Then there are the baffling upsets like
Shakespeare in Love beating out
Saving Private Ryan,
Ordinary People being chosen over
Raging Bull,
Kramer vs. Kramer over
Apocalypse Now, and of course
Forrest Gump trouncing both
Pulp Fiction and
The Shawshank Redemption.
Additionally certain universally-acclaimed films over the years have simply been shut out of the proceedings.
Hoop Dreams for Best Documentary in 1994,
The Lego Movie for Best Animated Feature in 2015, and for me,
Boogie Nights for Best Picture in 1997.
But maybe the most common examples of the Academy failing to recognize deserving achievements fall into the acting categories. So many great performances have gone unnoticed by the myopic Oscar over the decades. I can name many more than ten, but this being a
Top Ten Things column I've narrowed it down to what I feel are the ten most egregious snubs in Oscar history.
***Note*** Given how difficult it is to rank acting performances I'll be presenting these in chronological order.
1. Miriam Hopkins - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
As fiery dance hall girl Ivy Pearson, Hopkins delivered a performance on par with her Oscar-winning co-star Frederic March. Their onscreen chemistry was phenomenal and helped elevate this version of Stevenson's classic novella into much more than a typical 1930s monster movie. Throughout the film Hopkins' character is horribly victimized by the sadistic, abusive Hyde, and she amazingly conveys Ivy's desperation and hopelessness.
Key Scene: Ivy visits Dr. Jekyll for help, unaware that he and Hyde are one and the same. As she implores Jekyll to save her she erupts into tears while he looks on, overwhelmed by guilt at being the cause of her torment. This is a heartbreaking scene.
2. Jeff Goldblum - The Fly (1986)
Another horror film that didn't require an Oscar-worthy performance per se, David Cronenberg's remake of
The Fly is largely remembered for its gross-out makeup effects, as its protagonist Seth Brundle gradually deteriorates into a repulsive larva-man. But underneath all that disgusting makeup is Jeff Goldblum, who went above and beyond to make Brundle into a three-dimensional character we simultaneously fear and pity. The film is essentially an AIDS parable; Brundle's condition is presented as a cellular disease that both breaks down his body and strips him of his humanity.
Key Scene: Late in the film Brundle's ex-girlfriend Veronica (Geena Davis) visits his apartment one final time. By this point Brundle has become a lumpy brown mass with insect mannerisms whose human side has almost totally receded. He warns her to stay away, delivering a tragic monologue about the brutality of the insect brain.
