The five…worst actor / actress screw-ups in Oscar History

As I said before, Oscar is often wrong. Honestly, though, they bat at around 90% with their picks for best Actor and Actress–usually, the winners are so clearly defined they can’t go wrong. You could bet your firstborn on Reese Witherspoon and Philip Seymour Hoffman winning last year or Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker winning this time around.

Still, though, they’ve made some bad decisions. So, let’s take another spin in The Five for the biggest blunders in the best actor and actress category, for the last 25 years.

5. 1998: Roberto Begnini (Life is Beautiful) over Edward Norton (American History X)

1998 was a banner year for the Best Actor category. Besides Begnini and Norton, there were excellent performances by Nick Nolte (in Affliction) Ian McKellen (in Gods and Monsters) and Tom Hanks (in Saving Private Ryan) that could have easily won any other year. Begnini did win, for his comic, emotional turn in Life is Beautiful, but Norton should have. He makes his American skinhead Derek Vinyard first terrifying and cooly logical, then redeemed and sympathetic–an impossible task that Norton somehow pulls off, keeping the character humane and, eventually, heartbroken. An astonishing performance.

Considering the post-production problems that director Tony Kaye had with Norton and the studio, its a wonder we even got anything at all on the DVD–just a few deleted scenes, at that. Hopefully, a special-edition is on the way once everything is patched up. AMAZON

4. 1982: Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) over Paul Newman (The Verdict)

Newman won his Oscar a few years later–for The Color of Money–but this was the best performance of his storied career, profoundly affecting as an alcoholic Boston lawyer taking on The Man in a medical malpractice case. Sidney Lumet’s films proved incredibly fruitful for actors (Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway in Network, Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon) and Newman should have gotten his first award for this picture. Kingsley was excellent in Gandhi, but the veteran Newman deserved recognition.

A little, underwhelming release for The Verdict, with a lone featurette. Lumet created an excellent Dog Day Afternoon DVD; this deserves better. AMAZON

3. 2000: Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich) over Ellen Burstyn (Requiem for a Dream)

Roberts had the showier, baity role, but Burstyn’s drug-addled grandmother sticks with you like no other female performance that year. The veteran actress (most remembered as the tortured mom to crab-walking, pea-soup-vomiting Linda Blair in The Exorcist) gave a dash of wrenching humanity to the movie, one of the bleakest pictures of the decade. The final scene between her and her fellow addict son (Jared Leto) will be burned into your memory forever.

The DVD release of Requiem for a Dream has an excellent making-of documentary, a few deleted scenes, and some cast interviews. Not too bad, but a bigger release would be welcome. Pick up the two-pack with Darren Aronofsky’s creepy first film, Pi, as an added bonus. AMAZON

2. 1986: Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God) over Sigourney Weaver (Aliens)

Matlin’s unique performance–a deaf actress, in her first role, playing a deaf characer–was novel enough to win her the prize, but it was Weaver’s ultimate-tough-girl portrayal of Ellen Ripley in Aliens that was the best performance of the year. Its her best role in a decade of great performances by Weaver (Working Girl, Gorillas in the Mist) and the best acting performance ever by anyone in the action or sci-fi genre, one that has been shamefully overlooked by the Academy. That’s a truly unique role that should have been awarded.

The Aliens DVD may be the best package ever made for a movie, mostly due to a remarkable commentary with director James Cameron, producers, and a ton of actors (including Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen). There’s also an entire other cut of the movie with deleted scenes added in that develops the story of the LV 426 colonists before those gooey ETs started hoppin’ around. Add in a bunch of featurettes about the troubled production and you’ve got a classic release here. Highly recommended. AMAZON

1. 1993: Tom Hanks (Philadelphia) over Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List)

Speak ill of Hanks? Perish the thought. Here’s the truth, though: Neeson was much, much better in Schindler’s List than Hanks was in Philadelphia. His remarkable portrayal of Oskar Schindler–rough, profane and scummy, but with the sympathetic and merciful aspects of his character bursting through–is a revelation, much better than Hanks (the true acting star of that movie, honestly, was Denzel Washington as his lawyer ally). Tom deserved his Oscar for Forrest Gump–and even could have won one for Saving Private Ryan–but this was Neeson’s award.

The movie was Spielberg’s labor of love, and the DVD proves it, with a few documentaries illuminating the world of Schindler, the list, and Spielberg’s foundation. An excellent release. AMAZON