Leading Actress 1979

I've seen none of these but there are some big names. I'm hoping that they all live up to their names and give me a great group. I'm interested in Clayburgh because it's my first interaction with her and I've heard good things. Let's watch.

1979 Best Actress

Sally Field - Norma Rae

From the start Sally Field is pretty intense with her performance. We first see her at the textile mill she works at with her momma, who can't hear because of working there forever, so she takes her to the on site doctor and then screams at him for not doing anything for her. I honestly wasn't expecting the film and her performance to start off that way and it caught me off guard but it sure did make me pay extra attention right from the start. The film is about Field, a small town woman who works at a textile mill and meets a labor union representative and begins to advocate for a union. What I really enjoy about Field's performance is that her character is fully realized. She isn't just trying to organize a union. She also has a dynamic with her father that is explored, she has a kinda sorta sexual tension with the labor union rep, dates and gets married, and has to be a mother on top of all of that. Field balances all of it expertly without any other part of her story suffering. She is intense at the very beginning but she settles into the role quickly after that and we see she is a sarcastic, passionate, caring woman. We see that she loves her father who still tries to control her a bit even though she's a grown woman with two kids. She admits she is kind of a floozy and falls for the wrong guys and doesn't think getting some is wrong, either. She's passionate about her family, friends, and eventually her work. When the labor union rep comes around, she keeps running into him and he eventually convinces her that her mill needs a union so the workers can have healthcare and a livable wage and all that stuff that matters. Field has great chemistry with the New York Jew who is a fish out of water so to speak. But it's only a somewhat sexually tense sort of relationship. By the end, Field is deep into the union organizing thing. I mean, Field is very good in this role. It seems like she was destined to play it because she looks and sounds and feels so natural for the character. The performance feels lived in and Field makes it all look effortless. Her second win almost builds off this character with her down home, folksy Southern charm - like that was a continuation of this role. Field is just plain good, though, in this performance.

Jill Clayburgh - Starting Over

I didn't realize that Jill Clayburgh had only two Oscar nominations to her credit. I had looked over this Best Actress group so often that I confused her with someone else, I guess, because I could have sworn Clayburgh had like 4 nominations. Alas, she does not, only this one and a nomination for the prior year. My point for that was that I had some higher expectations for Clayburgh. I thought she was a force to be reckoned with and someone I needed to pay attention to. But that's not really the case when it comes to this film. Clayburgh portrays a woman who is set up on a date with Burt Reynolds and they kinda hit it off eventually. The two like each other, though Clayburgh is wary that Reynolds is too fresh off a divorce. He proves that he's into her and they shack up before things go awry. Clayburgh is pretty good in the role of the nursery teacher who overcomes her shyness. She also challenges Reynolds and doesn't let him get away with anything. She's tough and strong and wary for a reason. She is very unsure and when at a Thanksgiving dinner, she is referred to as a friend. Well that sets her off obviously and we see Reynolds scramble to recover. They move in together but the relationship is never solid though Clayburgh is loving and dedicated. Her performance is more of a supporting type of role because she isn't in the whole film. She is only in part of the film just like Candice Bergen and for a time I thought Clayburgh was done with the film after a bit. From what I read, this was also a token nomination for her getting screwed out of an Oscar win the year prior for which she also won Best Actress at Cannes. Apparently that film, An Unmarried Woman, did super well and by all accounts she possibly should have won the Oscar. I say that without having seen any of those and without knowing the background but it seems totally possible. Jane Fonda won a second so maybe there is some truth to that but I am very excited to see Clayburgh's first Best Actress nomination and if it does deserve a win. This nomination, however, was pretty underwhelming. Though I will say for this being a romantic comedy type of film, the performance is at least elevated from the usual stereotypes and tropes you see in those types of characters.

Jane Fonda - The China Syndrome

I am always prepared to hate Jane Fonda for some reason, maybe her politics and personal life, I dunno. But then I watch her act and I'm taken with how great she is. I like her current work with Netflix and I've enjoyed her work so far in this project minus On Golden Pond, but whatever. I know that she is a two time winner before these nominations so I'm always looking for a moving experience. I think this role really fits what Fonda is all about as a person. She plays a TV journalist who is looking for good TV pieces and goes to a nuclear power plant to do a showcase. While there, the plant has a crisis that is danger close to a meltdown and her camera guy films everything. And that's really what the film is about. She realizes she stumbles on a big story and pursues it. She circles the story like a Great White and she is steadfast. That is her character arc. The TV journalist who wants to do more than puff pieces and now has a chance at something legit. Fonda is serious in the role and she is actually really great in the role, it's just that the role doesn't give her much to do besides be the super nosy, noble journalist. But her best scene is the end when she is super journalist trying to get to the bottom of what happened in the plant and outside when talking to the employees. It is a very emotional scene and she handles everything well. I actually believe that Fonda could be a TV journalist because she's so good at the interactions before she's on camera, the actual conversation on camera, and her making sure everything was good afterwards. But really that's what Fonda's nomination is about. It's a warning that Three Mile Island could occur anywhere since it happened 12 days after this film premiered. It makes her performance prescient and I feel that might have a little bit to do with her getting nominated. It's still pretty good work that wasn't winning because it would have meant a second straight Oscar and third one overall, which wasn't happening.

Marsha Mason - Chapter Two

I was a big fan of the first Marsha Mason performance I watched in Only When I Laugh. So I was very excited to see what she would do here in another Neil Simon film. I was, alas, let down. Not that Mason was bad at all, just that this performance was nowhere near her 1981 performance I loved so much. Part of that has to do with expectations but some of it is just that the film is lesser as a whole. The film is about James Caan who is a recently widowed writer meeting Mason who is a recently divorced actress. What I learned in researching this is that this is autobiographical for Simon, which means Mason is playing herself basically. The two were married in real life and this is a riff on their relationship, I guess. That makes it really interesting, but it doesn't make it a better performance. The first 30 minutes is Caan and Mason talking on the phone. They eventually do meet and have a very theatrical romance. Meaning that the dialogue is very theater like and their banter is far from natural. They get real heavy, real fast and they burn out pretty quick, too. He still thinks about his dead wife while Mason is confused and trying to placate him. Mason is very charming and reads her husband's lines well. She is great at acting out his words but this is really nothing more than some odd romantic dramedy type stuff. Mason is likable in this but I'm not sure this is actually Oscar worthy acting. Maybe they were rewarding her for playing a version of herself in a difficult relationship? Wouldn't put it past the Academy to reward someone for being themselves. Mason is okay here but I just can't understand this Neil Simon film getting nominated for anything.

Bette Midler - The Rose

I guess you could consider this Bette Midler's magnum opus. Although, can it be a magnum opus if you aren't that widely known before this film debut? She was releasing albums as a singer prior to this but nothing like a rocker that she portrayed. Her second nomination in For the Boys is more like a culmination of her life work because in that she is basically a nightclub singer who becomes a USO darling with all the drama that brings. So yeah, this is her big work. Now, I'm not really a Bette Midler fan. I don't dig her singing at all, her acting is not that great, and all her star persona stuff just isn't for me. In this, she plays a Janis Joplin figure even though it's not Janis Joplin. The stuff I read basically said they didn't get the rights to the story but Midler said she didn't want to tell her story so soon after her death which is of course hogwash, but whatever. Midler is intense in this role. She has a few songs that she actually performs and sings her heart out on even though they aren't very good or memorable in any way. She takes to being this sort of bipolar woman who has high highs and low lows. She falls for a limo driver who rescues her from a situation she doesn't want to handle and they have a crazy night together. This is Midler's starring turn and she is fully committed to the role and if you told her she needed to actually do drugs or get wasted or fuck some random bar dude for authenticity, I feel like Midler would have considered it even if she wouldn't because that's the performance she gives. She makes her Rose trashy and it is no doubt an interesting thing to watch Midler unravel only to pull it all together once she hits the stage. Midler is dedicated to the character and does her best but ultimately this film isn't all that interesting. Partially because Midler is more concerned with the aesthetic and trying to be a rockstar than letting us into The Rose as a person. We watch her do her thing but never know what motivates her other than she wants to show those back home that she is something? It's underdeveloped and not entirely interesting and that's kinda Midler in a nutshell here for me.


As expected, a very shitty Best Actress group. I expected it because this category fails to deliver routinely. Field is the easy winner. It is no one but her and no one comes close. That's a sad fact. Mason brings up the rear with a boring performance. It was a romantic comedy type of performance and she just didn't do much and she played herself and made it uninteresting so here she is. Clayburgh is next because I at least enjoyed her a little bit more in her romantic comedy performance. Forgettable though. Midler is not someone I like at all. I don't give a shit about her shtick. Her whole lounge singer bullshit is not interesting in the least. I had her last but she is at least better than the romantic comedy girls. Some will love Midler and like the performance and want her to win but not for me. No way. Fonda is second because she couldn't win and didn't deserve to win. She doesn't deserve a third win and not a second consecutive win. Her performance ain't all that. Field is leaps and bounds better than everyone else COMBINED. This is a garbage group and 1978 better be better because I'm tired of crappy nominees.

Oscar Winner: Sally Field - Norma Rae
My Winner: Sally Field - Norma Rae
Jane Fonda
Bette Midler
Jill Clayburgh
Marsha Mason