Leading Actor 1977

No little insights into me or any cool little anecdote or whatever. Let's just get to the actors and see what they have to offer this year.

1977 Best Actor

Richard Dreyfuss - The Goodbye Girl

I'll admit right off the bat that this performance just doesn't do all that much for me. I enjoy Dreyfuss in Jaws, Close Encounters, and even Mr. Holland's Opus, but not this film. I think most of that stems from not liking the film and because the character Dreyfuss plays is such an asshole. The film is supposed to be a sort of romantic comedy where Dreyfuss tries to enter a new apartment he has rented only to find a mother and daughter living there already. They all are antagonistic towards each other at first and then warm up into a family unit. A basic story but the motivations of the characters are just bizarre and done only for  convenience. I don't feel like any of the relationships established are authentic in the slightest little bit. Part of the dislike towards the character is that Dreyfuss is playing a theater actor, come to NYC to star in his first play. The stress of it not going as planned (because the director wants him to play Richard III as gay) actually does feel real and the building animosity between he and Marsha Mason is understandable. I like that Dreyfuss creates that portrait of a New York actor. That part is fine, it's just the inevitable love story that drags everything down. The two grownups seem to despise each other, with good reason, and then on a dime, the dynamic flips to one of respect and love and loins. That's the writing, of course, but Dreyfuss certainly doesn't help sell it and make it believable. I think that's the main takeaway of the beginning of the film. Dreyfuss is a total asswipe and pretty annoying and doesn't do anything to endear his character to the audience. Which wouldn't be a problem if they didn't turn the character around 180 degrees and make him into a sympathetic, caring family man. That would have been an actual character arc but that doesn't exist here. The blame has to partially fall on Dreyfuss for not building that arc and letting the character stay unconvincing. As the film goes on, Dreyfuss shows his warmth as he falls in love with Mason and is nice to her daughter (though some of the interactions bordered on creepy, I must say). He's sweet and charming and loving and realizes he's happy and then he gets an offer for a film and that goes right out the window. Again, that abrupt change would be better if the tonal shifts weren't so starkly contrasted. And the fact that I didn't find him all that great in the beginning only to kinda warm up to him by the end says everything about his performance. I feel that he won because he had this film and Close Encounters in the same year and the Academy rewarded him for it. I don't know if that's true but more often than not, some wins are given because an actor has a bunch of highly visible and well liked roles. Looking at the rest of the list, he may have just been the default choice. I'll find out soon enough.

Woody Allen - Annie Hall

This was the first and only time Woody Allen was nominated for acting and it feels apropos that it would be for Annie Hall and that it would be so early in his long career. A lot of people don't enjoy Allen as an actor because he's so frenetic and neurotic and annoying. If you've watched all his films, you'll see that Allen is very much the same in almost every single one of them. That's just Woody Allen playing Woody Allen. Often times it works, a lot of times at the end of his acting days, it doesn't. Allen works for me in this performance. He's got that standup comedian sense of dry humor and uses to great effect in this film. He's hilarious at times but not always obviously so. His neurosis also works well for the characters he plays, but especially in this performance because it's who he is as an actor and a person. The story is about his relationship to Diane Keaton, so you can see the Allen you know from real life in the character. I think it just depends on how annoying you find that style as to whether you like this performance or not. To me, it's not anywhere close to as grating as it is in his later performances. He's more subdued and dialed back and more focused on the comedy and telling a good story. Now, should Allen have won an Oscar for acting? No way. I don't think he was ever anything amazing as an actual actor, he's just good at playing Woody Allen. So it's nice that he has one acting nomination to go with all his writing and directing nominations but he certainly didn't deserve a win. Allen is good in Annie Hall and him being nominated isn't a problem for me. If he had won, maybe I would have taken him down a bit more but one nomination is fine for his career (which of course no one could tell how long that would be back then, but you get my point). I like the nomination and Woody would be well rewarded for this film anyway.

Richard Burton - Equus

This is a weird film based on a play that still gets put on even today about a boy who blinds a bunch of horses but also loves them, as in really loves them. They boy is naked a lot with his horse and they like to horse around and bad puns aside, this is about sex with a horse. So yeah, the subject is weird but I actually was really into the film mostly because of Burton's performance. I think it was also because of Sidney Lumet's direction, but mostly it was Burton. We first see him with just half his face in shadow as he delivers a monologue to the camera and it is a striking scene. It's buoyed by Burton who just commands the screen with a deep voice grabs your attention. I later read that Burton did all eight or so of his monologues in one day of shooting because of scheduling issues or something which hammers home how amazing and effective they are. He did all of them in one day and they don't at all feel like someone who just learned his lines and recited from memory. The monologues feel lived in and carefully studied and have their own presence within the film. I was hooked from there as we follow him interview Peter Firth and his family and others about the horse stuff and be a concerned therapist. I think Burton is solid in this. The film might be strange but he gives the role his all and nails all of those monologues, which is very impressive to me. I love how he goes from building rage that peaks to immediately becoming almost a narrator with a return to his normal voice. You'll see what I mean when you watch it, but how he goes from passionate to normal so quickly without skipping the beats of the performance is amazing stuff. It also feels like a throwback performance which makes sense as Burton is a veteran actor who was very much a huge actor in the 50s and 60s where this style would feel at home. I also like how self reflective the performance is when Burton's character talks with his lady friend and sort of drills down into his own psyche and mind about what's going on in his life. I just like this performance a lot. There are times where you watch something and it instantly clicks for you and Burton's performance was just that for me. This was Burton's 7th nomination and he didn't win any, but I am now looking forward to his performances if this is any indication of his work. For what most people will probably dismiss as weird and veteran, this nomination delivered for me.

Marcello Mastroianni - A Special Day

I had to look at my first review of Mastroianni to remember that I did indeed enjoy him in that first nomination I saw of his. I remember it being a lot more involved as far as performances go and I was hopeful that this one might be as interesting. And it lives up to the latter nomination as this Italian performance is quietly engaging. So Mastroianni doesn't show up until thirty minutes in and only is in the film for an hour. This is more a Sophia Loren film, though. She has a bird fly out her apartment and asks to come into his apartment to retrieve it. This all happens in a big apartment block while everyone else is out at the parade for Hitler coming to Italy. We see Mastroianni getting his affairs in order and it looks like he's going to kill himself before he's interrupted by Loren. We learn later that he is gay and an anti-fascist (fuck all fascists, by the way) and is going to be imprisoned on Sardinia. The two then engage in friendly banter and enjoy each other's company and it's a sweet moment for all involved. Mastroianni is human throughout his time onscreen. That sounds weird but in a film where a fascist speaker is the undertone for the whole film, it's nice to see a man be kind and gentle and funny and not at all an evil person. Mastroianni builds his character slowly and I do think that works for the film as we are made aware of certain things deliberately which makes their impact land with a more resounding noise. He's a man at his end, yet still has the effort to laugh and be human with Loren, knowing what's going to happen to him very soon. I didn't like the part where the two have sex, though it meant nothing to Mastroianni and is more of a release for Loren in her shitty marriage, but still it was ill conceived. Mastroianni is charming and bittersweet at the same time and I really enjoyed his nuanced performance of a man basically waiting out his time to go die. The performance is good, but short lived. In this year, though, he might just have a shot to win it all with me.

John Travolta - Saturday Night Fever

Okay, admit that when you see the name John Travolta and the film Saturday Night Fever, it conjures up visions of him in a white suit doing the whole disco point thing in a club. The two are synonymous but what a lot of people don't realize is that he was nominated for an Oscar for this performance and that he was fucking good. This is a star making performance and the Academy recognized that and nominated him for it. I think they wanted to be all in on the next big thing and Travolta has the swagger to pull off the hot shot dancer. I think that's his greatest attribute here is all the confidence he has as he dances and as he woos the ladies and as he tells his father to fuck off for complaining about him getting a raise. He's just so energetic for all the same reasons. He's full of rhythm and you can tell he just wants to bust a move at any given moment. He also tells it like it is with his family, with his boss at work, with his friends, and with the ladies he bangs. That part surprised me about the film because I guess I only ever saw the TV version and this one is a very vulgar film, but naturally so. Everyone is cussing and talking about pussies creaming and all this stuff that feels like legit young guys in Brooklyn in the late 70s who have been brought up in Italian households talking. I remembered it as a goody two shoes disco movie and it's way more than that. What's also good about the performance is that he is more than just the usual Italian kid stereotype. Sure, he has all those qualities but he gives the character more depth that he probably deserves. It's like he's conflicted in that he wants to treat women good but is still a guy who uses them as his plaything. He wants to do more than just stay in the neighborhood and be a loser like his father. He wants to move out to Manhattan and do greater things. He says racist things but recognizes that the Hispanic couple should have won the dance competition because they were flat out better. He seems like a genuinely good guy who is defined by the times. There's just a lot more to the performance than just the dancing and I think most people forget that. It wasn't going to win but it definitely deserves to be highlighted with these other men. It's nice to see that it wasn't just the good looks and dancing that got him nominated, but the depth of the performance that put him here.


Again, I'm pretty happy with this Best Actor group. When I put the Oscar winner last, it can only be good from there. I did not like Dreyfuss' performance in that film. I did not like that film. He was a partial reason why, though his performance got better as the film went on. But still, I did not like how much of an asshole he was and how unlikable the character was overall. He won because of this film and his work in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I think it does come down to that. Mastroianni has grown on me since I watched that film. It's a sweet, deeply affected performance. There are missteps in it but I did enjoy it more than I thought I would. Allen is Allen. We've seen that same performance many times but this was probably the best iteration of it. He was rewarded with a Best Picture and Best Director win and even a Best Original Screenplay win. So he's fine at third with his only acting nomination. Travolta was way more impressive than I remember him being. There is way more depth to his performance than I think most people realize. It's also a star making turn and he nailed it and did a fantastic job. Easy number two. Burton, though, wow. I had no expectations going into his performance because I just didn't know. Maybe it was a veteran type of thing but I didn't know and then I was knocked the hell over by this amazing piece of acting. I enjoyed the monologues and the acting and just the whole intensity of his performance. It makes the film for me and for that he is my winner. This was a pretty good group and that's all I can ever ask for as I go backwards through the years.

Oscar Winner: Richard Dreyfuss - The Goodbye Girl
My Winner:  Richard Burton - Equus
John Travolta
Woody Allen
Marcello Mastroianni
Richard Dreyfuss