On the surface, this looks like quite the battle between Pacino and Nicholson in two of their best roles of all time. I've seen both and think both are incredible and either one could have won the Oscar and we'd all be okay with either decision. I'm interested in seeing exactly what the other three can bring to this fight, if anything. Two previous Oscar winners in Matthau and Schell, and then a relative unknown in Whitmore. Let's find out who is left standing after all of this.
1975 Best Actor
Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One of the really interesting things about Jack Nicholson is that every time he won an acting Oscar, his costar in the same film also won for Best Actress. All three times (Louise Fletcher, Shirley MacLaine, and Helen Hunt), which is really impressive. I would say that this is Jack's best of his three wins and probably the one people remember the most. It's definitely classic Jack and has all his trademarks as an actor but they don't become the mannerisms of his later work. When he's shouting and getting angry and being very animated, you absolutely see shades of his future work in The Shining. When he's acting a fool and being a goofball and making faces, you see that classic Jack face shine through that will become a primary means of acting for him in the future. So this performance is just before his habits start to become more pronounced and noticeable. And because it's still early in his career, everything comes off as genuine. Jack plays a man who is a criminal who gets sent to an asylum to be monitored to see if he is crazy and needs to be committed. McMurphy (Nicholson) is a brash, loudmouthed asshole who likes to challenge authority. That kind of character needed to be played by someone who could effectively portray that bravado but do so in a way that doesn't make you want to punch him in the face through the screen. Nicholson keeps his character likable which is key to the performance because deep down, even though McMurphy is a criminal and doesn't really contribute anything positive to society, he's still a human being and still has a kind soul. That's evidenced by talking to Chief even though he's told he's deaf and dumb and by being nice to Billy Bibbit. He grows to care about these guys he's locked up with and brings a friendship even if it's steeped in selfishness. McMurphy never wants to be controlled and that's exactly what Nurse Ratched wants to do, so the two butt heads and share an animosity with each other. Their dynamic is pivotal in showing Nurse Ratched as the evil one with McMurphy becoming almost like a savior to the other patients. He eventually shows them all a tenderness that is necessary to combat the vindictive power of Nurse Ratched. Nicholson makes the performance look almost too easy, like he's not really putting in work, but he definitely is. He has so many good scenes that cover a range of emotions and abilities like teach Chief basketball, the fishing trip escape, the after hours party where he gets Billy laid, to trying to strangle Nurse Ratched. Just a ton of great acting from Nicholson in what is surely his best Oscar win.
Walter Matthau - The Sunshine Boys
What's this? Me liking a Neil Simon film? I kid, but this is probably my favorite Neil Simon film so far. Probably because the rapid fire dialogue is in expert hands with Matthau and Burns. The film is about a nephew of Matthau trying to get his old vaudeville duo together again for a comedy retrospective. The two haven't spoken for years and Matthau himself is a handful. I'm a huge fan of Matthau's brand of comedy. He does physical comedy so well and I love his deadpan delivery of jokes. I like to think my grandpa was a big fan of his because I remember him mentioning that he loved Grumpy Old Men and that means we have the same taste which makes me happy. As is typical of a Simon film, Matthau talks a lot and has a joke every few seconds it seems. It doesn't get old and every joke or sarcastic remark or reciting a question after someone asks him the same question right before is hilarious to me. And once George Burns enters the equation, the comedy ramps up. The two are just like Simon's earlier film, The Odd Couple. They can argue and fight, but it's all done in a riotous way. I lost it when they were setting up Matthau's apartment but weren't on the same page and Matthau is like wait, which bit are we doing and then they talk a second and confirm and then start moving furniture in the opposite way and he realizes it and yells at Burns because they are doing the same thing in reverse. When you watch it, you'll burst out laughing because the two actors can make rearranging furniture into a hilarious situation. The two are brilliant but I feel like Matthau deserves more of the brilliance in that instance. I'll also admit that most will probably find him annoying or at least obnoxious. He's a muttering old fool who yells at you for correcting him even when you're right and it helps him out. That's just the character and Matthau does a good job with that. The other thing is that Matthau is supposed to be playing a guy who is like 80 years old but is in his mid 50s. If I didn't tell you, you might have thought he was a lot older. I don't feel like the age difference matters because Matthau can be the doddering old goat and make it look convincing through his comedic actions. I like Matthau as a comedian and as an actor. I think he's strong here but this performance was never going to win in a loaded Best Actor group and that's okay. I'm just glad I got to review him for this performance.
Al Pacino - Dog Day Afternoon
Attica, Attica! If you're not shouting it with him, what are you even doing? This is possibly peak Pacino (alliteration fun). Yeah, he's terrific in The Godfather films before this, but Pacino raises his acting to a new level. And I feel like this was the birth of some of his future mannerisms and is the building block for the rest of his career. We get the manic, wired Pacino and it becomes a lot of fun to watch. The film sort of makes fun of Sonny (Pacino) as we first see him going into the bank and his whole plan quickly unravels from there. It shows the ineptitude of the plan and just how nervous and energized Sonny is. When he flubs pulling his gun from the box, you can an idea of what Sonny is like. From there it's almost a comedy of errors as we see this frenetic Sonny trying to put out fires both literal and figurative. That's where Pacino shines when he's racing around trying to look tough when he clearly isn't and has to respond to all these little issues cropping up. Pacino is so good at showing us what's going on inside Sonny. We know that he realizes he's in over his head because it's written all over his face and in his eyes. As the film progresses we see how mentally and physically draining all of this is for Sonny and Pacino, ever the Method actor, portrays this dutifully. Some of his best scenes are when he is outside in front of the bank talking to the police and showboating at times for the crowd who loves him. He can go from being incredulous, to pissed off at the police, to asking a question like there isn't a bank robbery situation going on, to just simply being this frenzied presence in the film - all while mostly improvising a lot of script. That's the impressive part of Pacino's performance, is that a lot of his best moments are things that are improvised just like the Attica cry. Another great improvised moment is the phone call he has with his gay lover, Leon. That is a pivotal scene to the film because it speaks to their relationship and you get a sense of why Sonny is robbing the bank even though we also realize how conflicted he is as a person and how shitty he is, too. You see a beaten down man in those moments who is stuck in a tough spot and just wants to talk it out with someone he loves. We feel his exhaustion by the end of the film and definitely his desperation that drove him there in the first place. It's a really great performance that sums up Pacino's style from there on in with his mannerisms and his all out manic effort.
Maximilian Schell - The Man in the Glass Booth
One thing you notice about Schell is that he was typecast by Hollywood into doing a lot of Nazi films. In fact, all of his Oscar nominations come in films that have Nazism or him being a Nazi as a plot point. I'm sure him being an Austrian actor who moved to Switzerland with his family to actually avoid the Nazis has a hand in that. Especially him being an accomplished actor who can be more than just a bad Nazi man, but actually act and give a performance helps, too. Another really interesting fact before we get to the performance is that this was a film from the American Film Theatre series, which adapted stage plays for the big screen that would otherwise not get made. They were not released to the general public, only to those who got a subscription to the series and to critics and awards bodies. So this was never seen by the general public upon release and only hit DVD in 2003 after some legal wrangling. That means there were two little seen Best Actor nominees this year in Schell and Whitmore. Truly fascinating that that was ever a thing. As for the performance, Schell immediately reminded me of Tommy Wisseau from the infamous The Room movie. I know it's a weird comparison to make, but the energy and delivery of the material really reminded me of Wisseau. Schell is successful businessman and is a Nazi surviving Jew who doesn't really leave his fancy NYC apartment. His character has this weird energy that is fueled by a bunch of non-sequitur ramblings. He is eccentric, for sure, and also paranoid that someone is watching him. Schell is entertaining in this aspect because the character is so strange and Schell gets to have fun with a bizarre performance. I can also see Christoph Waltz easily doing this performance, because they have that same vibe. About an hour in, Schell is found out to be an actual Nazi who ran a concentration camp and is whisked off to Israel to stand trial. Schell continues with the same energy, yet this time it's turned into a malevolent kind instead of the kooky, weird, innocent Jew kind. Schell stays animated throughout the film and it's almost exhausting to watch him work because he goes non-stop. The performance is entertaining in that regard and really interesting just as a peering into this man's brain and soul. There is a twist at the end that isn't fully explained that I really wish was, but it makes the story even more interesting and makes Schell's performance a bit more intriguing. I would recommend the film and performance for just how crazy and entertaining Schell can be in what is probably a very little seen film.
James Whitmore - Give 'em Hell, Harry!
I was always very curious about this performance when looking at the nominees through the years. I had never heard of the film or the actor and was hoping that I was missing out on some great Harry Truman biopic. When I finally got to this year and did my research, I realized this wasn't a conventional film at all. This was a stage play of just James Whitmore as Harry Truman that was filmed at one of his Broadway shows and then packaged into a film version for all to see that somehow garnered an Oscar nomination. I actually wish more Broadway plays and musicals were filmed and released in theaters for those of us who can't go to NYC every year to see them. But I also understand that they want people to show up for their product and to hope they can sell the film rights to their play/musical down the line, I get it. However, as interesting and unique as this nomination is, it just isn't Oscar worthy. Whitmore is playing a role that he did night in and night out for a long time that got filmed and put in theaters. It'd be like giving an Oscar nomination to whoever won this year's Tony Award if they filmed it and put it in theaters. It shouldn't be nominated. As impressive as it is for Whitmore to do an hour and a half play about Truman all on his own, I can't vote for this. But, this play is available to watch on YouTube and I'd say it's worth checking out for just how monumentally impressive it is. The guy looks and sounds like Harry Truman and talks non-stop and I'll never know how anyone can memorize an hour and a half of lines and not mess up all the time. So no vote on this one but, hey, at least the Academy was thinking outside the box for once. And a last fun fact is that this was Whitmore's second Oscar nomination, which was surprising to me. He has a Supporting Actor nomination for an actual film role coming up in 1950 that I'm really interested in checking out.
Another pretty strong Best Actor group. You have what many consider to be one of the best acting performances ever in Nicholson competing with what many believe is Pacino's best performance (yes, over Michael Corleone) and that's a great group already right there. Thrown a reliably funny Matthau and a surprisingly crazy and entertaining Schell and it only goes from there. Whitmore is the outlier but is still really fascinating even if he doesn't belong in the group. Weird that there were two little seen nominees in Schell and Whitmore that made it onto this list. Whitmore is last with Nicholson winning for me. Pacino is second. The only real competition is between Matthau and Schell for third. I think Schell had a lot more to do and lot more risk involved even if he wasn't seen by as many people. It's an interesting role and film that more people should check out, I think. Matthau is in fourth but certainly isn't that bad, just ran up against a bunch of great performances. I'll keep taking years like this and I'm happy knowing that this group almost never lets me down.
Oscar Winner: Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
My Winner: Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Al Pacino
Maximilian Schell
Walter Matthau
James Whitmore
