The latest in my addition of Best Actor Winners:
Actor: William Hurt
Character: Luis Molina
Movie: Kiss of the Spider Woman
Director: Hector Babenco
Year: 1985
Other Nominees:
Harrison Ford - Witness
James Garner - Murphy's Romance
Jack Nicholson - Prizzi's Honor
Jon Voight - Runaway Train
When looking the Best Actor field of 1985, I was impressed by the talent of actors, ranging from the television veteran James Garner, Harrison Ford's sole Oscar nomination, the reliable Jon Voight and Jack Nicholson in one of his greatest roles. However, William Hurt would take the big prize in somewhat of a surprise. Kiss of the Spider Woman is notable for helping to bring independent movies to the Oscars, while also being one of the few homosexual movies that Oscar embraced.
The strength of Hurt's performance relies on the great chemistry that he shares with his political prisoner cellmate, Valentin (Raul Julia). Both actors fully flesh out their characters and present two radically different men. Hurt's character relies on his own fantasies and interpreation of cinema to allow him to think outside of his prison walls. Hurt portrays his telling of these stories to his cellmate in both an honest way, but also as a means to gather intel on his cellmate to gurantee his own release. Yet, Luis never wants to betray his friend, Hurt's performance convinces the audience of Luis's love and affection for his cellmate. The love Luis feels for Valentin mirrors that of his favorite movie, and part of Luis' love feels fueld by that passion. Regardless of the nature or the feelings of Luis, William Hurt creates a singular character that helps drive a movie that mainly takes place in a singular location.
Other Awards:
Best Actor: BAFTA
Best Actor: Cannes Film Festival
Best Actor Drama Nominee: Golden Globes
Best Actor: Los Angeles Film Critics
Best Actor: National Board of Review
Thursday, February 18, 2010
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I ignore most movies from the 80s. I was scarred for life after being sat through the entirety of Can't Buy Me Love.
ReplyDeleteOn top of that, I've only seen Hurt in A History of Violence, where he was admittedly awesome. I'm such a bad movie geek.
Hurt just stole the end of History of Violence, check out Into the Wild and Dark City for some non-80's William Hurt movies
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great film!
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