I don't suspect many responses any time soon here. And that is a shame.
Rod Steiger was a master and I respect him all the more after having seen this movie.
Giddy-up, goat!
This has got to be the best acting performance not to win the Oscar, or at least in the top 5. IMO, it is one of the most powerful performances ever commited to film. Rod Steiger is now in my top 5 favorite actors, just for this performance alone. Not that he wasn't great in "On the Waterfront", "In the Heat of the Night" and another favorite of mine, "No Way to Treat a Lady"
"The Pawnbroker" is a relentlessly depressing film, but if you're looking for a performance that will leave you in awe, and to see a well-made movie in general, this is a must-see. I love Juano Hernandez' role in this, however brief. It's a shame that character actors like him didn't get more significant roles over the years.
That's one way to put it, dchristrev. Relentlessly depressing. But oh, how awe-inspiring Mr. Steiger is in it.
Giddy-up, goat!
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What's even more remarkable is that the performance that DID win the best acting Oscar for 1965 was one of the most lightweight ever to win: Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou. Lee Marvin plays a drunken cowboy, yuk, yuk, yuk. I think it may have Hollywood's collective subconscious saying, "we can't deal with this topic yet, try again in 25-30 years."
shareI completely agree. To make it even worse, the Academy repeated the absurdity just a few years later as the majority bypassed Dustin Hoffman's epic performance in Midnight Cowboy and gave the Oscar to John Wayne for his performance as... drum roll... a drunken cowboy.
I have seen enough to know I have seen too much. -- ALOTOshare
Steiger was incredible, I can't believe he didn't win the Oscar for Best Actor. Makes me wanna say *beep* the Oscar's. Brock Peters also gave a great performance though not as great as Steiger's.
shareSteiger was awesome. I'm afraid that young viewers will only know him as an actor whose movies (like MODERN VAMPIRES) show up on cable at three in the morning. And young viewers wouldn't know what to make of THE PAWNBROKER because it's not only a serious piece of work but it's in black and white.
A lady at church who teaches high school was telling me about comparing 9/11 to Pearl Harbor and and her students being amazed. "You mean that really happened?" They had all seen Michael Bay's film PEARL HARBOR and had no idea that it was based on real events. Will the Holocaust be lost to the next generation, too?
Definitely Steiger's best.
Yup - Steiger, in anything he does, is an incredibly accomplished actor worthy of greater accolades than he's received over the decades.
T.Paul
http://www.t-paul.com
True enough !
Steiger in 'Waterloo - 1970 ' Another great, intense performance. A fine documentation of that history on film also .
I am one and I am all, but sometimes, I am nothing at all .
Amen to that, T Paul! And I've got to check out Steiger in "Waterloo"
shareSteiger gives a monumentus performance in Waterloo! See it! It's one of his best!
shareSteiger's natural tendency was always to overact and be hammy. This is one of his few performances where he is completely understated and it's magnificent. It remind me of Richard Burton, who was even more hammy than Steiger and whose sole understated performance was in Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
sharei have to agree...even if my reply a little late! his performance in this movie was so full of anguish i almost couldn't bear to watch at times. just brilliant.
shareGreat, two more for me to check out! "Waterloo" and "No Way To Treat A Lady".
Giddy-up, goat!
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Rod Steiger is one of the greatest actors of all time.
Off the top of my head the only other work of his I have seen is In The Heat of the Night, one of the greatest performances on film. After seeing The Pawnbroker, all I can say is...wow.
I saw this film by chance on TV as a kid and was mesmerised by Steiger. Especially his 'silent screaming' (Which pacino as the Godfather did in tribute at the end of Godfather 3)?
I recently watched this again and found it was even more powerful than I recalled. An astonishing actor. reminded me of brando some times but was brando ever this naked? Any other steiger performances compare to this one?
"ah have always depended upon the strangeness of kindness..."