Shocked that Newman did not win the Oscar
I am not a fan or Forrest Gump to begin with. I like Hanks but in no way is his performance better than Newman's.
shareAgreed. Newman's performance was nuanced and delicate. Hanks's performance is a party trick.
Hanks did great work in Philadelphia. Gump is just too...easy.
Oscar winner Jack Palance said "the peformance doesn't win an acting Oscar. The character does."
This is(or was) true a lot of the time. Atticus Finch. Don Vito Corleone. Rooster Cogburn. And ESPECIALLY if the character name is the name of the movie. Erin Brockovich.
Forrest Gump.
Tom Hanks won back to back for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump because for Philadelphia, he was (1) a straight (2) comedian playing a serious role as a gay man in an newsworthy affliction drama(he dies of AIDS) and in Forrest Gump...because of the character. The movie was a blockbuster and everyday people were doing the Forrest Gump voice ("I got shot in the butt-OCKS") just like they had done the voice for The Godfather and Hannibal Lecter.
"Nobody's Fool" gave Paul Newman his best role in years and suggested it just might be his last(he looked and sounded kinda old)...but that wasn't enough to beat the Gump Juggernaut (I will assume that Nobody's Fool earned 1/10th of the box office of Gump.)
Plus: the Academy had just never been too generous to Newman for many years. Like Tom Cruise, he was too handsome, too famous, too rich to give an award to, until the 80's when they gave him an honorary award and then a real one(for The Color of Money.)
It seems by the 90's, the Academy felt Newman had enough.
Note in passing: Paul Newman's wife Joanne Woodward plays Tom Hanks mother in Philadelphia.