You are so incredibly right. This was the best performance he EVER gave. It is the reason that I have always believed that the Oscars are a complete scam. Pure politics! If you're looking for a finer performance in 1995, you're not going to find it. It reminds me of Dustin Hoffman as Ratso Rizzo in "Midnight Cowboy."
shareI agree.
His portrayl was first class. Wonder whether there was any political undertones at how prisoners had been treated on island (or some liberties taken with historical stories?)
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Totally and absolutely agree... he was outstanding... simply amazing.
I thought the exact same thing (why wasn't he nomidated for an oscar) when he was in the stand and Christian Slater asked him why he was afraid of going back to Alcatraz and he said "... bbbeeeccauuse"
WOW....
well wasnt the big problem with the Oscars in 1995 that Mel Gibson's Braveheart got a bunch of Oscars, including best actor, best director and best picture!
Those three like to go hand in hand... and i do have to say that Braveheart deserved each and everyone of those.
But I do agree, Kevin Bacon should've been nominated for this role. He is quite amazing in it and would have totally deserved a nomination. ... but as it was said, its politics.
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"Whom do you serve?"
"Saruman!"
actually Braveheart did not win for best actor.
sharereally? ... hmm, i stand corrected then. who won that year then? and for what?
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"Whom do you serve?"
"Saruman!"
Nicolas Cage won the oscar for best actor for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas...
"Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday"
oh yeah! ... he was pretty awesome in that one! Bacon should've at least still been nominated. he definitely wouldve deserved it :)
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"Whom do you serve?"
"Saruman!"
I agree completely. That was the first thought I had after seeing the movie. I think his performance was amazing and I don't understand why he got completely passed over. I guess I should see what other movies were playing that year. Because if there was something with Tom Hanks....well
shareWell, that explains it. Tom Hanks won best actor for Forrest Gump, well deserved but Bacon should have gotten a nod at least.
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Hanks won Best Actor for Forrest Gump in 1994.
Nicolas Cage won for Leaving Las Vegas that year. He beat out:
Sean Penn in Dead Man Walking
Richard Dreyfuss in Mr. Hollands Opus
Anthony Hopkins in Noxon
Massimo Troisi in Il Postino (The Postman)
After that win, Cage signed on to do a *beep* load of action movies and thats what ended his friendship with Sean Penn who said that he sold out.
Actually, Kevin Bacon would've been eligible for Best Supporting Actor. He won the Broadcast Film Critics Award and also received a SAG nod for Supporting Actor.
"Murder in the First" was released in January '95, and unfortunately we all know what that means as far as the Academy is concerned; they usually don't pay any attention to films released in the first quarter of the year (especially January).
However, the buzz was around Bacon's performance that whole year, and he did receieve a SAG nod...his performance was seen...so there's no excuse for AMPAS to snub this amazing performance.
That year, Supporting Actor was very competitive with likes of Kevin Spacey (who won for "The Usual Suspects"), Ed Harris ("Apollo 13"), Brad Pitt ("12 Monkeys") and Tim Roth ("Rob Roy")...which brings me to the remaining nominee, James Cromwell ("Babe").
Cromwell is a great character actor, but in no way shape or form was his performance in "Babe" worthy of an Oscar nod, not to mention that a top-notch, career highlight performance such as Bacon's was in the midst.
But Oscar is as Oscar does...
I highly agree, Bacon was severly snubbed!
"You learn from the best...and the worst." - Uncle Jay, 9/14/94
Firstly I have to say that Kevin Bacon should have been at least nominated as best actor, but I feel one the reasons that the movie was snubbed, was because it tried to pretend it was true, where it wasn't , the only truth is the name of the characters, so i believe but any who can proove otherwisre please do, i want this movie to be true
I love Kevin Bacon, and he was great, but I wouldn't say an Oscar for this. Mystic River...maybe.
shareI totally agree he should have won an Oscar but the person that did win was Nicholas Cage for his great role in Leaving Las Vegas which also was a great movie at least the oscar didn't go to some guy who didn't deserve it **cough** Traing Day **cough**
sharedenzel did deserve an oscar, but not for training day. he should have received it for his portrayal of Malcolm X....
however, he was convincing as a corrupt cop because by the end of the movie i wanted him to die!!!!
Superb performance by Kevin Bacon the best ive seen from him, if anyone hasnt seen this film they should do for him alone.
"champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends"
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Agree. It was his best performance.
shareAbsolutely! Thank you for all the info posted on this topic. I haven't seen this movie in quite awhile, but I was just talking about it yesterday. I didn't realize it was a January released movie, yes sadly that usually happens.
Kevin Bacon was robbed, it was an outstanding Oscar-worthy performance! I remember being so upset that year that he was left out.
"Stay young at heart and you'll never grow hard"....E.W.F.