Oscars 1

HEROES AND MONSTERS

25-02-2008

Bookies favourite Daniel Day Lewis walked off with the Best Actor Oscar last night for his role in There Will Be Blood, but Paula Elenor reckons there was an even better candidate for the big gong.

And the winner is…Tommy Lee Jones? No, it wasn’t to be.

The judges for this year’s Oscars had a formidable task: sorting out the winners from a field of extraordinary quality.

Most pundits agree that this has been an exceptional year for well-crafted films which will probably be classed among some of the seminal films of American culture – No Country for Old Men and There will be Blood will spoken of alongside Citizen Kane, The Godfather and Taxi Driver.

London born Daniel Day-Lewis, the odds-on favourite, won the Best Actor award for his compelling performance as the ruthless oil prospector in There will be Blood – in many ways an archetypal American magnate driven by an unshakeable self -belief in his right to exploit the natural resources and people of his country, epitomising the individualism at the core of the American Dream itself!

It is quite simply a virtuoso performance – albeit very scary.

But I was rooting for Tommy Lee Jones as the father of an American soldier who goes AWOL shortly after returning from a tour in Iraq in The Valley of Elah. Why?

His performance moved me deeply – it was subtle, underplayed, but well-judged. I responded to the integrity, and simple dignity of the character, a loving father and patriot who is forced to re-think his ideas about his family and his country.

Daniel Day-Lewis has earned his reputation as one of the best living film actors.

However, he is earned his reputation playing larger than life individuals – wouldn’t it have been nice if Tommy Lee Jones was recognised for his performance of a grief-stricken everyman figure?

At the end of the day, I really prefer films to echo the heroes of everyday life, not the rather grotesque nsters of American capitalism.

For Paula’s review of In the Valley Of Elah, click here

For David Nicholl’s assessment of There Will Be Blood, click here

And for Paul Elenor’s write up on No Country For Old Men, the Coen Brothers film which collected four Oscars including Best Film, click here

AFP has a full report on the Oscars, click here http://tinyurl.com/3yn2uc

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