Best Actress 1979: Sally Field wins for Norma Rae over Bette Midler for The Rose

OP here. I would have been very happy with Bette. But overall, I think Norma Rae was a better movie, and the movie and Field's performance have stood the test of time. I always find it watchable. I have trouble getting thru The Rose on repeated viewings.

I think this was a win that seems almost indisputable. Sally's performance in 'Norma Rae' is the epitome and template for the perfect Best Actress performance and rightful win.

Sally won every award you can. The only race was in Midler's head. She thought she deserved it but no one else did. She's good in the movie but gets a bit hammy at times.

I've never seen Starting Over except for Candace Bergen's singing on youtube. She's pretty funny in that. Better than EVAH!!!

Sally even won Cannes. Bette is delusional thinking she had a shot.

Ron Leibman should have also been nominated and won.

I think Leibman was put in lead actor and didn't stand a chance against the tough competition that year.

Beau Bridges deserved the Cutest Actor in a Supporting role award. Take that, Justin Henry 😝

Bette was great....but Sally was phenomenal in that role. Bette should have won for For the Boys

Norma Rae also introduced us to the gracious Grace Zabriskie!!

that isn't her in your photo r10

Fuck - you're right. It wasnt' the photo I thought I linked.

Bette gave an annoyingly two-note performance in The Rose. In every single scene she is either crying hysterically and feeling sorry for herself, or jeering loudly and nastily at someone.

I will never understand how anyone takes her seriously as a dramatic actress. She's not an actor--she just does shtick. Sometimes she's hilariously funny doing shtick, but it's not acting.

I was just thinking about Jill Clayburgh the other day and the kind of films that made her famous. "Starting Over?" "An Unmarried Woman?" "It's My Turn?" And now here's Marsha Mason in "Chapter Two" and soon to be in "The Goodbye Girl." There's a theme here.

Bette is not an actor. She’s barely a singer. She’s a comedian.

Richard Dreyfuss seems as high as a kite while presenting. The way he says Sally Field though makes it sound like he is announcing what everyone already knew.

Sally's win was an even bigger triumph since Fonda, Clayburgh and Mason had all turned down the role.

(on a side notes the Oscars just seem so much more exciting back then, don't they?)

Bette should have been nominated in Supporting for Down and Out in Beverly Hills.

She actually got some buzz about a possible nomination that year r17 but it was for Ruthless People.

Betta than evah!!!!

Candace Bergen:

Sally Field's win for Norma Rae is one of the greatest and most deserved Oscar victories EVER. I loved Bette Midler in The Rose and she would be a deserving winner in most years but not against Field in Norma Rae. I've seen Norma Rae numerous times of the years and its still as fresh as it was in 1979. I've only seen The Rose once, when it was first released and am a bit reluctant to re watch it (I have the Criterion Blu Ray) because so many people have said it hasn't stood the test of time.

And speaking of nominee Marsha Mason, she was nominated for the wrong film. Chapter Two is Neil Simon at his worst and the film was one long bore. Ms. Mason should have been nominated for Promises in the Dark instead - brilliant performance but I suppose the grim subject matter turned voters away. Actually, Mason's performance was my second favourite performance by an actress in a lead role in 1979 right behind Sally Field's Norma Rae. Bette Midler at a very strong no. 3.

What a terrible year for best actress noms. Borrrring

R16 For the life of me I can't imagine Fonda, Clayburgh or Mason as fine as actresses they are playing Norma Rae anywhere near as well as Sally Field did. The only actress of that era who could have pulled if off as well as Sally Field would have been Sissy Spacek. Field & Spacek can play small town to a tee, the other three are more 'bit city' types.

Chapter Two doesn't translate well to the screen but Mason has that great monologue (later the basis of a Seinfeld episode) that is really terrific.

I bet every actress in a drama class in 1979 was doing that speech.

yes r22. Field had a naivety and was able to capture the uneducated and unsophisticated side of Norma. The others would have been more sophisticated. Diane Keaton also passed on it. I could see her in it a bit more than the other three.

R23 I just searched YouTube, hoping to find the SCTV clip of Andrea Martin as Marsha Mason doing that monologue. It was funny as shit. If someone could find the clip please post it here.

This is close...

La Dunaway also said no to Norma Rae.

Miss Dunaway please r27

Hard to believe all of those actresses turned down such a meaty role? What were their reasons?

R14 Jill Clayburgh had a certain look and range that made it perfect for her to play upper middle class divorced ladies. She did that well. Her performance as Kristin Wiig's mom in Bridesmaids was her last, and it sounds like she was living with cancer then and knew what was next. I liked her.

The only debate that is raging on why the OP didn't start a poll.

R30 Jill Clayburgh was apparently diagnosed with some type of blood cancer a couple of decades earlier. I do remember has passing being a great shock. Her daughter Lily Rabe is also a great actress just like her mother.

I like Bette Midler, but The Rose (despite some good music) is ridiculously overwrought and her performance is ghastly and completely embarrassing. There’s a particular scene in a phone booth that is so awful I couldn’t stop laughing.

Ms. Field gives a performance for the ages in a movie that is STILL politically relevant.

Jill Clayburgh should have been nominated for La Luna rather than Starting Over. Suppose that touch of incest turned them off.

Clayburgh was great in Starting Over

Most people who cared about this at the time are long dead and their bodies turned to dust.

I remember, Moses was very upset -- Pharaoh had been pulling for Marsha Mason.

I loved Fonda's hair in China Syndrome.

They would've burned Hollywood to the ground, if Bette won over Sally, what an outrage that would've been. Sally never really had any true competition, but I'd nominate Jane as the closest.

Here's Jane...

There was no debate. Sally was the front runner all season long. Picked up Best Actress at Cannes that year too.

The only person who thought Bette Midler would win was Bette Midler.

Meanwhile this bitch gave a better performance than any of them and wasn't even nominated.

Faye Dunaway as Norma Rae?!! That would be funny. Especially the bit when she’s doing the ironing and says, “...and if you want to make love, you can get behind me, lift my skirt and we’ll make love.”

Bette is a curious person. Is there a single costar she hasn’t loathed?

Imagine if Bonnie Franklin had portrayed Norma Rae!

[quote]Richard Dreyfuss seems as high as a kite while presenting.

He most likely was.

R44 She got along well with Nicole Kidman. Apparently she crack jokes all the time and have Kidman in stitches.

Now that you mention it, r42 , it does seem kind of shitty that Sig didn't get a nom.

Maybe Alien wasn't "serious actress-y" enough for the Academy.

Pity, because this girl might have been considered for Best Supporting as well.

R48 Veronica Cartwright should have been nominated for supporting actress in numerous films aside from Alien, there is Inserts, The Right Stuff and The Witches of Eastwick.

Since Jill Clayburgh didn't win for An Unmarried Woman which she deserved, I'd actually give it to her for Starting Over.

Clayburgh is brilliant in that one, so funny in so many different scenes and her character is such a lovable underdog. It's also Burt Reynolds best performance and I remember it was considered a major snub at the time that he didn't get a nomination. He even hosted SNL the week of the noms since everyone expected it, and it became a running theme during the SNL show.

Sally Field has another Oscar for Places in the Heart, which I love, so she doesn't need two. You know, like how Hilary Swank doesn't need two.

R49 she is always underestimated, underexposed, and underappreciated.

I was just a kid but I remember being shocked that Sigourney got a nomination for Aliens. I thought they just didn't give nominations for those types of films. Sigourney probably would have stood a better chance in Supporting Actress for the first film. She's sort of the lead by the end but in the beginning it is much more of an ensemble film. Nowadays they'd push her for supporting a la Mahershala Ali etc.

Dunaway could have been a revelation (this was before Dearest) with a stripped down look playing southern trash at 37/38 years old. Faye WAS southern trash from Two Egg/Bascom Florida.

If you watch Oklahoma Crude, which I love, Dunaway is great as an oil well frontier woman. You can totally see Norma Rae in there.

But I'm sure Faye turned it down because it wasn't glamorous enough.

There are characters on Scobby Doo that have given more layered performances than Bette.

I'm ROSE! I'm a ROCK STAR Y'ALL!

Lots of hate for Bette these days.

Template for a Gay Icon:

Obscurity

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Obscurity

Bette's good at being Bette - on multiple shows she'd actually said she was 'robbed' of that year's oscar ... she sets herself up

I always thought she was making jokes about it when she says that. It's not like she goes around stiff-lipped saying it. The only time I ever heard her talk about it was when an interviewer brought it up, and she said, with faux melodrama, "I wuz RAAAAAAHHHHhhhhhhhhhh-bed!!!!!!!!"

Bette was never my icon.

Her daughter's VERY talented!

R58 state your age.

Bette's not been an ally when it mattered, where she saw gays she saw dollar signs

Sally Field beats her there too by a mile

Field was excellent and I always love Fonda (reliably excellent acting - whether or not you care for her style). Bette is/was a fantastic comedian (IMO), but not a strong dramatic lead at all. Faye Dunaway up until 1981 basically deserved the Oscar for every fucking role that she acted/inhabited. Looking back at her films now, she still blows me away - Chinatown, Network, Bonnie and Clyde, The Thomas Crown Affair, etc. Dunaway will likely be seen by future critics as the strongest actress of the late 1960's to the very early 1980's. Field deserved the win, but the best actress of the 1970's she was not.

[quote]Field deserved the win, but the best actress of the 1970's she was not.

well of course not. her high profile film career only started in 1979

That's exactly what a frau would wear to accept her Oscar. No matter what she does she still has Gidget written all over her.

You say that like it's a bad thing, r64 .

Glad she didn't get to ruin SIster Act or Misery .. can you imagine...

I've got the AXE ....Wooohooo... I'm coming to get YOOOUUUU!

Better Midler presenting the Best Song Oscar for the 1981 awards makes reference to her loss two years earlier. Actually, this is one of the best award presentations ever any at Oscar Broadcast. Bette's very funny.

Yeah, she was still pretty consistently fun at that time. About a year later, she had a fun tour, and then, after a pause, and some fun movies, came The End of Fun aka The Beginning of Fraudom, aka Beaches.

There's so many reasons why anyone who ever worked with Bette hate her.

r69= Frank Oz

I'm in my 60s, r60. Prime age for Midler fandom. She just never did it for me. I didn't like her first album enough to buy any more. I hate practically everything but "Hello in There" and "Superstar" (I much prefer the originals).

And her music started to actively creep me out later in the '70s when a friend of a friend was slashed to death, presumably by a trick, while one side of her live album played over and over, loud enough that eventually his neighbors called the police. To him, she was an icon. Ever after, two of his friends, when they would get together would get so drunk they'd end up singing things like "Goin' to the Mine Shaft and we're gonna get murdered" or "Boogie Woogie Slasher Boy," or the always popular "Do You Want to Die?"

More for you.

That's some weird, sad shit.

Yes, it was.

Sally was less than 10 years away from The Flying Nun when she won. An incredible achievement.

I liked the Oscar broadcast but because of the women's hair. Now everyone has that flat shit going on.

I'd have loved to see her do Gone With the Wind

Bette (to camera): I'M the Belle of the SOUTH EVERYBODY! YEE-HAW!!

[quote]Imagine if Bonnie Franklin had portrayed Norma Rae!

Actually imagine her as Ripley in Alien. now that's a mental picture. "Hold me David."

This parody of Bette in "Misery" never fails to make me laugh, no matter how many times I see it.

Sally Field is not a great of memorable actress. These films are way before my time. I tried to watch them but I draw the line at Frau Sally. Bette Midler is an amateur, but she was once funny and sexy.

Faye Dunaway and Fonda are pretty damn mesmerizing if rather unhappy women. Fascinating and complex performances. Diane Keaton is a personality actress. If you love her you do, if not, she's gonna irritate. Sally's ability reminds me of Shirley Temple. That's not good.

Bette in Titanic..

'OH what a great big ship - I HOPE WE ALL DON'T END UP DROWNING!' *Winks at Kathy Bates*

Midler threw herself wholly into the role and the character, blowing her voice out entirely. She never had sung that style, performed stadium style rock - always camp/comedy, her forte.

Everyone knows the backstory on the movie at this point, and how unlikely perhaps it was that Midler was chosen to portray a Janis Joplin-type character. It was, despite its failings as a film, a hell of a performance and still her finest. Everything she’s done since has been ... well, the same thing.

The score for Rose was outstanding and still holds up today. Her covers of “Midnight in Memphis” and “When a Man Loves a Woman” were solid and in character, not performed in the Midler style.

For those who mentioned the Marsha Mason monologue in Chapter Two, can you post a link?mornsay what it was about? I want to see it.

Who else at the time could have played a Janis Joplin type? Bette seems a really obvious choice in retrospect, if only because both she and Joplin were not 'conventionally' attractive, but considering it was her debut there must have been other actresses considered.

Holly Hunter would have made a great Norma Rae if it had been done five years later.

Janis Joplin today.

Sally Field should have a third Academy Award. She should have won for “Lincoln” beating AnnE.

This might be an unpopular opinion: aside from Norma Rae, my favorite Sally performance is Absence of Malice. I thought she was awful the first time I saw it. But on repeated viewings, I realized it was just that I found her so unlikable. Yet that was the point. She played an aggressive, divisive bitch! It just seemed so implausible for our Sally to be that, but she was pretty convincing. I now consider it one of her bravest and certainly most underrated performances.

R64, when my friend first saw Sally's dress for the occasion, she yelled "Look at her! She's dressed like she's going to some bbq picnic."

FF me if you want to, but I think Bette had great moments in "The Rose." The best scene was in the telephone booth as she's calling her parents toward the end. Dripping with snot and sweat and trying to act composed even though she was high as a kite, she really was kind of remarkable.

R89 Most on DL love Bette's performance. It was kind of the point of this thread. But after all this time, do they love it more than Sally's? Apparently not.

Sally Fieldses best movie was a TV movie that was a bit of a flop. A Cooler Climate.

Was it a special Oscar bait movie where brave pugnacious Sally suffered terribly from mold allergies? She really excels in those parts.

No. Her rich husband threw her out after she had an affair and she had to become Judy Davis' maid.

A Cooler Climate was excellent. Its not that it was a flop. I think it was made for Showtime when Showtime was in it's early stages and not as big as it is now, so few people saw it. It garnered a few Emmy nominations, which was a big coup for Showtime back then.

R90 unfortunately, DL follows the rule of "familiarity breeds contempt", so these days she gets more hostility here. Just read upthread for some examples.

I love that Sallies Field has a sense of humor about herself.

R48, I like Veronica, but since she was a child actor, the most memorable thing she's made out of her character's scenes is being a great hysterical crier (The Birds, The Children's Hour, etc.). Frankly, I liked her best as Jemima on The Daniel Boone Show in the 1960s and as Jack's mom on Will & Grace in the 1990s, on TV.

Sally's graveside breakdown in Steel Magnolias was more embarrassing than her Oscar speech. She's a nice lady, but a total ham as an actor. I don't get the love at all. Even in Soapdish she kills the comedy by overplaying everything.

Yeah, she was good in Will & Grace, pity she's not been back.

I thought she was fine as Jemima, but they didn't give her much to do.

Sally Field was perfect in Soapdish. She was a mess in Steel Petunias. But, then, consider the material she had to work with.

Soapdish is loved by campy old gays. It's not a good movie. Great cast though. The reviews were not kind.

A gay guy who doesn't love camp is as useful and interesting as a gay guy who doesn't love dick.

R50 But Sally's role in Norma Rae was so much more complex and exciting than in Places in the Heart. I'd rather have seen either Redgrave win for The Bostonians (which would never have happened, given her politics) or Judy Davis for A Passage to India (which could only have happened if that movie had had the momentum that Amadeus did--in a different year, APTI might easily have won against A Soldier's Story, Places in the Heart, and The Killing Fields--big prestige epic, classy source, and David Lean's final film--with Alec Guiness the only bad casting -- Victor Bannerjee should have been nominated).

Sally in Magnolias: “ SHELBY!!! SHELBY!!! SHELBBBBY!!!”

Sally on E.R. : “ABBY!!! ABBY!!! ABBBBY!!!”

Sally in Lincoln: “ABE!!! ABE!!! ABBBBE!!!”

I love Bette in The Rose. Don't get all the hate.

All the hate for Bette isn't really just for The Rose. Look at it as kind of a lifetime achievement award. An Honorary Oscuntor.

I love Bette Midler. For what she has given the world: her most unique talent and great devotion to entertaining her audience. She's a hardworking woman who cares. Do you know her r106? No, you don't.

r82 Mason doing the monologue doesn't seem to be online.

I did find this version which is just absolutely terrible. The woman talks so fast you can barely hear it. It sounds so memorized. Makes you realize though how much Mason brought to it.

The key part of the monologue: "I am wonderful, I'm nuts about me, and if you're stupid enough to throw someone sensational like me aside, you don't deserve as good as you've got. "

R48 I remember hearing Veronica's younger sister Angela on a late-night L.A. radio show. Angela was a regular on "The Danny Thomas Show" and "Lost in Space" as well as playing Brigitta in "The Sound of Music." All night, people would call in asking things like, "Was that you in 'The Birds?'"

"No, that was my sister Veronica."

"Was that you in the "I Sing the Body Electric" episode of The Twilight Zone?"

"No, that was my sister."

"Was that you in 'Aliens'?"

"No, that was Veronica."

It started becoming comical.

R110 Ouch. They should star in another remake of Baby Jane.

I have an anniversary edition of Alien with lots of commentary and behind the scenes stuff. Veronica is SOOOOOOOOOO bitter that she got the part she did and Sig got Ripley.

They show an improv outtake where Veronica walks up and smacks Sig across the face. Ridley Scott says I don't think that was in the script. Sig laughingly but emphatically says NO it wasn't!!!

Bitch was mad she got to be the scared one and Sig was the hero who went on to the other films.

Here it is for anyone who missed it up-thread.

R110, I would imagine it goes both ways with those two, I'm sure Veronica gets a lot of I loved you in 'The Sound of Music', 'The Danny Thomas Show' and 'Lost in Space'. Neither are or were ever big stars but both are familiar names, so it's sort of part of the deal of low-grade celebrity. I'm sure the Landers sisters have the same problem.

Maybe Ronnie Cartwright will come back for Jack's wedding

Sad Sally can't even hold the attention of a hundred posts. She may have two Oscars but she is not one of the great or memorable actresses of 70s and 80s cinema. Apparently Veronica Cartwright is more interesting. Who the fuck is she?

Sally's extremely technically correct. There's just nothing memorable or exciting about her. When I'm watching her I keep thinking to myself about her body of work and that she's one of my favorite actresses. Then when you're done watching the movie you forget about it. You do keep thinking about certain aspects of the plot. You don't relive her performances. You don't seek out the movie to watch again. You just don't giver her a second thought. You may watch it if you're flipping through the channels on a rainy day but you wouldn't seek it out. She's a brilliant technician but not an artist. Don't get me wrong though I really do like her body of work. The only thing in her mind that sticks out, that I can watch over and over again, is her TV work. I'll watch Gidget and the Flying Nun anytime I can.

Sally was brilliant in Sybil. Not just in the obvious crazy scenes but in the quiet moments. I once read a review that described it as the perfect portrait of the lonely path of the mentally ill.

R116

[quote]Who the fuck is she?

Are you kidding?

Field should star in a revival of the Gidget or Flying Nun series.

R106

[quote]All the hate for Bette isn't really just for The Rose. Look at it as kind of a lifetime achievement award. An Honorary Oscuntor.

......so your problems with her are because you think she's too cunty? She's not nice enough?

Have any of you bitches looked in a mirror lately?

Bette Midler somehow got on TV for doing this. Amazing. I've never seen Gidget, who would want to?

Midler is the underestimated talent, compared to so many. Freaks me out - she was so fucking bold.

I wanna watch Norma Rae. Anyone know where I could stream it?

R118 I thought she was brilliant in Sybil too, until I saw the graveyard scene in Steel Magnolias and Field went right into Sybil mode. Lessened it for me.

My Sally guilty pleasure movie is Kiss Me Goodbye with Jeff Bridges and James Caan. Is it a good movie? No, but I love it in all of it's cliched cheesiness.

I always remember in 1980 right after she won the Oscar, there was Smokey and the Bandit 2 thrust into theaters. Even at 15 yrs old I was like "how embarrassing for her."

This was really embarrassing. And her performance is really bad.

And I like Sally.

I sort of like her in Beyond the Poseidon Adventure. She's got a good self-deprecating quality in it.

I guess she shot this before she knew Norma Rae would win her an Oscar.

Love her and Tommy Lee Jones in Back Roads

R127 So do I but apparently they HATED each other.

[quote]I've never seen Gidget, who would want to?

I always thought that as well, until the reruns began airing on Antenna TV, and its sweet, naive quality grew on me. It's pretty quiet and simple compared to later sitcoms. And apparently she loved doing it, and loved her costars.

And I always thought she, as Gidget, was the inspiration for the Mattel Francie doll.

R128 Really! I had never heard. Any stories you remember about their conflict? Love on set behavior gossip!

^^Apparently, even though it was her "follow-up" to Norma Rae, it was filmed before Norma Rae came out, so Sally hadn't yet gotten her respect. The story is that Jones was really nasty to her. I think he apologized years later and admitted he was an asshole.

Release the votes! There is no reason to keep them a secret and would be fascinating to see how close some of the races were. It would add a spark to a stuck format

"Shockhorror over Sally's shocking new #metoo allegation: DON PORTER TOUCHED ME!"

Sally did SATB2 and BTPA when she was still with Burt and terribly insecure. She probably recognized Norma Rae had an excellent script, but it’s hard to tell what’s gonna resonate with the critics and the audience, much less win an Oscar for it. Burt fed her insecurities, she even stayed with him instead of collecting her first Emmy for Sybil, because her career was starting to be more respected than his. The first Smokey and Poseidon were huge hits and great fun films, the sequels were crap obviously. I really don’t blame her for doing them though. As the above poster said, Redgrave and Davis would’ve been better choices in 1985 for best actress. I hardly remember one thing about Places compared to Norma Rae, which I consider a masterpiece.

I think they should end the electoral college for the Oscar vote.

IMDB says Back Roads was filmed May-July 1980, long after Norma Rae.

I think I've heard Tommy Lee Jones discuss how he was a jerk to Sally. Probably around the time when they were both doing press for Lincoln.

I saw Places in the Heart on the big screen last year and it really was wonderful. Touching (especially when John Malkovitch who starts out so bitter becomes charmed by Sally's kindness and asks her to describe what she looks like since he's blind.) topical (really good portrayal of the horrors of the KKK, and excitingly told too) exciting (the tornado).

It deserves another look.

Tommy Lee was sex on a stick in this era. I think he was involved in drugs around this time.

He had a huge cock.

Sigourney should have been nominated that year for Alien.

I love both Norma and Places, but for me Places is more fun, Rae more serious.

BUT I just watched Absence of Malice because of this thread and loved it. It's the perfect example of that type of movie that's in the crossover over decades 70s to 80s. It still has a social conscious but it not as gritty looking as Network or All the Presidents Men but a bit glossy like the 80s would be all about.

You HATE Sally's character because she causes Melinda Dillon's suicide by revealing her abortion. Dillon is heartbreaking in her small role - got a supporting nom. The scene where Newman basically physically assaults Field from his anger at Dillon's autopsy is really brave even today, and I'm sure a lot of actresses turned it down because the character is not that bright, makes mistakes left and right and then the audience is on the male side that roughs her up. Good performance by Sally though.

Diane Keaton was originally supposed to do Absence of Malice but dropped out. (I don't know why.)

The must have wanted the character to be someone other than Diane Keaton.

R10 is Barbara Baxley.

This SCTV has Marsha and Neil again (starts at 0:40), then "The Fonda Syndrome", with Robin Duke as Jane.

R146 Great find!

Marsha Mason was really great in this TV movie "Surviving" about teen suicide.

If you don't want to watch the whole thing she is really chilling at about the one hour eight minute mark and then again at about one hour 25 mark.

She became known for Neil Simon comedies but she was really an incredible dramatic actress.

Don't forget she also did this:

Marsha Mason writes a lot about turning down Norma Rae in her book, Journey. She wanted to do it badly but had to decline because her then husband Neil Simon didn't want her going away on location

R149 What is that from?

151 Dark Shadows

I don't know why but a lot of people hated Marsha(sorry Sally your thread I know) in Frasier but she fucking cracked me up and is one of my favorite things about the show.

Mason's film career died when she divorced Simon. For the people who read her bio...why did she leave him? they Seemed like a good team.

Someone posted an interview from 2016. You can do a YouTube Search. She discussed it. It sounded more like he wanted to end the marriage. They were together more than 10 years. I don't think it was a contentious divorce, and she stayed very close to at least one of his daughters.

Sally steamrolled everybody that year, and I think she deserved it. Even minor scenes like the moment at the creek with Beau Bridges were very tender and realistic. That movie has been imitated a lot since, and Sally's jittery, stoic, almost childlike heroine remains the blueprint. UNION!!!

I'm surprised to learn she won Cannes for such an Americana movie. Judy Davis i'm sure got a lot of votes that year at the festival for My Brilliant Career (her breakthrough performance), she wasn't eligible for the Oscars but won TWO baftas the year after - one for Best Actress and one for Best Newcomer. I would put her in 2nd to Field had it been released in the states that year. She DEFINITELY should have beaten her snoring 'Places In The Heart' performance with her titanic work in 'Passage to India'.

Funnily enough she would later work with Sally Field on the aforementioned A Cooler Climate. Marsha Mason played her mother 2 years later in that Judy Garland TV movie.

Judy Davis in "A Passage to India" was a very controversial performance and a surprise Oscar nominee. She got really mixed reviews from people who knew the book. They felt she was miscast and came off to sophisticated in the role where she should have been a naive innocent. She didn't stand a chance of winning in 1984. Jessica Lange was probably Sally's closes competition.

There were a lot of other good performances in 84 that should have taken Sissy Spacek's spot. She's barely in that film. Kathleen Turner, Romancing the Stone, Mia Farrow, Broadway Danny Rose or even Shelley Long in Irreconcilable Differences all did good work.

157 posts and no one has mentioned Meryl won supporting this year. She must be fuming.

R157 I thought Judy would have a chance in 1984 if only because she was the only other nominee in a major film that year (Best Picture nominee, had a lot more nominations in every category).

Also all the other nominees had won very recently and she had been (arguably) snubbed for My Brilliant Career. Sally just five years ago for Norma Rae, Lange two years ago, Spacek four years ago, and Redgrave eight years ago (in addition to her "zionist hoodlums" controversy).

I didn't think she was too sophisticated for A Passage To India, and I never read the character as 'naive' exactly, just not very well travelled. She was perfect for the kind of repressed, uppity, sexless Englishwoman who comes to the heat of India and gazes wonderingly at the sensual and colourful culture. Anguished by her sudden carnal attraction to the local Indian man instead of her betrothed husband, leading her to that moment in the cave where she cracks and has a breakdown.

I don't think anything Field did in Places in the Heart was comparable, nor the other two farm girls. I will give Redgrave credit for The Bostonians which was a very graceful performance with a strong inner-life, but she was never winning. Still, no issues at all with Sally's win for Norma Rae.

I don't know how the character in the book of A Passage to India was written. I never read it. You could be right about it r159. All I remember is that Davis's reviews were mixed with a lot of people complaining about her. I thought it was because of not being naive enough but I could be wrong about that. She didn't even get nominated at the Golden Globes (Diane Keaton got her slot for Mrs. Sofel) so the nomination was a surprise.

she also fought terribly with David Lean on the film so that may have cost her votes too.

Yeah 1984 was weird. I'd have taken Faye Dunaway as Selena in Supergirl (haha) over Lange or Spacek in the dueling farm pictures!

I love Places in the Heart. It's heartwarming and cute as a button.

Sally definitely deserved the Oscar for Norma Rae. I think she got lucky in 1984 cuz it was lesser of 4 evils.

1984 is a respectable line-up - not a bad performance. Yes, there were more deserving ones that got overlooked (Kathleen Turner - Crimes of Passion, Mia Farrow - Broadway Danny Rose, Gena Rowlands Love Streams).

My best of the year for Vanessa Redgrave for The Bostonians and there was no way she was winning. I'm fine with Sally's win here but do prefer those overlooked above.

R156 The year Sally won her second for Places was a very weak year for the nominees. From what I recall, there were two actresses who gave the Best Performances that year and neither was nominated, (at least in my opinion). Both actresses each had two movies out, with very different performances, and for each, one movie could have canceled out the other.

Kathleen Turner had Romancing the Stone and Crimes of Passion. I believe she won two Critics' Awards and was expected to be nominated for Stone.

Diane Keaton had Mrs. Soffel and The Good Mother. She was mentioned in at least one critics award and was expected to be nominated for Soffel. I think either could easily have won had she gotten the nomination.

^^Someone could create the next Best Actress thread with perhaps a Poll.

R163 The Good Mother is from 1988 not 1984.

Turner won her first globe for RTS. And won the LA film critics award for COP. Crimes is a riot and was quite ballsy of Turner to do. I guess in the long run voters considered Romancing too lightweight and Crimes too controversial. But I would’ve given Turner Spacek’s spot for Crimes.

Richard Dreyfus was so pompous in that Oscar clip. What a douche bag.

As good as Bette was, I think Sally deserved it. She nailed poor white southern trash, but she wasn't just a caricature.

R166 Spacek's nomination for Crimes was in 1986 not 1984

R166 I meant Turner for Crimes Of Passion

I liked RTS when I was young. As an adult it sucks. Really sucks.

Thank you to whoever mentioned Gena Rowlands for Love Streams-

Amazing work.

Wasn’t this also the year of Lily Tonkin in “All of Me”? One of my favorite of her performances.

R173 - I love the ending of ALl of Me, when lily and Steve were dancing.

R165 My bad. I meant The Little Drummer Girl

Whoever mentioned All of Me. They both deserved nominations, (although I thought Lily was more supporting). Steve Martin was robbed on at least two occasions, the other being Roxanne.

Oscar hates comedy : (

It was also a great lineup of actors that year. Hoffman finally won his first Oscar for Kramer vs Kramer, but Peter Sellers in Being There or Roy Scheider in All That Jazz could have easily one any other year.

Treat Williams should have been nominated for Best Actor for Hair

All I can say is Sally was damn lucky I wasn't in the race... So, little miss Sybil got a bunch of hicks to follow her tits to union glory rapture mart or whatever the hell, so what. I could do that bit of fluff with both hairdryers tied behind my back! Let her try playing a beautiful newscaster stalked and tormented by a psychotic photographer obsessed with her beauty...

And Bette Midler can lick my rose thorn CLIT!!

R179 I agree. I think Hair is one of the great unheralded musicals.

I wonder how many votes Clayburgh lost for An Unmarried Woman because of the vomiting scene. I could just see Hepburn sitting home thinking I don't vote for vomiters.

[quote]I could just see Hepburn sitting home thinking I don't vote for vomiters.

Vassar bitch to Bryn Mawr bitch, Katie, you would puke too if it happened to you.

R173 Who the hell is Lily Tonkin?

figure it out r184

NO, the right actress did not win.

Didn't Kate puke in Quality Street?

[quote]Diane Keaton had Mrs. Soffel

You're kidding, she wasn't nominated for Mrs. Soffel? She was amazing in that movie. One of several times where she hasn't relied on her "goofy Diane" image that won her the Annie Hall Oscar.

I didn't like Mrs. Soffel and much preferred Keaton in the same years The Little Drummer Girl. Klaus Kinski in support was even better.

Oh God. Diane Keaton is the same in every thing she does.

Norma Rae on TCM tonight @ 8PM

I've always loved Bette in The Rose but I hadn't seen Norma Rae until tonight. Sally was excellent. A very layered and nuanced performance.

Loved the relationship between Sally and Ron Leibman (RIP).