A Mythical Monkey writes about the movies: Anthony Hopkins

Sunday, May 19, 2024

1991 Alternate Oscars

Anthony Hopkins's performance in The Silence of the Lambs is iconic, deservedly so, one of the greatest villains in movie history. In fact, his Hannibal Lecter is so memorable, you forget how little time he's actually on the screen — 16 minutes, one of the shortest Oscar-winning outings in history. Thus, I've dropped him into the supporting category where I think he belongs ...

My choices are noted with a ★. A tie is indicated with a ✪. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ. A historical winner who won in a different category is noted with a ✱.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

The Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards (1991)

Do you ever wonder about our obsession, in cinema and in literature, with serial killers? I guess it started with Jack the Ripper—the notion that someone could murder six women in such horrific fashion in the heart of the largest city in the world and get away with it understandably scared the pants off people—but I think more than that, he reminded us and subsequent serial killers continue to remind us, however obliquely, that there are forces in the universe outside our control, and outside our ability to comprehend. That, and our own day of reckoning is an inevitable as the rising of the sun.

The problem is, though, with each fictional serial killer, we have to up the ante to get a reaction from the audience. Hannibal Lecter was stylishly sinister, but pretty straight-forward by today's standards. What, he'll only bite your face off? How droll. I pretty much topped out on my limit of baroque butchery some time ago and have since retreated to the relatively bloodless mysteries of the old masters. Philip Marlowe may get thumped from time to time, and Archie Goodwin takes more than his share of guff from Nero Wolfe, but at least I never have to choose between my murders and my lunch.

By the way, Anthony Hopkins wins a Katie Award for his performance in The Silence of the Lambs, just as he won an Oscar, but here as a supporting actor rather than the lead. You may not realize it because he was so memorable in the part, but Hopkins was only on screen for sixteen minutes—by far, the shortest performance to win an Oscar in a lead acting category in history.

PICTURE (Drama)
winner: The Silence of the Lambs (prod. Ronald M. Bozman, Edward Saxon and Kenneth Utt)