< Best Actor: The Legacy of Fathers - Awardsdaily - The Oscars, the Films and everything in between.
  • About Us
  • Sasha Stone
  • Editor Ryan Adams
  • Clarence Moye
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily - The Oscars, the Films and everything in between.
  • Home
  • Oscar Predictions
    • Best Picture
    • Best Actor
    • Best Actress
  • Good As Gold
  • Forum
  • AD TV
  • Podcasts
  • FYC Gallery
  • Interviews
  • All News
  • Home
  • Oscar Predictions
    • Best Picture
    • Best Actor
    • Best Actress
  • Good As Gold
  • Forum
  • AD TV
  • Podcasts
  • FYC Gallery
  • Interviews
  • All News
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily - The Oscars, the Films and everything in between.
No Result
View All Result

Best Actor: The Legacy of Fathers

by Sasha Stone
November 6, 2016
in BEST ACTOR, featured
3126
Best Actor: The Legacy of Fathers

Last night’s screening of Fences has stayed with me long past the point I expected it to. Its characters and language have lodged themselves inside my head and my heart and I find myself thinking about them, remembering things they said, unforgettable moments. Though Fences is distinctly a piece of theater, the actors make it a piece of cinema. All of the performances are outstanding — and I mean all of them. But it’s hard to walk away from Fences without thinking about Denzel Washington maybe winning his third Oscar for this exceptional performance. What sort of dawned on me as I woke up very early this morning still thinking about him was how interesting it is that both Denzel Washington and Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea have given us two of the best performances of the year, and what they have in common.

The first thing to know about Denzel Washington’s Troy in Fences is that we just don’t see characters of this kind of complexity much anymore. We don’t see them because in many ways younger audiences need more of a literal interpretation of good and bad so that they can categorize them the way they see fit. Good man, bad man, hero, loser, rapist, victim. We seem less comfortable dwelling in the area of what most people really are — a little bit of everything. A struggle against bad things, a fight for good things. Most people are flawed, with mistakes in their past. Movies, though, movies tend to take away much of that internal conflict because it’s just easier to have them be archetypes who won’t let us down.

Both characters in these two films, arguably the Best Actor frontrunners, are fathers. Both have been tasked with the enormous responsibility of taking care of a family — a wife and kids. Working, bringing home the paycheck and keeping them safe. It’s interesting to see how these two films, and these two roles, tackle that idea of keeping the family unit safe. So yes, in Fences, Troy must carry the legacy and burden of slavery passed down a couple of generations by then, that still looms as a dark force, still an oppressive force. Troy is unkind to his children because he himself was raised that way. The conflict of Fences, beautifully written as it is, is how your children become better than you, in spite of you sometimes. Whereas in Manchester by the Sea, a conflicted, damaged man simply can’t live with a mistake he made, can’t move beyond it, despite how much those around him root for him to do just that.

And of course, there is Joel Edgerton who plays a white man in the deep South whose wife is black and whose children are mixed race. In trying to preserve and protect his family, he has to face the dangers of confrontation and fears of change. When he’s arrested, it is then up to his wife, Ruth Negga, to fight for justice and acceptance. Likewise, in Fences, it falls to Rose to hold the family together, including Troy’s children by other mothers, and Troy’s brother Gabriel. In Manchester by the Sea, it is ultimately up to Michelle Williams, as his wife, to try to reach in and bring Affleck’s Lee back from the brink. Flawed men often need heroic women.

Some may call these men failures as fathers, failures as men. But what stands out to me is that they are fathers, or in Manchester’s case, father figures — flawed, destructive, but not evil. I started thinking about other performances this year that might fit with this theme. Chris Pine in Hell or High Water plays a father who is trying to save his family’s farm by robbing the same bank that threatens to take his farm because of a crappy loan. There is Warren Beatty in Rules Don’t Apply whose through-line is that of a man who realizes far too late that the good stuff in life, the worthwhile stuff, is about the children you bring into the world.

Beyond that, however, Best Actor this season tends to dwell in the more traditional zone of heroic figures, with Tom Hanks giving one of his best performances in Sully, Andrew Garfield playing a pacifist doctor in Hacksaw Ridge, Ryan Gosling, a brooding jazz musician in La La Land, Robert De Niro in The Comedian, and whomever else will be considered for the top five slots.

But I suspect that the race could be down to Washington and Affleck, two very flawed father figures. Washington’s performance is a towering one. It will be talked about for years to come. Actors will go to school on it. The only thing that will prevent him from winning is that he’s won twice. Otherwise, this would not be a contest.

Current Best Actor predictions:
1. Denzel Washington, Fences
2. Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
3. Warren Beatty, Rules Don’t Apply
4. Joel Edgerton, Loving
5. Tom Hanks, Sully
Spoilers: Andrew Garfield – Hacksaw Ridge or Silence, Robert De Niro, The Comedian, Ryan Gosling in La La Land

Tags: Casey AffleckDenzel WashingtonJoel EdgertonRyan GoslingWarren Beatty
Sasha Stone

Sasha Stone

Sasha Stone has been around the Oscar scene since 1999. Almost everything on this website is her fault.

Next Post
The State of the Race: The Frontrunners and Their Challengers on the Eve of the AFI Fest

The State of the Race: The Frontrunners and Their Challengers on the Eve of the AFI Fest

Sign up for Awards Daily's Breaking News

* indicates required

Crip Camp Tops the 2020 IDA Documentary Awards

Crip Camp Tops the 2020 IDA Documentary Awards
by Sasha Stone
January 16, 2021
1

Desperately Seeking Best Movie Compilations

Desperately Seeking Best Movie Compilations
by Sasha Stone
January 16, 2021
2

Run Hide Fight is Distributed, Chaos Erupts

Run Hide Fight is Distributed, Chaos Erupts
by Sasha Stone
January 16, 2021
23

Predictions Friday – All Eyes on the Golden Globes

Predictions Friday – All Eyes on the Golden Globes
by Sasha Stone
January 15, 2021
107

Marsha Stephanie Blake On Playing a Character We’ve Never Seen Before in ‘I’m Your Woman’

Marsha Stephanie Blake On Playing a Character We’ve Never Seen Before in ‘I’m Your Woman’

(Photo: Wilson Webb/Amazon Studios)

by Joey Moser
January 15, 2021
0

The State of the Race: Heading into the Thick of It in a Season of Trauma

The State of the Race: Heading into the Thick of It in a Season of Trauma
by Sasha Stone
January 14, 2021
80

Owen Teague Braves a Deadly Pandemic – No, Not That One – in ‘The Stand’

Owen Teague Braves a Deadly Pandemic – No, Not That One – in ‘The Stand’

(Photo: CBS)

by Clarence Moye
January 14, 2021
0

Director Max Barbakow Reveals Why ‘Palm Springs’ Wasn’t Originally a Time Loop Movie

Director Max Barbakow Reveals Why ‘Palm Springs’ Wasn’t Originally a Time Loop Movie

(Photo by: Christopher Willard/Hulu)

by Megan McLachlan
January 14, 2021
0

David E. Talbert On Fulfilling a Lifelong Dream with ‘Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey’

David E. Talbert On Fulfilling a Lifelong Dream with ‘Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey’

(Talber on set with Madalen Mills; photo by Gareth Gatrell/Netflix)

by Joey Moser
January 13, 2021
2

Nate Parker’s American Skin is One of the Year’s Best

Nate Parker’s American Skin is One of the Year’s Best
by Sasha Stone
January 13, 2021
15

Aya Cash Is Not Your Dad’s Superhero in Amazon Prime’s ‘The Boys’

Aya Cash Is Not Your Dad’s Superhero in Amazon Prime’s ‘The Boys’

(Photo: Jasper Savage)

by Clarence Moye
January 13, 2021
0

Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham On Why Rebecca Is the Character She’s Been Waiting to Play All Her Life

Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham On Why Rebecca Is the Character She’s Been Waiting to Play All Her Life

Courtesy of AppleTV+

by Megan McLachlan
January 13, 2021
0

Richa Moorjani on Her Breakout Role in Netflix’s ‘Never Have I Ever’

Richa Moorjani on Her Breakout Role in Netflix’s ‘Never Have I Ever’
by Jalal Haddad
January 13, 2021
0

Join us Facebook

AwardsDaily Crew

  • About Us
  • Sasha Stone
  • Editor Ryan Adams
  • Clarence Moye
  • Contact Us

ADTV Crew

  • ADTV Home
  • Megan McLachlan, Co-Editor
  • Clarence Moye, Co-Editor
  • Jalal Haddad, Senior Contributor
  • Joey Moser, Senior Contributor
  • Kevin Dillon
  • Shadan Larki
  • Ben Morris
  • David Phillips

Follow on Twitter

ADTV Twitter

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertising on Awards Daily

© 1999-2021 AwardsDaily.com

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Oscar Predictions
    • Best Picture
    • Best Actor
    • Best Actress
  • Good As Gold
  • Forum
  • AD TV
  • Podcasts
  • FYC Gallery
  • Interviews
  • All News

© 1999-2021 AwardsDaily.com