MovieChat Forums > Midnight Run (1988) Discussion > John Ashton should have won the Oscar fo...

John Ashton should have won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor!

posted 11 years ago by geert-j-vankempen
16 replies | jump to latest

I think that John Ashton played one of the best and funniest supporting roles ever as Marvin Dorfler. Too bad that he was not even nominated for an Oscar. (In fact, IMDB does not mention any award or nomination for John Ashton's role of Marvin Dorfler.)

I just checked who got the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for 1988 movies, expecting to see an actor in a great drama or so. But I saw that it was Kevin Kline who got an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role of Otto West
in the 1988 movie "A Fish Called Wanda"....

I think that they definitely went for the wrong guy in the wrong comedy movie....

I think that "A Fish Called Wanda" was nice, but does not come close to "Midnight Run" in any sense. And that Kevin Kline's Otto West does not come close to John Ashton's Marvin Dorfler....

In the words of Jack Walsh: not by a long shot....

[–] lockplay 11 years ago

I think Dennis Farina should have been nominated. He was scary good.

And of course Charles Grodin should have definitely WON Best Supporting Actor

[–] nicholasjameslynch 9 years ago

To be honest, everyone of them deserved an Oscar for their respective performances! Such an amazing film, and the cast are flawless!

[–] paul-743-899114 8 years ago

Exactly! And how this gem of a film has only a 7.6 rating is beyond me.

ALL of the performances are brilliant as is the direction and editing. For me this is possibly a perfect film in every way. Far too underrated.

[–] shoobe01-1 8 years ago

Just watching for the first time in years and I'd forgotten this is where so many good lines are from Dennis Farina's pencil line is legendary. It's his defining role to me.

[–] DracTarashV 11 years ago

Dude, almost all of the supporting players in this classic gave "award-worthy" comedic performances... Grodin, Ashton, Kotto, Farina, Pantoliano, Foronjy, etc., all these guys were just freaking excellent. I'm telling you, Midnight Run contains some of the best casting in all of film, as far as I'm concerned. But yes, Marvin Dorfler was such a great character, and John Ashton acted the hell out of that role.

Hey there, Johnny Boy, I hope you fry!

[–] averagejoeman2013 11 years ago

Agreed 100%. I had a thread on here some time ago stating what he brought to the film. The last of which was the half dozen times or so he was knocked out. At least he was able to knock out the hitmen and the duke...and doored Jack Walsh (and the first perp).

"Freedom and morality do not go hand in hand. In fact, they are usually devoid of one another."

[–] worldleaderpretend 11 years ago

Agree with all the posters above. We had a funny thread on here some time ago where we were writing Ashton's oscar acceptance speech while still in character as Marvin.

We should start another one.

[–] hnt_dnl 11 years ago

They could have filled up the Supporting Actor category with actors from this film alone! I've always thought that A Fish Called Wanda was supremely overrated. Midnight Run is a classic.

[–] activista 11 years ago

In all fairness, I've always liked Kevin Kline (he was funny as hell playing weird, offbeat characters in his prime) and A FISH CALLED WANDA was actually a pretty good film. That being said, MIDNIGHT RUN did have a great cast of both leads and supporting actors--I mainly went to see it for both DeNiro and Grodin because they're so entirely different actors with totally different acting styles I though it would be fun to see how they would play off each other in a film, and I wasn't disappointed---plus seeing other actors I liked in it such as Pantoliano,Farina,Kotto, and Ashton was like frosting on a cake. I have to admit though,I don't get why this flick has been slept on---it rarely even shows up on TV for some reason, and on top of that, never gets mentioned in any best of the '80's movie lists--talk about underrated. Nice to see it getting some love here on the boards,though.

[–] ryy 10 years ago

De Niro should have been nominated, for me it's one of his best performances and films of all time.

[–] gonzo29 10 years ago

I couldn't agree more. I think it might be the best performance of his I've ever seen.

[–] LionInWinter 10 years ago

I wouldn't go that far, but it was pretty flawless.

[–] LeonardPine 10 years ago

It's one of De Niro's most enjoyable roles. He plays the comedy to perfection and has great chemistry with Grodin.

De Niro tends to overdo comedy in a lot of his comedic roles but he nails this to perfection.

Was it a millionaire who said "Imagine no possessions"?

[–] Tony-358 9 years ago

Wanda is regarded as one of the best comedies ever made. It's pretty great.

[–] paul-743-899114 9 years ago

I loved "A Fish Called Wanda" and Kevin Kline was great, but I agree with you about John Ashton: he was superb and the film would have suffered a little without him.

How "Midnight Run" only gets 7.6 is beyond me: it's one of the most underrated films ever. The cast is sublime, as is the direction and editing.

[–] mrmathexpert4 9 years ago

Not in 1988. It should have gone to Alan Rickman for Die Hard.