He was in "Driving Miss Diasy," "Lean On Me," and "Glory" all big movies during that year. He also was in the flop "Johnny Handsome." I think that's amazing, '89 was his year.
My job is to inform, not persuade- Dan Rather
Yeah but apparently not a big enough star to win an Oscar for this. The academy is a pack of fools.
Green Goblin is great! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1L4ZuaVvaw
He was beaten by Daniel Day Lewis for his brilliant portrayal of a severely handicapped artist in My Left Foot. Not a "pack of fools" by a long shot for making that choice.
Freeman was a huge star at the time, true.....but that is not what Oscars are supposed to be given out for. Although he was great in this movie, it was definitely DDL's year to win...and for good reason.
The bad news is you have houseguests. There is no good news.
Some roles are just Oscar bait, and DDL's role in MLF falls solidly into that pile. (Kate Winslet's appearance in Extras is both hilarious and prescient.)
Not saying DDL didn't deserve it, but Freeman's performance from an acting perspective is near enough faultless, in a difficult and nuanced role.
Amen.
People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs
Lean On Me and Glory, not so much. What's amazing is how this one film catapulted Freeman to stardom. He was practically a nobody before it and after it he was a huge star. All within two years time.
The 1990s were a strange decade for the acting profession. A lot of people were huge stars in 1989 and by 1999 they were 'who the fùçk is *******?' and vice versa.
Well Morgan Freeman is still going strong as an actor, even though I'm not crazy for any of his movies for the last almost 20 year minus "The Bucket List." I found "Driving Miss Daisy" "Lean On Me" and "Shawshank Redemption" to be my favor movies with him.
A number of white actors who were big names in the 80's and 90's seem like they just fell off the face of the earth by the late 90's into 2000's like Kevin Costner, Kevin Kline, Richard Gere, Mel Gibson just to name a few. People like Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington are still going strong. I'm not playing the race card neither, but those white actors used to pop up into movies left and right back in the day.
My job is to inform, not persuade- Dan Rather
To be fair, YOU are not playing the race card but Mel Gibson vanished off the face of the earth FOR playing the race card.
Kevin Costner is still around, still making fairly big movies as well, he's just not doing them with the same frequency as before. His choices after a number of expensive flops have become far more refined & studious. He's still around, just careful at what he's doing, avoiding, you know, Waterworld & the Postman.
Richard Gere did disappear but Kevin Kline was never that big of a star to begin with. He's just well remembered.
Washington, on the other hand, he had a few movies where he just blew out minds. Training Day instantly comes to mind. I'd even add Fallen into the mix, but he had his stellar performance in it totally overshadowed by Koteas.
The thing about Washington is that, since his success in the 90s & the early 00's he fell into a rut of making the same movie over & over again & playing the same roles in them. He's still around because they are largely popular movies, but it's not the type of acting that would make you legendary.
Had Washington kept choosing roles like Malcolm X, Training Day, & what not, it would be a different story. His early work earned him the reputation as a great actor, but his later work made him just another name.
Now Morgan Freeman, on the other hand, You have Driving Miss Daisy, Seven, Glory, Shawshank, Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, All of those overshadow anything Costner, Kline, Gere, Gibson, or Washington have ever done. And those are just the highlights.
Then Robin Hood, crap movie, but between Freeman & Rickman's performances it's worth watching. Lean on Me, there have certainly been better movies, but he did a good enough job to save that film too. Teachers, The Power of One, Outbreak, Amistad, again, not great films but Freeman made them an enjoyable watch.
And now in his later life he's taking Nimoy's place as the narrator of absolutely everything.
I guess what I'm saying is that, unlike everyone else you've named Freeman isn't just a good actor, he is CONSISTENTLY a great actor. Even in what would be a bad film he takes his job seriously and delivers a solid performance.
There are horribly few actors that do that. You mentioned The Bucket List, it's a comedy, a lot of actor's wouldn't take it that seriously, Freeman took it as seriously as he does everything else & gave a great performance in it.
I guess what I'm saying is that you can't name popular actors like Costner & Washington & compare them to Morgan Freeman. They aren't the same type of actor, it's not an apples to apples comparison.
If you look back to the Golden Age of Hollywood there were plenty of actors, plenty of big names at the time, but now we can only name a few...because they were legends.
Morgan Freeman is the same way. Comparing him to Washington & Gibson is kind of cheapening him.
Morgan Freeman is someone you compare to Brando, to Rickman, to Koteas, to Pacino, to the people that are going to be remembered as legends for time immemorial.
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"johnny handsome" never heard of that and judging by you calling it a flop...I guess that's a good thing!
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