In the 1970s we saw Dustin Hoffman star in a diverse range of films and garner a couple of Best Actor nomination. But it was only during the ceremonies of the 1980s did he finally get rewarded for his fine body of work. In fact in two of the three films below he won Best Actor Oscars and, coincidentally, both films went on to win Best Picture awards.
Hoffman's success started early in the decade when appeared in Kramer Vs Kramer, the winner of Best Picture at the 1980 ceremony. The film saw him play harassed advertising executive Ted Kramer a man who spends a lot more time at work than he does at home. Ted's life changes dramatically one day when his wife Joanna walks out on him without giving him any notice at all. Ted is then forced to bring up the couple's son Billy single-handedly, a task that he finds more than a little difficult. Ted struggles to find the balance between handling a major account at his advertising firm and dealing with the kind of minute details that raising a seven year old brings. These problems are highlighted by the tantrums that Billy has as well as the accident that occurs when he falls off a climbing frame. But gradually the father/son bond grows and Billy becomes the most important thing in Ted's life. So events become even more complicated when, eighteen months later, Joanna returns claiming that she wants Billy to come and live with her. With the bond between Ted and Billy stronger than ever, Ted decides to fight her claim and the two enter a bitter court battle together. The case itself sees major dirt thrown on both sides and ultimately only one side comes out victorious. Just like the rest of the film, I found the ending to be sweet without being saccharine and more than anything it made a lot of sense.
In his script for Kramer Vs Kramer, Robert Benton creates characters who are supremely flawed but are ultimately capable of caring for one another. Ted Kramer is somewhat of a workaholic who we basically see become a proper father to his son over the course of the film. Though Ted makes mistakes, he appears to learn from them and the scene in which he rushes through traffic to get Billy to hospital is extremely moving. Similarly, Benton turns Joanna from the villain of the piece to somebody who we sympathise with due to her final decision in the film. Her actions may not always be right but, just like her ex-husband, she always does what she thinks is best. I have to say, I struggled to like Billy initially and felt that Benton had written him as just a precocious child but he also developed over the course of the film. His realisation that Joanna didn't leave because of him was well-handled and was another example of how true to life Benton had made his characters. In addition to providing some incredible characters, the film offers up some really thought-provoking situations about what it really means to be a parent as it dealt with the changing face of both fatherhood and motherhood. Benton also ended up directing the film after François Truffaut pulled out and it appears as if this was the right decision as he is able to see his words realised on screen. Truffaut's long time cinematographer Néstor Almendros adds some beauty to the piece and is great at capturing some of the silent moments between father and son. One of my favourite recurring motifs is the way that the pair's breakfasts together change over time and the routine they get into by the end of the film is somewhat magical.
I feel Hoffman's Oscar win was more than justified as he appears in nearly every scene of the film and is magnetic throughout. Here he is tasked with playing just a run-of-the-mill father and yet is able to make his character feel every inch a movie hero. Hoffman really communicates Ted's inner turmoil and the love he feels for Billy as the film goes on. Meryl Streep, here winning Best Supporting Actress, is great as Joanna and gives the film a real poignancy whenever she appears. Streep didn't overplay her role and instead brought a quiet fragility to the custody battle in which she and Hoffman both excel. Young Justin Henry was absolutely terrific as young Billy and was much more than just a token child. He made us believe that Billy had been forced to grow up quickly and the chemistry between he and Hoffman was just brilliant. At just over an hour and half, Kramer Vs Kramer never outstayed its welcome and was well-paced throughout. The result of this was a snappy film, with three incredible performances and an incredibly realistic script. Though you'll have to find out if I think it deserved to win Best Picture, I thought that Kramer Vs Kramer was a great film that explored the true meaning of the word family.
In between his two Oscar-winning turns, Hoffman starred in another Best Picture nominee, but this time mainly played it for laughs. In Tootsie, Hoffman played Michael Dorsey an actor who was frequently out of work due to the fact that often argued with directors about what his characters should be doing. Forced to take a job as a waiter, Michael is waiting to raise enough money to put on his flat mate Jeff's play. Informed by his agent that nobody in New York will hire him, Michael goes to extraordinary lengths to continue his career. After providing moral support at a soap audition for his friend Sandy, Michael later takes the drastic step of dressing up as a woman and auditioning for the role himself. The plan works and soon 'Dorothy Michaels' is playing Emily Kimberly, the new administrator on Southwest General. With Jeff and his agent the only two people in on the act, Michael must keep his new identity from Sandy and at the same time begins a relationship with her. But Michael is soon drawn to his new co-star Julie, a single mother who is currently in a disastrous relationship with the soap's awful director. To make things more complicated Julie's widowed father starts to develop feelings for 'Dorothy' and declares his intentions to begin a relationship with her. As Dorothy begins to get more famous, Michael realises that he has to end the charade one way or another. The way he chooses is completely ridiculous and I have to say that I was laughing all the way through this final scene.
In Tootsie, Hoffman really shows his diversity and brings an excellent comic timing to the role. Though we've seen him in comedy films in the past, most notably The Graduate, this is the first time he's been able to show off his comic timing. The script is great at parodying the life of a penniless actor as well as spoofing the ridiculous world of the soap opera. But, unlike most comedies, it is playing for more than just laughs and actually has something serious to say about gender identity. Julie in particular is a character who tells 'Dorothy' that she finds it hard being a woman in the 1980s especially seeing as she's trying to hold down a job and be the sole carer to a young child. The fact that Michael is only able to find fame once he plays an older woman also speaks volumes and I found that Hoffman was utterly convincing whenever he had to play Dorothy. One thing I would have like to have seen was Michael's first transformation into Dorothy and similarly I would have like to have seen more from him when he finally revealed his true identity. Another element of the film that I wasn't a fan of was the film's theme tune 'It Might be You', a generic 1980s number that feels shoehorned in to the movie. But those are just minor niggles in a film that had a lot to offer namely its ensemble cast led by the fantastic Hoffman in another Oscar nominated turn. Jessica Lange, who won the only one of ten awards Tootsie was nominated for, was great as the softly-spoken Julie and added a slice of realism to the film. I have to say though I preferred fellow Supporting Actress nominee Teri Garr as the quirky and paranoid Sandy. Charles Durning as Julie's father, Bill Murray as Jeff and Tootsie's director Sydney Pollack as Michael's agent were all excellent and Murray in particular added a deadpan feel to his character. Whilst Tootsie wasn't the greatest film ever, it was a comedy that had heart and a message while in addition it showed the vast repertoire of styles that Hoffman provided.
Of all the performances we've seen from his so far, Hoffman employed the most amount of method acting to play Raymond Babbitt in Rain Man. Raymond is a high-functioning autistic who has lived in an institute since he was young after his parents were afraid that he'd hurt his younger brother. Due to this his brother Charlie never knew he existed until after the death of their father who left all of his money to Raymond. A product of the 1980s, Charlie is a used car salesman with a beautiful European girlfriend and a fast-talking mouth. Following the death of his mother, he and his father had an incredibly strained relationship and barely talked until his death. Furious that he's been swindled out of his inheritance, Charlie essentially kidnaps Raymond from his house and takes him back to L.A. in an attempt to get half of his money. To add insult to injury, Raymond doesn't even understand the concept of money so Charlie's even more mad that he's now in possession of three million dollars. As Raymond hates to fly, Charlie is forced to drive cross country and along the way starts to learn more about his brother. Initially Raymond's outbursts annoy Charlie but he soon learns to cope with them and is later astonished to discover that his brother was his imaginary friend 'Rain Man' that helped him cope during his childhood. The trip climaxes in a trip to Las Vegas in which Charlie uses Raymond's extraordinary abilities with numbers to swindle a casino out of thousands of dollars. Ultimately the film comes down to whether a bond can develop between family members or if Charlie's greed will mean he's willing to put a price on his new-found relationship with Raymond.
Having seen Rain Man before, I knew what to expect and perhaps the reason that I found a lot of it quite over-the-top. I found the screenplay to be incredibly deliberate and the character of Raymond in particular was fairly over-bearing at times. Though I'm sure writers Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass did their research before creating the character, Raymond's autism feels like a plot device at times rather than something that is particularly well-drawn. Thankfully, Hoffman brings the character to life and this is the first time that we've seen him play a particularly middle-aged character. In the six years between Tootsie and Rain Man he appears to have aged significantly and the disparity between his ageing features and Raymond's childlike nature make for a great balance. But for all the plaudits that Hoffman received for the film, including the Best Actor Oscar, I felt that Tom Cruise gave the better performance as Charlie. At the time Cruise was a big movie star with films like Top Gun and Cocktail putting him on the map. But it was in Rain Man that we first saw that he could really hold his own against an acting great like Hoffman. Cruise is forced to turn Charlie from an arrogant salesman into a loving brother and he portrays the transformation beautifully. The chemistry between Cruise and Hoffman builds throughout Rain Man and in my opinion is one of the reasons for its success. I found that both John Seale's cinematography and Hans Zimmer's score to be the film's other positive attributes with the former capturing the American highway during the brothers' journey. Though it may be forced at times, Rain Man is certainly a very good film that is made better by the performances of both Cruise and Hoffman. Oddly, after all of his success in the last two decades, Hoffman wouldn't appear in another Best Picture nominee again for another sixteen years. But I feel that the three films above all demonstrate his terrific range and show why he's regarded as one of the best actors of his generation.
Next time we head out to Cambodia and follow the journey of an American reporter.
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