Who? Ralph Fiennes
How were they robbed? Portraying Nazi Commandant Amon Goeth in Steven Spielberg’s holocaust film Schindler’s List, Ralph Fiennes evaded the standard default caricature that so many actors fall into when taking on any Nazi character. Fiennes managed to humanize Goeth, an otherwise cold and malevolent character, in a way that had the audience conflicted with their assessment of him. Goeth was charismatic when necessary, but also disturbed and often visibly psychotic. The early 1990’s had many films explore the idea of evil in great depth where, contrastingly, Schindler’s List presents the rare concept of goodness in such a dark concept film. Why would Schindler risk all to do right? It was Fiennes’s chilling performance that painted the ambiguity of good and evil in this film. To the chagrin of many moviegoers, it was Tommy Lee Jones who won the Best Actor Oscar in 1994 for his work in The Fugitive. Sure, Jones was very memorable in his role as a cop who is tasked with bringing in a man wrongfully accused of murdering his wife, but his winning the Oscar is one of many examples of the Academy choosing to award the film with a more digestible theme. The holocaust will never be a cakewalk to talk about or present via film, but Fiennes losing to Jones was criminal. Lame!
Did you know? When holocaust survivor Mila Pfefferberg was introduced to Ralph Fiennes on the set, she began shaking uncontrollably because he reminded her too much of the real Amon Goeth.
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