Robert totally deserved it. I think they gave it to AL PAcino like they gave it to Di Caprio this year, because it was time, not because it was his best performance. Totally unfair.

This message has been deleted.

Regardless - my gosh what a fantastic performance!

Absolutely. As you can see from my profile pic, I love him in "Chaplin". The physical comedy he got so absolutely spot on, and most of all: The eyes of a man in his 20s that looked so old and weary in the last scenes Wow. Breathtaking. He was again snubbed for "Tropic Thunder". It would be such a shame if Robert shouldn't get an Oscar at one point, or posthumous, which is hopefully hundreds of years away. It's just that easy tasks like Iron Man or Sherlock Holmes won't get him one. C'mon movie makers: Challenge that man, you know he can!

I agree - I think it's the best performance that RDJ has ever given. Unfortunately, he was up against good old Al - and well, Al had been passed over a couple of times before(think Godfather Parts 1 and 2, Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico, there's more as well).
I think if Scent of a Woman hadn't had Al in it - then the Oscar fight would have been RDJ versus Clint Eastwood, for his superb performance in Unforgiven. Then, I think RDJ might have won it. Good though I thought Eastwood was(and I love Unforgiven as a film - it's great he won Best Picture and Director) - I think RDJ would have won the Best Actor Oscar.

I just watched this movie(thanks Netflix). I think he did great..and I'm not the only one so maybe that is good enough and better than a litlle tin trophy.
Much better then the reverse I would think.

I agree. I so love this film.

I agree about Denzel, but and Stephen Rea was also really fantastic in The Crying Game.
Al Pacino was such a sympathy vote.

Yeah I personally don't think Al pacino's performance holds up today as well as Downey's in Chaplin.
Of course this was also the year The Crying Game lost to Unforgiven (the darling of the academy that year.) I'll admit that Clint Eastwood has made some really terrific films, but Unforgiven is basically just a rehash of The Searchers. Mystic River is certainly a much better example of his directing skills and that didn't win.

This message has been deleted.

If Peter O'Toole couldn't nail an Oscar for Lawrence of Arabia, Beckett or Goodbye Mr. Chips (or his 5 other nominations) then there's a fair chance Robert Downey, jr wont get one either. Donald Sutherland has never even garnered a nomination the mind boggles. I'd say the non-winners club is a pretty cool one.

No, he doesn't deserve one. Daniel Day-Lewis was robbed of it in The Last of the Mohicans. But in all fairness, Benot Poelvoorde should have won it for Man Bites Dog.

His portrayal was pure genius and he should have received the award but the same could be said of others who have not won
Maybe someday he will win the award for a lesser performance to make up for not winning for Chaplin. IMO.the Academy does stuff like that.
For example: Elizabeth Taylor almost died and the she won a award for Butterfied 8 (phew) when she really should have won for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
BradWhatcha gonna do? What are you gonna do?

I've just watched Chaplin for the first time, twenty years after it was made, and agree that RDJ was better in this film than Al Pacino was in Scent of A Woman. He may have lost anyway to Clint Eastwood who was probably favourite for Unforgiven that year. I still think Downey was better because Chaplin was a bigger challenge for an actor than either Pacino or Eastwood's parts. One slip and it could have been fatal but he was superb from beginning to end.

I had watched most of Chaplin's films prior to this movie and RDJ blew my
f ucking mind, he was absolutely PERFECT. He was robbed alright, but I haven't cared for the Academy in a long, long time. Even if he was to receive the gold, proving that he's a great actor, the fact is, we already know he is.
| ''But where's the ambiguity? It's over there, in a box!'' |

This message has been deleted.

Well.. there are some unfortunate years where you have REALLY awesome movies with astonishing actors racing for the Oscar. For example Jamie Foxx and Leo DiCaprio, Ray and Aviator were awesome and both would've deserved it! Also Micky Rourke and Sean Penn in 08 had both terrific pics.. sometimes it is unfair. So was it with RDJ. But I bet my ass, he will get his AA one day.

This message has been deleted.

I watched Scent of a Woman a couple nights ago and okay, it was a good performance and deserving of an award. I said it. BUT it wasn't as unique a performance as RDJ's Chaplin. I believe the Academy thinks, with young actors, that they can always give them one for their next great performance, but sometimes that actor doesn't get another chance, or it's years later before he gets another chance to be nominated. They could make up for it - this year - the "excuse" to nominate is there, if not the reason to nominate him.

In me the tiger smells the rose - Siegfried Sassoon

I think that's fair. Pacino was very worthy of an Oscar for
Scent of a Woman
.
Fact is, there are lots of years in which multiple performances have been deserving. Only one can get the award.

reply to "trouts"Pacino deserved that Oscar because he carried what was otherwise a mediocre film to the only level of greatness it could achieve and that was done through Pacino. If Pacino did not win that Oscar that year, that would have been unforgivable.IMO

I've heard/read someplace a while ago that the only reason Pacino got the Oscar, was because he had been pulling for one for a long time, and he got it sort of because been cut short many times
I say **** that and give RDJ his Oscar! He deserves everything.

"Now you got some real tears going.
That's the stuff accolades are made of."

This message has been deleted.

Now hold up here for a second, are you insinuating that Heath Ledger did not deserve the Oscar in 2008, and that the only reason he won it is because he died? Because if so I must strongly stress my opinion that Ledger's performance was one of the most deserved of all time
I actually thought his performance was really lackluster, personally. A lot of him licking his lips and staring wildly into space. Now Health Ledger had a lot of potential as an actor, but I don't think he shined in The Dark Knight, I think he looks like someone who's wildly out of control of his acting. Like Johnny Depp every time he steps forth in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
I think 50% of people wanted him to win because it was a posthumous nomination and the other 50% were impressed by him playing a crazy person. Watching over and over again, I found his performance hammy and over the top.
I'm sure a lot of people disagree with me, but I have the right to my opinion.