Samuel L. Jackson: The Invisible Avenger
I’m not reviewing The Hateful Eight here – and, yes, you should see it – but seeing the film got me thinking about why some actors are ignored by the Oscars. Whatever else you can say about the film, the fact that Samuel L. Jackson was not nominated is inexplicable. So, naturally, I’ll explicate for you.
Of course race is a factor in academy recognition, but it hasn’t been a problem for Denzel Washington or Morgan Freeman. But stardom has softened them, while Jackson has, if anything, intensified in projecting a resentment of white people. And it may not be intentional on his part, or even based on his true feelings about them. I’m only saying – and this is entirely subjective – that seeing him next to a white person onscreen sets up a dramatic tension based on a perceived hostility to white people. It is an intense hostility, and it may even alter the intended tone of the scene.
There’s no doubt that Quentin Tarantino sees this, and he has placed it front and center in all of his films with Jackson. Other directors, notably Neil LaBute in Lakeview Terrace, have used it to great effect as well. It has become part of Jackson’s screen persona, and it has made him a wealthy man. Just as important is his masterful timing, his knowing the exact moment of surprise. It’s not merely the threat of violence that grips us, but the way Jackson draws it out, savoring it, knowing that we will laugh from the released tension when he finally pulls that trigger. While a snake may strike without warning, Samuel Jackson convinces us that he can even shock the snake.
Jackson clearly inspires Tarantino, a filmmaker who needs to construct seemingly impossible challenges for himself in order to create. In The Hateful Eight, he has made a two-and-three-quarter hour western with no dead spots. Its highlight for me is a standoff between Jackson and Bruce Dern in which he goads Dern, as an ex-Confederate general, into trying to kill him, and it has some of the wittiest writing Tarantino has ever done.
None of the best actor nominees had so great a burden to carry, or were as crucial to the film’s success. The academy should have given Samuel Jackson his due.
