Okay so I caught the last part of the movie "The Caine Mutiny."
Great movie. Definitely would have taken some Oscars if it was not made during the same year as "On the Waterfront." If you have not seen it you should. I consider the court scene as good or better than the court scene from "A Few Good Men."
Anyway Bogart's and MacMurray's performance were masterful. Other stuff I saw those actors in were less impressive to me. Maybe because what I seen them in were "good guy" roles. It seems to me that to bring out the best in an actor or actress, that you need more than the undiluted hero role. The actor can play a hero but that hero (Bogart and MacMurray obviously were not heros in this film) needs some flaws to allow the actor/ess to be more layered. A pure good guy role can be fun, but it does not allow the performer to really show what he or she can do.
Off the top of my head the only exception I can think of that is Tom Hank's Forrest Gump. But even then although the role did not show any antihero tendencies Hank did get to layer his performance with Gump's cognitive abilities.
Are there any outstanding performances out there where the role is a good guy without any real flaws? My theory is that such performances is few, if they exists at all, because it allows for so much acting versatility to have a more complicated character.
