Is Gary Oldman the greater living actor today? Part 1

Is Gary Oldman the greater living actor today? Not, because Pacino and De Niro are still alive, and yes because these two are not kicking. Not, because Daniel Day Lewis every now and then appears on the screen causing permanent damages to most of so-called actors, but yes, because Lewis is a category of his own, along with Brando and Tracy. But Oldman came back with a vengeance in this year's Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy, erasing every possible memory of Sir Guinness as Smiley, and gracing the screen with just his presence (being a team player he lets the young ones shine and this may cost him, again, an academy award nomination, but imagine the film with anyone else at its centre- it wouldn't work without Oldman's gravitas.
And so we are once more talking about why Oldman will not be nominated (and what this means for Awards in general in the last 25 years:
Back to 1986: Out of nowhere (we hadn't seen his first promise in Mike Leigh's TV film Meantime outside the UK)he becomes Sid Vicious, even better he hides below the original rage a level of intelligence that belongs to Oldman and not Vicious. Of course this is an Alex Cox film, and even in the most progressive quintet of actor nominees in the history of the Academy (James Woods, Dexter Gordon), the British spot was kept for the (brilliant anyway) Bob Hoskins in Mona Lisa
Enter 1987, and Oldman excels once again in more traditional fare, if the times and loves of Joe Orton can be called traditional. Prick Up Your Ears is a triumphant acting duo with Alfred Molina, but the Academy has gone traditional: Michael Douglas wins, Nicholson is in for the forgotten Ironweed, Mastroianni is remembered for some reason, William Hurt keeps getting nominated for nothing. Ok, Oldman was not the typical new star- his next moves showed:
He next moves to the universe of Nicholas Roeg, in Track 29 against Roeg's muse Theresa Russell, a psychoanalytic labyrinth that plays with its tongue in cheek- still a joy to watch after all these years...
1989 is the year of The Firm, another TV film that was the archetypal for every kitchen sink drama afterwards, along with directly discussing the roots of hooliganism- obviously Oldman is electric in every frame, playing against his then wife Lesley Manville
Even his Shakespeares are different- reuniting with Tim Roth after Meantime, 1990, in Rozencratz and Guildenstern are dead, with Tom Stoppard's sign all over it
Same year, a forgotten classic, State of Grace, uniting with the other promising bad boy, Sean Penn, alongside Robin Wright and Ed Harris, all before they had a career. Essential viewing, if only for the chance to see Oldman against Penn (one of the 1-2 that could claim the title of the greatest living actor at the moment). Essential viewing also because it is an exquisite film.
1991 sees him impersonating to the last detail Lee Harvey Oswald, but OK, there is no role, no time in Stone's Thucydidian adrenaline fuelled film
But 1992 sees him reaching his heights: In Copolla's re-imagining of Dracula as a rock opera, he re-creates a character that has been linked with cultural landmarks like Lugosi and Lee, and builds- half dose genious/ half dose eccentricity- a brilliant, rock star Dracula, scary and loveable to death as Winona can attest. Dracula divided audiences, but it still looks grandiose and epic, and Oldman's re-imagining of this role is the art of acting in its supreme form. Awards? No... Although a strong year with the likes of Downey as Chaplin and Washington as Malcolm X, it was one of the most traditional (in a bad way) years in the Academy, remembering to honour Pacino for his antiques in the dusty Scent of a Woman, Eastwood in his tired western, and being supposedly shocked by Stephen Rea's discoveries in his crying games... Time hasn't been kind for any of them. Oldman's Dracula is still a rock star ahead of our times.
There will be a part II, too many iconic moments actually follow