Great Acceptance Speeches: Dustin Hoffman, "Kramer vs. Kramer"
Wednesday, February 20, 2019 at 7:30PM We asked Team Experience to share their favourite Oscar acceptance speeches as we countdown to Hollywood's High Holy Night. Here's Ben Miller...
Dustin Hoffman had an incredible run of films at the start of his career. After breaking through with The Graduate in 1967, he followed that with the legendary Midnight Cowboy, and steadily continued on with Little Big Man, Straw Dogs, Papillion, Lenny, All the President’s Men and Marathon Man. When 1979 rolled around, he was 42 years old and already had three Best Actor nominations under his belt.
Hoffman was no fan of the Academy at the time. In the midst of his 70’s run, Hoffman called the Oscars a garish and embarrassing evening. He even drew the ire of Frank Sinatra during the 1975 ceremony. Despite that, the Academy didn’t mind all that much as they nominated him again in 79 for Kramer vs. Kramer, and this time they gave him the award...
When he arrives, he looks annoyed, but he lays on a few quick jokes about the Oscar statue and his parents, then he gets to the meat of his issues. Of the other four nominees for 1979 (Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Roy Scheider and Peter Sellers), Lemmon was the only other contender to show up. Lemmon even got a big kiss from Hoffman on his way to the stage. After the jokes, Hoffman lays out his case for his problems with the Oscars. He refuses to believe he “beat” the other nominees because of the community of actors should be so strong as to come together and not make it a competition.
On top of making a statement, he figures out a way to incorporate thanking all the filmmakers on Kramer vs. Kramer, as well as the directors who shaped his career along the way. He also points out his Oscar as a symbol of appreciation for the people you don’t see, specifically the broke actors who aren’t working, but have to hold down day jobs. This is a masterclass of a speech.
Very rarely does an acceptance speech actually mean something and even more rarely is something changed because of it. Following Hoffman’s speech, the Academy went away from announcing “…and the winner is” to “…and the Oscar goes to.” You don’t really grasp the meaning of the change until you hear what Hoffman is talking about.
No matter what you think about Hoffman's Kramer vs. Kramer victory, his speech makes the entire endeavor worth it.
One other takeaway: Jane Fonda spends three full minutes describing the careers of the five nominees before even announcing the “winner.” Some Oscar producer probably watches this clip and shudders at the thought of such long-windedness. I mean, just watch the clip following Hoffman’s speech. Host Johnny Carson made a joke about how long the ceremony is going.
I’m just saying…the Oscars ceremonies were really great in the 70s.
Reader Comments (28)
“And the Oscar goes to...” actually came from the ceremony without a host, nine years later. The one where Snow White and Rob Lowe sang together. Coincidentally, Hoffman was the first Best Actor winner with an “And the Oscar goes to...”
Allan Carr deserves the credit for that.
Good catch @Roger
A really good choice, Dustin Hoffman is gracious, articulate, and very passionate about the craft of acting. He really impressed me with that speech, and it's clear he impressed others as well.
The Oscars were wonderful in the 70's, probably because the films were good and there were no other awards shows for films. This was it.
Btw. Meryl Streep's hair is just amazing.
Great choice—Hoffman strikes a sympathetic tone from the beginning and shows what acting means to him and so many others. It reminds me of the opening titles of Tootsie, where his character says many of the same things to his students.
Other great speeches:
Louise Fletcher—thanking her parents while signing.
Julie Andrews—calling such hospitality above and beyond.
Jennifer Jones—don’t know her words, but just because it was her 25th birthday.
Julia Roberts—because she shouted out her friend Albert Finney—be at peace.
One of the greatest actors of all-time, giving one of the best performances ever.
And a great speech.
Holy shit, Meryl Streep is gorgeous here.
I love the fact that he hugs and kisses everyone. including the great Jack Lemmon. which is exactly what the Academy is trying to prevent this year.
Kathy Bates also shook hands with Anjelica Huston. I think it's the classy thing to do.
Thank you so much for this write-up, Ben; I’d never seen this brilliant speech!
(Shirley MacLaine’s is easily my all-time favorite, thanking Debra Winger for her “turbulent brilliance” and stating “I deserve this.”)
Nine(!) comments in and no one has yet to hijack this thread with the #MeToo allegations against Hoffman - I’m so proud of my fellow TFE readers!
He insulted Roy Scheider and Melvyn Douglas.
I really hope Debra Winger names her autobiography "Turbulent Brilliance".
It is indeed a wonderful heartfelt speech but for me no speech will ever top the one given by Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein when accepting the award for the Documentary Short "One Survivor Remembers". Real and immensely powerful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zn-fPM4KS0
@Ken s
I forget that too. I always think he name checks all the nominees, but says Robert Duvall instead of Roy Schieder. Duvall was nominated in Supporting Actor, so I guess that was the screw up.
This is what makes the Academy Awards the best award show. The speeches are brillant because it means such a big deal to people.
Even when I'm not rooting for someone, they can completely win me over. In 2007 I was excited to see Julie Christie win her second Oscar, when she lost I was disappointed until Marion Cotillard gave a genuine and adorable speech (and then followed that up with countless amazing performances).
Hoffman is great here, but Scheider and Sellers have truly iconic roles.
The Sean Penn of the 70's,I'd have liked a Sellers win though.
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Pacino aside (one of his most headache-inducing turns), what a category!
It was a very very good speech. Reminds me of how few really good speeches there have been in the last decade or so.
@Andrew Carden; As always, Al Pacino is incredible. Rightfully nominated all 8 times and should have another 5 or so.
Hoffman gives one of the best performances of the decade, so well done here. His performance is really quintessential.
I gotta ask: what did Hoffman do to Sinatra??
Carlos, he didn't do anything directly to Frank. But Ole Blue Eyes, as one of the hosts, made a statement during the 1975 ceremony to the effect that Hoffman's criticism of the Academy was garish and unseemly. Harumph.
Sinatra's mob associations were garish and unseemly.
How come no one has mentioned how freaking gorgeous Jane Fonda is? And still is? Wut elixir does she swallow?
Also, somewhere in his speech, Hoffman does mention WRITERS, so yay for that!
Not only were the Oscars really great in the 1970s, the 1970s produced some of the greatest films ever, year after year.
Tom Cruise in Rainman is as much as Supporting role as Mahersala Ali is in Green Book. Discuss amongst yourselves.
Why isn’t the orchestra playing after 45 seconds to hustle him off? He gets to speak for 4 minutes-seems like that’s what the producers nowadats strive for-eliminate the speeches of the nobodies ( Hair stylists, editors, cinematographers, etc) to give more time to the rating grabbers. If Every ‘Iscar goes to ‘ receiver spoke line that, I wouldn’t mind. They give shout outs to the unnamed creative spirits that strive for film excellence. I just get a bit weary when you have to sit through a rambling list of 20 names that you never heard of that you’re waiting to the orchestra...
@Tom. Cruise is lead #1 in Rain Man. As Michael Caine said, "he carries that whole picture".