The first match-up of the Dixie Babble Bad Accent Tournament ended in the first upset, as #4-seed Renee Zellweger in Cold Mountain upended overall #1-seed Half the Cast of Fried Green Tomatoes. In yesterday’s other match, Robert DeNiro in Cape Fear edged out Kevin Costner in JFK, setting up a showdown between Oscar-winning actors in Round 2.
Day 2 of the Bad Accent Tournament brings us some icons of American cinema, and also Dan Aykroyd.
In the first game, Marlon Brando in Reflections in a Golden Eye faces the pairing of Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight in Deliverance.
You know Brando had dental implants put in to make him look more jowly for The Godfather? Had Reflections in a Golden Eye been made after The Godfather, you might think those implants had come loose and were rolling around in his mouth while he delivered his lines. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure that that’s a “Southern” accent he’s supposed to be talking with, so he might not deserve a place in this tournament, after all.
Jon Voight is a New Yorker who don’t know no better. Burt Reynolds, you should know (and if you don’t, you should be ashamed of yourself), grew up in a part of Florida far enough north to be considered South, and speaks with an easy good ol’ boy twang in many of his movies. Don’t get me wrong – Voight and Reynolds are brilliant in Deliverance, and his performance as Lewis Medlock helped make Reynolds the biggest star in Hollywood. Someone somewhere, either back in Hollywood or there on the banks of the Chattooga, must have told Reynolds he needed to sound more ‘Suthehn.’ But if that’s the price we had to pay to get Smokey & the Bandit, it was well worth it.
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Game 2 of Day 2 matches up George Kennedy’s Oscar-winning performance in Cool Hand Luke with Dan Aykroyd’s not-Oscar-winning performance in Driving Miss Daisy.
Like Burt & Jon, George Kennedy delivers a great performance in a fantastic movie despite a distractingly bad accent. Is his Dragline supposed to be a Cajun? If so, he must have lost a lot of his accent in that Florida jail. Is Dragline just a Florida cracker good ol’ boy? If so, was he hit in the head?
Dan Aykroyd shows up in Driving Miss Daisy for a just a few, fairly short scenes. Maybe that’s why his character talks like he’s in one of those SNL sketches that they tack on after the musical guest’s second song.
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