The official thread: Which was the greatest Joan Crawford, Faye Dunaway or Jessica Lange?

I'll write an in-depth analysis when "Feud" ends.

Exhibit A

What Lange and Sarandon both go for are homages to Crawford and Davis which are built on their own larger than life personalities. It's been established that neither is going for full-on mimicry or imitation.

Sarandon has the easier job because A) she looks like Davis and B) Davis' trademark mannerisms and inflections are immediately recognizable and easy to mimic. That being said, she's doing a fantastic job.

Lange obviously has the more difficult job because she has to pay homage to Crawford whilst avoiding Dunaway's glaring and ridiculed mistakes.

In order to really have an idea of what Lange is attempting with Crawford, go to the source material. Watch Crawford's interviews from the era covered in "Feud" (1956 onward). Watch her drunken interviews. She was mercurial, going from soft and sweet to sharp and hard quite fluidly. This is where Dunaway made her biggest mistake and where Lange triumphs.

Dunaway played Crawford as one drag note throughout. Was it compelling? Absolutely. Rewatchable? Camp always is. Was it Joan Crawford? Not from the hours of Joan Crawford interviews I and many others have seen. To use her performance as a benchmark for capturing Joan Crawford's essence is both laughable and misinformed.

Lange captures the dramatic, wavering quality of Crawford's voice, which darted from light, fluttery tones to deep, resonant tones masterfully (examples below). Her rendition of the final beach scene was as much a perfect homage to Crawford as it was her own unique take on the scene. Again, masterful.

The reason critics are loving Lange's work in this is not only because she's doing a stellar job, but also because she's been corageous in both taking on Joan Crawford and not weakly giving in to everyone's expectations of "Mommie Dearest 2".

Watch the interviews below. The Crawford on display is much closer to what Lange is giving than what Dunaway did.

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

It's clear that everyone agrees Jessica Lange is the greatest Joan Crawford since no one is standing up for Dunaway. We can agree this matter is settled, then.

Faye Dunaway all the way.

As FEUD once again proves, Jessica Lange is the single most overpraised "great" actress of her generation. She is not acting Joan the woman, Joan the character, Joan the star or Joan the legend.She played AN actress. I did not believe it was her any more than I believed Catherine Zeta-Jones was Olivia de Havilliand.

Sarandon did a better job, and not because of her looks. I felt she WAS Bette, working away, proud, never giving up.

[quote]It's clear that everyone agrees Jessica Lange is the greatest Joan Crawford since no one is standing up for Dunaway. We can agree this matter is settled, then.

*Waggles perfectly manicured finger nail at r6

Op: "who" is the greatest, not "which."

And a colon after Crawford would help, moron.

Faye Dunaway remains the only Crawford,

Lange sucks.

R7 = Faye Dunaway in bed, also cursing Warren Beatty and Moonlight.

[quote] And a colon after Crawford would help, moron.

You don't use two colons in the same sentence, hon.

I think they're both excellent performances, but they're showing the same woman from very different angles.

"Mommie Dearest" is showing Joan mostly in terms of how Christina viewed her: as violent, domineering, arbitrary, and implacable. That's who she was to Christina.

"Feud" is showing Joan in terms of what Hollywood did to her--how it allowed her to become deluded and pathetic and vulnerable.

I think Dunaway did a great job in terms of what the writers and director of "Mommie Dearest" wanted and Lange is doing a great job in terms of what Ryan Murphy wanted.

To me it's like comparing Anthony Hopkins as Nixon in Oliver Stone's "Nixon" and James Maddalena in the original operatic production of "Nixon in China." They both play Nixon superbly and inhabit him fully, but with different emphases or different goals in mind.

I loved this scene in "Mommie Dearest".

Joan herself was the star.

Faye was obsessed and determined.

Lange is the closeup independent, working woman.

R13 nailed it. Case closed.

I'm not a fan of Dunaway's Joan because Dunaway's Joan has forever etched in people's minds a portrait of a raving lunatic who was always a beat away from a temper tantrum. The real Joan was, above all, a human being, a woman, who took her miserable childhood, reinvented herself, and worked hard to get to the top of her profession. This one portrayal by Dunaway erased all that and created a legacy of Crawford that isn't her own. With that said, what Dunaway does in that film is astonishing.

Lange's Joan, from what I've seen so far, humanizes Joan. She is insecure, craves acknowledgement, respect, and attention, and is, at this point, on the cusp of desperation. Her husband's dead, her kids are gone, her career's in the toilet, her sexual power has eroded... everything she's worked hard for, everything that defined her, has evaporated. Which makes Lange's Joan a sad, pathetic, infuriating, sympathetic and, ultimately, human character.

Lange - Jazz Dunaway - Disco

They're both great performances in their own ways: Dunaway captures Joan's grand pretentiousness and total alcoholic insanity while Lange shows us Joan's simpering sadness and total alcoholic insanity. Both Academy Award-winning actresses have a few little mannerisms that are not truly Crawford's and yet both clearly did their homework. The fact that Dunaway's titanic performance came many years before Lange's more introspective role makes "Feud" a much more in-depth study than "Mommie Dearest" (lest we all forget that the much better written "Feud" also had about 8 more hours to flesh out Joan's long, storied and very complex life) ... When I was younger and not familiar with the real Joan Crawford, I thought Faye Dunaway had completely captured her. Let me also add that I was 15 when I first saw "Mommie Dearest" in the theatre. Then I later saw "Little Big Man" and realized there is a lot of what I called Joan going on in that performance, too. The same could be said of Jessica Lange when I first saw "Frances" in 1982. But to anyone who's ever seen the real Frances Farmer in action -- who had a voice and style similar to Lauren Bacall -- Lange may have looked almost like her twin, but was essentially herself. Nonetheless, these are still two really great actresses. And I think we also need to keep in mind that neither Dunaway and Lange looked anything like the real Joan Crawford -- which presents its own set of challenges (as previously mentioned by others in this post).

Lange's Crawford is the interpretation that 2017 expects: it's "introspective", Crawford is "humanized" etc.

But it has absolutely nothing to do with who Joan Crawford was. Crawford was a Hollywood Movie Star every second of her adult life. She was ALWAYS on. She was her own invention. There was NOTHING "down to earth" about her.

She was totally clueless and unaware of how campy and odd she came off as the years went by.

We don't need Jessica Lange and this hack director to reveal to us who the "real" Joan Crawford was.

Lange's Crawford never could have been the woman who starred in "Torch Song" or "Johnny Guitar" or "Beserk!".

Crawford had a set of balls....and at least Faye Dunaway understood that.

Joan Crawford's make-up defined her. It was an intrinsic part of her. Her clownish brows and lips were ICONIC. With out them, you don't have Joan.

Will someone please explain to me WTF was the idea behind having Jessica Lange made up like an every day house wife for her "Straightjacket" scenes?

I'm going to say Dunaway because THAT is the performance that will be remembered for ages. And also, I want to piss off the Lange-obsessed psycho.

They are both great performances.

Now could we please have Jess and Faye in a movie together before they and we all die?

Dunaway is as crazy and delusional as Crawford therefore she wins.

Lange-neurotic

Dunaway-PSYCHOTIC

[quote]Lange's Joan, from what I've seen so far, humanizes Joan. She is insecure, craves acknowledgement, respect, and attention, and is, at this point, on the cusp of desperation.

And that's why her interpretation is so wrong.

Watch Crawford's last interviews and listen to her radio interviews. She NEVER plays the victim, never asks for sympathy, never blames anyone for anything. She's in control, still convinced she's Hollywood's biggest star, she's on to her next project, her next trip to Europe, she's reading scripts. There's no "poor little Joan Crawford" going on.

There's absolutely NOTHING insecure about her. In no way does she crave "acknowledgement, respect, and attention". For Joan Crawford, it was simply a given that others respected and acknowledged her.

I was recently listening to a radio interview where she was asked about the movie "Trog" . She mentions the "mediocre" reviews (in reality they were horrible) but she goes on to say how wonderful it was making the film and how happy she was she did it. That was Joan Crawford.

And she was very good to Billy Haines.

Jessica Lange shows that Joan Crawford was a human being. She was, and that's the truth. If you get more pleasure seeing her as some kind of cartoon criminal, well, thats on you.

Yes r27, and Billy was good to her too.

Joan Crawford was the greatest. Dunaway and Lange together don't equal Joan

Faye all the way!