The Dark Knight: Oscar Bound?
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Siwilliams
Fleet Captain
I voted yes, but don't think it will
Does it have a chance?
Yes.
I hope everyone votes about COULD it, and not WILL it. This is a "could" question. Anything is possible.
Is this year the best chance any film like TDK will ever have? Period? Yes.
The Oscar telecast has been in continued decline in viewership for years and years. The result of so many "unknown" films being nominated and winning. Obscure films that people cannot connect with. The result is that the Academy has stated it plans to consider more note worthy films this year as a result. It's not to say such a film will win. So much as that they're not going to just dismiss such films so easily.
I'd be thrilled if TDK won Best Picture, Nolan best director, and most important - the must have - Ledger best supporting. If Ledger doesn't win, it's a criminal act of ignorant stupidity. His performance was one of the best of all time, of any film. He truly made the character live. You don't see Heath Ledger in that film one bit. He is the Joker. His life or death is irrelevant. It was the performance of a lifetime, and if he where alive I think the buzz would be 10 times as great because he'd be around to discuss it and feed the frenzy.
If Ledger does not win, I will never again watch the Oscars for the rest of my life. And I'm a big movie buff. When the nominations come out, almost every film nominated goes on my NetFlix queue, so I can see the so-called "best" of the best.
Yes.
I hope everyone votes about COULD it, and not WILL it. This is a "could" question. Anything is possible.
Is this year the best chance any film like TDK will ever have? Period? Yes.
The Oscar telecast has been in continued decline in viewership for years and years. The result of so many "unknown" films being nominated and winning. Obscure films that people cannot connect with. The result is that the Academy has stated it plans to consider more note worthy films this year as a result. It's not to say such a film will win. So much as that they're not going to just dismiss such films so easily.
I'd be thrilled if TDK won Best Picture, Nolan best director, and most important - the must have - Ledger best supporting. If Ledger doesn't win, it's a criminal act of ignorant stupidity. His performance was one of the best of all time, of any film. He truly made the character live. You don't see Heath Ledger in that film one bit. He is the Joker. His life or death is irrelevant. It was the performance of a lifetime, and if he where alive I think the buzz would be 10 times as great because he'd be around to discuss it and feed the frenzy.
If Ledger does not win, I will never again watch the Oscars for the rest of my life. And I'm a big movie buff. When the nominations come out, almost every film nominated goes on my NetFlix queue, so I can see the so-called "best" of the best.
Siwilliams
Fleet Captain
I meant it could....but don't think it will
S
Stone_Cold_Sisko
Guest
To be nominated? yes. to win? no.
Well, this is a conundrum for me.
If The Dark Knight gets nominated for Best Picture, I am forced to sell my testicles. That's just if it gets nominated. So while The Dark Knight is my favorite film of all time, and my favorite film of 2008, I kind of like my testicles.
So it'd be a really bittersweet victory even if it got nominated. Because like I said, I really like my testicles.
If The Dark Knight gets nominated for Best Picture, I am forced to sell my testicles. That's just if it gets nominated. So while The Dark Knight is my favorite film of all time, and my favorite film of 2008, I kind of like my testicles.
So it'd be a really bittersweet victory even if it got nominated. Because like I said, I really like my testicles.
It depends; what's the competition going to be like this year?
There have been many high-quality, 'testicle-selling-quality' movies nominated for Academy Awards that have lost because they happened to be running against a powerhouse film that same year.
The whole concept of voting for only one Best Picture each year is in itself flawed, especially when some years there are really no movies worthy of the title, and other years there may be 2 or more.
There have been many high-quality, 'testicle-selling-quality' movies nominated for Academy Awards that have lost because they happened to be running against a powerhouse film that same year.
The whole concept of voting for only one Best Picture each year is in itself flawed, especially when some years there are really no movies worthy of the title, and other years there may be 2 or more.
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In time, when all the hysteria over TDK has died down, I hope Heath Ledger's performance in Brokeback Mountain will be hailed as his best. There is so much for an actor to do with a character like the Joker, so much opportunity to pull all the acting stops out. His performance as Ennis Del Mar was breathtaking and heartbreaking and it was all so subtle.
TDK was a good movie but not the year's best in my opinion. It'll probably get nominated, as will Ledger, who will probably win Best Supporting Actor but I can't see the Academy going for a comic book movie as Best Film. Then again, they did give 11 Oscars to Titanic so what do I know!
TDK was a good movie but not the year's best in my opinion. It'll probably get nominated, as will Ledger, who will probably win Best Supporting Actor but I can't see the Academy going for a comic book movie as Best Film. Then again, they did give 11 Oscars to Titanic so what do I know!
Gambling is a disease, and now I fear for future generations of JacksonArchers.
Christopher Nolan deserves much more than an Scream Award for The Dark Knight. WB will mount an Oscar campaign in the trades for Nolan and Ledger. But knowing the Academy's snobbery, I wouldn't want to get my hopes up.
So do I.
I would absolutely love for Christopher Nolan to nab the Best Director Oscar. I might weep precious little man tears.
But something tells me it might go to David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and something tells me that film might sweep the Oscars this year and unsurp Nolan's victory.
Imagine this: What if Darren Aronsofky gets nominated for The Wrestler (as well as a Best Picture nomination) and Fincher and Nolan get nominated? Three of my favorite directors of all time...what forever will I do?
My nuts might just explode.
I would absolutely love for Christopher Nolan to nab the Best Director Oscar. I might weep precious little man tears.
But something tells me it might go to David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and something tells me that film might sweep the Oscars this year and unsurp Nolan's victory.
Imagine this: What if Darren Aronsofky gets nominated for The Wrestler (as well as a Best Picture nomination) and Fincher and Nolan get nominated? Three of my favorite directors of all time...what forever will I do?
My nuts might just explode.
If Fincher won a Best Directing Oscar, my nuts would explode.
I haven't seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button yet, it's my Christmas Theater Experience (TM) this year, but I'll assume it's great...since pretty much everything Fincher has ever done is great.
And while I won't say he deserves it more than anyone else for individual films, 'cause like I said, I haven't seen his contender this year, in the pantheon of "career Oscars," he deserves it far more than Nolan or pretty much anyone else does at this point...except maybe Mann or DePalma.
I haven't seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button yet, it's my Christmas Theater Experience (TM) this year, but I'll assume it's great...since pretty much everything Fincher has ever done is great.
And while I won't say he deserves it more than anyone else for individual films, 'cause like I said, I haven't seen his contender this year, in the pantheon of "career Oscars," he deserves it far more than Nolan or pretty much anyone else does at this point...except maybe Mann or DePalma.
I dunno. I mean Fincher has Se7en and Fight Club, two of the greatest films ever in my opinion, but Christopher Nolan has Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight...five of my favorite films of all time, so I'm a bit biased.
I definitely think Fincher is more than deserving for a Best Director Oscar (I'll also agree Michael Mann is overdo, much like Martin Scorsese was) but I'm a huge fan of Nolan so naturally I'm going to lean in his direction (ha, no pun intended).
I forgot to mention Zodiac! What a truly terrific film. Roger Ebert calls it his best, but I'm still stuck between choosing Se7en and Fight Club on most days (with a slight edge going to Se7en most of the time).
Brian De Palma is a fine director who needs a comeback film.
Yes he does. I still love The Untouchables. Wasn't he set to make a prequel or a sequel at one point?
Of course it could win an Oscar for Best Picture. It made potloads of money, it's politically correct (crazy terrorist for villain and ruthless martyr for hero,) and the Academy is infamous for lapses in taste and common sense.
And given the popularity of the wacky auteur theory, Nolan is thereby a possible.
And Ledger would even be a plausible choice for Best Supporting Actor, except he's actually the star of the movie. But such piddling details never bothered the Academy before.
And given the popularity of the wacky auteur theory, Nolan is thereby a possible.
And Ledger would even be a plausible choice for Best Supporting Actor, except he's actually the star of the movie. But such piddling details never bothered the Academy before.
I dunno. I mean Fincher has Se7en and Fight Club, two of the greatest films ever in my opinion, but Christopher Nolan has Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight...five of my favorite films of all time, so I'm a bit biased.
I definitely think Fincher is more than deserving for a Best Director Oscar (I'll also agree Michael Mann is overdo, much like Martin Scorsese was) but I'm a huge fan of Nolan so naturally I'm going to lean in his direction (ha, no pun intended).
I forgot to mention Zodiac! What a truly terrific film. Roger Ebert calls it his best, but I'm still stuck between choosing Se7en and Fight Club on most days (with a slight edge going to Se7en most of the time).
Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac. All great films. Even Alien 3, if you look past the studio interference, you can see Fincher's brilliance. Then on top of that, he's done some of the best commercials and music videos of all time. "The Smoking Fetus" commercial for the American Cancer Society was brilliant.
I have to say, though it is tough, Se7en is his best film.
I think of Hopkins as the male lead of Silence of the Lambs. It certainly wasn't Anthony Head or even Scott Glenn. As for Ledger in Dark Knight (note to self, Dark Knight, not Dark Knight Returns,) for how many of those minutes is he the center of the scene? Especially scenes without the official star? The number of minutes is a good starting point but Ledger was in a starring role, just as Hopkins was in Silence. Or Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice, even though he had maybe nineteen minutes on screen time. Does anybody else even remember Alec Baldwin was in Beetlejuice?
Much of the publicity campaign pushing for Dark Knight explicitly mentions the huge amount of money the movie made. That is a new low, even for Hollywood, in esthetic criteria.
PS Almost forgot---if you mean, who is the star? Obviously you're right that it's Bale. If you don't admit the possibility of multiple leads, no matter how uncommon, then the question admits of no debate. But this merely seems unduly official, misleading conventional wisdom, to me.