The Oscar nominations are in and there aren't many surprises among the contenders.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button deservingly leads the field with 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (David Fincher) and Best Actor (Brad Pitt).
Best Picture favourite Slumdog Millionaire – a film I've been hanging out to see – comes in second with 10 nominations. Given how it swept the Golden Globes, expect it to put in a good showing here.
Meanwhile, biopic Milk landed eight nominations, putting it in third place alongside Christopher Nolan's triumphant reinvention of the Batman saga, The Dark Knight.
What's disappointing is that, despite an enviable haul of awards nominations and wins, The Dark Knight's Oscar nods are almost exclusively in the technical categories.
The blockbuster comic book flick became a record-setting global phenomenon when released last year, leaving a wave of Oscar buzz in its wake. However, The Dark Knight's lacklustre showing at the Globes, which saw the film land just a single nomination and win for Heath Ledger's awe-inspiring turn as the Joker, seemingly slowed the picture's Oscar momentum.
It's a rare occasion, but the Academy is not entirely averse to acknowledging record-shattering blockbusters. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, perhaps the best parallel for The Dark Knight, managed to take home all 11 Oscars for which it was nominated (including Best Picture and Best Director). That same year, Johnny Depp was nominated for his first nuanced performance as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
Aside from a couple of surprising but worthy nods, including Robert Downey Jr's fantastic performance in Tropic Thunder and a screenplay nom for In Bruges (Colin Farrell's Golden Globe-winning turn somehow failed to be nominated), this year's contenders are typically po-faced. I was also holding out hope that Pixar's heartwarming WALL•E would defy the odds and also score a Best Picture nomination; alas, it wasn't to be, despite the film landing five nominations, including Best Animated Film and Best Original Screenplay.
The Dark Knight is a sure bet for Best Supporting Actor and most of its technical nods, but, like Return of the King before it, a picture with this much atmosphere, a phenomenal cast, some gorgeous cinematography and direction with such obvious respect for its source material, deserves that kind of recognition. It's not quite worthy of a win, but definitely of recognition.
To fans of the film: you have one last chance to relive The Dark Knight in the ultimate format; Warner Bros. are re-releasing the picture in IMAX cinemas around the world from tomorrow.
To the Academy: why so serious?
3 comments:
The difference between the Dark Knight and the other two blockbusters. Is that I think people can rightfully argue that the Dark Knight wouldn't have sold nearly as many tickets if it wasn't Heath Ledger's last big flick.
Don't get me wrong it was a definete "hit" but a lot of people went to see the film because they wanted to see Heath one more time, people who likely wouldn't have gone otherwise (My Stepmother being one, she never saw the first one, and normally sees artsy movies like Slumdog. She was actually confused by the Dark Knight, and I said well you kind of have to see the first movie)
In that sense, it just doesn't compare to Titanic or the Return of the King, whom all sold their movies based on their story alone.
And I can say I don't think the Dark Knight was anywhere near the movie the Return of the King was, and the Return of the King won majorily on the strength of the entire series.
This being said, I haven't seen all the movies nominated, so maybe the Dark Knight deseserved it. I will say this though, I saw the Dark Knight, and I saw Slumdog, and quite frankly Slumdog deserves the oscar more than the Dark Knight does.
Slumdog was an incredibly moving experience for me. It was one of those rare movies that is harsh but also uplifting. It made me really think about how grateful I should be for everything I have in my life. And it was shot incredibly beautiful. Slumdog had such a "heart" to it.
I want to make it clear that when I say that that the movie grossed so much because of Heath's death, I'm not faulting the producers in anyway.
The handled the marketing of the film with taste and dignity. It's just that it was inevitable that people were going to want to see Heath one more time..
You know, I don't really buy the theory that The Dark Knight's extraordinary success lies with Heath Ledger's death. It mightn't have quite achieved the astronomical heights that it did, but Ledger's Joker, like the film itself, was already receiving buzz prior to his passing. And The Dark Knight is a terrific film in its own right. I suspect we were looking at 2009's highest grossing movie either way.
That said, you may be onto something when you say that The Dark Knight may have been partly neglected on the basis that it's a sequel. Much like the Emmys tend to overlook serialised dramas, the Academy doesn't appear to favour follow-ups (that said, the sort of films that win Oscars don't typically wind up generating sequels).
It's not a perfect film - Maggie Gyllenhaal's character was nearly as underdeveloped as she was when played by Katie Holmes in Batman Begins - and I don't believe it should win Best Picture, but The Dark Knight manages to transcend its comic book roots to deliver a rich, enthralling crime epic that I'd have liked to have seen rewarded with a nomination.
Looking forward to viewing Slumdog Millionaire - I'll be posting my thoughts here when I do.
Thanks for the comments!
Post a Comment