OWF critic Ray DeRousse, speaking July 21st 2008…
“What Ledger created is a character so bereft of fear and restraint that he instills both in everyone around him, including the audience.
Going far beyond what was written in the script, Ledger fleshed out The Joker with hideous physical mannerisms and quirks that belie the inner turmoil of the character. It is a rich, full-bodied, and tremendously charismatic performance.
This one is special, for the ages, and deserving of recognition”.
Academy Awards Process as detailed by Awards Daily…
- Friday, December 26, 2008: Nominations ballots mailed
- Monday, January 12, 2009: Nominations polls close 5 p.m. Pacific Time
- Thursday, January 22, 2009: Nominations announced 5:30 a.m. PT, Samuel Goldwyn Theater
Warner Bros. have so far started campaigns for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor (Ledger, above).
source – batman on film
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7 Comments
I’d love Ledger to be nominated. Best Picture, on the other hand, would be an outrage.
How so an outrage?
I have no doubt Ledger will be nominated. I hope he wins because that was a performance that really transended acting. It never felt like that was Heath Ledger on screen. If anyone has time go to you tube and watch the interegation scene. It’s truly incredible because it never feels like your watching a movie. Thats real greatness. As for best picture, I say 50/50. If the film were 20 minutes shorter with the Two face story line ending when he walks into the bar, and carried over to a 3rd film, Id say a best picture nod would be a guarantee. Still I hope its nominated because its still great.
Chuck
An outrage because while it is very good for a comic book movie, it is deeply flawed as a standalone film. It all but completely falls apart in the third act, and it is clear that sever reworking was necessary, especially in regards to the Two Face character arc.
It’s far too fragmented and scatty a film to be Best Picture material, and doesn’t have anything on the movies it is trying to emulate (The Departed, Heat, Godfather, etc etc).
It’s good, but by no means great, and anyone that says it is simply needs to watch more films.
Dave,
I’ve watched many, many, many films, in fact it’s a large
part of how I earn a living. You’re quite welcome to your
opinion (though I disagree completely) but I find it ridiculous that you would have the ego to say that anybody who found Dark Knight completely wonderful “simply needs to watch more films”.
I’d go into why I find your opinion on Dark Knight’s third act so off base but with ego like that it wouldn’t be an exchange of ideas but simply a put down fest on your part.
Grow up a bit
Well Dave, I’ve watched many, many films and my opinion is that Dark Knight is a great film. It isn’t perfect but on some levels it is a masterpiece. One level that it scores big is the acting performances of everyone on that screen. Everyone is at the top of their game and the performances all weave together into a tightly knit whole that brings the characters into existence without much need for suspension of belief. It’s not just a comic book movie. It transcends that genre and I consider Dark Knight a fine crime drama or film noir. I do agree with Chuck that the story is too long. But to say it “falls apart” in the 3rd act is too strong a criticism in my opinion. Chris Nolan has succeeded in raising the bar for future action hero movies and Heath’s performance was pure cinema magic. I agree that Heath disappeared into the Joker and he took acting to another stratosphere in that role. Heath Ledger has earned his Oscar as far as I’m concerned and the picture would not be out of place in running for best picture.
You’re right, it does transcend the drama, and it is a crime drama. And that is also where it fails. It stops being an excellent comic book movie, and becomes a mid-range crime movie. Not only that, the filmmakers so desperately want us to take this as a crime movie, yet when convenient for them they fall back on the comic book genre to allow over the top plot devices to happen.
The problem is that Nolan set out to achieve too much. His themes are fantastic, his ideas are fantastic, and much of the execution is fantastic. Case in point, the climactic extras-on-the-boat sequence. Completely necessary in thematically driving home the Joker’s story, but structurally backwards and under developed. After everything we’ve sat through, and all the horrible things that have happened to characters we’ve grown to care for, the climax is a bunch of extras on a boat? Just seemed a bit underdone to me, as if another draft of the script was needed.
Secondly, Two Face was a cop out. Again, Harvey was so so well developed, and we cared so much for him, and for his tragic downfall to be so fragmented and half baked. Yes, they could easily have ended Dark Knight on a cliffhanger and devoted a third film to the Two Face, but I admire Nolan’s decision to make DK a self contained film with a complete Dent story. But it was vague, choppy, and lacked the punch that the character deserved. Also, Eckhart’s performance as Two Face left a lot to be desired, but that’s netiehr here nor there.
With a stronger third act, I could have forgiven the often expositional-dialogue, the endless Heat homages, and the ridiculous bat-voice, because those are just minor flaws. The third act is what stops Dark Knight properly transcending the genre and becoming a great, standalone film.