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- tejastech08
- Rep: 194
Re: Oscars 2009
Ledger wouldn't even have been nominated if he hadn't died. And that is a really sad commentary on the Academy's bias. Chris fucking Nolan wasn't nominated for Best Director. I'll go ahead and say that hands down he did the best directing job of anyone this past year. That right there is proof of how biased they are, especially when a guy like him has had such a strong career of high quality movies.
Here's what really pisses me off. Javier Bardem was a lock to win last year's Supporting Actor award for playing a total nutjob, similar to the Joker. Yet because Bardem's character was in an Oscar-bait movie instead of a summer superhero movie, somehow that made his performance more legit than Ledger's? What a fucking joke. Ledger was every bit as good in his role as Bardem was in his, but if Ledger had lived, no way in hell he would have won and there's a 90% chance he wouldn't even have been nominated. The Academy's hypocrisy is stunning. It's never about the best work. There's always some kind of behind the scenes politics that go into it.
Re: Oscars 2009
If you've seen "The Reader" you'll know it's a bit strange... "Kate Winslet" is obviously brilliant because the film is basically all about her, but that's it, it was frowned upon by quite a few critics as well.
Re: Oscars 2009
M.I.A. was robbed. Plain and simple. The other track was most likely nominated also in the chance the voters were unwilling to pull the trigger on giving Maya the Oscar. A big chance for a controversial speech had she won, so they went with the safer choice that allowed Slumdog to win the category anyways.
Fucked up.
Cant believe they didn't give it to Rourke. Its obvious it is his last chance at anything like this, so they should have at least did it out of mercy.
- tejastech08
- Rep: 194
Re: Oscars 2009
If you've seen "The Reader" you'll know it's a bit strange... "Kate Winslet" is obviously brilliant because the film is basically all about her, but that's it, it was frowned upon by quite a few critics as well.
I've seen it and I think it's mediocre. Winslet is always great in everything she does. She's my favorite actress. But that movie had no business being nominated ahead of TDK or The Wrestler. Or WALL-E for that matter. And it is a fucking crime that Nolan and Aronofsky were not nominated for Best Director. The two of them are brilliant, far moreso than the other dipshits who were nominated, including Danny Boyle. I have a big problem with Hollywood's shallow "conscience" regarding the slums when they ignored a much better movie about the slums 5 years ago, which featured far stronger cinematography, direction, storytelling, and on and on. City of God slaughters Slumdog in every aspect. And yet they chose Slumdog as the one they wanted to use to show that they have a "conscience" about how much the people in those slums are struggling every day. Give me a break.
Here's how I'd rank the Best Picture/Director nominees:
1. Frost/Nixon - 8.5/10 (I'm a political junkie so I enjoyed it...but I would NOT have nominated it for Best Picture or Director)
2. Benjamin Button - 8/10
3. Slumdog - 7.5/10
4. Milk - 7/10
5. The Reader - 5/10
Not one of those movies was as good as The Wrestler, WALL-E, or TDK.
Re: Oscars 2009
^ Is it true that Nolan didn't direct any of the actions scenes in it..?
- tejastech08
- Rep: 194
Re: Oscars 2009
^ Is it true that Nolan didn't direct any of the actions scenes in it..?
What? You've got that backwards. Nolan did not use a second unit for action scenes, which is a COMMON practice in Hollywood. He is one of the few directors who refuses to have a second unit director. He directed every single scene in TDK, which is a phenomenal achievement for such a huge ass movie when most directors would have a second unit director deal with the action scenes.
Re: Oscars 2009
Ledger's Joker performance transcended the film itself and became a work of high art. Living or dead, he deserves every accolade he receives and then some. Anyone who doesn't believe in the power of this single performance isn't familiar enough with the craft of acting or the process of filmmaking. His Joker is a mercurial entity that permeates every frame of a film in which he truly appears rather infrequently. If the Academy only saw fit to nominate him because of his untimely death, they prove themselves as sycophantic, starfucking pieces of shit who care more about the politics of the film industry than the art of film itself. I'd like to think that, in a less devious mode, they felt that much more compelled to award Ledger after robbing him of a win for Brokeback Mountain (see also: John Wayne's belated win for True Grit).
Re: Oscars 2009
You gotta understand the world as a whole isn't filled with Batman nutswingers(although the box office tally might say otherwise). I dislike Batman on a pretty massive scale, however I can separate that dislike and acknowledge that Ledger brought something unique to a character I care nothing about and he certainly 'owned' all others who played the Joker.
Bardem put in one of the best performances this decade. He earned that Oscar regardless of any Academy "politics". I wouldn't place Ledger up there on the same plateau as Bardem. Like Tejas, I don't think Ledger would have even been nominated had he survived that night of drug use.
Re: Oscars 2009
Bardem delivered a fine performance in a fine picture. I was really impressed and I rooted for him. Ledger crafted a performance that ultimately became the film surrounding it. It being a performance as the Joker in a Batman movie seriously handicapped it. As you ultimately admitted, it doesn't require a fanboy or nutswinger to see this performance as something truly special. I don't know why a parallel has to be drawn between this performance and Bardem's specifically, although I do believe Ledger's to be superior. Heath Ledger was an altogether superior actor to Javier Bardem. It's too bad it took his death for others to maybe see that. I, like many, always felt that way.
