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MovieTickets.com asked filmgoers following Thursday’s release of the 2009 Academy Award nominees to identify this year’s biggest Oscar snub:
Which of the following should have been nominated for an Academy Award?
1. The Dark Knight in the Best Picture category (46%)
2. Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino) for Best Actor (28%)
3. Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road) for Best Actor (11%)
4. Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight) for Best Director (8%)
5. Bruce Springsteen (The Wrestler) for Original Song (7%)
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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i’m glad TDK didn’t get a Best Picture nod… It’s a very good movie, but it’s not a masterpiece and it doesn’t have a soul… just my opinion, of course.
OH, it’s looking to be another dreary Oscar-fest this year. Billy Crystal, where are you?
No surprises here…
There’s a People’s Choice Awards for that.
Though contradictory enough, I’d have picked Eastwood or DiCaprio over Pitt.
Yes, then Movietickets.com should start their own awards ceremony…the Oscars are for the best in cinema not commercial tripe.
I thought The Dark Knight was so over-hyped. I mean, take Ledger out and what have you really got there? And all these people talk masterpiece!? WTF!? Seems we’re so desperate for good flicks amongst a sea of shit that we’ll take anything that comes along when it gets hyped enough.
P.S. WTF was up with Batman’s 3-pack a day smoker’s voice? I mean, seriously, am I the only one who noticed that?
Look for all of its problems in the third act, TDK is still a pretty damn handsome production with solid performances across the board. Folks if you’ve ever been behind a camera then you would know the degree of difficulty involved in trying to a hold a decent well lit shot for more than five seconds. What Nolan and crew did was not easy in the least bit. When you see TDK on the big screen, especially on IMAX you’re getting the whole package. And thats why people went more than once. They got their money’s worth. Chris Nolan getting shut out was just boldface idiocy on the part of the Academy.
The academy has proven once again that they’re nothing more than an upscale organization that prides itself in picking movies that best mirrors their elitist views. Period. Its not about execution and command of craft. Its pageantry. And that’s what sucks about the whole damn affair. Its not a real competition. They only gave Scorcesse an award because they screwed up in not giving him one for Raging Bull and Goodfellas, just a consolation prize. You know what, the more I rant the more I hope Mickey Rourke doesn’t get an award. His performance is too good for the narrow minds over in lala land.
This is why moviefone does not run the oscars.
The movie was entertaining but by no means ‘best picture’. I wish wish wish wish wish (is that enough wishes) that people could segregate their feelings for a dead actor from those of the movie … there seems to be a lot of confusing those emotions.
Anyone who sees Revolutionary Road will be shocked why Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet are not nominated. The two best performances of the year.
All you Dark Knight haters — can you honestly say that you have watched all 5 of the nominees and can truthfully say that all of them are better than the dark knight? A dark knight nomination would have made things more unpredictable — now its a total lock that slumdog will take it.
I love how you elitist wannabe movie buffs hate on TDK just because everyone else loves it. Like the people who hate iPods just because everyone has one.
Of course TDK doesn’t have a soul, its a flippin MOVIE not a PERSON.
Oh, and “commercial tripe”? Really? Did you even see it? A comment like that just reminds me of the episode of South Park about the smug people who sniff their own farts.
Dark Knight proves that a big, loud, summer blockbuster can also be smart, well written, and have deeper meaning, if it’s made by the right people (like Nolan and crew).
I saw TDK in the theater 5 times, and got the Blu-Ray the day it came out and have watched it at least once a week, and it still gets better every time. Anyone who says that it’s popular only because of Ledger’s death is stupid.
Oh, and even though I did think it got snubbed in the Best Pic, Director, and Screenplay categories, it was nominated for 8 Oscars, which is more than double what any other comic book movie has ever achieved, so it’s not all bad.
The Dark Knight absolutely deserved a best picture Oscar nomination. It was a FAR better film then The Reader or Frost/Nixon. The academy screwed up big time, as usual.
“Rachel Getting Married” was the true snub. It deserved Picture, Director, Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay noms. “Milk,” “The Reader,” and “Frost/Nixon,” while good, are all undeserving. “Slumdog” has it all wrapped up.
When film goes get to choose the Oscar winner, the fat lady has sang. The market is one thing, the art and craft another. It’s bad enough that the town has followed the dumming down of the aud. But when we are letting the aud dumb themselves down – jeez.
TheaterFan:
WTF are you going on about? I’m a huge admirer of Christopher Nolan’s work — I’d say ‘Insomnia’ was the last time Robert De Niro or Robin Williams delivered performances without vanishing up their own mannered, predictable backsides which is a tribute to a solid script and strong direction. And I certainly don’t think there’s some inverse square relationship between commercial success and quality — that’s never been true.
But who died and made you the Sarah Palin of the multiplex? So, anyone who thinks ‘The Dark Knight’ would have been a lot better if it was at least 45 minutes shorter (the whole Hong Kong digression could have gone, and I don’t think we’d have missed anything) and found it thematically and politically distasteful, and even wallowing in sadistic violence, are effete pointy-headed metropolitan elitists? Can I suggest you bite me where the sun don’t shine?
Dismiss me as a hater if you like, but is it possible TDK got ‘snubbed’ because of a backlash the boosters created themselves? I certainly think Heath Ledger’s death was damn sad, and he’s certainly an actor who never reached his full potential IMO. There was definitely a case for his nomination, and the technical/craft nods are deserved as well. (You don’t have to like a film to acknowledge when it’s been well-crafted.)
But best picture? Nah — and I think the arrogant presumption that the nom was a done deal, and anyone who felt differently was either a snob or spitting on Ledger’s grace, didn’t help at all.
And Alboone wrote:
Folks if you’ve ever been behind a camera then you would know the degree of difficulty involved in trying to a hold a decent well lit shot for more than five seconds.
I reply:
I agree. And obviously the “elitist” Academy thought The Dark Knight wasn’t too shabby on the production side, otherwise Nathan Crowley, Peter Lando, Wally Pfister, Lee Smith, John Caglione Jr., Conor O’Sullivan, Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, Ed Novick, Richard King, Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Timothy Webber, and Paul J. Franklin wouldn’t have scored TDK’s seven nominations for achievement in Art Direction, Cinematography, Editing, Make-Up, Sound, Sound Editing and Visual Effects.
All well deserved, IMNSHO. But I just don’t see the argument that just because a film is well-produced, therefore it should be up for Best Picture.
Uh-oh, I am so smart, I mean TDK for best picture yikes! WTF, I mean, masterpiece? I mean, no way, I mean am I the only one who noticed chris nolan’s 3 day beard? And take out michael caine’s pants and the whole TDK costume department will sink. I mean it is so over hyped and I am uh-oh I am such a narrow minded, sour a-hole. And I mean TDK doesn’t have a soul and spirit and deep meaning for all our lives, I mean I am the only one who noticed this? Yes.
Heath Ledger,Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale deserve oscars for thier perfomances and so does Morgan Freeman too.
Definitely agree that Winslet and DiCaprio should have been nodded for their terrific performances in “RR”
Also, would have nodded “TDK” over “The Reader” for BP
Am I the only person who believes that WALL-E should have been nominated for best picture?
“Am I the only person who believes that WALL-E should have been nominated for best picture?”
No, you’re not. It should have been nominated for Best Picture along with The Dark Knight. Fuck those movies that are only made to win Oscars. Movies like The Reader. It’s just fucking Oscar porn.
I double that. Perfect review. Bale’s voice drove me nuts!
I thought The Dark Knight was so over-hyped. I mean, take Ledger out and what have you really got there? And all these people talk masterpiece!? WTF!? Seems we’re so desperate for good flicks amongst a sea of shit that we’ll take anything that comes along when it gets hyped enough.
P.S. WTF was up with Batman’s 3-pack a day smoker’s voice? I mean, seriously, am I the only one who noticed that?
Comment by michael dobrofsky — January 26, 2009