I gotta admit, the sheer number of nominations does soften the blow a bit, as does the sheer quality of the film, as well as a performance that will go down in the history. In fact, the film itself will go down in history for a number of reasons.
1. Second highest grossing film of all time domestically at over $530 million.
2. Best reviewed comic-book adaptation of all time
3. Most awarded comic-book adaptation of all time.
4. Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker is the first comic-book character performance to ever be nominated for and presumably win an Oscar
5. Eight Oscar nominations is in all honesty nothing to scoff at. It’s more than double te number of nominations any other comic-book adaptation has ever received.
6. The Guild nominations, at the end of the day, are more important and meaningful than the oscars, and The Dark Knight was nominated for the top prize in every guild (minus Best Ensemble SAG), as well as receiving a SAG award for Heath Ledger.
7. Christopher Nolan. He reinvented the Batman franchise with Batman Begins. Here, he has completely reinvented the comic-book film genre and turned it on it’s head, allowing the story leap far beyond the genre and become a truly great work of film, rather than just a summer blockbuster and/or comic-book film.
8. In a way, The Dark Knight has become the most influential film of the year, as well as one of the most important and influential works in the last decade. This is evidenced by the sheer amount of critical acclaim, audience acclaim, awards won and nominated for, as well as the fact that now DC Comics and Warner Bros. have decided to re-think their entire way of making comic-book adaptations after the historic success of The Dark Knight
9. The amount of audience passion and acclaim is monumental. The fact that it tapped into the audience’s fears, hopes, doubts, and all around socio-political climate of our times is absolutely astounding. The amount of money it made goes beyond people simply thinking that its “awesome”. People really were deeply moved by the film, and it connected with the audiences in a way that very few films, let alone Oscar season films, ever do. Clearly, a film doesn’t need to be an awards season film to be a truly great one.
10. Ultimately, regardless of the Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, and Score snubs, the fact that it was a major contender for the highest honors at the Oscars is a big deal. It’s not just because this year had a pretty weak slate in terms of Oscar films. It was simply that good, and will be remembered as not only the best comic book adaptation ever made, but also the best film of 2008, as well as being one of the best films of the last decade and one of the best and most important films ever made. A true cinematic masterpiece and a historic achievement.
Speaking English
Aside from your post being a complete and utter hyperbole (“as well as being one of the best films of the last decade and one of the best and most important films ever made. A true cinematic masterpiece and a historic achievement”), you got this wrong:
***Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker is the first comic-book character performance to ever be nominated for and presumably win an Oscar***
Nope. See Al Pacino in “Dick Tracy.”
Kevin
Wow, someone is certainly hostile. I think you’re reading way too much into my opinion. You may not agree with me, but that’s no reason to jump down my throat and attempt to discredit anything I say. I honestly have no idea how people will look at the film years from now, but I personally think that it will be remembered for years to come. Even if you don’t necessarily agree with me or whatever, you can’t argue with the monumental achievement the film had in terms of impact.
As far as the nomination for performances go, I admit, I had completely forgotten about Al Pacino in Dick Tracy, but to be honest, so has everyone else. His performance in Dick Tracy is not on the same level of cultural impact that Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight has had. People are still quoting him, still talking about it, wearing shirts, dressing up as the Joker for Halloween, etc. Does anyone do that in regards to Al Pacino in Dick Tracy? No.
Like I said, even if you didn’t enjoy the film or think of it as highly as I do, you can’t argue with the sheer cultural impact it has had.
Chris
I agree with Kevin. It transcended a genre that most people found to be childish into something new and fresh. You can’t tell me that the Spider-Man, X-Men, Superman or even old Batman movies (before 2005) were on the same level as The Dark Knight. Iron Man was a step up from before, especially with Marvel movies, but it still felt like a comic book movie. When I watched The Dark Knight, I didn’t feel that way at all.
P.S. That is the most badass FYC ad for The Dark Knight that I have seen.
Kevin
Agreed, the FYC ads for the film have been really artful and tasteful. Nothing to in your face, and nothing but the most gorgeous shots from Wally Pfister’s groundbreaking cinematography.
And that’s my point all along. Like it, love it, hate it, or don’t give a rat’s ass about it, you can’t argue with the kind of impact the film had on cinema and culture. That’s why I think it is such an important work.
/3rtfu11
The Burton Batman films don’t feel at all like comic book movies – thanks to Burton’s style and taste.
Pauley
I think its time we move away from:
‘The Guild nominations, at the end of the day, are more important and meaningful than the oscars’
as this is simply not true. While the guilds generally reward people that probably should win (or at least be nominated), I think it is safe to say, that most would swap however many guilds they have for one Oscar. After all, the guilds are part of the ‘oscar race’, and are just preliminaries that make it slightly more interesting.
I’m always interested in who wins the guilds but, at the end of the day, the Oscars are the ultimate ‘validation’ for a film.
Jake
Love this ad.
Kevin
Validation doesn’t come from a golden statue or plaque. It comes from an individual’s personal opinion of a film. If I love The Dark Knight, no award is going to make me love it more or less. I love plenty of films that were never even considered for precursor awards. In fact, I could probably name the Best Picture winners over history that are classics or truly great films and only have a handful afterwards
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Gladiator
The Departed
No Country for Old Men
The Godfather Part 1 and 2
Gone With the Wind
Rebecca
Casablanca
On the Waterfront
Lawrence of Arabia
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Ben-Hur
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Silence of the Lambs
Annie Hall
The Deer Hunter
Platoon
Out of Africa
Schindler’s List
That’s a grand total of 20 films out of 80 winners. One fourth. Pretty small number considering that there have been a grand total of 465 films nominated for Best Picture (including this year’s five nominees), which means that only a small fraction of the total number of films nominated over the years have been truly great films and an even smaller number of those great films have won Best Picture of the Year.
So in that respect, I do not think that the Oscars should be considered to be any sort of validation to anyone that a film is great. The guilds are more important to me because its less about politics and more about achievement in an individual field, as voted upon by colleagues. Yes, there is still the campaign politics to a degree, but the guilds have more members of their particular field than the academy does. There are far more directors in the DGA than the academy, and so on. In that respect, doesn’t it mean more to be nominated by your specific guild, which is made up of nothing but people doing the same thing as you do, than to be nominated by a bunch of people who have been lobbied to death by studios and execs like Harvey Weinstein?
Hans
Is Heath the first actor from any SUPERHERO movie to be nominated?
D
Iconic shot of the Heath-Joker for sure.
Edward L.
Hans: I think that’s right.
Kevin: I agree with your sentiments – but I just have to say, I have been known to launch into an Al-Pacino-in-Dick-Tracy-style rant at work from time to time! And some of his lines as Big Boy are classics to me. ‘Oh, look what you did to your pretty tuxedo.’ – Just say it in a Big Boy voice and I guarantee it’ll make you smile!
But I digress. Eight nominations for The Dark Knight is impressive and I’d like to see it pick up two or three. I personally don’t think it deserves the Sound awards (I thought some of the mixing was a bit fuzzy, while the sound editing is topped by Wall-E, IMO) and my personal preference for Art Direction would be Changeling, but I think an award to Wally pfister would be well deserved.
And just one more from Al: ‘I’m having a thought. I’m having a thought. It’s coming…It’s gone.’
Kevin: With regard to comment #10, it’s a little hard to take your argument seriously when you don’t seem to think that any combination of “Unforgiven,†“The Apartment,†“It Happened One Night,†“The Sound of Music,†“Midnight Cowboy,†“The French Connection,†“All About Eve†or “West Side Story†count as classics and/or great films, but that “Gladiator†and “Out of Africa†do.
Kevin
Sorry, I was simply going by the first ones that came to mind. But even with those additions, the list is still pretty thin comparatively. The main point I was making is that there are far more films considered to be great films that either were nominated for Best Picture and didn’t win or were never even nominated in the first place than there are Best Picture winners and nominees that are considered great films.
Nicolas Mancuso
William Hurt in “A History of Violence” is technically another comic-book-character performance nominated for an Academy Award. Am I wrong?
Comments
20 responses to ““You can’t rely on anyone these days. You gotta do everything yourself.””
So awesome!
I gotta admit, the sheer number of nominations does soften the blow a bit, as does the sheer quality of the film, as well as a performance that will go down in the history. In fact, the film itself will go down in history for a number of reasons.
1. Second highest grossing film of all time domestically at over $530 million.
2. Best reviewed comic-book adaptation of all time
3. Most awarded comic-book adaptation of all time.
4. Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker is the first comic-book character performance to ever be nominated for and presumably win an Oscar
5. Eight Oscar nominations is in all honesty nothing to scoff at. It’s more than double te number of nominations any other comic-book adaptation has ever received.
6. The Guild nominations, at the end of the day, are more important and meaningful than the oscars, and The Dark Knight was nominated for the top prize in every guild (minus Best Ensemble SAG), as well as receiving a SAG award for Heath Ledger.
7. Christopher Nolan. He reinvented the Batman franchise with Batman Begins. Here, he has completely reinvented the comic-book film genre and turned it on it’s head, allowing the story leap far beyond the genre and become a truly great work of film, rather than just a summer blockbuster and/or comic-book film.
8. In a way, The Dark Knight has become the most influential film of the year, as well as one of the most important and influential works in the last decade. This is evidenced by the sheer amount of critical acclaim, audience acclaim, awards won and nominated for, as well as the fact that now DC Comics and Warner Bros. have decided to re-think their entire way of making comic-book adaptations after the historic success of The Dark Knight
9. The amount of audience passion and acclaim is monumental. The fact that it tapped into the audience’s fears, hopes, doubts, and all around socio-political climate of our times is absolutely astounding. The amount of money it made goes beyond people simply thinking that its “awesome”. People really were deeply moved by the film, and it connected with the audiences in a way that very few films, let alone Oscar season films, ever do. Clearly, a film doesn’t need to be an awards season film to be a truly great one.
10. Ultimately, regardless of the Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, and Score snubs, the fact that it was a major contender for the highest honors at the Oscars is a big deal. It’s not just because this year had a pretty weak slate in terms of Oscar films. It was simply that good, and will be remembered as not only the best comic book adaptation ever made, but also the best film of 2008, as well as being one of the best films of the last decade and one of the best and most important films ever made. A true cinematic masterpiece and a historic achievement.
Aside from your post being a complete and utter hyperbole (“as well as being one of the best films of the last decade and one of the best and most important films ever made. A true cinematic masterpiece and a historic achievement”), you got this wrong:
***Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker is the first comic-book character performance to ever be nominated for and presumably win an Oscar***
Nope. See Al Pacino in “Dick Tracy.”
Wow, someone is certainly hostile. I think you’re reading way too much into my opinion. You may not agree with me, but that’s no reason to jump down my throat and attempt to discredit anything I say. I honestly have no idea how people will look at the film years from now, but I personally think that it will be remembered for years to come. Even if you don’t necessarily agree with me or whatever, you can’t argue with the monumental achievement the film had in terms of impact.
As far as the nomination for performances go, I admit, I had completely forgotten about Al Pacino in Dick Tracy, but to be honest, so has everyone else. His performance in Dick Tracy is not on the same level of cultural impact that Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight has had. People are still quoting him, still talking about it, wearing shirts, dressing up as the Joker for Halloween, etc. Does anyone do that in regards to Al Pacino in Dick Tracy? No.
Like I said, even if you didn’t enjoy the film or think of it as highly as I do, you can’t argue with the sheer cultural impact it has had.
I agree with Kevin. It transcended a genre that most people found to be childish into something new and fresh. You can’t tell me that the Spider-Man, X-Men, Superman or even old Batman movies (before 2005) were on the same level as The Dark Knight. Iron Man was a step up from before, especially with Marvel movies, but it still felt like a comic book movie. When I watched The Dark Knight, I didn’t feel that way at all.
P.S. That is the most badass FYC ad for The Dark Knight that I have seen.
Agreed, the FYC ads for the film have been really artful and tasteful. Nothing to in your face, and nothing but the most gorgeous shots from Wally Pfister’s groundbreaking cinematography.
And that’s my point all along. Like it, love it, hate it, or don’t give a rat’s ass about it, you can’t argue with the kind of impact the film had on cinema and culture. That’s why I think it is such an important work.
The Burton Batman films don’t feel at all like comic book movies – thanks to Burton’s style and taste.
I think its time we move away from:
‘The Guild nominations, at the end of the day, are more important and meaningful than the oscars’
as this is simply not true. While the guilds generally reward people that probably should win (or at least be nominated), I think it is safe to say, that most would swap however many guilds they have for one Oscar. After all, the guilds are part of the ‘oscar race’, and are just preliminaries that make it slightly more interesting.
I’m always interested in who wins the guilds but, at the end of the day, the Oscars are the ultimate ‘validation’ for a film.
Love this ad.
Validation doesn’t come from a golden statue or plaque. It comes from an individual’s personal opinion of a film. If I love The Dark Knight, no award is going to make me love it more or less. I love plenty of films that were never even considered for precursor awards. In fact, I could probably name the Best Picture winners over history that are classics or truly great films and only have a handful afterwards
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Gladiator
The Departed
No Country for Old Men
The Godfather Part 1 and 2
Gone With the Wind
Rebecca
Casablanca
On the Waterfront
Lawrence of Arabia
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Ben-Hur
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Silence of the Lambs
Annie Hall
The Deer Hunter
Platoon
Out of Africa
Schindler’s List
That’s a grand total of 20 films out of 80 winners. One fourth. Pretty small number considering that there have been a grand total of 465 films nominated for Best Picture (including this year’s five nominees), which means that only a small fraction of the total number of films nominated over the years have been truly great films and an even smaller number of those great films have won Best Picture of the Year.
So in that respect, I do not think that the Oscars should be considered to be any sort of validation to anyone that a film is great. The guilds are more important to me because its less about politics and more about achievement in an individual field, as voted upon by colleagues. Yes, there is still the campaign politics to a degree, but the guilds have more members of their particular field than the academy does. There are far more directors in the DGA than the academy, and so on. In that respect, doesn’t it mean more to be nominated by your specific guild, which is made up of nothing but people doing the same thing as you do, than to be nominated by a bunch of people who have been lobbied to death by studios and execs like Harvey Weinstein?
Is Heath the first actor from any SUPERHERO movie to be nominated?
Iconic shot of the Heath-Joker for sure.
Hans: I think that’s right.
Kevin: I agree with your sentiments – but I just have to say, I have been known to launch into an Al-Pacino-in-Dick-Tracy-style rant at work from time to time! And some of his lines as Big Boy are classics to me. ‘Oh, look what you did to your pretty tuxedo.’ – Just say it in a Big Boy voice and I guarantee it’ll make you smile!
But I digress. Eight nominations for The Dark Knight is impressive and I’d like to see it pick up two or three. I personally don’t think it deserves the Sound awards (I thought some of the mixing was a bit fuzzy, while the sound editing is topped by Wall-E, IMO) and my personal preference for Art Direction would be Changeling, but I think an award to Wally pfister would be well deserved.
And just one more from Al: ‘I’m having a thought. I’m having a thought. It’s coming…It’s gone.’
Thank you, Kevin. Summarized the whole freakin’ deal. Speaking English is stupid (yes, that’s an attack).
AWESOME ad. Love that shot of Ledger, as well as the quote.
Kevin: With regard to comment #10, it’s a little hard to take your argument seriously when you don’t seem to think that any combination of “Unforgiven,†“The Apartment,†“It Happened One Night,†“The Sound of Music,†“Midnight Cowboy,†“The French Connection,†“All About Eve†or “West Side Story†count as classics and/or great films, but that “Gladiator†and “Out of Africa†do.
Sorry, I was simply going by the first ones that came to mind. But even with those additions, the list is still pretty thin comparatively. The main point I was making is that there are far more films considered to be great films that either were nominated for Best Picture and didn’t win or were never even nominated in the first place than there are Best Picture winners and nominees that are considered great films.
William Hurt in “A History of Violence” is technically another comic-book-character performance nominated for an Academy Award. Am I wrong?
Well, if you’re gonna go there, you could add Paul Newman in “Road to Perdition.” But I wouldn’t get too technical about it.
Kevin, agreed 1000% with your top 10 list, TDK its one of my favorite movies ever and my #1 of 2008, and Kris great ad.
Can there even be an argument against Ledger getting the award? That was one of the best performances of ALL TIME. No question about it.