The Hidden S in Phone Booth

The Hidden S wonders what happened to The Dark Knight's Oscar Hopes... Last summer, The Dark Knight was considered by many critics to be the finest film of 2008. The late Heath Ledger was an Oscar frontrunner before the film was even released. It seemed that Chris Nolan was dusting off the mantle for his Best Director Oscar (not to say anything of his Best Screenplay nod he would split with his brother). A week ago the Best Picture nominations were announced and no Dark Knight, the Best Director nominations were announced and no Nolan, the Best Screenplay nominations were announced and no Nolan(s). What happened? How did a film that got unbelievable reviews and response and threatened all-time box office records get the short end of the Oscar Stick? I'm glad you asked... There were no other Oscar worthy performances in DK... Of all the Oscar nominations this year Ledger's might have been the closest to a foregone conclusion. His performance created buzz months before the film was even released and not to be too indelicate or disrespectful, but his death only added to the hype for the film and elevated his work in it. Despite this, no other performances in the film were Oscar worthy and this no doubt weakened the perception of the film for Oscar voters (keep in mind that Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are both Oscar winners). For all of the credibility that Bale brings to the role, his Batman/Bruce Wayne in this entry was underwritten (especially compared to Batman Begins); Maggie Gyllanhall's role was a thankless one and Aaron Eckhart's work was good but his Two-Face appeared too late in the film to make the kind of impression the filmmakers might have intended. I thought Gary Oldman's performance was very appealing but even his solid work was overshadowed by Ledger's pyrotechnics. The Film Was released too early in the year... This might have been the biggest obstacle for the Dark Knight. All of the Best Picture nominees were released in December. The Dark Knight, released in the summer (ancient history in the scheme of Oscar awareness) made a real impact during the time of its release and there was a lot of talk of it being not only a Best Picture nominee but a shoe-in for the award. For whatever reasons, the film's impact did not carry over into the Oscar campaign season. The film was re-released last week, but this strategy has not really take hold (possibly because it was overshadowed by the splashy unrolling of the DVD release in early December) and the film was not the formidable Oscar-bait presence that other films were late in 2008. The film was too dark... The Academy is not above nominating a popular, crowd pleasing film. Titanic, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Gladiator were all nominated for the Best Picture Oscar (Titanic and Gladiator of course won). The Dark Knight was popular, but crowd pleasing is another issue. The ending of the film sees Batman on the run from a pack of dogs and the cops while the bat signal is being ritualistically smashed (couldn't they have just unplugged it?). This downer ending along with the apparent deaths of two likeable, attractive leads (Dent/Rachel) makes this a film that might have left a bad taste in the Oscar voters mouths. Franchise's get no respect... Despite the grandeur of the film, the Batman series is a franchise and the ugly part of being a franchise is the commercial aspect of it. Wal-Mart had an entire wall of Dark Knight toys (including a cool Ghost World style Bat mask) this summer. Do you think there are any Slumdog Millionaire action figures, Frost/Nixon t-shirts or Harvey Milk Hallmark cards? Exactly. Nolan's Batman work is not a series, it is a juggernaut. The franchise aspect of the Dark Knight undercuts its artistic credibility automatically. The artistic reaction probably caught Warner by surprise and they seemed to try to recast the film as a prestige film later in the year. Unfortunately, it is tough to have it both ways and it seems that the Oscar voters saw it for what Warner's initially marketed it as; a superior popular entertainment piece with an overwhelming and groundbreaking performance by Ledger. The Film simply wasn't that good... For all of The Dark Knight's great reviews there were some naysayers. The venerable New Yorker critic David Denby called The Dark Knight "grim and incoherent." By anyone's estimation, The Dark Knight's third act was weak and rushed. The film tried to resolve a lot of loose ends in the last act and this uncertainty made for a certain amount of (probably unintentional) ambivalence in the film's resolution. Clocking in at three hours, The Dark Knight was also unnecessarily overlong and oddly enough fell into the trap that some of the Burton/Schumacher incarnations did, which was to roll out too many Bat-villains. The Zeitgeist has shifted... It has been pointed out by more than one film critic that The Dark Knight and to a lesser extent Batman Begins both have a certain amount of political relevance that is reflective of the US War on terror. George Bush has been compared to Bruce Wayne/Batman because he is an unpopular rich guy whose tactics have backfired and his vision has resulted in an escalation of violence rather than a decline. Throw in the idea of avenging the father figure (Bush Senior/Thomas Wayne) and you have a nice start on a thesis topic. Flash forward to fall of 2008 and the Oscar voters are anxious to put the Bush years behind and see an optimistic view of the next four years. The dark dystopian vision of Nolan's film might simply have gone out of fashion in the few months since the film's release. This kind of mood swing is not unusual in election year's and the DK might have lost some traction because of this switch. Oscar Voters are not Comic Fans... Do you know who votes for the Academy Awards? Actors like Tony Curtis, Anthony Hopkins and Sean Connery; directors like Norman Jewison, Clint Eastwood; actresses like Dame Judi Dench and Helen Mirren. In other words, not the group who are buzzed because Ledger was so much like Alan Moore's Joker. This group might have Caesar Romero and Adam West in mind when they think of The Joker and Batman. The Internet chatter for this film has been unbelievable and definitely fueled Ledger's nomination but the fact remains that while Internet buzz might sway a film's box office, it has less of an effect and influence come awards season. For older Oscar voters the film might have been simply a comic book movie, lumped with Ghost Rider, The Punisher, Fantastic Four... Ledger overwhelmed the movie... This is the trickiest argument, and feeds into my speculation over why Nolan wasn't nominated for director (or screenplay which was more surprising to me than any other DK Oscar snub). Nolan simply let Ledger overwhelm the film. This seems to have been his intent, but it did not help the film in the end. Batman Begins had very fine and memorable performances top to bottom from Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, and even a pre-Scientology Katie Holmes. For TDK, Nolan wrote all of the good lines, all of the good scenes and all of the memorable moments for Ledger's Joker, and this imbalance throws the film out of kilter (and probably sabotaged his being recognized for his screenplay work here). Again, Nolan is a careful, skilled filmmaker and it is probable that this was his intent. However, as in the best Batman comics (including Brian Azzarello's Joker one shot from last fall) the balance between Batman and the Joker is crucial and Nolan, for all of the gravity he has brought to the cinematic Batman, seemed to miss this in the latest cinematic installment of the Caped Crusader. The film might have lost votes to Iron Man... Oscar voting is not made public, but this is my own gut instinct as I considered Iron Man a fuller, more well made film than DK with three strong acts, balanced performances and a more charming, intriguing hero than DK. Everyone in Hollywood is happy for Robert Downey Jr. and his well-received performance here fed nicely into his stunt performance a couple of months later wearing black face in Tropic Thunder, a performance which netted him an Academy Award nomination. In addition, critics like the NY Times A O Scott touted the performance of Jeff Bridges as Oscar-caliber. Iron Man got two minor Oscar nominations, so it was on voter's minds on some level and I wonder if it didn't take some attention away from The Dark Knight? The question is of course will Ledger win despite all of this? The answer is probably. His performance garnered a Golden Globe and he is definitely the favorite. The other famous Oscar nod for a performer who died was Peter Finch's work in Network way back in 1976. He died Just about a month before the Oscars. Hollywood, being fond of happy endings awarded him the most coveted of its honors as a result. Network, however, won several Academy Awards that season (including Best Picture) and Ledger's great performance does not have the advantage on coasting on the momentum of The Dark Knight's nominations. Still, the smart money is on "Why So Serious?". The Hidden S...

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