An Oscar for Ledger? Maybe not so batty after all.
Terry Gilliam thinks the nascent campaign to get Heath Ledger an Oscar nod for his role in The Dark Knight is unseemly. I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, summer blockbusters, even the best, just don’t generate performance awards at the Academy. The only exceptions to this are Russell Crowe’s win for Gladiator and Johnny Depp’s nod for Pirates of the Caribbean. So I have the distinct sense that there wouldn’t be much talk about Ledger getting a nomination had he not died — and I find that fairly distasteful.
On the other hand, the more I think about his performance, the more I think it might be genuinely deserving. The movie’s not without flaw — it’s a tad bit anticlimactic, and some of the plot points are delivered a little hastily — but, as I argue in my review, I do think it’s very strong, and I’m increasingly inclined to think Ledger deserves nearly as much credit as Nolan for its success. I don’t care much for the Oscars, and I take umbrage at the notion that they’re even a remotely reliable indicator of actual quality. But if they can be used to encourage more performances like Ledger’s in summer blockbusters — and maybe even more movies like The Dark Knight — then I’m all for it.
Ledger was phenomenal in more ways than one; to me he absolutely stole the entire movie. I give a lot of credit to the Nolans for the success of Batman Begins/Dark Knight, but just try to imagine Dark Knight without Ledger as Joker?
The performance was subtle but out of control, disgusting and attractive. Obviously there are other movies and other actors to be considered, but at this point it would be an outrage for him not to be nominated. Then again, I thought the same thing about Jim Carrey in The Truman Show…
— AndrewN · Jul 18, 05:27 PM · #
Has anyone else read Dana Stevens’ Dark Knight review up at Slate? I threw up in my mouth a little, and now I remember why I dislike Dana Stevens movie reviews. I don’t think she was wrong to read War on Terror analogies into the movie (but seriously Dana, don’t you think you could maybe get a little more metaphsyical than BOOSH BAD?), but I think what she got from from it was completely wrong (Gordon’s “falsely heroic” speech? Seriously?). Someone smarter than me (and who does this for a living) write something on this.
— Philip Marlowe · Jul 18, 05:52 PM · #
Peter, the link back to The American Scene at the end of your review at National Review Online doesn’t work.
— Douglas Barber · Jul 19, 06:23 PM · #