When Oscar goes black (“There Will Be Blood,” “No Country For Old Men”) or young (“Juno”) people are cool with it, but when Oscar fails to recognize super heroes, genre films and or old people remember to vote again this year, well hell, the shit hits the fan. Especially with the uber-popular ‘Dark Knight’ and its obsessive and scary fans. You’ll remember ‘TDK’ fans practically put a hit on New York Magazine’s David Edelstein for having the temerity to give the crime caper a “negative” review even though none of them had even seen the film yet (funny that). Well, now they’ve pretty much flipped their wig again.
The Dark Campaign takes major umbrage with the Oscar nom outcome and they’re so upset by ‘Dark Knight’ not scoring a Best Picture (or director) nomination they claim they “won’t be watching the Oscars this year.” Sid Ganis could not be reached for comment.
“Maybe fans should have seen it coming,” they sadly wrote. ” ‘The Dark Knight,’ after all, does not have a happy ending.” Ah yes, and the uplifting ‘Reader’ is such a ray of light in its conclusion too (or ‘Button’ – main character dies, “nothing lasts forever” theme bashed over your head one more time – or “Milk” – main character assassinated by a hate monger). Apparently a $billion-plus in receipts is not award enough.
Genre-friendly sites like Cinematical, and Film School Rejects are also up in arms. FSR calls this year’s Oscar nominations, “the most boring ever!” and “predictable” for snubbing the Batman flick (actually wasn’t that a surprise to pretty much everyone?). Cinematical wrote a rather, ahem, “funny” take on “The Wrestler” lyrics to convey their sadness over the Academy’s “failure” to nominate Darren Aronofsky’s film, ‘Dark Knight’ and many others. AICN cause the slighting, “an absolute travesty.”
Comicbookmovie.com eloquently says the Academy, “prove themselves out of touch with the masses by fanatically promoting gay films and boring crap nobody ever sees.” Wait, so we normally want the most popular mainstream films to be rewarded? Gotcha.
Even non-geeks/award fetishists were upset. InContention posted a “sham” Oscar picture in protest of the ‘Dark Knight’s snub which led their Oscar nom predictions to be wildly off this year. “The Horror, the horror,” they cried.
However, even some within the geek community were semi-OK with the snub. “Yes, millions of nerds bitterly wept and gnashed their teeth because there will be no Oscar-nominated Batman movie. While I do take some joy in this since I don’t think ‘The Dark Knight’ is Best Picture material, I would much rather see it contending than the film that replaced it, ‘The Reader,’ wrote Collider.
Some commenters on the Dark Campaign do have one thing right. The lack of ‘TDK’ (all though 8 nominations is a lot!) in the two primary categories could cost Oscar ratings, but then again, once the kids get over their initial anger, they’ll probably tune in to at least see how Nolan’s film fares, no? And this is just day one, presumably it’s only going to get louder and worse from here. Do we smell an Oscar watching boycott campaign in the works?
In staunch protest, Dark Campaigners are probably going to see ‘Dark Knight’ twice more when it’s re-released in theaters tomorrow. Take that Academy!
All we’re saying is you can’t have it both ways. The Oscars aren’t cool when they nominate your movies and lame when they don’t. The Oscars are a weird popularity contest of another sort. One that doesn’t necessarily honor and award the most popular and mainstream film of the year like “The Dark Knight.” Don’t forget, the film will get its rightful due at the MTV Movie Awards. There’s always the Kids Choice Awards, right? Really guys, Why so serious?
I was not surprised in the least. Last weekend, I went back and rewatched TDK, and I really did not think it held up. Ledger’s performance did, everything else seemed flatter. Overhype?
It doesn’t hold up? RIIIIGGHHHTT. And neither does your ridiculous opinion. This movie was not made for YOU. I have seen it 19 times in a theater and found new things each time.
thanks for this. I would have liked to see TDK nominated just because i like the academy to step outside their comfort zone on occasion and i think since its so rare that critical and populist taste comes together so loudly… it seems out of touch to ignore
BUT
the reaction is ridiculous. It’s obvious that the Batman fans don’t understand the Oscars at all and have no sense of their history. 8 nominationns is HUGE. Only Best Picture and near Best Pictures ever reach that high a nomination count. And no sequel of a movie that wasn’t best picture nominated has ever been nominated so… i’d say 8 nominations is a big stamp of approval.
I won’t be watching, not just this year, never again.
I dunno, i bet you will watch and will watch again. Get over it. The film got 8 nominations! That’s a ringing endorsement!
That’s a nice way to look at it. I wanted Nolan to get a nomination for best director but at least the film got some other nominations. In life you can’t win everything.
I’m not so bummed about the lack of a Best Picture nod, as really that only awards the Producers anyway…whatever, but I would have liked to see some nod towards Christopher Nolan for being arguably the most consistent director this decade (only rivaled by Paul Thomas Anderson, again all my opinion of course)
Regardless of how you might feel about the film as a whole, only Danny Boyle could lay claim to being as inventive and innovative this year.
But Chris will get his due someday I hope. He certainly deserves it more than Ron Howard or Stephen Daldry for sure…
I wouldn’t say it wasn’t made for me – I certainly enjoyed it when I saw it in the theater (twice, in case you were wondering). But rewatching it on a small screen really changed the way I felt about it – maybe that’s wrong on my part, but sorry, just my opinion.
What’s ridiculous here is the Oscars themselves. So many nominations are rarely a surprise, since the Academy constantly sticks to the same types of films to “reward,” and so often overlooks anything outside of that scope, no matter how passionately so many people feel about them (TDK being a prime example – clearly people feel INCREDIBLY strongly about it, and will continue to for a very long time – I couldn’t name another film in the past TEN year, let alone just this past year, that inspire that amount of passion).
Join in and boycott the oscars
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=124426815111.
Post your facebook boycott, it’s not going to change anything. It’s not going to change anything for the Dark Knight and you know you’re all going to tune in to see how many Oscars the Dark Knight does get and to see whether Heath Ledger gets the award or not. That will be too much to resist whether you like it or not.
I know i sound anti Dark Knight, but i’m not. It’s a great movie. But it’s just the Oscars.
Again 8 nominations. A huge ringing endorsement and more than Rev Road, The Reader, Frost Nixon and tied with Milk.
Only two films of the entire year, Slumdog and Ben Button, scored more nominations.
The justification that many of you have given for TDK is ‘expected not to get a best pic nod are just plain weak.
It doesn;t hold up a second time? I’m going to guess that most people wouldn’t even be MOTIVATED to see Slumdog or Ben Button a second time.
The Dark Knight was not a typical genre or superhero film, it was a film which transgressed genres, scored high points for rousing the emotions and communicating relevant themes. There is no reason for Frost/Nixon or the Reader to be nominated over TDK. None at all.
It was also incredibly difficult to adapt, capturing the heart of the source material splendidly while remaining cinematic and enjoyable for those unfamiliar with it.
However, the most important reason the Dark Knight should get nominated is because no other film nominated this year, or for the past five years, as been so unanimously praised and well received by both popular audience and critics. It tapped into something that a film hadn’t tapped into in ages. So Danny Boyle was inventive, and Ron Howard was ‘relevant’ … really, it means they were good films. Not best pictures.
Nevermind comic book fans … hell, anyone who can think for themselves and doesn’t subscribe to some shallow doctrine of what is and is not ‘artistic’ should give shit to the Academy Awards for this bullshit!
Ershwin, i do not think the Dark Knight is unworthy of an Oscar, but you’re reasoning is as paper thin as anything i’ve ever read.
I don’t think so. My reasoning is self-explanatory — I haven’t bothered to do a point by point analysis of every film nominated and compare them to TDK because I respect the space available for comment section.
But it is important to take issue with, because no matter how much you emphasize how its just a show, or its losing ratings, it is the biggest awards event for the defining mass consumed art form of the modern era. So when something like TDK comes along, which WAS a phenomena, and does deserve an oscar, gets snubbed because … its an action film? A superhero film? Not a Holocaust film?
There’s good reason not just for fanboys, but anyone who realizes what kind of validation the oscars offer, to be a tad pissed. It’s important for great art to be rewarded in what can be recognized as non-commercial. And for people within the comic book industry or fans, its double the reason: TDK was the first time something we loved had become a big deal to everyone else. Finally, it seemed, the rest of the world recognized something we had known all along: that Batman and his world was smart and relevant. To come so close and then be denied is something we feel quite personally.
I’ve given a slightly longer explanation on my blog:
http://www.eshwin.blogspot.com