An Inconvenient Truth – The Dark Knight Didn’t Deserve The Nomination

John Campea 189 Comments

The fallout has been swift and decisive. No more than 10 minutes had past from when the official 2009 Oscar Nominations where announced to when the backlash began. 90% of the backlash was over one category. The Dark Knight failed to garner one of the five coveted spots for a Best Picture nomination.

Anger hath swept the interweb all day. A lot of people are labeling the Oscars a “sham” and a “joke” for it’s failure to give the Christopher Nolan film it’s proper, in their eyes, props… and if I had a nickel for every use of the work “snub” I’ve read or heard today I’d be a rich rich rich man my friends.

BUt just as Al Gore had to lay an inconvenient truth on us about the state of the climate… so to must someone come out and do a very unpopular thing. There is another inconvenient truth that must be spoken. And that inconvenient truth is that The Dark Knight didn’t deserve to be nominated for best picture this year.

It’s a great film. I personally had it at #8 on my best films of the year list. Perhaps in another year with slightly weaker competition it would have been nominated. There is certainly a case for arguing The Dark Knight’s merits for deserving one. But when all is said and done, as good as The Dark Knight is (I personally like it more and more each time I see it), the fact of the matter is, in my opinion anyway, it didn’t deserve to given one of the top 5 spots, and it’s absence from the Nominee List is not only acceptable, but proper.

Now don’t get me wrong… I certainly wouldn’t have complained if it had indeed been given a nomination. As a matter of fact I half expected it to get nominated.

THE MOST OVERRATED MOVIE OF THE YEAR

Let’s get this straight first. Just because something is overrated does NOT mean it’s not good or quality. It just means that it gets more praise than it deserves… regardless of how good it is. The Dark Knight is a great movie… but right from the first weekend the hyperbole pouring out about HOW great it is was nauseating. It got so bad some people were calling it the greatest film of all time, or the greatest crime drama of all time and other various nonsense like that.

Right from the beginning it felt like us fan boys had been so desperate for so long to have one of OUR films (a genre film… a comic book film) be this good, that the moment such a film appeared we wanted to crown it Caesar and heap as many accolades on it as possible. The hype for the film took on a life of it’s own and grew bigger than the movie itself. So while The Dark Knight is great, it was nonetheless tragically overrated.

TANGIBLE WEAKNESSES

With the massive euphoria surrounding the film, people on a mass scale seemed to willfully blind themselves to the obvious weaknesses of the movie (yes, even the best movies have weaknesses). It seemed like no one would acknowledge some of the more blatant mistakes of the film. Thankfully, as with most movies, I’m finding that as more time passes, people are willing to own up to some of these weaknesses. But we’re still not there yet.

It’s almost as if people fear that if you admit or acknowledge one of your favorite movies has flaws… it somehow invalidates your love for that movie. I think that’s nonsense. I wrote the following back in July to illustrate this:

“Regular Movie Blog readers know how much I loved Transformers. I bloody flipped my lid for that movie beyond all reasonable limits. I said it was the most fun summer flick I’d ever seen and I said it was the best visual effects I’d ever seen. However, if you read my stuff, or if you listened to the Transformers DVD commentary that we did, you’ll know that I openly talk about the many weaknesses of the movie. The painful dialog in places, the poor choice in certain characters they used, the horrible lack of dialog between the decepticons (how can you have a transformers movie and only have 1 single line between Megatron and Starscream?!?!) Just because I acknowledges the film had a lot of flaws didn’t mean I couldn’t still love it”

The film was too long. All the mobsters besides the Joker himself were dreadful, the boat scene was so terrible it risked ruining the grittiness of the film, the way they wasted Two-Face (not Harvey) was a joke and Bale’s Batman voice got worse than it was in the first one. These are real issues that very few seem willing to acknowledge. Just a few too many things (again, in my opinion) to make it a “lock” for an Oscar Nomination.

WAS THE DARK KNIGHT PURPOSEFULLY SNUBBED BECAUSE IT’S A GENRE FILM?

Some people, including a bunch I really respect, are suggesting that The Dark Knight was purposefully snubbed by the Academy because it’s a “genre” film. The suggestion is that the 6000 voting members all somehow collectively decided they hate genre films and would not allow a genre film to get an Oscar nomination on their watch.

The problem with that logic is summed up in 5 simple words: THE LORD OF THE RINGS. The Lord of the Rings trillogy by any definition are a set of genre flims. The ultimate geek movies really. Wizards and trolls, swords and monsters, elves in woodland kingdoms with magic rings and potions. The Lord of the Rings films are geek genre films… and yet all 3 of them got nominated for best picture and The Return of the King tied the record for most Oscar wins by taking home 11 awards (winning in ever single category it was nominated for). So please don’t try to suggest the Academy is just out to snub genre films… because that’s just silly.

ONLY 5 CAN BE CHOSEN

The Oscar is a tough award to win. Over 4000 full feature length films were produced in the US last year… and of those 4000+ movies only 5 can be nominated. Add on top of that the fact that film is subjective and each member of the Academy will have a slightly different view than the next. There can be only 5… and The Dark Knight wasn’t one of them. All things considered, I don’t think it’s all that surprising, all that unjust and realistically not a “snub” in the least.

Just my two cents on the issue. What do you think?

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189 thoughts on “An Inconvenient Truth – The Dark Knight Didn’t Deserve The Nomination”

  3. “THE MOST OVERRATED MOVIE OF THE YEAR”

    I agree with the fact that the The Dark Knight (even thou it was a great film) was overrated. There was a part of me that was disappointed that The Dark Knight was not nominated for Best Picture. However, I think part of the problem of film is that the fans seem to like it for all the wrong reasons. Fans seem praise the action and the villain rather then the story. Heath Ledger did an incredible job as the Joker (and I’m glad he won Oscar for his performance) but there was more going on in the film then him. I don’t think ever good for any film to become overrated.

  5. EVERY movie has flaws. There’s no such thing as a perfect movie. It’s just that people nitpick the flaws in TDK and blow them up to appear more significant than they are. I think it should have been nominated, it was definitely one of the top best films of the year.

  6. As far as flaw’s go…I’ll take Eric Roberts as a cheesy gangster over Optimus Prime and the other autobots hiding outside the house scene…the thought of that scene pains me.

    Now as far as the Two Face character goes, your really gonna seperate Dent and Two Face, that seems like a stretch, i know what you mean, but really? That character has to be considered as one, Dent was strong, but more than that he was a manifestation of all the hopes that the DK had. He was the one that was supposed to make it, as said in another movie. Yet his fall from grace is nothing short of true tragedy. Two face represents the ugly side of TDK, the monster he can become if he is blinded. Of course luckily TDK gets to see the downward spiral of Dent and its due to this that the Two Face character was not underused. His actions and presence give the film its true balance. So, i could go on forever, but if i haven’t made my point yet, then it just isn’t going to happen.

    I do feel the movie deserved at the very least a nomination for best pic. I think if it would’ve been nominated it stood a good chance to win. Seriously, look at the 5 nominated. Was there any doubt that Slumdog Millionaire wouldn’t win? That being said, let me ask you this, if It was Dark Knight in place of Slumdog against the same other 4 would it win?

    Oh and just to prove that i can also find flaws in my favorite movies, right when DK starts, the voice over from the bank robbers was incredibly ridiculous. : )

  7. I soooo agree with John. I could even list more flaws in The Dark Knight and still call it a good movie.

    The one reason I think it should’ve been nomitaded is that the Academy would get that up in audience it’s always looking for. Having said that, I think Revolutionary Road deserved a place among the five nominated. The Reader is not as good as they pretended it to be.

  8. Jon. L.O.T.R Return of the King,Is the Bigest bag of S#@T in oscar history,worst movie ever,47 ending’s,ghost’s,singing and gaint spiders, give me a f#@king break.

  11. Th Academy Awards are a joke. I don’t know why anyone takes them seriously anymore. The fact that they’d nominate The Reader over The Dark Knight, WALL-E or The Wrestler. I’d be hard-pressed to find a movie-goer or critic who’d place The Reader in the top five of the year.

  13. Frost/Nixon was another film that was only nominated because of Hollywood politics. I’m not arguing whether or not politics should play into film selections, because Milk is the best example of a political game at work. But Frost/Nixon wasn’t one of the 5 best films of the year. If it were up to me, I’d remove Ben Button, The Reader, and Frost/Nixon and replace them with Wall-E, The Wrestler and TDK. Honestly, TDK was leaps and bounds better than Ben Button or The Reader. It wouldn’t have won, but it at least deserved recognition for being one of the best films of the year.

  14. Transformers was just pure visual noise, and nothing special aside from it’s special effects.

    The Dark Knight was incredibly over-hyped, almost to the point of nausea as you described. It was very good, but I agree that it wasn’t the best film I’d seen in a genre or the best film ever – it was much better than the previous superhero films by a large margin.

    However, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” was one of those films I really didn’t like, despite the fact that critics were fawning over it as the next greatest character study to be produced, but I tend to disagree.

    The story was pretty much a Forrest Gump rehash, and I don’t know why, but I naturally detest Brad Pitt’s acting style in the film despite the fact I’ve liked it in others; it’s annoying.

    Still, Slumdog was ace.

  15. Milk, a homosexual story? Does that mean that all the other Best picture nominees are straight movies?
    I mean, come on. Milk was gay but that is not what the story is about.
    Revolutionary Road deserved a place on the Best Pic list not Benjamin Button.

  16. I’ve never agreed with almost anything you have ever posted(specially things about ben stiller and the frat-pack) and once again I will continue not to…I’m not going to go in detail…why I disagree with you on this…but your just looking way too deep into this….. it deserves a nomination and thats all I’m gonnna say…your from canada right?…that explains alot…

  17. That’s right. “The Dark Knight” didn’t deserve the best picture nomination. But it’s obviously better than “Slumdog Millionaire”. If slumdog can get the nomination why not dark knight?
    bottom line – Academy didn’t always appreciate the best movies. They misunderstood many great directors and overrated so many films. I am not a big fan of the oscar itself. I like Dark Knight more than the “Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences”.

  19. You make a great argument for saying Dark Knight isn’t a perfect movie, and thats fine. But I think its better than a few of the movies that DID get nominated, and coupled with the lack of respect Wall E and The Wrestler got in the category, I’d say the Academy was way off base this time.
    I never expected Dark Knight to win, but I certainly thought it was better than The Reader, and its been better reviewed than The Reader.

    1. LOL, it’s a poorly done impression of Clint Eastwood. I understand the idea of trying to hide his identity by changing his voice, but I wish Bale would have just used a whisper instead of a growl.

    2. Quoting from Solartap’s Blog, this criticism of TDK about the Batman’s voice has to be the wierdest one. Yes, he speaks in a growl.

      Quote:

      Apparently, it is easier to accept a guy in a bat suit than it is for him to both disguise his voice and speak in a fierce way. His aim is to intimidate, not be recognised and, remember, Bruce Wayne is a famous person. If he spoke in his street voice, we would all be saying, “why can’t they recognize him?”

      The Batman’s voice is very much a part of the original character and it is meant to be menacing. He does not have super powers, he relies on misdirection, intimidation, weapons and skill. I could better understand criticisms of his cape than his voice as I am sure that thing would get tangled in stuff and make fighting harder but no, cape fine, voice makes it Oscar unworthy.

      UnQuote

  22. John, I really have to agree with this film being called overrated. Even though I crowned Benjamin Button best of the year in my opinion, The Dark Knight was a masterpiece. But that’s just my opinion. At least Heath got his nomination (and I say give the Joker his oscar or I will blow up a hospital)

  23. TDK should be in The Reader’s spot, it shouldn’t even be there. It’s a nice movie but it’s boring as hell, I almost stopped watching it at the trial part. The Reader is crap near Wrestler, Gran Torino, Changeling, etc…

  25. Well John you are always very solid when putting your point into perspective…BUT i feel you have a slight misunderstanding when you say LOTR won 11 oscars,it was a genre film…So Academy has nothing against TDK.
    Here’s my point:TDK is also a COMIC BOOK Movie…LOTR ISN’T a comic book movie.Hence, Academy hates COMIC book movies & these don’t get NOMINATED for the TOP-Prize…I dont care if it gets 8 nominations in other less significant categories!

    BOTTOM LINE:Academy don’t prefer a comic book adaptation for the best film…Even if it is as good as TDK.
    LOTR was appreciated since it was not a COMIC BOOK adaptation.

    So John…I hope you get the point!

  26. I absolutely love TDK. I am a huge Batman fan. It would have been great if it got a nom, but it’s still a great movie. I agree that people do overrate it as the best movie ever. Hell, it wasn’t even the best last year, and that’s coming from a Batman fan. Slumdog Millionaire was by far the best film of the year. Speaking of overrated, am I the only person in the world who doesn’t think Wall-E is “great”. I watched it with 7 nieces and nephews and they all left the room within the first 45 min. They said it was boring. If you can’t entertain your core audience how “great” can you be.

  27. No, you and I both know it’s a bitchfest. I’m well on the record calling it overrated and being incredibly level headed about the film. So you can’t peg “delirium” on me. A discussion about Academy bias is another thing entirely and, as usual, one that would take me all day to explain to you.

  28. What can I say, I don’t obsess. Plus, this one was up-front and in my face with your nifty featured posts thing at the top, with the oh so clever “An Inconvenient Truth” title and everything. Impulse click.

    Brainwashed? I was there before the herd, jackass. Sad? Probably. But brainwashed? Hardly.

    Oh and it wasn’t crying. It was keeping you honest. You need it. Trust.

    1. Yeah… I call TDK one of the top 10 films of the year and say it deserved a SAG nomination for best ensemble… and you define that as “bitching about bat”. You need professional help. And some self acknowledgment about your bat delirium.

  31. dude just because its overrated doesn’t mean it didn’t deserve to get the best picture nomination you think people are going to still be talking about MILK in the next 15-20 years “NO” tdk is goin to be like the godfather where people will be talking bout it for years and generations to come, yeah it has some flaws i notice when watchin it again, but so does Benjamin Button which i think was a lil too overrated, tdk should of least gotten the nomination for best pic even though it came out summer08, most of does other movies that got nominated for best pic came out around the time for award season so the acdamey was like “Oh its ah intense drama movie without any real depth we have to nominate it foh sho” I kinda wish people could of makin their votes for the best picture for the acdamey like how they do it in american idol then tdk will foh sho gotten the win it was a great cinematic experience but for now since it got snubb im all for slumdog to win cuz it was most intresting than the other four movies and screw wall e im all for kung fu panda for best animated flick although wall e might win it.

  32. Best picture nod for “The Reader” and best director nod for its maker, Stephen Daldry? Voters still regard any Holocaust movie — be it a short film, documentary or feature — sacrosanct, and that not cherishing these blessed works of instant magnificence is tantamount to blasphemy. Past nominees and winners are abundant and well-known. Some are good, some mediocre. “The Reader” is something else. It’s awful. One of those arthritic historical epics that betrays its appetite for Oscar prestige in every burnished shot, Daldry’s film creaks with calculation, sweats bathos and basks in old-timey fustiness. From the first scene, I recoiled at the movie’s overpowering preciousness. An Oscar? How about a Razzie?
    Almost nothing for “The Dark Knight,” shot-for-shot the best film of the year. (And I’m not a comics fan. At all.) Hallelujah — Heath Ledger clinched the posthumous best supporting actor nomination that was all but preordained. But slights for best picture, best director and best adapted screenplay are unjust and ill-considered. Oscar voters skew old, and many watch eligible films on DVD on their home televisions. That’s a decisive factor. The rest is the Academy’s allergy to genre pictures stoked by snobbery and ignorance. But recall that “Star Wars” was nominated for best picture and that “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” actually won the top Oscar in 2003, a fact that looks more and more astonishing in hindsight. The Oscar affront, especially for best picture, is a crime of such magnitude, even the Joker would cackle.

  33. A superhero movie has never been taken this seriously before. Sure Robert Downey, Jr.’s Iron Man had a certain panache but for the most part superhero movies are ignored because for the most part they suck. Once you get past the explosions and the costumes, there is often nothing to them. There’s the snakebelly low expectations and execution of the Fantastic Four flicks, Punisher, the horrific Hulk and the visual arresting but otherwise vapid Spirit. Now some will say that the recent Spiderman blockbusters have raised the level of superhero flicks but the truth is once you get past the “with great power comes great responsibility” stuff, the webslinger is just another guy in tights.
    The closest comparison is Gladiator, which won Best Picture in 2000, and even then the much less traditional The Dark Knight is still a far different creature. The Dark Knight redefines categorization. It is a superhero movie the way Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather is just another Mob movie.
    Like the 1972 masterpiece, The Dark Knight swims in the dark undercurrent of America and men’s souls. It is a tale of endless struggle in a world seemingly gone mad where the heroes are the villains and the villains seem like heroes.
    It has transformed its genre and, in the best tradition of American art, not been afraid to strike a widespread public chord.

  34. I don’t think you could say it was snubbed because it’s a “genre” film. I think it has more to do with it being a super hero movie in particular. No matter how good it was, if it blew all our minds, broke new ground and redefined the film industry altogether, do you think the academy would nominate a Captain America movie? Very, very doubtful. And if you say “Well I don’t think a Captain America movie would ever be that good”, just ask yourself if a decade ago you thought that a Batman movie would ever be as good as The Dark Knight.

  35. Good points about TDK – though I would not put it as high as #8. The most over rated film of the year was Benjamin Button — a true snooze fest. The acting was wooden. The story had a creepiness factor that no one wants to talk about.

    Which film would get bumped if Dark Knight got a nom? The most often mentioned is The Reader. That would have been a travesty. The Reader was a wonderful and haunting film. I wonder how many of the bloggers who slam it, have actually seen it. It was a great movie.

  36. R u kidding me…
    honestly back in time THE LORD OF THE RINGS deserve been chosed best film?¿?¿?¿ wtf dude..tdk its a master piece, it has many many atributes, dont know if its so much good to be oscar`s best film winner but..the nomination its just `n fare.
    maybe Heat(r.i.p) make justice for one of the best movies in 08

  37. TDK should have been nominated for best picture, best score, best director and a few other noms. This movie is going to be remembered long after most of the other movies nominated this year. Who is going to be calling The Reader a must see in 5 or 10 years? If you remove the fact there is a guy in a batsuit in parts of the movie, this is one of the better crime movies ever made and is every bit as engaging as The Departed. This movie ended up on most critics top 10 lists, so I guess they are all wrong – or they must just all be fanboys too??

  38. See it not for the hype, not for the cause. See it not for the academy, nor for the fans. See it not for the music, not for Heath Ledger’s groundbreaking performance. See it not with a bias for or against. The Dark Knight is this year’s most tragic, and untimely unique power play about morality and reason. It is one of the many new classics produced since 2000, its impact on cinema and how we view not just a hero, but a villain as well. This is a victory for smarter, surgical like precision action films that will not just entertain an audience, but enchant, enthrall, and force an audience to think. Bravo.

  39. John you couldn’t be more right.this movie didn’t deserve half the praise it received. which bothers me for one BIG reason. movies like the tdk just get showered with praise.consequently, movies that really deserve that praise never get half the justice they’ve earned because everyone’s going to see tdk for the sixth time!now SURE i liked tdk,maybe less than the average Joe, its just kinda sad that all these people(who are COMPLETELY entitled to their opinion) respond like prepubescent little girls.like go back, look through the years at the Oscars.1990 Dances with Wolves won Best Picture over Goodfellas which is considered to be one of the best “gangster” genre films. Personally, i like my foreign films(the kinda films that seriously get fucked over at the oscars)so just accept the dark knight for what it was, the best comic book movie sequel ever ISNT THAT GOOD ENOUGH?

  40. @ livingdots
    The fact that you would use Urban Dictionary to support your arguement for ANYTHING makes me question your sanity.
    I’ve seen movies of all types and genres, possibly far more than you have. Having seen all these movies I can say that The Dark Knight rightfully deserves it’s praise. The Dark Knight took pop entertainment to a whole new level on par with many oscar-calibre films.
    By the way, the cinematography in the film was brilliantly sublime and it rightfully deserves the nomination in that category.

  41. So many of you talk about how these are the oscars, and that they value the best movies of the year, not the most popular. This all assumes that the people voting on the academy awards are capable of deciding what is, and isn’t, a great movie. The Reader, nominated for best picture, has a 7.8 million dollar box office and a wonderful 60% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I’d say that means that the critics and the people aren’t exactly enamored with it. It seems to me that Wall E and The Wrestler(both in the nineties in terms of approval rating) deserve nominations instead, as well The Dark Knight(at 94%). How can any right person agree that having no fourth or fifth nominated song instead of an excellent Springsteen song(which won at the golden globes)or Eastwood song is a good move?

  42. Did The dark Knight have flaws? Of course it did, but so did every single one of the movies nominated.

    Slumdog Millionaire was highly predictable in places, it had a strange case of shifing languages, and some shaky editing choices.

    Frost/Nixon was had a number of historical inacuracies, the Rebecca Hall character was a waste, and it overplayed David Frost’s unprofessionalism in an idiotic attempt to turn the movie into the Rocky of journalism

    Milk falls into a lot of biopic pitfalls, the phone calls from the wheelchair guy were cringeworthy, the fate of the Diego Luna character (even if true) felt very formulaic.

    Benjamin Button has been said to basicly be a rewrite of Forrest Gump, Brad Pitt is a bit shakey in it, and it’s longer and slower than the supposedly too long Dark Knight.

    I havn’t seen The Reader yet, but I’m sure it has flaws too.

    All of these movies, including The Dark Knight, have flaws. The difference is that noone felt the need to nitpick these movies to death for minor flaws the way they did The Dark Knight. There was a lot of hype around that movie, but I’ve felt a distinctly strong backlash as well. And, IMO, these naysayers seem to be holding TDK to an unreasonable standard over minor flaws, which to me are less problematic than the flaws in the other nominees.

    If this were 2007, I probably could have lived with a Dark Knight snub. If they had nominated Rachel Getting Married, Che, or The Wrestler I could have lived with a dark Knight snub. Hell, I wish there had been five movies better than The Dark Knight this year. But when mediocre efforts like Frost/Nixon can coast in on their general Oscarryness over great films like The Dark Knight I’m not going to be a happy camper.

  43. Psycho, Cool Hand Luke, 2001, The Wild Bunch, Mean Streets, The Last Detail, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Manhattan, The Empire Strikes Back, Blade Runner, This is Spinal Tap, Blood Simple, Full Metal Jacket, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, Dead Man Walking, The Usual Suspects,Trainspotting, Boogie Nights, The Big Lebowski, Magnolia, Almost Famous, Black Hawk Down, Memento, Mulholland Drive, Spider-Man 2, Pan’s Labyrinth…………………..

    The Dark Knight is in good company

  44. Hehe, when you seriously call this movie “groundbreaking”, and say that “it is going to revolutionize movies for years to come”, then you have crossed the line, and gone way, waaay into “fanboy”-territory. Statements like that make me question your sanity, actually…

    http://fanboy.urbanup.com/3137234

    …or maybe I should give you benefit of the doubt here. You might actually be very young. 13 y/o? You might not have seen many movies, and you might also be incredibly ignorant about cinematography and film in general. Yeah, that’s probably it.

  45. So a sequel can’t be groundbreaking?
    Why does everyone think that the only people supporting The Dark Knight are “fanboys” (I dislike the term). When a movie becomes one of the top grossing movies ever, WORLDWIDE, then there must be more people than just fans watching. If a movie can make that much money off of a single fanbase then these “fanboys” are the majority of people.
    The Reader’s nomination is absolutely absurd. A passable drama at best, it stole the fifth slot for Best Picture and Best Director from The Dark Knight and Nolan, and it simply doesn’t deserve to be included next to the likes of Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk and Frost/Nixon. The astounding eight nods for The Reader feeds the cynicism that any drama about the Holocaust is guaranteed Academy attention.
    The only nomination The Reader warrants is Best Actress for the under-appreciated Kate Winslet, who will likely prevail in the three-way tussle with Meryl Streep (Doubt) and Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married).
    The Dark Knight is going to revolutionize movies for years to come. People will no longer think that action/adventures will be successful simply based off their explosions anymore. Character development, cohesion, transition, attention to detail, and a logical plot will be more expected of comic book movies and big-budget sagas like suphero flicks and series like The Terminator. Christopher Nolan, his brother and David Goyer have raised the standard for all movies. This movie was absolutely brilliant and encompassed themes into as realistic as situations will get in films. The Oscars will not influence movies as much in the years to come as so much will this Dark Knight epic. The stubbornness of the academy should remind audiences that art should not be produced for awards, and thus nothing should be produced for extrinsic motivations. Intrinsic motivation always produces a more authentic product. Kudos the producers of this piece of art for going against the grain in this genre and putting the academy in an uncomfortable position. Besides, if one wants to look at this movie getting awards, they need only look at all the other award guilds and award shows outside the Golden Globes and Oscars . . . The Dark Knight is sweeping through them all.

  46. “silly fanboys.” Can someone please tell me what exactly the term “fanboy’ means? Isn’t there a fanboy for every movie. Slumdog fanboys, Button fanboys, etc. Sports fanboys, porn fanboys, school fanboys, girl fanboys. Just because you like something, you’re considered a fanboy, right? Stupid, stupid term. There are also girls, you know? Fangirls? ……..stupid.

  47. Thank you for this very sensible comment, John. You are absolutely right 100 % The Dark Knight doesn’t deserve best picture, and Ledger wasn’t *that* good either…

    …and exactly what was sooo GROUNDBREAKING about this movie? This was a sequel. How could it be groundbreaking if it followed “Batman Begins” — also by Nolan, and starring Bale? TDK was nothing special, IMO… an entertaining action-hero flick, that’s all. Sillly fanboys.

  48. To be honest, I think Slumdog is the most overrated movie of the year. It had a wonderful first hour and a half, but the last half hour is so trite and inane, it shouldn’t be nominated. I’m all for independent films, but not only is this simply masquerading as an independent film, it wasn’t even the thought provoking. I think that “oscar” films should delve into something deeper, which it didn’t. Honestly, I think the Dark Knight, In Bruge, or Wall-E, all deserved the nod over Slumdog

  51. No film was more overrated this year than Benjamin Button. I think it’s in the bottom half of Fincher’s work and I think it’s insane that it led the overall nomination count. The Dark Knight was my favorite film of 2008, but I agree it had glaring flaws. I loved it in spite of them. I’d be fine with it being “snubbed” for best pic. Just not being snubbed for Ben Button and The Reader. I actually liked Benjamin Button, but I can’t remember the last time I felt a film was such a missed opportunity for greatness.

  52. TDK should definitely be there, sure it has it’s flaws but the other’s flaws are way bigger.
    Look at Ben Button, it’s ok but the thing is it gets boring at some point cuz it’s like 5 hours long and you know what’s gonna happen (it should’ve been a 30 min movie).
    The Reader, Frost/Nixon and Milk are just the plain boring typical oscar nominees we always hear from. I don’t how in da hell The Reader got there, they might as well have put Rev. Road too and some more Kate W. bullshit (she’s always doing the same role anyway). I guess they love these historical movies, Nixon and Milk are really educational (I’ll never look at James F. and Sean the same way again, disgusting).

    In the end Ben Button is gonna win best picture cuz it’s a political thing, lots of $$$ in it, investment, unless it’s the underdog’s night again
    or SLUMDOG NIGHT (the others don’t stand a chance, it’s one on one between Benny & Slummy).

    1. The Dark Knight
    2. The Wrestler
    3. Defiance
    4. Gran Torino
    5. Slumdog Millionaire

  53. OVERHYPED OVERHYPED OVERHYPED.

    Which means I totally agree John. Dark Knight was a brilliant film. A true gem in a slew of shite superhero sequels that weren’t up to scratch. That being the case…it still doesn’t deserve best picture.

    This argument has gone on forever about Ledger and how this film deserves all the accolades…it just won’t end.

  54. Since this is all opinions. Methinks that TDK was better than Benjamin Button anyway. I liked Benjamin, but it seriously was Forrest Gump Part II. Effects – amazing, but come on. Write a different story next time. And for THAT reason, I believe TDK should have been nominated.

    1. Exactly, I believe The Wrestler, The Dark Knight, and Wall E were superior films to Benjamin Button. And all three were snubbed because of one was about “Pro” wrestling, the other a comic book movie, and the last because it was animation. It’s not done on purpose, it’s a subconcious thing, where people dimiss them.

      While I liked Benjamin Button, it wasn’t even close to being worthy of nominated for best picture. It was so disappointing, because I thought it was going to be really good, but it was ultimately doomed by the script.

  55. It’s not that the nominees need to all be blockbusters, but the Academy is supposed to recognize culturally significant movies. What’s more significant in 2008, The Dark Knight or The Reader? The Dark Knight or Frost/Nixon? Bruce Springsteen or one of those songs from Slumdog Millionaire?

  56. Tailor made pieces like The Reader get nominations while unexpected masterpieces like The Dark Knight, The Wrestler, Gran Torino and Wall-E get snubbed. They have truly sunk a new low. Ignoring films of such magnitude and artistry should be a crime.

    They just picked the usual suspects, nothing with the “blow you out of the water” factor. Though some nominations I can bare (an some I am actually proud to support: ex. In Bruges, Wall-E, make up for Hellboy)…there are some snubs that are just too glaring to miss. Kristen Scott Thomas, Sally Hawkins, Darren Aronofsky, Chris Nolan, the Nolan Brothers for screenplay, and the movies I mentioned above for Best Picture etc. etc. The list goes on.

    I must say, that this upset of nominations makes me appreciate The DGA, WGA and SGA awards so much more.

  57. Hey John,

    I have a question for you…

    Is this the first time where you put a film in your top 10 but manages to be the one of the most overrated films of the year because it certainly is my first time?

    Also, do you think the Oscars will get low ratings again this year? I personally will think that is the case unless they put the Best Supporting Actor category right near the end

  58. I’m just disappointed that Benjamin Button got nominated for Best Picture and The Dark Knight didn’t. Benjamin Button was a great idea that was drawn out way too much. It was boring, and I knew what was going to happen the whole time. In my opinion, the trailer was way better than the movie. It definitely wasn’t a bad movie, but it wasn’t Oscar-worthy either. Now, do I believe that the Dark Knight should have got a Best Picture nom? Not necessarily. I just think it was better than Benjamin Button. If anyone got snubbed, I’d say it was Christopher Nolan for Best Director.

  59. John, I %100 see where you are coming from. I have seen all of the Best Picture films.

    Slumdog Millionaire- Does Deserve it
    Benjamin Button- Does Deserve it
    Milk- Does Deserve it

    Frost/Nixon- But it does not deserve it
    The Reader- No way in hell it deserves it

    I would have substituted them with
    The Wrestler and WALL-E

    For me, it would be…

    1. WALL-E
    2. The Wrestler
    3. Slumdog Millionaire
    4. Milk
    5. The Dark Knight

    Oscar, you are F-U-C-K-E-D now. The ratings will dip lower than ever, because of the Dark Knight snub.

    Although, I applaud the Academy for doing what they want to here, and not just descending to what is good for the ratings, but I do think Dark Knight deserved a nomination.

  61. i agree w/ john all films have flaws and TDK does have them, besides i dont care for oscars or any other award show, but i do admit if Ledger didnt get nominated for his portrayal of the joker then that would be just wrong not b/c he is dead but b/c he fuckin deserves it

    @John

    i do agree that two face was wasted, thats why i refuse to believe he is truly dead.

  63. I disagree I was not “whipped” by this movie, or Heath Ledger(sp?), but it should have been nominated it was a GROUNDBREAKING comic book film and did forcomic movies what Star Wars did for Sci-Fi.

    And it kicked The Readers ass…

  64. I honestly see The Dark Knight as the best film of the year thus far. The Wrestler is second to that, and then Milk in my opinion. So there is no reason why, in my mind, Dark Knight should have been snubbed. Just my two cents. I think it did deserve a nomination at least.

  65. John,

    I completely agree with you. TDK was a great summer flick, and was immensely entertaining. But with the death of Heath Ledger, and some other factors, people took on the movie on a completely different level.

    The category recognizes various aspects of a film, and the movie in itself had some really big holes. The viral campaign had everyone rooting for the film, and the fact that it reached even half of its expectation gave people the idea that it is the ‘greatest movie ever’.

    In my opinion, the best film nominations are just fine.

  66. Hey Linda from Texas,

    Yes… I did PREDICT The Dark Knight would get nominated… but I never said it DESERVED to be nominated.

    No question… TDK did NOT deserve to be nominated… and it didn’t. Justice was done.

    I love TDK, but it’s simply not in the top 5 this year in my opinion. Period.

    You think otherwise… and that’s fine. All film is subjective and your opinion is ever bit as valid as mine. But in my opinon it didn’t deserve the nomination. Too overrated.

  67. Here is Jonathan Nolan’s message:

    “hey — not sure who to address this to as it looks like a collective effort, but I just wanted to pass along my thanks.

    It’s truly humbling that you guys would take the time and effort to try to get the film recognized. I, like you, was disappointed that Chris didn’t get some recognition this morning, but for Heath and so many of the people who worked so hard on this thing to get nominated is thrilling.

    Any nominations for a comic book movie is a thing of beauty no matter how you slice it, and that takes the sting out a bit. Besides, I’ve been to the big show before, and, like any of these things, it’s a little disappointing. Did you know it’s not even an open bar once the show starts? At least this time I would have remembered to bring a little cash so I could buy myself a drink after losing.

    The best part of this experience is seeing other people getting passionate about the film the way that we did. It has been a truly incredible experience. So thank you again.”

    best,

    jonah nolan

    A class act.

  68. John, aren’t you the guy who had a post on why The DArk Knight WILL get nominated? And now all of a sudden you change your tune. I know you have problems with the film; none of which are valid through my eyes. Every film has flaws. The Godfather has flaws. The first Star Wars has flaws. No film is without flaws. You see the flaws other people don’t. And aren’t you the same guy who thinks X-Men 2 is the best comic book movie. No offense, but X-Men 2 is a fun kids movie. My kids enjoyed it, while I sat through it, checking my watch every five minutes. I think that says a lot about your taste in film. Not saying its bad. If you like fun movies, that’s cool. But there is another level of filmmaking that is out there, and Nolan and his crew tapped into that with The Dark Knight. I’m not saying DArk Knight is perfect. But it is an excellent film, and definitely, definitely among the best five of the year. That there is no doubt. And if you haven’t seen it in IMAX, then maybe you should – that’s the way it’s meant to be seen. In that format, the film’s greatness is on display. A truly great film.

    1. The Godfather has flaws

      Yeahhh…Marlon was just plain awful in that darned thing, wasn’t he? I’m sure glad someone saw the light.

      :( :( :(

      I’m sorry. Really. I can’t you seriously. Since every movie has flaws, I wonder what flaws were in Hitchock’s films.

  71. Yes, The Dark Knight would have been nominated if The Reader didn’t get in. That’s how many people voted for it. I’m not at liberty to say who I am or what I do, but trust me, The Dark Knight was locked to be in the Best Picture category right before Weinstein threw his tantrum. Chris Nolan was in line to receive the nod as well, but that all changed when Satan came on board.

  72. Hey Entertainment.

    LOL… ok I’m sorry… did you just say EVEN Nolan’s brother said he got snubbed? EVEN Nolan’s brother. What on earth would you expect his BROTHER to say???

    Sorry man… TDK didn’t deserve a nomination. It’s a great movie and I wouldn’t have complained one bit if it had got nominated… but if I was a voting member of the Academy I wouldn’t have voted for TDK either… and I’m certainly NOT baised againt comic book movies obviously.

  73. I don’t think the academy is out to get anyone, but there does exist in their minds an image or idea of what an “Oscar worthy film” should be. And if a film does not fit that image, then it would be difficult for it to be recognized. The Oscars has traditionally been very cautious in dealing with animated features, big summer action movies, real controversial movies for big awards. These people see movies all the time and consider themselves experts. So like a food critic, no matter how great a dish is, but is it is from: a fast food place, a chain restaurant, or a popular snack, you will not give it an award for best dish. it makes you look bad. So I agree with John that TDK is not top 5 material, but if it were this year, it still would not be nominated because it fights an up hill battle.

    by the way LOTR is sneaky because is based on somewhat classic literature. If the new wolverine movie or a movie from a less respect source just happens to be really great. Just for the sake of argument, it is just as good as titanic or schindler’s list. It would be ignored by the academy.

  75. And one more thing Entertainment:

    You also said:

    “ts assame when it dosen’t get reconized”

    The movie DID get recognized for heavens sake. EIGHT… count them… EIGHT Oscar nominations. I hope to god my movie gets “snubbed” like this. :)

  76. Hey Entertainment

    You said:

    “I do feel its better for the industry to give regonition to a big fan favorite that gets very strong critical approval. It just seems like a smart move to give it at least a nomination in the best picture category.”

    This is the fundamental point that you and I disagree on. I think the voting members should vote for whatever they think are the most worthy and best films in their opinions… not vote for what would have been the most politically correct or most popular or most “smart” for the sake of television ratings.

  77. My last comment- I don’t know if it would have been(We both don’t know the answer to that but The Reader was nominated, we do know that) but I feel it should have been. Thats why I feel passionate about this. At the end of the day I do feel its better for the industry to give regonition to a big fan favorite that gets very strong critical approval. It just seems like a smart move to give it at least a nomination in the best picture category.In ten years nobody will remember The Reader. In 1974 the Academy nominated The Towering Inferno for best picture. It was the top grossing movie that year. It was also a great movie in my opinion. When you have a marriage of a popular and great movie( the majority of critics and general movie goers feel that way in this case) its assame when it dosen’t get reconized. Thats how many people are feeling today. You just aren’t one of them.

    chuck

  78. Hey Linda,

    Be very careful about telling me what I do and don’t know. I live in Hollywood too you know and have several friends who are voting members of the Academy… so while I’m certainly not the MOST knowledgeable, I do know a thing or two about how things work.

    And once again… what does “The Reader” have to do with it???

    I agree 100% that The Reader doesn’t deserve a nomination… but that’s just my opinion. You seem to make the assumption that if The Reader wasn’t nominated… then TDK would have been. I think that’s incorrect as I personally had 3 other (and better) films in line before TDK gets the spot.

    This isn’t about “The Reader”… it’s about TDK not being good enough to take one of the top 5 spots. Pure and simple.

  79. “The Oscars is not supposed to be a popularity contest. It’s 6000 voting members who work in the film industry giving their professional and personal subjective opinions on which films showed the most excellence in the given categories.”

    John, you have no idea. There are politics involved. If you think every individual votes solely on what they honestly think good film is, YOU’RE DEAD WRONG. Harvey Weinstein forced that piece of garbage The Reader into the best picture slot. And that’s the word on the street here in Hollywood. He has the power.

    And I thought Milk was a fantastic film; it deserves to be in the best picture category. On the other hand, The Reader doesn’t even deserve to be talked about. Benjamin Button doesn’t deserve to be there, and neither does Frost/Nixon. The truth of the matter is, there are slime balls in Hollywood and the Academy who manipulate others with their power. This is an example of it. The Reader, having absolutely no buzz and no substance miraculously finds its way into the best picture race, after, coincidentally, being pushed hard at the last minute by one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, Harvey Weinstein.

  80. Hey Entertainment and Beyond,

    I’ve read the article. It’s nothing but a speculative, no facts editorial. It’s not a story… it’s an editorial. It means absolutely nothing.

    You seem to be fixated on The Reader. What about all the other films that did get nominated?

    You’re also assuming that if the reader wasn’t nominated, then TDK would have been… and I simply don’t agree. That’s just speculation.. and as I’ve said before, I had 3 other films in line before TDK got a nomination.

    TDK didn’t get nominated because it didn’t deserve to be.

    Just because The Reader didn’t deserve to be either (which you and I agree on) doesn’t change that fact (well… in my opinion that is).

  81. John- Just when I thought I was out Im pulled back in. Out of 6000 members The Dark Knight did not get a majority of votes to give it a best picture or Director nod (I also feel Nolan was dissed-eric good points)but The Reader did.From my side of the street that just reaks of elitism or a heavy inside push by Weinstein. Again read The NY post article and tell me what you think? I’ll wear you down yet! LOL

    Chuck

  82. Hey Eric,

    Nominate Nolan for what? Direction? If so, the fact that he co-wrote or produced or shot on IMAX has nothing to do with it whatsoever. They don’t nominate you for best director for those other things.

    I totally agree that Nolan poured himself into the movie (for the record, Nolan is my second favorite director in Hollywood), but so did all the other directors who did get nominated.

    It’s really not unusual at all for a director to not get nominated if his movie didn’t get nominated for best picture.

  83. Being a huge Batman fan I’m biased as hell but I’ll try to be objective. I thought The Dark Knight was wonderful, absolutley everything I was hoping it would be. Sure there were things about it that I would consider faults( the length, Bale’s voice etc) but I also feel it deserved the praise it got, and to disagree with John it wasn’t overrated. My point though is that if the academy didn’t feel it was necessary to give The Dark Knight a Best Picture nomination why did they feel also it necessary to shut out Christopher Nolan? This guy put his soul into the movie the way Ledger put his soul into The Joker. Ledger was nominated, why shut out Nolan? He cowrote the story, screenplay, he produced and directed. He decided to use IMAX cameras for god sakes! Why then not even a nomination. I would be ok if he didn’t win but for him to not even be nominated…doesn’t sit right with me. If someone can explain that for me I would greatly appreciate that.

    1. “This guy (Nolan) put his soul into the movie…”

      I have no doubt that you are correct, Eric. I’ll add that he put in in his heart in it too. But most directors do, don’t they?

      A lot of folks are picking on The Reader . While I suspect the nomination has more to do with honoring the late Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, than the subject matter, did those producers, (directors in their own right), give less of themselves during the making of the film? Even if we removed the film from Best Picture contention, as I stated before, there are other films that could have been in its place, and it may not have been Knight.

      How about Milk? Gus Van Sant had been connected to the project since 1992—say what you want pro and con about the picture, but I have reason to believe he put his heart and soul into the film.

      By the way: to the lot of you, regardless of if you agree with the film or not, I seen a lot of comments above stating how the academy is not “with the times” or not “nominating” anything that will be topical/relevant…and yet ‘Milk’ is a Best Picture nominee. Go figure.

      John Patrick Shanley also directed his script based on his play. Was he nominated for director? No, he wasn’t. Where’s his heart and soul? There’s a lot of directors who put in tough work. There’s a lot of directors who don’t get nominated. And for those that do and lose- does it mean any less?

  85. Hey Entertainment And Beyond:

    Quick question for you: Do you thin I have a bias against comic book films? Obviously not.

    And yet… if I were a voting member of the Academy and didn’t vote for TDK… you would be insisting that the only reason I didn’t vote for it was because I was biased against Comic Book films.

    If I can just say it’s not nominated because it isn’t in the top 5… can’t other people also without you accusing them of corruption? Just a thought.

  86. Dark Knight and WALL-E were the most ambitious and artistic mainstream films in YEARS. They are what future film makers should look to when making a summer movie. They prove mainstream films CAN be art.
    And yet the academy overlooks them for The Reader, which is an arthouse film that WASN’T that good or artistic, just because its indie and TRIED to deal with the Holocaust?
    This snubbing is effectively saying that mainstream films CANT be artistic at all, no matter what, and mediocre indie movies that FAILED at being good are somehow Better than mainstream art, and that’s a horrible message. WAY TO GO HOLLYWOOD

  87. Many of you seem to be under the impression that if The Reader (which doesn’t deserve to be nominated in my opinion) wasn’t nominated, then The Dark Knight would have been. I disagree.

    To me… as I’ve said about 20 times… there are AT LEAST 3 other films in line to be nominated before The Dark Knight

    And Entertainment and Beyond – I agree that Best Picture is a bigger award than the others… but by your logic… all these Oscar voters are out to Snub TDK. That logic fails if these same people nominate it for 8 Oscars.

    Bottom line (in my opinion at any rate) The Dark Knight didn’t get nominated because it didn’t deserve to get nominated. Period

  88. Big difference between a supporting actor performance and one for best picture. Even Al Pacino was nominated for Dick Tracy. Those 8 nominations are fine but there not equal to a Best picture nomination. That’s the grand prize in Hollywood. Again while I don’t want the Oscars to be a popularity contest the industry would be better served if The Dark Knight(94% positive) was nominated over The Reader(which again only had a 60% positive on Rotten tomatoes). Thats my opinion. Others don’t have to agree with it! Read the NY post article as its very interesting on how this might have developed!

    Chuck

  89. I’m shocked “Dark Knight” didn’t get the nomination. “The Reader”? Someone has to explain to me how a film that wasn’t critically acclaimed (60% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) gets nominated. These so-called Academy voters are way out of touch and there’s going to wonder why no one will watch the ceremony on TV in a few months. “Dark Knight” redefined three film gendres – comic book, action, and crime drama. What other film out there now or in the future is going to do that?

  90. I think the Acade4my Awards climate is different than it was a few years ago. I think there’s been a greater shift towards arthouse and indie films in recent years.
    It’s just the nomination of The Reader for best picture AND director that bothers me.

  91. Hey Glass,

    You said:

    “Oh, and the only reason Gran Torino was snubbed? It wasn’t PC enough for the people who do the voting. FACT.”

    Nope… total fiction that you made up without any facts to back you up.

    There are a number of people who didn’t like the movie. I liked it (read my review)… but it wasn’t nearly good enough to get nominated for best picture

  92. Hey 1-7

    So how do you expalin The Lord Of The Rings winning so many Oscars and getting nominated for best film each time?

    That pretty much shoots down your argument doesn’t it?

  93. Didn’t you all know? If an American movie is a wide release, it must suck. Only foreign or independent films that play in maybe a quarter of the states matter! Silly people! I’m rolling my eyes so hard I’m giving myself eye strain. This snubs list proves that Hollywood is not only out of touch with reality, but with the general populace as well. Oh, and the only reason Gran Torino was snubbed? It wasn’t PC enough for the people who do the voting. FACT.

  94. The Oscars mean nothing anymore. They’ve been commandeered by backroom snakes like Weinstein. Movie quality no longer means anything. The only criteria is the movie has to be a slow, plodding snoozefest that no one saw…whether or not it is actually good no longer factors in. Films like “The Reader” are built only to garner Oscars, and somehow sadly over time this has lost all correlation with what the Oscars were meant to represent: quality entertainment. The fact that “The Reader” has in fact received far less than stellar critical praise (Over WALL-E, The Wrestler, The Dark Knight) is proof positive. Build the film to said formula, win an Oscar. That’s it.

  95. Hey Entertainment,

    And another thing you’re ignoring… if the academy voters wanted to purposefully “snub” The Dark Knight… explain to me why Heath Ledger got a nomination… and why TDK got EIGHT Oscar nominations? Yeah… a real snub job.

    Seems to me (just my opinion) like some people are just mad TDK didn’t get a best picture nom (which in my opinion it didn’t deserve anyway) and are grasping at straws to make excuses as to why it failed (if you can call getting 8 Oscar Nominations a failure).

  96. Hey Entertainment,

    Well… the majority used to think it was ok to have slavery too :P

    To me it just doesn’t hold water. You can’t say they’ll turn up their nose at a film like Dark Knight intentionally and yet at the same time give TONS of Oscars and nominations to movies about wizards and magic rings and Orcs and Elves and walking magical trees. It just makes no sense.

  98. John, I have to ask, and please don’t take this the wrong way because I don’t mean it like that, but, say they did end TDK at the hospital scene, if they did, would it be in your top 5 of the year?

  99. I am a little disappointed that TDK didn’t get nominated, or that Nolan didn’t either. But, come on, did I really think TDK had a solid chance at getting nominated? Not really. I had hope, though. Besides, with or without the nomination, TDK made a lasting impact on pop culture; it’s not just another comic book movie. I’m just glad Heath Ledger got a nod, and I’ll be watching to see if he gets it.

    P.S. I love the new site, John. It looks great!

  100. I myself have always considered the Oscars a joke and not because they “Snubbed” a film or two. I think all awards shows are stupid because all of the “winners” are based upon a group of people’s opinion and opinions are totally subjective. There aren’t any quantifiable aspects to the film industry that are also relative to any kind of meaningful reward.

    Same reason every time a “Top 100” list is released on ANY topic, no two people will ever agree with the top 10. Did The Dark Knight deserve more nominations? Sure, in my mind I think it should definitely have been nominated for best picture and I’d say box office receipts show that the public’s opinion isn’t that far from mine. However, if you ask that same question to the other people who either worked on the movies that did earn a nomination or those people who love those films just that much more than the Dark Knight, they would most certainly disagree.

    So to repeat as well as summarize, awards shows are just worthless television fluff because all they ever are, is a regurgitation of the opinions of a small group of people.

  101. Hey Entertainment,

    You said:

    “Yes! In this case it just feels like the academy snubbed it on purpose”

    That’s a pretty harsh thing to say. So are you saying all 6000 voting members of the Academy, actors, directors, writers, producers, executives ect. ect. ect. all got together on a big massive phone conference call and decided to purposefully snub The Dark Knight? Nonsense.

    It’s totally cool that YOU would have put it on the top 5… but to say others who don’t share your opinion are just purposefully snubbing it is a far stretch.

    Besides… IF the Oscar voters were secretly discussing and deciding thing amongst themselves to wrongfully fix who did and didn’t get nominated… wouldn’t it be in their best interests to just nominate TDK so their ratings could be higher???

    Seems to me they’d be much more biased to INCLUDE Dark Knight on the nomination list instead of not including it.

  102. If there’s one great mainstream film that most of the general public has seen and loved the 6000 members should nominate it only if they feel its worthy of that honor. Having said that its hard to believe that these people didn’t feel there was a spot out of 5 films for The Dark Knight. John- of course I don’t want to see the Oscars as a popularity contest but I strongly feel that The Dark Knight was one of the top 5 very best films of the year. Am I disappointed that it didn’t get nominated? Yes! In this case it just feels like the academy snubbed it on purpose and the choice of The Reader does feel like a back alley deal condidering that film received a very mixed reaction among most critics. I also agree think Darthmuppet makes some good points. John- We agree to disagree and thats what makes the world go round.
    Good luck on The Anniversary!

    Chuck

  105. I’m only watching because I want Heath to win, witch I think he will. And since I think either Slumdog or Benjamin Button will get best picture. That too. But man, TDK, completely overlooked…..

  106. Hey Wordesearch,

    So basically you’re saying that the 6000 voting members of the Academy… all film professionals… should NOT vote what they really think… but instead should vote just for what they think would be popular and draw an audience?!?!?!?!

    Man… that’s insane.

  107. For me, the one true test to determine a film’s greatness is the test of time.
    10 or more years from now, NOBODY is goint o be watching The Reader but everyone will still remember and talk about WALL-E and The Dark Knight.
    I would have been nowhere near as angry if tThe Reader was replaced by WALL-E, The Wrestler, Gran Torino or a director nod for Nolan. But that didn’t happen.
    2001: A Space Odyssey and Saving Private Ryan lost out in their espective years to Oliver and Shakespeare in Love. Face it, you forgot Oliver even existed until I wrote that.
    The point is that 2001 and SPR will go on to forever be known as masterpieces in cinema while the winners that year will fade into obscurity.
    I feel that’s going to happen again this year.

  108. will admit, I am one of those people who every year will sit down and watch The Academy Awards regardless of the movies nominated. But this year may be different. When the Academy has the worst ratings ever, like it did last year, and then misses a golden opportunity to bring back many viewers by not nominating The Dark Knight or Christopher Nolan, they may not only lose even more viewers, but they may lose this Oscar fan too. There was no movie, no movie that even came close to what The Dark Knight accomplished both critically and commercially. When a film earns more than $530 million in the U.S. alone and has 94% of the critics say it is a good (even great) movie, the film or at least the director deserves a nomination. Such a disappointment. So Academy, when the ratings don’t improve this year, don’t come complaining to us. You had your shot to fix this problem, deal with it. The Dark Knight and WALL-E, you were the ones who deserved this the most!

  109. Hi Jon,

    Fair enough. I had to bring up The Reader vs The Dark Knight because of the New York Post article that claims Harvey Weinstein leveraged The Dark Knight out of contention with the Academy in favor of The Reader.
    http://www.nypost.com/seven/01232009/entertainment/movies/reader__weep__batman_151405.htm

    Who knows if this is true or not, but aren’t many Oscar nominations a result of money, campaigning, and Hollywood politics anyway? Rumour, hearsay, and sourgrapes aside, I wholeheartedly think The Dark Knight deserved a nomination — especially Christopher Nolan.

  110. I was just hoping that the Academy would start to take comic book films seriously. If Dark Knight cannot break that barrier, I doubt anything will be able to. To win best picture these days (and always) it not only has to be the best picture, but it also has to be the right kind of picture. This is why comedies that are far better executed are ignored at the Oscars and its the same reason Wall-E was not considered. If they want to run things that way, thats fine, but change it from “Best Picture” to “Best Popular Drama”.

  111. JDH:

    Great point man..u hit the nail on head…i watched the reader last night….above average at best.

    But as we know in Oscarland…Holocaust movies are always high on there list!

  112. Hey JDH,

    No… as a matter of fact I don’t think The REader deserved the nomination over The Dark Knight. I have TDK ranked much higher than the Reader.

    However… having said that. If you remove Reader from the list, I still personally (just my opinion) have at least 3 other films in line to take it’s place before TDK.

    So with or without The Reader… I still don’t think TDK belongs up there.

  113. Jon:

    Having been a regular reader of The Movie Blog for some time now, I’m well aware of your position on The Dark Knight. I can respect that you like the film, but feel it’s overrated — and you do not mean that pejoratively. However, based on this post, you clearly feel the Oscar nominations have validated your opinions/stance on The Dark Knight. Hence, the title of your post, “The Dark Knight didn’t deserve a nomination.”

    Do you think The Reader deserved the nomination more than The Dark Knight? Forget WALL-E. Forget In Bruges. The 5th nomination comes down to either The Reader or The Dark Knight. Do you seriously believe The Reader was more deserving of the nomination?

  114. Hey DarthMuppet,

    I have to disagree with you.

    The Oscars should not be about “staying relevant”. That is just another way of saying “let’s throw integrity out the window and just make it a popularity contest like the Grammy’s”

    Yes… the Oscar eligability rules should change so that a film should be put in wide release in order to be considered for an Oscar. I agree that this would solve much of the problem.

  115. BTW, I’m not saying they should only nominate popular films for best picture… I believe that the studios are equally to blame for not giving their “OSCAR bate” films the wide releases that would give people the chance to see them.

    I do think that this year’s best picture picks were a huge travesty though.

  116. I’ve found over the years that I dont really care about the Oscars anymore – since Lord of the Rings actually. I like to know who won, but by the next day, they’re nothing more than an afterthought.

    Yes it would be nice for Chris Nolan to get some sort of recognition, I’m sure later on in his career it will come through for him. I’ll be a constant supporter of his work.

    Overall this new Batman franchise has a healthy following and whoever earlier said that it will not be forgotten in the future, but a movie like Doubt will, is absolutely correct – and to me that is more important than a little golden statue.

  117. Great… another year of the OSCARS that besides Heath Ledger’s nomination, nobody gives a flying fuck about.

    This is becoming a major problem with the OSCARS and a few other awards shows… most of the films that get the nomination for best picture, while they may indeed be wonderful, are films that 90% of America have either not seen or have never heard of.

    Great way to stay relevant guys!

  119. Hey Entertainment

    You said:

    “I still feel they would be doing there own industry right by nominating a film that the general audience loves.”

    I have to strongly, totally and 100% disagree with you here. Completely.

    The Oscars is not supposed to be a popularity contest. It’s 6000 voting members who work in the film industry giving their professional and personal subjective opinions on which films showed the most excellence in the given categories.

    Just making the Oscars a popularity contest would make it worse than the Grammy’s.

  120. Hey G-Wayne,

    Indeed. All film is subjective. I guess my main point here is that it’s really not all that irrational that TDK didn’t get nominated. There are some very solid arguments for why it didnt’ get the nod. As well as some for why it should have.

    Bottom line… it’s not “crazy” that it didn’t get it.

  121. Hey Entertainment:

    You said:

    “The Academy does get many things right but it also is an elitist crowd who shun big mainstream films that are deemed popcorn movies.”

    I see where you’re going… but as I said in my post… if the Academy just elitist and wants to purposfully shun big genre movies…. explain Lord of the Rings. All three got nominations and the third won a record 11 Oscars. Movies about wizards and magic and goblins and Elves in tree top kingdoms and magic rings.

    Honestly I can’t explain it. It dosen’t always make sense, but I still feel they would be doing there own industry right by nominating a film that the general audience loves. In this case I just shake my head!

    Chuck

  122. I haven’t seen all the films yet, so I am keeping an open mind. There’s probably something better than TDK this year, but the problem with the oscars is that the same argument you made can be made about pretty much any of the films, depending on how much you liked it.

  123. I was waiting for this post lol

    I see your point John..but after watching the Reader & Doubt last night (illegal torrents hehe) I still believe the Dark Knight deserved a spot in the top 5. I know you don’t but like you always say movie critiques are subjective.

    People wont remember a movie like Doubt in 5 years…TDK will be remembered far longer and has changed the way comic book movies will be made.

    For all of that and then some it deserved a nomination (not necessarily a win..even though that would be sweet)

    I will use the argument that TDK had a lot better reviews than The Reader on RT & Metacritic (shit Wall-E did as well) We can both agree it should be up for Best Pic as well.

    All 3 LOTR movies were nominated for best pic..i guess there’s a difference with source material. Book as opposed to graphic novels. Still it sucks and I definitely wont be enjoying the Oscars as much as i could/would

    I believe TDK DID deserve to get nominated. Simple as that.

    BTW. Site looks fantastic :)

  124. Hey Aaron,

    Just because you love something doesn’t mean it deserves an Oscar Nomination. I loved Iron Man… doesn’t mean I think it should be nominated for Best Picture. Just sayin.

  126. Hey G-Wayne,

    Actually, I wrote an article saying that The Dark Knight would get NOMINATED… not win.

    As I mentioned in my post… I’m a bit surprised that it didn’t get nominated and I certainly wouldn’t have complained if it did get nominated… but I also think… now that we’ve seen all the films… that it truly didn’t deserve to get nominated. Simple as that.

  127. Hey Entertainment:

    You said:

    “The Academy does get many things right but it also is an elitist crowd who shun big mainstream films that are deemed popcorn movies.”

    I see where you’re going… but as I said in my post… if the Academy just elitist and wants to purposfully shun big genre movies…. explain Lord of the Rings. All three got nominations and the third won a record 11 Oscars. Movies about wizards and magic and goblins and Elves in tree top kingdoms and magic rings.

  128. I can’t really comment on whether it was shafted given the competition when I’ve only seen ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ so far (seeing ‘Frost/Nixon’ tommorrow). Here’s one thing I do know. I’d never even heard of ‘The Reader’ before yesterday.

    It would have been nice to see it nominated for screenplay. It’s a wonderfully written film.

  129. You know, didn’t you write an article called “Why The Dark Knight will win best picture”, where you then talked about how it might get nominated? And now here your justifying why it didn’t. Reminds me of your “Juno” article last year.

  130. While I agree the last half hr of The Dark Knight has problems(It goes on two long and the boat sequence feels cheesy) it still deserved a best picture nomination. Bottom line- almost all movies have flaws. The first two hrs of The Dark Knight is some really great filmaking and its story is highly compelling. The Academy does get many things right but it also is an elitist crowd who shun big mainstream films that are deemed popcorn movies. I really think they dropped the ball here. OK don’t give it best picture but considering it made a billion dollars world wide and it received critical acclaim give it the nomination. Nolan also deserved a best director nomination.Its a big slap in the face to the general moviegoing public!

    Chuck

  133. “How many awesome movies that blow people’s minds does Christopher Nolan need to make before he gets recognized? ”

    Probably as many as Martin Scorsese, he got his first Oscar for The Departed.

  134. “Hey Linda,

    If all you see milk as is a “homosexual movie”, or Frost/Nixon as a political movie, or Benjamin Buton as just a Gump remake then I really can’t take anything you say seriously.” i totally agree with that….but u go on to say that the dark knight is overrated? i dont think the dark knight was overrated..it was a awesome movie….but i agree it shouldnt be a best picture award…..i thought frost nixon was one of the most boring movies ever ….sure its a true story but does that mean it should be boring?…..langella was awesome but every one else except for his research people kinda sucked….i mean the guy who played frost was bore…personally i think slumdog should win and my second vote would be for the wresler.

  135. The only real problem I had was that they made Two-Face more of an after thought than a dangerous secondary villan. He goes from normal to murderous after Rachel dies and listening to the Joker? Okay. He can easily overpower the female detective? Okay. I know I’ll have to suspend disbelief with most of this film cause it is a crimefighter movie and overlook some possibilities (i.e. the Tank making it to the top floor of the carpark). But Two Face seemed more like he was thrown in at the last minute for the sake of story. I wouldn’t mind having a to be continued or a even longer 4 hour movie to give him space to work, but the last quarter of the film felt rushed with his character. The rest of film I thoroughly enjoyed. It will be a film destined to be talked about for years in the genre for comic book movies.

  137. The Reader knocked The Dark Knight out of contention for best picture. The Dark Knight got screwed! I expected every other movie nominated to be on the list with the exception of The Reader!

    1. Hey, be careful tp judge a person as “wrong” when it comes to him saying that “WALL•E” is the best film of 2008.

      I mean, with “WALL•E” being regarded by many as Pixar’s magnum opus, having a higher Rotten Tomatoes rating (96% to TDK’s 94%), having an even higher metacritic rating (94 to TDK’s 82), not to mention being the concensus Best Film of the year (counting #1 spots and overall spots in pooling together all the critics’ Top 10 Lists); there is PLENTY OF SOLID GROUND to say that “WALL•E” is the Best Film of the year.

      If i were voting, i would go “WALL•E” for Best Picture (history in the making!!) & Christoper Nolan for Best Director. :))

      ……of course, that was two years ago. :((

  140. I understand why it didn’t get the nomination. I loved it, it was my biased, easy to please personal opinion the second best movie I saw last year behind WALL-E. But 8 nominations is nothing to be down and out about.

    I’m more annoyed that Nolan didn’t get a Directing nomination,

  141. And I am a huge fan of TDK, in case that matters. Like John, I like it more and more each time I see it – overlooking any flaws. I like to enjoy my movies and not nitpick to the point that they are unwatchable. Just sit back and enjoy, thats what the movies are for…

  142. In all honesty, the Oscars come and go, and by this time next year, I don’t see anyone really caring who wins or who was snubbed. If you like TDK, then keep liking it – enough with the crying and whining that it wasn’t nominated.

    Does anyone care about movies like Crash, or Old Country anymore? They won best pictures? Does anyone care?

    These are just awards and in the long run don’t mean much. Its not worth the headache.

  143. How many awesome movies that blow people’s minds does Christopher Nolan need to make before he gets recognized? While I am upset that The Dark Knight wasn’t nominated for Best Picture, not nominating Christopher Nolan is a travesty.

  144. I’ve never understood why people get so bent out of shape over movies not getting nominated. The way I look at is “Best Picture” doesn’t necessarily mean most enjoyable picture, which is why I think most pictures nominated for best picture are rarely box office hits. Who cares what a so called elite group of out of touch people think? The masses have already spoken and they’ve spoken with their support of the movie. John is also right, TDK is overrated. Is it a great movie? Yes! Is it as good as some would have you believe? I don’t think so, but that’s just my opinion.

  145. Is the Academy trying to loose viewers?
    I can’t believe Nolan didn’t get a nom for best director! Or a Best Picture nom! I thought at MINIMUM it would get a nod for score and director. The Dark Knight reinvigorated a dying superhero franchise (face it, Iron Man’s great, but it didn’t do anything inventive). The Dark Knight took what’s great about the comic book and applied it to the cinema and broke the “popcorniness” of the genre, and cinema for that matter. Solid script with a pertinent terrorist theme, excellent acting, superb cinematography, dynamic directing. For an Academy that claims to award pioneers of the cinema, I don’t think I would go out West with them to find only a fool’s gold of nominees.
    Sad though, this could have been a year of change, but instead the Academy decided to play it safe.

  147. John and Darren both put it very well.

    Everyone getting worked up over this is just a bit overboard. The film is an awesome accomplishment. If there were a top 10 films of the year I would bet money it could get onto that list, and in the top 10 out of 4000+ films is an accomplishment.

    The movie is still great and I still love it. But I have to agree that the shortcomings cut it out of this race. But that doesn’t make it any less of a movie to me.

  148. The Dark Knight has been snubbed of best score, best director, best picture and best screenplay nods. There’s no exuse for it. Say what you will about the movies potential for Best Picture, but Nolan’s achievement on TDK in elevating the comic-book movie should have been recognized.
    The Academy has decided that they will forever pick films no one cares about (The Reader) over films that were popular and critically acclaimed. The Dark Knight did redefine several genres. It was not a traditional comic book film. It was a crime drama with relevant political themse. It had depth. It was fast paced. Christopher Nolan’s directing for The Dark Knight is among the best ever. I’m glad Ledger was nominated, but the film and itself deserved so much more. The Academy has managed to embarrass themselves every year, but this year is going to live in infamy.
    I will be watching the academy awards this year, but only up until the part where Ledger wins his award. After that, I will be tuning out.

  149. I’m really more upset over how Hellboy 2 only one nomination, or how all the animated movie nominations went to the popular ones.

    “Dark Knight” was overrated from the get-go. Good action and a fantastic performance from Heath Ledger, but it lost me every time things slowed down so they could talk about the story’s themes. Great movies shouldn’t need to explain the point they’re trying to make.

  150. Heeeeeeee’s back!!!!!

    The last few weeks I been sharing my thoughts with coming soon and Screenrant. I mention those two sites simply because after the nominations yesterday, I *did* see a lot of “Dark Knight” supporters saying how the Academy is full of it. Not everyone said stuff like that (including me) I’m just pointing out I concur with John that it is out there. Looking at the comments here for the most part, it seems to be an echo.

    Oddly in these same comments “Why Dark Knight was robbed” and all that crap, let me point out these things, something with John didn’t mention:

    1) The Dark Knight still got eight nominations overall, including Ledger. Eight! and folks call it an academy oversight? Among those eight, Wally Pfister, DOP. Note: Pfister was previously nominated a few years ago for Batman Begins Among those eight, the late Heath Ledger is nominated. He probably won’t win , it’s a tough category and all. Regardless, he’s there. And the internet hordes are telling me there’s “no reason” for them to watch the Oscars now? Hokey doke.

    2) Like I pointed out in my comments at SR, The Dark Knight is in good company. Despite nominations for acting, Doubt didn’t make that cut. Neither did The Wrestler. Revolutionary Road didn’t make the Best Pic cut. Burn After Reading got nothing whatsover, In Bruges got Best Script nom only…a lot of people loved Iron Man too, and it gets only a tech nom. (Up against Ben Button and Batman, no less). Point is, there’s a lot of films that didn’t make the cut.

    3) I loved The Dark Knight too. But the charge that the academy hates genre films as a few of you have implied? Yes, recent times, The Lord Of The Rings. But is that the only exception? No, it isn’t. The first Star Wars didn’t win best picture, but it was nominated, yes? Jaws. Raiders Of The Lost Ark ? Field Of Dreams (at its core a fantasy picture)? Ghost. The Sixth Sense.

    Once upon a time, Sigourney Weaver was up for Best Actress in Aliens. Aliens! Aliens also had six other nominations that year.

    Once upon a time, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind had nine nominations in ’77.

    ****And the Academy “ignores” sci-fi, fantasy and horror???

    Gotcha. I could have sworn “Silence Of The Lambs” took best picture in the early 90’s. Maybe my memory isn’t wasn’t it used to be.

    By the way, The Dark Knight got eight nominations. Back in 90, Dick Tracy got seven.

    4) The Dark Knight didn’t get best score. Nobody cares. Move along.

    whirlwind of rant has ceased.

  151. I don’t care what the anti-TDK people say. It is the best film of the year. Christopher Nolan not getting nominated is an absolute disgrace.
    This is what film snobbery has created. Bullshit Oscar bait gets recognized not because of merits or brilliance but because of shallow attention seeking disguised as serious subject matter. Nobody is going to remember the film that wins best picture five or ten years from now. Nobody will care. The Academy had a chance to reach for greatness and relevance, but they’ve really outdone themselves this year with their utter contempt for anything good.

  152. I’m seriously going to boycott the oscars this year. The only thing I’m interested in seeing is Heath’s win (yes, he will win). None of the other nominees are anything we didn’t expect.
    I’m supremely disappointed that The Dark Knight was almost totally snubbed.
    Not even a nomination for it’s brilliantly sublime score or Nolan for director, a man who’s vision forever changed the entire face of a genre.
    How does The Reader which received mediocre reviews from most reviewer beat out The Dark Knight which received overwhelmingly positive reviews? Who can seriously say that The Reader is a better film than The Wrestler, The Dark Knight or even WALL-E. Maybe it’s because The Reader is pure oscar-bait which the Academy took hook, line and sinker.
    It’s sad because these films are a dime-a-dozen which pop around every year and quickly fade into obscurity whereas The Dark Knight is probably not going to rivaled in cinema for years to come and will be forever remembered.
    Also, Benjamin Button didn’t exactly receive largely positive reviews either, strange.
    It’s good to see Slumdog Millionaire and Mickey Rourke up ther (I hope he wins), but again, nothing we didn’t expect.

  153. Calling a movie “over rated” doesn’t make it “over rated” no matter how many times you say it, unless you are the end-all be-all of movie opinions, which you are not.

    You liked “The Dark Knight” less than most people (on this planet). Get over it.

  154. John, Milk was great – it deserved to be nominated. All i’m saying is Academy seems to nominate films that cover the same old topics over and over again.

  155. as regularily im not sure if you write to spark up debate and a ‘what will he say next’ or if you really feel this way. i think its a shame that it didnt get the recognition it deserves. and i disagree with most of the flaws u say the movie has. i think time will show this movie as rich in drama and subject matter than any of these other movies. i think nolan perhaps should have gotten a dir. nod more so than the picture getting the nod.his abililty to write and guide this movie is first. the academy has gone too far in having best pic and best dir a exclusive duo. I think nolan could have dir any of those other movies nominated but i have a hard time seeing the other directors doing dark knight. i know its not a who the best dir. is, but all in all its a shame. the academy has made another mistake simply. and i guess time will tell. maybe if batman were fighting nazis it would have fared better

  156. love your website but i allways agree what you say on this site. Dark knight is my favoirt flim of the year but your right it is not a oscar picture. i am kinda mad and think this year crop of flims are the weakest in years. curious cobb is very good but and should be there. frost vs nixion was good but should not be there i have not seen milk but going too. the reader look good but nothing out of ordinary and slumdog millioner i still have not seen it or want to see it. what i seen and plus the dir i really dont like any of his flim anyway. so where is doubt, clint eastwood movies and wall e and even dark knight as longshot.

  157. Agreed all around. I loved ‘Dark Knight’, saw it no less than five times in theaters, but if I watch it now, all I can see is what I dislike about it. Namely how Maggie Gyllenhaal has no point in the movie except to die, and excusing Morgan Freeman, if it’s not white or foreign, it’s a villain or it’s dead. Wth?

  158. I agree that TDK shouldn’t be on the Best Film list. But I also disagree with the nominations it got, Visual FX and editing. We all know the weakest link of the Nolan Batman films is the editing and TDK was no different. I didn’t see anything groundbreaking in terms of visual FX but then again the best FX are the ones you don’t notice.

    And Wall-E for best song and not The Boss? Nigga please.

  159. John, I agree with what your saying. But a lot of your points were also true of Return of the King and the other LOTR movies.

    ROTK was “too long” (the ending was literally horrible) and some of the acting wasn’t great if we’re honest with ourselves (I love the movie too) – Merry and Pippin were terribly represented on screen (cheese-a-thon!).

    I’m undecided whether TDK deserved a call-up. I loved Frost/Nixon… but despite great acting, it wasn’t really a great story – nor was it directed especially well.

    I’ve heard similar things about Milk – great acting, average cinematography and direction. Let’s be honest, their trawled through virtually every biopic they can find in these last few years.

    Still, it’s hardly new for people to complain about the oscars lists now is it?

  160. actually i agree with linda…

    they just cant put an animated pixar movie (wall e) or a comic book movie no matter how good it is…i saw the movies nominated and i saw TDK…and TDK WAS better then all of those

    the best movies will always be those..the gay ones or the political ones…or cheap remakes of forest gump…but when an awesome comic book movie or pixar movie comes out..they just cant noominated
    pixar wont be able to top wall-e and batman is not going to get any better then TDK….so this was their only chance….next year well have another bunch of hullucaust and homosexual movies being nominated…no matter how good the other ones were

  161. Yeah, I am not disappointed that TDK didn’t make it. It would have been cool but not upset about it. At the same time I understand what your saying, but I still woudn’t call it overrated though…

    The one “Snub” that I am disappointed about is that the Wrestler didn’t get a best picture nom, which was flawless imo…

  163. the funny thing is, you could name that article “wall-e didn’t deserve the nomination”, change a few words and it would still work.

    because, and that’s the simple thing about the oscars, it’s not about what an individual thinks deserves an oscar, it’s what the collective of 6000+ academy award members thinks. they have decided that way, so that’s that.

  164. It’s madness! Of course The Dark Knight deserves a best picture nom. What other picture this year single-handedly pushed their genre forward as much as The Dark Knight. The fact of the matter is that the Academy love their ‘prestige’ films and biopics. Its a sad truth that many Academy members probably look down on a picture such as the Dark Knight.

  165. I agree, I don’t know which of those 5 movies you’d take away for Dark Knight to replace. Glad it’s not me that had to make the decision though!

    Do you think that Christopher Nolan would be upset about it or do you think he’d agree that his movie shouldn’t be in the top 5?

  167. The reader is fucking terrible. It does not deserve to be there. The wrestler not being there is the true snub.
    But the biggest joke of all is let the right one in not being up for best foreign. I don’t know if it wasn’t submitted by Sweden I whatever but it is the best film of the year bar none.stoked to see michael Shannon there for revolutionary road. Film was awful but he blew dicaprio and winslet off the screen and dominated the entire Film with about ten minutes screen time.

    And if you want to get into an overrated discussion then you have to start with WALL E. The absolute wonder of the first half
    Seems to have blinded everyone tom how bad the last act is.

  168. Just to comment on Johns Lord of the Rings arguement.

    Look how great those movies had to be to win. They were Epic, in scale, in story, in visuals. They set a new standard. For RotK not to win would of been a obvious joke.

    Now look how easy it is for a movie like Benjamin Button to be nominated. The movie is boring, as many agree. Yet the story is unique? ok the plot is unique. Someone is born old and ages backwards. Here’s the story of his life and the struggles he had to go through. Ooooo Ahhhh. such a heart warming film. PUKE!!! Movies like this are a dime a dozen. Movies like the Dark Knight however are not and I don’t mean comic book movies.

    Just to comment on Bales growl when he wears the bat suit. I don’t see how this bothers everyone so much. I didn’t even notice how bad it was until everyone started talking about it. Bruce Wayne disguises his voice as the batman. Nothing new here. If anything is over rated it’s how bad people think his voice is as batman. If you focus to much on something of course its going to be annoying.

  169. Hey Linda,

    If all you see milk as is a “homosexual movie”, or Frost/Nixon as a political movie, or Benjamin Buton as just a Gump remake then I really can’t take anything you say seriously.

    Dark Knight really is overrated. I loved it, but it’s overrated… and you just proved my point.

    Fact of the matter is that I don’t think ALL of these films should be on the list… but there are about 3 others I would still put in front of Dark Knight. Just too many weaknesses.

  170. If Bruce Wayne was a jew, with AIDS, who is poor, who is a liberal trying to fight off Germans and find a cure for his disease, while coming to the realization that he’s gay – THAT WOULD BE AN OSCAR WINNER RIGHT THERE!

    Let’s look at the BEST PIC NOMS:

    1. The underdog story (Slumdog Millionaire)
    2. The homosexual story (Milk)
    3. The political story (Frost/Nixon)
    4. The Forrest Gump Remake (Benjamin Button)
    5. The holocaust movie (The Reader)

    WOW! I’m so surprised! You really think these are the best films of the year?! ……..Wow….just wow.

  171. I don’t care one way or the other. I never pay attention to any award shows anyway, nor do I care which ones win, loose, or get/don’t get nominated. All that matters to me is if I like a movie or not. I really don’t give two shits about the rest of the world and what they think.

  173. The mobsters were terrible? Eric Roberts was fantastic – playing a sleazy gangster trying to take over the scene. Perfect. Bale’s voice worked – Bruce Wayne is just as crazy as the Joker. Everything worked. This film was snubbed. And it is not overrated. Benjamin Button is overrated. The Reader is overrated. THE END.

    1. Couldn’t agree with you more. The movie got the the shaft. Benjamin Button was way too long and dry. Short story turned into 3 hour epic. The Same old, same old from the academy. People are just used to the routine. Nolan should have been nominated for best director as well.

  174. Whew we dodged a bullet there. I mean what kind of world would we live in if a comic book movie won best picture of the year.

    I mean I can see how the curious case of Bubba Gump Button is nominated. Seeing as how its basically the same as Forrest Gump if you break it down. To be honest it quite typical. I can not watch a movie and tell you it will be nominated for best picture simply by the trailer.

    I don’t watch the Oscars and can really care less who wins what. Simply because it’s always the same every year. The war/love story. The traumatic yet heart warming drama. The melodramatic tearjerker. The artsy crime/gangster film

    The Dark Knight just doesn’t fit the criteria. No matter how great the movie was. It’s still just an Action Comic book movie.

  175. Benjamin Button nominated for best picture??? WTF… that was so incredibly boring!

    best make up- yes. best visual effects, sure…. but best picture, no way.

    1. Couldn’t agree less. Benjamin Button was a superbly-told story. Sure it was long, but it was masterfully done. It might not have featured explosions and action, but it was excellent nonetheless.

  176. Good points, I was a bit dissapointed when I woke up this morning and watched the nominations live, I was eagerly awaiting TDK to pop up but no. I had that feeling that i knew it probably wouldn’t get nominated though. The main thing though is that Heath is on the list.

  177. Some interesting points and a good read, but I’m in the majority here and I call shenanigans regardless. But even more so, I also call shenanigans for “WALL-E” being denied a Best Picture nomination!!

    Getting back on subject…

    I mean I figured that “The Dark Knight” wouldn’t get a nomination, despite being one of the biggest acclaimed movies and DOMINATING the box-office just in it’s first week alone. At least Heath Ledger’s gotten the recognition he deserves after that brilliant swan-song performance as The Joker, so it kinda makes the snub a little more bearable.

    So, even though I WANTED TDK to get nominated, I just didn’t THINK it would, and the list only confirmed my suspicions. Oh well, no sense in bickering over it, it would’ve been cool to see TDK get that Best Picture nomination, though…But hey, one can dream right?

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