One of the award shows I never pay any attention to during Oscar season is the annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. I’m not really sure why that is since I think it’s a far more credible award than the Golden Globes and carries some significance because it’s actors honoring actors. Still… I never care about it.
So last night the SAG awards were on and something curious struck me. The Dark Knight was NOT nominated for Best Ensemble Cast. The Best Ensemble is basically the the SAG version of the Best Picture award… and I was surprised… nay… STUNNED that The Dark Knight didn’t get nominated for the big SAG award.
Recently, as all of you know, The Dark Knight was not nominated for the big Oscar (prompting the ridiculous assertion by some people that the academy just purposefully “snubbed” The Dark Knight because they hate comic book movies… which doesn’t explain why they nominated Heath Ledger for his role and gave TDK a total of EIGHT… count them EIGHT Oscar nominations in total… yeah… real snub).
Anger was swift amongst The Dark Knight supporters towards the Academy and all sorts of irrational conspiracy theories about coordinated efforts to “snub” TDK surfaced. Me personally… I didn’t think TDK was one of the top 5 films of the year (although I do have in in my top 10). But here’s the funny part…
If anything, I thought The Dark Knight DID deserve a SAG nomination for Best Ensemble Cast. Not only did Heath Ledger give one of the single best performances of the year, but those turned in by Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart and Gary Oldman were all superb. Not only were they individually fantastic, but they all worked together so damn well.
If anything, in my opinion, I would have definitely given The Dark Knight a SAG nomination before the Oscar.
Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t think SAG “snubbed” The Dark Knight… but I do certainly feel they made a mistake in failing to give it a nomination, especially for just the cast.
My questions is… since (in my opinion) The Dark Knight deserved a Best Ensemble nomination far more than it did a Best Picture nomination… why is the interweb not up in arms about SAG “snubbing” The Dark Knight? Where are the scores of people proclaiming SAG just hates comic book movies or some other form of prejudice?
Just a thought. What are your thoughts?
