Thursday, July 3, 2008

Heath's Oscar from the Grave!


A couple weeks ago, Kevin Smith talked about the possibility of Heath Ledger receiving an Oscar nomination for his role as the Joker in Warner Brother's upcoming Dark Knight.

"Heath Ledger didn't so much give a performance as he disappeared completely into the role," filmmaker and lifelong comics fan Kevin Smith said on his MySpace blog after seeing "The Dark Knight." "I know I'm not the first to suggest this, but he'll likely get at least an Oscar nod (if not the win) for best supporting actor."

Now I admit that when I first read that exact quote over at /Film, I couldn't help but be a little skeptical. Would the Academy really give the Oscar to a guy just because the media turned in his death into a cause and effect event directly related to the darkness of the Joker? Turns out this is not the case at all.

CNN posted a great article yesterday, outlining the very reason why Ledger could get the nomination for the Joker. Heck, even Jack Nicholson got the Golden Globe nomination for the same role in Tim Burton's 1989 version of Batman.

I am starting to believe this may be true. I have not seen the Dark Knight yet, but after numerous test screenings around the country, everyone is starting to echo the very words of Kevin Smith. Peter Sciretta of /Film even said that Heath IS the Joker. There is no separating the two.

Peter Finch won the Oscar for Best Actor for 1976's Network, making him the only person in history to win in the afterlife. Many are comparing Ledger's performace to Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter in 1991's Silence of the Lambs. And with the Academy's recent love for the villians in such movies as The Last King of Scotland, There Will Be Blood, and No Country For Old Men, this is starting to look as if Heath Ledger will make history come next January.


Source: CNN/DH

5 comments:

Wesley said...

I feel like Heath should get the Oscar just from the four minutes of Joker footage that I've seen from the three trailers released. I know I haven't seen the whole film yet but I have to say... that is THE Joker in those trailers. It's really surreal actually seeing that character come to life like that. I really can't believe I'm going to get to see a full length movie with the guy in just a few weeks. If Johnny Depp can get nominated for an Oscar for playing a pirate in Pirates of the Caribbean (still not sure how he pulled this nomination off) then Ledger should not only be nominated but should win the thing.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Wesley (although I really enjoyed all of the Pirate movies), the trailers are enough to tell Heath does an awesome job. I didn't even know it was him until I read an article about it online.

By the way, thanks for keeping me updated on good movies to rent Jason. I'm going to check out the Castles In the Sky movie when I get a chance. With you guys around, my running "movies to rent" list will never run dry.

Daniel Goodwin
PS. Jason, you need to watch Spaceship one of these days.

Jason said...

@ Daniel Goodwin, Dude, you don't have to be anonymous. Let the whole world know its you by clicking the Name/URL button instead of anonymous. Good to hear you like the site man. Just stop being shy!

P.S. I am not going to watch Spaceship with out you!

Daniel said...

yeah i think heath has a great shot at getting the oscar for this movie only time will tell july 18th will not be here soon enough... freakin sweet link jason i laughed

movie_fan225 said...

I can't tell you how truly excited I am about this. Especially after seeing that shot of what Two-Face/Harvey Dent is supposed to look like. Gruesome.