So the Oscar's were last night and big surprise Heath Ledger won posthumously for his portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime from Last year's The Dark Knight. I would like to take this time to convey my congratulations to Mr. Ledger's family and friends and say that it is an award well deserved.
However I would be remiss in this post if I did not point out the obvious hypocrisy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. What hypocrisy you ask? Well I am a firm believer that the voting of the Academy members was based less on the actual performance of Mr. Ledger and more on the fact that he died tragically a couple of months before the film hit the theaters.
Now before you get all upset and start yelling at me, I am not saying that Heath Ledger does not deserve this award. What I am saying is that if he had not died, there is no way in hell he would have won. And that is the hypocrisy I am speaking of. I saw a good deal of movies last year and I can say without a doubt in my mind that Ledger had the best acted, most fully realized, and most dynamic character of any movie last year. His performance is doubly impressive when you consider what he was up against. The Joker is by far the most recognized villain in comic book history. He has had the good fortune to be portrayed by some of the most distinguished live and voice actors our generation has ever known. As such everyone who knows the character has there own interpretation of how he should be played. From Cesar Romero's campy clown, to Nicholson's dark gangster, to Hamill's zany Daffy Duck-esque voice work, it seems almost impossible to bring something new and fresh to this character. Not only did he do it, but he put this icon of evil into a new realistic light that has never been seen before.
This and this alone should have been the basis for the voting this year. However, it never would have happened if he were still alive. This has nothing to do with Ledger and everything to do with Hollywood. It hates Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Comic Book movies. This is best illustrated by the 1978 awards in which Star Wars, the movie which had the biggest impact, was snubbed in all major categories for other winners. It, like it's predecessors and successor's was relegated to the technical categories like visual effects and such.
In the last 50 years only one film has ever won any Oscar's for any of the main categories, that being The Lord of the Rings: Return of The King, but this is the exception that proves the rule. I suppose I should not be surprised, seeing as how the whole thing is really a popularity contest and not one of validity. It just makes me mad that it takes something like a tragic death to bring a modicum of respectability to a genre of storytelling that just about everyone enjoys.
Anyway that's enough for this rant.
Til' we meet again.
Paul
