Writer's Block: A Posthumous Oscar for Joker?

[thebitterguy]

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Honestly, I have no idea how they choose the Best Actor Academy Award. Or would he be Best Special Effect?

I don't know anyone who has seen the film who hasn't loved his portrayal of the Joker (you can't see this guy walking down the Venice boardwalk with Superman, that's for sure). Just the bit where he straightens his hair is creep a tastic. Sure, a lot of it may be the script, but the performance is strong too.

Oscars are nice, and all, sure. Has the Academy ever given an award posthumously before?

edit: I love the LJ ID for the user who submitted this question.

Comments

[bandersnitch.livejournal.com]

There has been posthumous Oscars before.

James Dean was nominated for 2 after his death.
Peter Finch won an Oscar for The Network after his death.

[deven-science.livejournal.com]

I think it would be Best Supporting Actor, which would make two guarantees in that category, due to villainous roles, in a row.

The Realities of Academy Snobbery:

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Dead or alive, nobody's going to win a Best Actor for a genre film.

A dose of reality for your morning coffee...

[absinthe-dot-ca.livejournal.com]

My understanding (and I can't find the reference at the moment) is that, while the Academy may not always have much trouble nominating dead actors, the odds of a dead actor actually winning are pretty low.

And, as pointed out above, the odds of a "genre" film winning for something besides special effects are pretty damn low too.

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

It would seem really smarmy and fake if they nominated an actor from a genre film just because he had died and it was his last role. Was it good enough that he'd have been nominated under normal circumstances (i.e. if he were still alive)?

[creativedv8tion.livejournal.com]

Smarmy and fake? well, that never happens in the Oscars, so I guess that solves that.

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

My point exactly, sort of.

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

There was me, and I vote no. I'm sorry the poor fellow passed away, and I feel very sorry for his daughter, but I wasn't that enthralled with his performance.

[michaelgorman.net (from livejournal.com)]

There was Peter Finch who won the Oscar with Network. However that was a 'serious' film with Sidney Lumet at the helm, who already had two Oscar nominations for best director prior to it. It was a prestige film.

I may have said even in my own review that Ledger deserved an Oscar for the Joker, but upon retrospection his character doesn't exactly have an arc. He's like Emperor Palpatine. Just flat out bad. Aaron Eckhart's Dent is more likely or at least deserving of an Oscar since his performance actually went places, going from White-Night to Two Face.

Also most people having these discussions forget we haven't even gotten to the Oscar movie season yet. If anyone remembers Road to Perdition it got screwed up out of many awards because A. It was based on a graphic novel and B. It was released in the Summer. Most Oscar voters suffer from severe alzeimers, so forgive them if they forget every movie released prior to September.

I don't think it's impossible for genre movies to win Oscars, just look at Titanic(disaster movie with a poorly written love story) and Return of the King. Mind you Return of the King did not get a single nomination for acting. They tried to get Gollum a nomination... and he had a personal arc.

If only they had said that the Joker was retarded then he'd be a shoo-in.

[ladystarstruck.livejournal.com]

I kind of look at it along the lines of how whoever got to be the most outlandish (often Malkavians) during LARP usually got the roleplaying vote at the end of the night. Then when you look more closely and analyze it, it wasn't necessarily good roleplaying/acting, it was just the opportunity to be over the top and abnormal.

Anyways, can't see a comic book movie getting nominated for much in the way of acting. Just doesn't happen.

[gurudata.livejournal.com]

Hiho,

I don't know anyone who has seen the film who hasn't loved his portrayal of the Joker

*Andrew raises his hand*

Heck, I thought the guy playing Dent gave a way better performance.

Cu,
Andrew