The Dark Knight is a sensation – the second-biggest movie of all time and easily the best film about a gimp punching a clown ever.
So, come Oscar night, you’d expect that The Dark Knight would wipe the floor with the competition – especially since the competition seems to be a million underperforming films about gloomy people from 35 years ago – but you’re wrong.
It’s just been announced that The Dark Knight can’t win the Oscar for Best Score because it was composed by too many people. That’ll be disappointing for the crew of The Dark Knight, but they’ll get over it – not least because the 2009 Oscars will introduce categories for Best Irredeemably Bleak Summer Movie and Silliest And Most Indecipherable Voice Employed By A Lead Actor, which The Dark Knight is already a dead cert for.
Even before it was released, there was a heavy Oscar buzz surrounding The Dark Knight, and it was all down to Heath Ledger. By a) giving possibly the performance of his life as The Joker and b) dying young, Heath Ledger was guaranteed at least a nomination for Best Supporting Actor from the get-go.
But then The Dark Knight was released, and it seemed like Best Supporting Actor would be the tip of the iceberg. The script was dark and thematically complex, the cinematography was brave and experimental, the box office numbers were galactic, the costumes were pretty and – most importantly for Oscar voters – the film went on for about an hour longer than it should have done and featured endless scenes of a frowning man gazing into the middle distance.
To the casual observer, it looked as though The Dark Knight would win every single Oscar that it put itself in for, but already that’s not the case. The bleak, creepy score for The Dark Knight has been ruled ineligible for the Oscars, and it’s all thanks to the number of people who worked on it.
Apparently, Academy rules state that only the primary composer of a film’s score should be included on the cue sheet, but for The Dark Knight the names of everyone who added pieces of music to the score were added, and now it’s been disqualified. MTV reports:
Although the five people listed as composers on “The Dark Knight” — including Zimmer, [James Newton] Howard, music editor Alex Gibson, ambient music designer Mel Wesson and composer Lorne Balfe — signed an affidavit stating that Zimmer and Howard were the primary composers, the majority of the Academy sided against the duo’s eligibility.
Now, being disqualified from the Oscars for a minor technicality like that is bound to sting, but it’s not the end of the world for The Dark Knight. Here’s why:
1 – By adding Gibson, Balfe and Wesson to the cue sheet for The Dark Knight, Hans Zimmer has ensured that they’ll all receive royalties from the score’s use, so at least he gets the moral high ground.
2 – The Dark Knight is still pushing hard in the Best Picture category – the only Oscar that people actually care about – and at this point it’s hard to see how it could lose.
3 – Does anyone go and see a movie for the score? No they don’t. A win in this category isn’t exactly going to boost DVD sales, is it?
4 – This is the main reason. If The Dark Knight has been disqualified for entering its score into the Oscars, then it means none of it can be performed in one of those interminable musical interludes that bloat the Oscars ceremony out. And you know what that means? More avant garde performances featuring Latvian women dressed as little Dutch girls singing in a made-up language and hitting bicycles for percussion. Yay for that!
John Davis says
No doubt about it, Dark Knight was excellent and award worthy.
jess
http://www.privacy.de.tc
1234 says
Dark Knight won’t win best picture. It won’t even be nominated.
Ryan says
This isn’t the first time composers have been deterred from an Oscar nomination. The most recent example I can think of is Johnny Greenwood’s score for “There Will Be Blood” disqualified for using some pre-composed music. However, this is the first instance of disqualification for such prominent and debatably notorious names as Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard.
The workings of the film scoring industry warrant further inspection.
Kiko Martinez says
“The Dark Knight is still pushing hard in the Best Picture category – the only Oscar that people actually care about – and at this point it’s hard to see how it could lose.”
You’re being facetious with that statement right? I hope so because if you’re not you obviously don’t know anything about film or the Oscars and therefore should stop writing about the subject.
Try watching more movies and not just The Dark Knight 15 times.
Kevin Archibald says
DUnno sounds like the new Danny Boyle film will be a serious contender..
ntopics says
The Dark Knight is a great movie.
I didn’t know it scored that well
at the ticket office. Are you sure
about not winning the Oscars?
thanks from tony
Yolan says
youtube vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=763vmCrRBDg
Midla says
Dark Knight will win “Best Picture” this year. It should win at least 4 Oscars that night.
Denis says
Just watched Dark knight yesterday and the movie is so bad it doesnt even deserve to be mentioned on Oscars…
It insulted my inteligence…Scenes are just popped one after another with no cleverly logical connection to gether ~120 minutes of material and the complete story worth of one whole sentence…
And what was that about this Dent guy? He was a good guy, best thing that ever happened to the city, and than he got burned in a unrealistic way (total BS) and his girl killed and than he decides to start killing children and everything that moves????
Wasnt that insulting to you??? You guys got punked big time with this movie..Pure propaganda and advertising, complete nonsence…
Ledger played a good role and we all syphatise with him, but that does not mean you give the movie 10 out of 10..
To Denis says
I’m sorry you couldn’t wrap your mind around the excessively dark, moral symbolism of the movie. This is why it was insulting to you. Of course, it’s pretty common for things below a person’s intellectual level to be insulting.
I’d give this film an unrealistic 100/10.
scott says
@ Dennis
it insulted your intelligence? yet you can’t even write an intelligent response.
Typo says
Denis, you are an idiot.
This movie was entertaining and engaging in every way. Adapting comics to movies is no easy task, and the director did an excellent job. If you would have paid attention to the story more you would have a better idea of how Twoface came to be. Overall the movie was refreshing compared to the rest of the crap they put out like Scary Movie or the latest re-hash of a drawn out and tired franchise with too many sequels. You dont like it, you can continue to watch Scary Movie and have it shoved down your throat. I however appreciate excellent entertainment, and TDK is exactly that. You feel like your intelligence has been insulted because you have none.
gir says
Dear all of you,
You are huge faggots. Shut up.
Tom says
The Dark Knight was so shit, I barely recognised Michael Keaton and they obviously used special effects to make Jack Nicholson look so young. Utter rubbish, it doesn’t deserve to win anything IMHO.
hollowmaniac says
Maaan, Tom your balls have gotta be bigger than ur skull
stephen_king says
The Dark Knight is a supravaluated piece of shit.
It doesn’t even deserve to be mentioned at the Oscars.
booger says
When are they ever gonna get a sallow faced batman thats manorexic, uses his teeth as an upper lip to speak (bordering on a lisp)and uses a gut wrenching, painfully garbled voice when batman that actually cause people to walk out on the movie.
Will my dream ever come true.
OH OH I KNOW….what about that Bale fello or should he just stick to the type cast rolls of an impoverished, brooding, bipolar git that always looks like he needs a bath, hot meal and a nap.
who? says
I want to kick Christian Bale till he dies ever time he speaks. The movie was average at best.