Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sarbonn]

By now, most of the world knows Heath Ledger won the supporting-actor Academy Award for his portrayal of the Joker in the blockbuster "The Dark Knight." Ever since his overdose of prescription drugs last year, the hype behind Ledger's portrayal had all but guaranteed his receipt of the Oscar. It was such a given that if he had not won, I could imagine large groups of people in "Knight's Tale" garb marching on the battlements of Academy Awards Headquarters and reinacting the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England.

So, I guess you're anxiously anticipating my agreement or disagreement with this decision, like a television junky waiting on another episode of a show cancelled for lack of ratings. Well, unlike the networks, I am not here to disappoint. Just to confuse.

You see, I think he definitely deserved the Academy Award but like John Kerry who was for it before he was against it, I also think he shouldn't have received it. I know it's blasphemous to say this, but if he never died, I doubt the Academy ever would have taken him seriously.

Unfortunately, that's how the Academy is every year. Remember Lord of the Rings? How about Star Wars or any other superhero movie or animated film?

Let's start with the obvious, Lord of the Rings, which received practically every Oscar it was nominated for after its third installment. Not one actor, actress, supporting actor or actress was even nominated. So many great performances. No recognition. Rewind two years to the first installment when Sir Ian McKellan was nominated for his brilliant portrayal as Gandalf. Instead, the award was won by Jim Broadbent in "Iris". To completely rub it in that year, the best original song should have been Enya's "May It Be" from Lord of the Rings, if not for the fact that Enya had to write the verses in actual Elvish. Instead, Randy Newman got it as one of those "we really should have awarded you years ago" nods for "If I Didn't Have You" from "Monsters, Inc.", a song I should point out that was sung at the Academy Awards by wannabe Muppets.

Star Wars? Special effects, good. Music, good. Costumes and make-up, good. Real movie awards? Sorry, the Academy doesn't reward science fiction.

Put up any superhero film, and the Academy scoffs at it. You can get one of the techie awards, but none of the serious ones.

Animated films? That Wall-E was not even considered in anything but the children's table is a sign of this process.

Which brings me back to superhero films. No one ever takes them seriously. That Heath Ledger was even nominated was amazing until you actually start to think about what happened.

I'd be willing to argue that Ledger might have received the nomination, but it was his death that cemented his award. And I completely understand those who disagree with me, saying he would have deserved it anyway. And I agree with them. But I also don't think he would have won. He would have achieved popular support from rabid fans, but little to no recognition from the Academy.

Before his death, I heard almost nothing about Ledger's Joker. There were a few comments here and there, but when he died a word of mouth campaign began that argued how great of a portrayal he had made. I watched the movie. He was that great. But how great he was perceived was a direct result of the word of mouth campaign that never abated. I personally believe a lot of the traffic that made its way to see this movie was because of the hype behind Ledger. The rest of the actors were great, too, but you heard nothing about them. Everything has been about Ledger.

So what does any of this have to do with politics, as is hinted at in this article's title? The answer is: Everything.

One of my major pet peeves with political science is the usage of bad science. The type of bad science I'm talking about here is where the "scientists" knows the results of a social phenomenon and then backtracks to pretend that outcome was predictive. They do it all of the time, and it drives me nuts. It's like watching the dollar drop 15% of its value and then writing a predictive paper that indicates that a year ago you could predict the dollar would drop 15%. No, you couldn't. You're armed with knowledge of the present that wasn't available in the past. It's the weakest type of science there is: Predicting what already happened. I like to call this process projective recollections. No, no one else calls it that, mainly because they generally don't have a problem with the situation.

Which brings me back to Heath Ledger. People say he would have won the Oscar regardless of whether or not he died. That is a projective recollection. He won, so therefore lazy scientists predict he would win based on already knowing he did.

But we're dealing with untested variables here. What if he had not died? Would word of mouth have spread? Would people have cared as much as they did about Ledger winning? Would the Academy award a still-living actor with their highest achievement for playing a comic book supervillain? It didn't happen for the many fine actors before him. And it didn't happen for Jack Nicholson, who played the exact same part as Ledger in a role that critics defined as one only Jack Nicholson could ever play.

It should at least give one reason to think.

[aquaponics08]

Who gives a rat's ass about the garbage coming out of Hollywood?!? It's a shame the big one hasn't hit there!

[Hater Depot]

Have you just started paying attention the Oscars or something? It's been obvious for a very long time that the Academy exists not to recognize good movies in general, but only certain kinds of movies, most of which are good but some of which aren't.

[NoExplode]

[pkang0202]

Ledger won the award because he died. You are right. If Ledger had still lived, he would've been nominated but would've never run.


I, for one, have no idea how Slumdog Millionaire won so many Oscars. I thought the movie sucked.

[panthermodern]

[Chuvok]

Hmmmm.... I didn't even realise it was Heath Ledger who played the Joker.

http://s25.photobucket.com/albums/c92/legiwen/?action=view&current=heath-ledger-dead-02.jpg

[Ya-ta Boy]

Ever since reading this post I've wondered what the difference is between your lable and 'Monday morning quarterbacking' and 'hindsight is always 20/20' is.

[Chet Wautlands]

.... Heath Ledger... won an award for a film....
film... created over 2000 years ago... just like Jesus....
Jesus... gave birth to Christianity and the Muslamic religion...
Muslamics.... Muslamics..... 9/11!!!!

[Ya-ta Boy]

You shouldn't post when drunk, Chet.