Yes, I'm glad that Heath Ledger won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his knock-out performance as the Joker. But there's a basic problem with the Academy Awards that this New York Times article points out:"Still, all the showmanship seemed only to highlight the basic challenge of a ceremony whose producers were hoping to capitalize on movies’ strong commercial appeal: The best picture candidates — The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader and Slumdog Millionaire — altogether had fewer than half the viewers of The Dark Knight, an audience favorite that was praised by many critics but still did not make the cut."
Why would the Oscars snub a critically acclaimed film like The Dark Knight? Just because the powers that be can't stomach comic book stories? Heck, we're lucky the Oscars finally acknowledged The Lord of the Rings, a trilogy of--gasp!--fantasy movies, based on Tolkien's classic books.
I'm not railing against the movies that were nominated. I'm just saying that the folks who pick the nominees for Best Picture might want to broaden their minds...
