To get the idea behind this column, click here
Before I get started on dissecting 2008's Best Adapted Screenplay race, I need to make an announcement about this column. I will be temporarily suspending this column either after this edition, or maybe next week's edition. Over the last week, I have been working hard on composing my own "100 Greatest Movies" list, and once it is done, I plan on releasing ten movies at a time each week, starting with 100-91. Since this will require a bit of time, I didn't want to attempt to do ten write-ups of some of my favorite movies and continue to rank different categories in Oscar history, which is why "If I Picked the Winners" will be going on a ten week hiatus while I count down my favorite movies.
Now to the real point of this article: 2008. 2008 was an extremely disappointing year for me in terms of the Oscars (and the Super Bowl for that matter, but that discussion is better left for another blog). The main reason for my dissatisfaction with the Academy Awards in 2008 was their sinful omission of "The Dark Knight", one the decade's greatest films, in the writing, directing, and picture categories. How on earth they managed to nominate typical "Oscar bait" films like "The Reader", "Frost/Nixon", "Milk", "Slumdog Millionaire", and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", but failed to nominate one of the most memorable movies in recent history is beyond me. In fact, I was so angered a movie that was so well received by the public and critics alike failed to live up to the Academy's "high-class" sensibilities, I considered boycotting the Oscars, but at the last minute I couldn't help but watch. The good part of this terrible snub was it lead the Academy to make some changes. Immediately, by the next year they expanded their Best Picture nominees to ten. The Academy felt this would make room for more movies from a variety of genres, such as action/drama films, which, with the very small sampling data of one year, has seemed to work so far.
There were more problems though with the 2008 nominees than just "The Dark Knight". A number of other good films were mostly ignored by the Academy in favor of the stereo-typical films mentioned above. For instance,"Tropic Thunder" was one of the best comedies of the last decade in my book, but since the Academy has a perpetual bias against movies that make you laugh, it was not too surprising it did not get a Best Picture nomination. What was more surprising, was that three really good dramatic films, "Gran Torino", "Doubt", and "The Wrestler", failed to secure a Best Picture nomination, but garbage like "Frost/Nixon" did. What can I say, that's the Academy for you. Oh well, on to ranking the nominees.
