Thu May 15, 2008 — by Rick Marshall

Heath Ledger's Oscar-Winning Performance?

Academy Award or Empty Buzz? Talk amongst yourselves...

Whenever the subject of The Dark Knight comes up, everyone seems to be asking the same question (when they're not talking about the film's viral marketing, that is): Do you think Heath Ledger will receive an Oscar post-humously?

Over at Cinematical, they've started a discussion thread on exactly that subject, and the resulting comments have been interesting, to say the least. Reader response is all over the spectrum, but I thought commenter "techstar25" summed up the debate pretty darn well:

Last year the Academy recognized the work of two brilliant actors playing two of the most heinous villains ever put to film (Javier Bardem and Daniel Day-Lewis). There is now clearly a baseline with which Ledger's Joker will be compared. How does "Joker" stack up against "Anton Chigurh" and "Daniel Plainview"? We'll see, but at least now we know that the barriers have been broken and the voters will take a second look at "the bad guy".

This subject has certainly been the topic of conversation at many a ComicMix meeting, but I'd like to throw it out there for discussion among our readers. Is Ledger a lock to take home an Academy Award, or is the entire discussion premature with the film's July 18 release still months away?

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