Reuters North American News Service, January 22nd, 2008
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (Reuters) - "No Country For
Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood," two violent portraits of
moral decline, led the Oscar race with eight nominations each
Tuesday, but the main drama was whether a Hollywood writers
strike would cancel the awards show altogether.
The British period romance "Atonement" and the legal
thriller "Michael Clayton," both dealing in lies and deceit,
picked up seven nominations each.
All four films were nominated for best picture, along with
the quirky teen comedy "Juno," a rare showcase for levity in a
field packed with heavy material.
"These are grim pictures for grim times," said Robert
Wilonsky, movie critic with Village Voice Media and the Dallas
Observer.
Indeed, the main question in Hollywood was not who would
win the entertainment industry's most coveted awards, but
whether the ceremony would take place at all.
Hollywood has been crippled by a writers strike now in its
12th week. If the walkout is not settled by the time the awards
take place Feb. 24, the Writers Guild of America has
threatened to protest at the ceremony, and the Screen Actors
Guild vowed its members would not to cross any picket lines.
"I don't think anybody is going to go (to the Oscars
ceremony)," Oscar-nominated "Michael Clayton" writer-director
Tony Gilroy told Reuters at a union rally in New York. "It
won't be a decision I'll be taking individually. It's one of
these situations where you just don't cross a picket line, and
I think everybody knows that."
Oscar organizers insist the show will go on one way or
another as scheduled.
"No Country For Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" each got
only one acting nomination. Spanish actor Javier Bardem was
cited for his supporting role as a cool-headed killer who cuts
a random swath of destruction across small-town Texas in "No
Country For Old Men."
British actor Daniel Day-Lewis, who previously won an Oscar
for 1989's "My Left Foot," was cited for his lead role as a
misanthropic oilman in "There Will Be Blood."
Both movies were set up as co-productions between Walt
Disney Co's Miramax Films and Viacom Inc's
Paramount Vantage by producer Scott Rudin.
"No Country," directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, is a gory
meditation on slipping moral values presented within the
framework of a highly stylized chase movie.
"People are living with a certain amount of fear and don't
quite know what it means to feel safe anymore. And I think
that's really what this movie is describing," Rudin said.
Director Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood,"
while set in the early 20th century, presents two themes that
still dominate America's political life -- oil and religion,
Rudin added.
"That's a movie that deals with the collision of those two
factors in a way that has incredible contemporary resonance."
The Coen brothers, Anderson and Gilroy will compete for the
directing Oscar with two first-time Oscar nominees, Canadian
filmmaker Jason Reitman for "Juno" and American artist Julian
Schnabel for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."
Rolling Stone magazine critic Peter Travers said "No
Country For Old Men" will be "the one to beat" for best
picture. But if it splits the vote with "There Will Be Blood"
-- they will face off in six categories -- "Michael Clayton"
could take the big prize, he said.
"Michael Clayton," which stars best-actor nominee George
Clooney as a legal "fixer," also was nominated for the
supporting turns of Britons Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton.
Day-Lewis and Clooney will compete against Johnny Depp for
the musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,"
Tommy Lee Jones for the war-themed "In the Valley of Elah" and
Viggo Mortensen for the mob movie "Eastern Promises."
Australian actress Cate Blanchett received two nominations
-- for her title role as the British monarch in "Elizabeth: The
Golden Age" and for her supporting role as Bob Dylan in "I'm
Not There." Her nomination for "Elizabeth" surprised some
critics. Wilonsky said the film was "totally disposable."
The other lead-actress contenders were British veteran
Julie Christie for "Away From Her," French actress Marion
Cotillard for "La Vie en rose," Laura Linney for "The Savages"
and Canadian actress Ellen Page for "Juno."
Sean Penn's acclaimed wilderness adventure "Into the Wild"
earned just two nominations, one for veteran actor Hal
Holbrook, a first-time nominee at age 82.
(Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, and
Robert Campbell in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
