Feb 23, 2008, 18:19 GMT
Los Angeles - One critic compared this year's top Oscar nominees to The Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad's devastating examination of human evil. Another advised viewers of the leading contenders to take a dose of antidepressants.
Spanish actor Javier Bardem poses for photographers after winning the award for Supporting Actor in the film "No Country for Old Men" at the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards ceremony at The Royal Opera House in London, Britain, 10 February 2008. EPA/RICHARD LEWIS
That may be a little radical for most people but there is no doubt that the most acclaimed bunch of movies in the US this year are dour downers. These are films that force their audience to confront the problems of modern life unflinchingly and, if you believe the cultural commentators, a reflection of the sorry state gripping the world's ailing superpower.
No Country For Old Men which is the leading candidate for Oscar glory with eight nominations, revolves around a maniacal killer who embarks on an inhuman revenge spree for a drug deal gone bad, leaving a trail of blood across the western US.
There Will Be Blood, a turn-of-the-century epic about a rapacious oil baron, also earned eight nominations, in a critique of the fundamental values of the capitalist entrepreneur on which the country's economic system is based.
A similar critique can be found in the legal thriller Michael Clayton, which portrays a bunch of corporate lawyers and executives throwing ethics out the window whenever they clash with profits.
Another multiple nominee is Atonement, a British World War II drama about love, betrayal and wasted lives. The final best picture nominee is Juno, about a teenager dealing with her unplanned pregnancy. Though the film does exhibit a quirky sense of comedy, it also challenges some of the most basic taboos and assumptions about teenage sex.
Need more depressing content? How about best director nominee Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a sad tale about a paralyzed French magazine editor who dictates his autobiography via eye blinks after a stroke leaves him paralyzed. Or actress nominee Ruby Dee who looks the other way in American Gangster when her palatial home is purchased with blood money?
Then there is Hal Holbrook, who is up for a best supporting actor Oscar in Sean Penn's acclaimed film Into the Wild - an elegiac tale of a disaffected youth whose sojourn into Alaska ends in an agonizing death.
It's not just the dark themes - the Oscars usually steer clear of lightweight comedies and adventure movies. It's that most of the films break the usual conventions by refusing to supply viewers with the obligatory Hollywood happy ending.
Thus the macabre Sweeney Todd offers an ending with no chance of hope, Alzheimer's drama Away From Her chronicles a woman's inevitable decline to the debilitating disease and La Vie En Rose is a melancholic biopic of Edith Piaf.
The dominance of dark themes is no surprise to Gil Cates, producer of the 80th annual Oscars. 'These are unsettled times and the films reflect that,' he said.
The screenwriters' strike, which appeared almost intractable when the Academy made its nominations, was one reason for the dour mood. But it was the wider problems at the start of a crucial election year that weighed more on Oscar voters' minds, according to Washington Post writer Robin Ghivan.
'The times give us the movies we need,' says Ghivan. 'They speak to the notion that in times of sadness the last thing one wants is a jester trying to extract a laugh. Sometimes, the best salve is a good cry.'
That theory makes a lot of sense as Americans grapple with a disastrous policy in Iraq and deep problems in Afghanistan, and as they struggle to cope with a massive housing crisis and an economy on the brink of recession.
Then there's the daily reminders of the dangers of climate change, the uncertainty of the political process and long-term worries about health care and social security.
'It's not incidental that these increasingly downbeat films come out at a time of increasing pessimism on the part of the American population,' says Christopher Sharrett, a professor of communication and film studies at Seton Hall University.
'They're interesting films anyway, but their critical reception ... and ultimately commercial reception, is really dependent on the public mood.'
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