The best thing about this year's Oscar season is that, if The Dark Knight makes it in as a big contender, it will be propelled by the sheer power of millions and millions of fans. The unofficial For Your Consideration site DarkCampaign.com is only part of the evidence, though it's probably the best-looking one too. Some Dark Knight fans have gathered together to build a site dedicated entirely to getting Oscar nominations for what, for my money, is still one of the best movies of 2008.
The highlight is a clip reel of the movie, which we've embedded below but appears in much better quality on the site. They've picked a lot of moments that you haven't seen over and over again in the trailers-- the Joker saying "hi" to Harvey Dent in the hospital, the police scattering after the mayor is shot, Harvey threatening Gordon's family. The only part missing is the tractor-trailer flipping over, though that's a better argument for the movie's effects than its status as the best movie of 2008.
Having seen the bulk of this year's Oscar contenders (which I'll write about later today in my Oscar column), there's not much that holds a candle to The Dark Knight. The DarkCampaign guys mention 1999 as a possible precedent for this year, in which visionary movies like Fight Club, The Matrix and The Iron Giant were overlooked in favor of Oscar bait like The Green Mile. Let's not let history repeat itself! The Dark Knight deserves a Best Picture nomination, but to get there, it'll need all the help from fans it can get. Luckily, there's a whole lot of us.
