Christopher Nolan had himself one hell of a night on Sunday. His box office megahit Oppenheimer rightly took home seven Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Score, and Best Cinematography. I think I read that it’s also the highest-grossing film to win the Best Picture award since Return of the King. That’s quite the stat.
Oppenheimer was my favorite film of the year. Nolan’s incredible knack for filmmaking transformed what could have been another dry biography into an intense drama that explores mankind’s panache for self-destruction. Numerous views at home have only cemented my fondness for the immense production, and I’m curious to see how it settles into the cinematic landscape in the coming years. Will it be listed in one of those “Films That Shouldn’t Have Won Best Picture” articles, or will it go on to become a renowned classic studied by future filmmakers? Time will tell.
I don’t mean to dump rain on Nolan’s fire, but I did have an interesting thought this weekend—they happen from time to time and occasionally result in great things. My thought was this: would Dune: Part Two have dominated the Oscars had it been released as originally intended in November?
A little context: I love Dune: Part Two. I’ve seen it a few times and believe it to be a cinematic marvel in line with Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings. Like Oppenheimer, we need to pump the breaks on granting Denis Villeneuve’s epic “classic” or “masterpiece” status. Still, I might have named it my favorite film of 2023 had I seen it last fall. Of course, a pair of Hollywood strikes forced Warner Bros. to bump the release date, which more or less gave Oppenheimer a clear path to success.
I won’t belittle either film and tout one as better. Suffice it to say that Dune: Part Two is really good. Spectacular even. Audiences seem to agree, and while ticket sales may not reach Oppenheimer’s outrageous $953.8 million worldwide haul, it should finish with a sizable cume within that vicinity (give or take a few hundred million). That’s impressive for a dark, 3-hour science fiction drama based on a book written in the 60s. Remember, this isn’t pulpy, fantasy sci-fi along the lines of Star Wars. The mere fact Villeneuve was able to attract casual moviegoers to a film of this caliber speaks volumes about its quality.
So, again, would the Academy award Villeneuve over Nolan if the two films had gone head-to-head?
Consider this: the original Dune earned strong reviews, collected nearly $500M at the box office, and ran away with six statutes in 2022. Granted, the awards were primarily in technical categories—cinematography, editing, score, visual effects, production design, and sound—but it was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Clearly, the folks in charge of these award ceremonies saw Dune as more than a typical event film.
By comparison, reviews for Dune: Part Two were even better, with 93% of critics awarding the picture a favorable review on Rotten Tomatoes. Words like “masterpiece” and “spectacular” are used often. People who love Dune really love it. By all accounts, Dune: Part Two has exceeded its award-winning predecessor in every way. How does it not get rewarded for such a feat?
An argument could be made that the sequel is incomplete. Voters may have decided to await Dune: Messiah before awarding Villeneuve for his efforts, Ala Peter Jackson. Remember that Fellowship of the Ring was equally beloved by critics and audiences and won several technical awards at the Oscars. Then, The Two Towers released and blew everyone’s socks off the following year. Like Dune: Part Two, it earned more robust reviews but only two Academy Awards for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. Curiously, Jackson, who earned a nod for Fellowship, wasn’t even nominated despite working on a much grander scale on his second stint in Middle Earth.
We all know what happened next. Return of the King thundered into theaters, took all the money, and headed home with 11 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Some found fault in awarding Jackson for what is essentially one giant motion picture, but how do you not reward the man who successfully brought Middle Earth to the masses? He turned a fantasy book for nerds into a crowd-pleasing spectacle unlike anything we’d ever seen and arguably made the most remarkable cinematic trilogy ever.
Similarly, Villeneuve molded Frank Herbert’s Dune, which had been relegated to a cheesy 80s flick and a terrible Sci-Fi Channel miniseries, into an accessible piece of pop culture entertainment that manages to retain (most of) the book’s deeper themes and intellect. That’s hard to do.
The Academy would have had to choose between the dark and tragic true story about the man who invented the atomic bomb and a dark and tragic sci-tale about a messianic tyrant who mercilessly unleashes atomic bombs on his enemies.
What would’ve happened?
We’ll never know how this matchup might’ve played out, but it does present an interesting discussion — for dorks like me, at least. My guess is Nolan still collects his first Oscar. Voters would have been sympathetic to his lack of recognition over the years for films like The Dark Knight, Inception, and Dunkirk. The man changed cinema, folks. That can’t be ignored.
Oppenheimer still wins the big prizes, while Dune sweeps the technical categories, including cinematography and score. Then, everyone holds their breath and waits to see if Villeneuve, like Jackson, sticks the landing when he (hopefully) returns to Arrakis in a few years.
