"Road to Perdition" (Plus: Posthumous Oscars)
Saturday, March 23, 2013 at 12:02AM 75th Annual Oscars ~ 10th Anniversary Special
On this very day 10 years ago, one of only two posthumous Oscars for the past decade in film was handed out. It went to Conrad Hall for his lensing of Road to Perdition (the other was Heath Ledger's). So here's one from the vaults since we did a Hit Me With Your Best Shot on it just last year. If you click on these shots, deemed best by our 'hit me' club and arranged here in narrative order, you can read more about them and why they were chosen.
It's a strange symmetry that a film as funereal as Road to Perdition would be a member of the Posthumous Oscar wins club. Here's a list of all 13 of them:
- Sidney Howard, Adapted Screenplay - Gone With the Wind (1939)
- William A Horning, Art Direction - Gigi (1958)
- William A Horning, Art Direction - Ben Hurt (1959)
- Sam Zimbalist, Best Picture - Ben Hur (1959)
- Eric Orborn, Art Direction - Spartacus (1960)
- Walt Disney, Animated Short - Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968)
- Raymond Rasch & Larry Russell, Best Score - Limelight (1972)
- Peter Finch, Actor - Network (1976)
- Geoffrey Unsworth, Cinematography - Tess (1980)
- Howard Ashman, Best Song - "Beauty & the Beast" from Beauty & The Beast (1991)
- Thomas Goodwin, Documentary Short - Educating Peter (1992)
- Conrad Hall, Cinematography - Road to Perdition (2002)
- Heath Ledger, Supporting Actor - The Dark Knight (2008)
Art director William A Horning is the only double posthumous winner though acting legend James Dean and Disney's brilliant comeback-making composer Howard Ashman both received more than one posthumous nomination.
Reader Comments (5)
A terrific film, with great performances all-round. I wish Tom Hanks would go for more menacing roles with nuance to them like his performance here.
Howard Ashman was a lyricist. As opposed to a composer. :-)
Really underrated movie, I would still contend it is Mendes' best work. One of the first movies where it hit me that cinematography was a such a key to storytelling in movies.
I always felt Newman should have won supporting actor for this.
It is a beautiful looking film. Marisa Zanuck, the wife of the producer of the movie, Dean Zanuck, is on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. A very attractive couple.
Also, I noticed on your top ten list for 1986 that there's only nine movies, so there's plenty of room for Pretty in Pink!