Roger Deakins Finally Gets His Due

One of the highlights of the 90th Academy Awards was cinematographer Roger Deakins finally winning his first Oscar after 14 nominations. Possibly the greatest cinematographer of our time had to sit through 12 previous ceremonies (he was nominated twice in 2007) and graciously applaud his rivals while seething on the inside. Yet, finally in 2017 he was able to photograph a film worthy of being a winner and that movie was Blade Runner 2049, which so far has been my favorite of the year.

I was curious what films Deakins worked to garner his previous nominations and what movies he lost out to. Here is a list of Deakins movies that earned a nomination and the men that ended up besting him.

1994

Deakins: The Shawshank Redemption

Winner: John Toll – Legends of the Fall

1996

Deakins: Fargo

Winner: John Seale – The English Patient

1997

Deakins: Kundun

Winner: Russell Carpenter – Titanic

2000

Deakins: O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Winner: Peter Pau – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

2007

Deakins: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and No Country for Old Men

Winner: Robert Elswit – There Will Be Blood

2008

Deakins: The Reader

Winner: Anthony Dod Mantle – Slumdog Millionaire

2010

Deakins: True Grit

Winner: Wally Pfister – Inception

2012

Deakins: Skyfall

Winner: Claudio Miranda – Life of Pi

2013

Deakins: Prisoners

Winner: Emmanuel Lubezki – Gravity

2014

Deakins: Unbroken

Winner: Emmanuel Lubezki – Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

2015

Deakins: Sicario

Winner: Emmanuel Lubezki – The Revenant

It's a shame Deakins didn't win for several of these movies as they are beautifully shot. And it was especially upsetting that Skyfall didn't get it for him, but that is being a James Bond homer.

Tidbits And Updates

Things have been quite busy lately with being short-staffed at work due to people being on vacation last week and my middle child, Jackson, starting tee-ball last weekend. His first game went much better than I was expecting. The horrific ideas I had going into it was that the team of 5-, 6-, and 7-year-olds would not know which way to run when, or even if, they hit the ball, no outs would ever come close to being made and it would be a cluster bomb of errors. It ended up being mostly that, but more manageable than I had foreseen happening.

Joanna got a new car a few weeks ago. She has needed a new car for awhile now, but we kept putting it off. I was hoping we would make it about another year before needing to make that purchase, however, the time was upon us and we found a good deal on what she had been eyeing. The impetus for buying the new car was that her registration/inspection was up and we were sure the Acura wouldn't pass. Not wanting to drop hundreds of dollars on the needed repairs to get her car to a passing grade, I elected to bite the bullet and get a new car instead. She now is driving around in a 2014 Honda Pilot, which the kids have christened Connie, that has all the amenities she was wanting, which included navigation system, heated seats, and DVD player (which I'm on record as still being against).

The 2018 baseball season begins in eight days. Joanna and I are doing our normal routine of taking the day off and watching the Texas Rangers season opener from home. We normally have an us day with breakfast at La Madeleine and sometimes catching a movie before first pitch. Occasionally, if the weather is permitting, I will play a round of disc golf as well. This year Jack says he wants to watch the game also, since he is getting into baseball a little bit more after playing his first tee-ball game. I'm normally not a fan of pulling a kid out of school for frivolous reasons, but I really love baseball and if it gets Jack motivated to play outside more then I am onboard with an early dismissal to watch the season opener.

Joanna and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary yesterday. I surprised her with flowers at her office. I don't get her flowers very often and it normally has to be some kind of special occasion when I do it. I have a big surprise in store for next year, but I haven't told many what it is and I still don't know all the details yet. It is driving Joanna crazy that I won't tell her what it is. I figure once I have ironed out all the details and we get closer to the actual event, then I will tell her.

I guess that is about it. Nothing too exciting really going on. Hopefully I have something of more relevance in the near future to write about. Until next time.