WEST POINT — Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy announced their nominees for the annual Cadet Choice Award, a nod to the movie character that best exemplifies West Point leadership.
The 4,400 members of the Corps of Cadets will vote for a winner and announce their choice next month. The recipient’s cast and crew will get an invite to West Point and a Tarbucket – the tall, feather-plumed, black and gold hat cadets wear during parades.
“We understand the cultural power of movies, here and abroad,” said cadet Cristin Browne. “And this award, from America’s future leaders, is a statement about what constitutes the best in character and leadership as presented by America’s leading exporters of popular culture.”
The nominees are:
Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) - THE DARK KNIGHT
Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) - VALKYRIE
Dr. Henry Walton “Indiana” Jones, Jr. (Harrison Ford) - INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
Harvey Milk* (Sean Penn) - MILK
James Bond (Daniel Craig) - QUANTUM OF SOLACE
John Hancock (Will Smith) - HANCOCK
This is Smith’s second “Academy” award nomination. He won last year for his role as Dr. Robert Neville, an Army virologist who devotes his life to curing a zombie-making plague in the blockbuster “I Am Legend.”
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090116/NEWS/90116073
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*=Anyone else surprised by that one? So yes, West Point which produces the future offciers of our Army, nominates a movie about a gay civil rights leader as "that best exemplifies West Point leadership."
Also liked the Cruise nomination, though I wonder if he got it simply because he was the only major Army officer hero/character in 2008 cinema.
