I still can't get over Roger Deakins not having won a gold trophy that, in the grand scheme, only gives the owner as much satisfaction as said owner wishes it to give. One of the great modern era cinematographers, who has never been so much as spooked by the rise of new technology, techniques, or forms of moviemaking.
Roger Deakins recently won the ASC award for Cinematography, and the popular (and righteous) hope is that he'll finally win a long-deserved Oscar for Skyfall. What he does is one of the many under-recognized, delicate, and important jobs in cinema.
If you don't follow cinematographers or Deakins and need reference, here are nine movies that he's lit/shot/improved by touching: The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, Kundun, O Brother Where Art Thou, The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country for Old Men, The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford, The Reader, and True Grit.
These are also the nine movies for which he was nominated (and didn't win) the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. There are loads of other great examples of his work listed on his IMDb page.
Skyfall is very, very good, and is also the perfect Bond feature to roll out in commemorating the film franchise's Diamond Jubilee. It is not a perfect movie, nor one without weird flaws (also a Bond trademark), but following Quantum of Solace, I get why people act like it's the greatest thing in the history of action cinema.
