Dark Knight Review: Part II
Once again, I chose to do this in two parts to separate the hype and truth, enjoy!
The Dark Knight Review, Part II: Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger, was for all points and purposes, a great actor. A lot of people seem to wonder where all this fanaticism comes from, and most of those people only know him from "10 things I Hate About You" and "Brokeback Mountain", with a bit of "Knights Tale" thrown in for good measure. What these people dont realize is he has been in no less then 20 films. For such a short career, this is astounding, especially considering not a single one has had a metacritic/rotton tomatoe meter rating less then 75%. This means his work ranges from b- material, to a+.
But is that what we are really here to talk about? In a sense, yes. When speaking of Ledgers portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight, you cant help but draw allusions to his past work, and his ability as an actor. This movie was at the same time a departure, and good bedfellow to his then current body of work. He has played daring roles (most notably of course Brokeback Mountains Ennis DelMarr), while at the same time triveal but good roles. Eclectic is probably the best way to explain it.
This of course, coupled with Americas latent homophobia, is why the casting announcment of Ledger was initially jeered, and met with much bruhaha. I am extremely pleased to say though, naysayers were wrong. Dead wrong in fact. Never has anyone dared to portray a pulp icon in such a daring, different, and subversivly comic way.
Gone are the days of Ceaser Romeros cackling trickster. Done away with is the subversive clown ala Jack Nicholson. Dashed to peices is the dark, yet jokey vocal talents of Mark Hamill. In leu we are treated with a sick, twisted, dark image of a shattered man. Its like being a circus fun house, except all the mirrors are broken and bleeding, and its in the head of Heath Ledger.
Now, we cant chalk all the Joker up to Ledger. Of course there is the Nolan Brothers writing in play here. But, like any good writing, in the wrong hands this could have been a disaster. Fan front runners ran the likes of Robin Williams, all the way to Crispin Glover. While I admit, I was personally gunning for glover, I realize now that he would have failed miserably at this portrayal. Glover would have worked well with a brooding, criminal mastermind Joker, ala Batman the Animated Series. Williams would have hammed it up too much, coming off as a cross of Mrs. Doubtfire and One Hour Photo.
In the end, the Nolans saw what many are now begining to see: A talented actor who was unfortunatly typecast as a teen hearthrob in american hearts. Sure, he played a gay cowboy, but in the end Ledger was more known for "10 Things" and "knights tale" here in the states. Like Anthony Perkins before him, he dashed his image to take on a dark role so against his grain. In the end though, unfortunatly, this would be one of the reasons behind his unfortunate demise.
Dont worry reader, I wont go into any of his death details, for that is not why we are here. We are here to examine his portrayal of a beloved psychotic american icon.
The Joker
When most people think of the Joker, they think of one of two things: Mark Hamills wonderful portrayal of him in Batman the Animated Series, and Jack Nicholson in Tim Burtons Batman. Now, as far as BTAS goes, Hamill was brilliant. He came across as a trickster, and a complete madman, and had fun doing it. Before Ledger, this in my opinion, was the darkest portrayal of the joker on film to date.
When it comes to Nicholson, I really feel he dropped the ball. Now, I am probably going to get some hate mail for this one...but seriously folks. Jack Nicholson really phoned it in. He played himself. I repeat: HIMSELF, just with more cake makeup. Watch "one flew over the cuckoos nest", "The Shining", and "As Good As It Gets" you will see what I mean. As a whole, I dont even really enjoy the Burton series as Batman films to begin with. They evoke a feeling more 'burtony' then 'batmany', so as Burton films they are great, as Batman films they are so so.
Through all this though, burst our hero Heath. I remember reading about how he took cues from Johnny Rotton, and "A Clockwork Orange" and thinking, "are they mad?". To me, the Joker was always a trickster at heart, a trickster with a penchant for violence. Luckily, when I walked out of the theater that opening night, I wasent dissapointed.
Ledger portrays him as a trickster, with a penchant for violence. Yet, with the script, they allude to why he is like this. Not so much in origin, but in motive. Much screen time is spent debating what drives a man so mad that he would put a city under seige just to give one man a bad day. Though, in the end, so much is left unexplained, and this is a good thing. It allows you to place in what you feel about the character in all the blank spots.
His trickster attitude is shown in scene after scene, as he cracks witty, yet blue humor. When he 'performs a magic trick' by sticking a pencil in a table and slamming somones eyeball into it to make it 'dissapear'. This subversive and sick humor is the epitome of 'trickster without a cause', and is played quite well by ledger. Even the characteristic laugh is nailed, albeit skewed in a direction distinctly dark.
Dark should be a word in your head by now. From the title, to almost every review, its a word making the rounds quite heavily these days. And for good reason. As much of a trickster as I was just praising him to be, he is in equal parts a dark and villanous psychopath. A madman driven by god knows what motive to show the world that insanity is what they are already living in. He lives on a fringe reality, where the world around him is going insane, and the sane are just too boring.
In the end, how is it all pulled off? Amazingly well. From his half assed, always running makeup, to his grimy hair and scars, Ledger shines. Shines in a black light sort of way though, in that he is good, but illuminaates things we didint want to see. Or did we? We are left guessing if the uncomfortable feeling we have is because we hate him so much (a good thing seeing as hes the villain), or agree with him in theory (another good thing since a film like this is meant to make us question our morals).
I think though, the ultimate testiment to Ledger is that when I went to sleep that night I awoke in a cold sweat from a nightmare about being kidnapped by his version of the Joker. I was afraid of him. I was not laughing. And all that kept running through my head was "Why so serious?"
In Memorium: Heath Andrew Ledger (April 4, 1979 - January 22, 2008)
"What happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object"
ONCE AGAIN, SPELLING IS ATROCIOUS I KNOW.
The Dark Knight Review, Part II: Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger, was for all points and purposes, a great actor. A lot of people seem to wonder where all this fanaticism comes from, and most of those people only know him from "10 things I Hate About You" and "Brokeback Mountain", with a bit of "Knights Tale" thrown in for good measure. What these people dont realize is he has been in no less then 20 films. For such a short career, this is astounding, especially considering not a single one has had a metacritic/rotton tomatoe meter rating less then 75%. This means his work ranges from b- material, to a+.
But is that what we are really here to talk about? In a sense, yes. When speaking of Ledgers portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight, you cant help but draw allusions to his past work, and his ability as an actor. This movie was at the same time a departure, and good bedfellow to his then current body of work. He has played daring roles (most notably of course Brokeback Mountains Ennis DelMarr), while at the same time triveal but good roles. Eclectic is probably the best way to explain it.
This of course, coupled with Americas latent homophobia, is why the casting announcment of Ledger was initially jeered, and met with much bruhaha. I am extremely pleased to say though, naysayers were wrong. Dead wrong in fact. Never has anyone dared to portray a pulp icon in such a daring, different, and subversivly comic way.
Gone are the days of Ceaser Romeros cackling trickster. Done away with is the subversive clown ala Jack Nicholson. Dashed to peices is the dark, yet jokey vocal talents of Mark Hamill. In leu we are treated with a sick, twisted, dark image of a shattered man. Its like being a circus fun house, except all the mirrors are broken and bleeding, and its in the head of Heath Ledger.
Now, we cant chalk all the Joker up to Ledger. Of course there is the Nolan Brothers writing in play here. But, like any good writing, in the wrong hands this could have been a disaster. Fan front runners ran the likes of Robin Williams, all the way to Crispin Glover. While I admit, I was personally gunning for glover, I realize now that he would have failed miserably at this portrayal. Glover would have worked well with a brooding, criminal mastermind Joker, ala Batman the Animated Series. Williams would have hammed it up too much, coming off as a cross of Mrs. Doubtfire and One Hour Photo.
In the end, the Nolans saw what many are now begining to see: A talented actor who was unfortunatly typecast as a teen hearthrob in american hearts. Sure, he played a gay cowboy, but in the end Ledger was more known for "10 Things" and "knights tale" here in the states. Like Anthony Perkins before him, he dashed his image to take on a dark role so against his grain. In the end though, unfortunatly, this would be one of the reasons behind his unfortunate demise.
Dont worry reader, I wont go into any of his death details, for that is not why we are here. We are here to examine his portrayal of a beloved psychotic american icon.
The Joker
When most people think of the Joker, they think of one of two things: Mark Hamills wonderful portrayal of him in Batman the Animated Series, and Jack Nicholson in Tim Burtons Batman. Now, as far as BTAS goes, Hamill was brilliant. He came across as a trickster, and a complete madman, and had fun doing it. Before Ledger, this in my opinion, was the darkest portrayal of the joker on film to date.
When it comes to Nicholson, I really feel he dropped the ball. Now, I am probably going to get some hate mail for this one...but seriously folks. Jack Nicholson really phoned it in. He played himself. I repeat: HIMSELF, just with more cake makeup. Watch "one flew over the cuckoos nest", "The Shining", and "As Good As It Gets" you will see what I mean. As a whole, I dont even really enjoy the Burton series as Batman films to begin with. They evoke a feeling more 'burtony' then 'batmany', so as Burton films they are great, as Batman films they are so so.
Through all this though, burst our hero Heath. I remember reading about how he took cues from Johnny Rotton, and "A Clockwork Orange" and thinking, "are they mad?". To me, the Joker was always a trickster at heart, a trickster with a penchant for violence. Luckily, when I walked out of the theater that opening night, I wasent dissapointed.
Ledger portrays him as a trickster, with a penchant for violence. Yet, with the script, they allude to why he is like this. Not so much in origin, but in motive. Much screen time is spent debating what drives a man so mad that he would put a city under seige just to give one man a bad day. Though, in the end, so much is left unexplained, and this is a good thing. It allows you to place in what you feel about the character in all the blank spots.
His trickster attitude is shown in scene after scene, as he cracks witty, yet blue humor. When he 'performs a magic trick' by sticking a pencil in a table and slamming somones eyeball into it to make it 'dissapear'. This subversive and sick humor is the epitome of 'trickster without a cause', and is played quite well by ledger. Even the characteristic laugh is nailed, albeit skewed in a direction distinctly dark.
Dark should be a word in your head by now. From the title, to almost every review, its a word making the rounds quite heavily these days. And for good reason. As much of a trickster as I was just praising him to be, he is in equal parts a dark and villanous psychopath. A madman driven by god knows what motive to show the world that insanity is what they are already living in. He lives on a fringe reality, where the world around him is going insane, and the sane are just too boring.
In the end, how is it all pulled off? Amazingly well. From his half assed, always running makeup, to his grimy hair and scars, Ledger shines. Shines in a black light sort of way though, in that he is good, but illuminaates things we didint want to see. Or did we? We are left guessing if the uncomfortable feeling we have is because we hate him so much (a good thing seeing as hes the villain), or agree with him in theory (another good thing since a film like this is meant to make us question our morals).
I think though, the ultimate testiment to Ledger is that when I went to sleep that night I awoke in a cold sweat from a nightmare about being kidnapped by his version of the Joker. I was afraid of him. I was not laughing. And all that kept running through my head was "Why so serious?"
In Memorium: Heath Andrew Ledger (April 4, 1979 - January 22, 2008)
"What happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object"
ONCE AGAIN, SPELLING IS ATROCIOUS I KNOW.