#2 - Heath Ledger
This is the Joker that won an oscar.
I don’t know if I have much to add to that. The Dark Knight came out a year and a half ago, it had one of the best Batman vs The Joker stories ever written, and it went all the way to the academy awards. Everyone I know can still talk about it with as much excitement and passion as if they had seen it only a week ago. It’s really that good.
So what do I have to say about it? What do I think about Heath Ledgers final roll? Just my own opinions I guess. With a movie so fresh and popular, a synopsis or summary is somewhat redundant. But I can tell you what I say amongst my friends. Because, after all, you’re my friends aren’t you? Of course you are.
I don’t think it was the role that killed him. Oh sure, he did read The Killing Joke, The Long Halloween, and Batman #1 so that he could get into character. And he did write a journal of all the things he thought The Joker found funny (including, among other things, dead puppies). Also, upon hearing of Heath Ledgers death, Jack Nicholson said something along the lines of “I told him so.” And the Joker saying “I think you and I are destined to do this forever” still sends chills down my spine. And he was having sleeping problems after the movie was done and he died from an overdose of sleeping pills.
But I don’t think it was the role that killed him. Scary as all those coincidences are, I think they’re nothing more than that. They’re minor little things that just happened and didn’t mean anything. They just seem like a big deal because his death was a tragic case of an amazing actor dying young at what could have very well been the high point of his career. It was even made even worse by the fact that he didn’t live to see the premier of his film and, as a result, his hard won success. When something awful like that happens, people look for meaning in it. And little things that people wouldn’t have otherwise noticed become big deals. As big of a Joker fanboy as I am, I know he’s just a fictional character. No matter how high a body count he gets in the comics, he will never be able to kill anyone in real life.
But DAMN was this Joker awesome. I mean, he was scary, creepy, funny (I stand by my statement that Joker blowing up the hospital was hilarious), action packed, twisted, and everything else. He had gangster’s Joker’s mind for crime, modern Joker’s taste for the twisted mind games, Cesar Romero’s laugh, original Joker’s talent for disguise, and so much more. Sure, he went a little overboard with the Mephistopheles temptation setups, but that’s what made this joker original (along with the makeup/outfit). I like how Doug Walker put it. “He somehow embodied every Joker before him while being something new altogether.”
And that scene when he’s standing off against the motorcycle? Yeeeeeeeees.
How about when he gave that horrifying rendition of his origin story but later gave one that completely contradicted it?
Or when he blew up the hospital?
Or when he had the movie end by making Batman wanted by the police again?
Or when he blew up the hospital?
IlovedthismovieIlovedthismovieIlovedthismovieIlovedthismovieph’ngluimglw’nafh CthulhuR’lyehIlovedthismovie
My favorite movie of the decade, followed by The Lord of the Rings. But we’ll talk about that later.
Phew, kind of went into a fanboy squee there didn’t I? Oh, by the way. Check out The Joker Blogs.
It’s a fan made series of short movies that detail the Joker’s experiences in Arkham after The Dark Knight. I talked about it in a previous blog post. I normally don’t go for fan fiction but this is some high quality stuff.
Oh, one last thing. I found out the name of that European comic I talked about in my last entry. It’s called Batman*Joker - Switch by Devin Grayson and John Bolton. Sorry about that.