Wow! What a great, exciting movie! I really loved Batman Begins, the first Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale Batman movie. And this one completely lived up to my expectations.
Finally, the re-invented Batman of Frank Miller’s comic book mini-series The Dark Knight Returns comes to life on the big screen. While Frank Miller doesn’t get any credit for this movie, Batman Begins, or the original Tim Burton films Batman, and Batman Returns, without Frank Miller these movies and the character we all now think of as Batman would not exist. Frank Miller (creator and visionary behind the very stylistic movies Sin City, 300, and the up-coming Watchmen) redefined the character of Batman in the mid 80s as a “darker” more sinister super-hero. He turned up the realism for the character and turned Gotham City into a gritty, mad-house over-run with crime. This wasn’t the almost-slapstick, KA-POW Batman from that TV show in the 60s that everyone my age loved so much as children.
Frank Miller’s new Batman was a huge success and changed comic books forever. His new vision of Batman was the inspiration behind Tim Burton Batman, and Batman Returns movies. Burton’s villains were embarrassingly comic – no pun intended, Batman was just a bit moody and just not “dark” enough to live up to Miller’s vision. Don’t get me wrong, at the time, I really liked the first Batman movie and, well, Michelle Pfeiffer in a cat-suit really helped me overlook the flaws in the second movie. (Let’s not mention the other Batman movies. They were just horrible and unwatchable).
The Dark Knight was everything I was hoping for in a sequel and stayed true to the dirty nasty world they created in Batman Begins. As much as I love Christian Bale as an actor and his portrayal of Batman, the real star of the film is Heath Ledger. What an incredible performance! When Jack Nicholson played the character I thought he was incredible – and I told my parent’s at the time that, regardless of all his other movies, his many awards and accolades, that this, The Joker, was the role he was born to play (okay, looking back, I admit, that was a little overly enthusiastic!). But what Heath Ledger did with the character was so much more. More real. And well, more – insane.
This version of the Joker isn’t an over-the-top villain from a comic book. He’s a driven extremist. An anarchist with a vision. A madman, and a real person. It made me start to think Nicholson’s performance in a new light. Quite frankly he put Nicholson to shame. While watching this movie, I realized I was starting to compare Nicholson’s Joker more and more to performance of Cesar Romero in the original 1960s TV show, and less as a portrayal of a real, flawed, scary human being.
Ledger did something with his tongue while playing the Joker that was so subtle that I kept asking myself, “Was that his tongue?” Normally, I really hate it when an actor will use his tongue to convey insanity. The insane people I know aren’t so considerate to declare themselves to the entire world by sticking out their tongue every now and then during normal speech. You have look for other clues about their madness.
Ledger’s tongue was subtle and the rest of his performance was thoroughly convincing and entertaining. I don’t know if a dead person can win an Oscar, but I think he should certainly be considered.
And I really wasn’t a big fan of Heath Ledger before this movie. I liked him in The Patriot and thought he was pretty good in Brokeback Mountain. Yes, guys, I saw Brokeback Mountain – in the theatre no less. Grow-up! I’m an adult and I love movies. That wasn’t the first gay love story I’ve watched. It certainly wasn’t the best, the most graphic (my memory of Wong Kar Wai’s Happy Together seems much more graphic - but I could be wrong about that), or the most romantic (I thought John Hurt’s troubled performance in Love and Death on Long Island was so much more romantic). In fact, Brokeback Mountain wasn’t very romantic at all – in spite of what all the critics said at the time. It was okay. It didn’t nearly live up to all the hype and attention it received.
It’s an awful shame that we won’t get to see more of Heath Ledger as the Joker.
“Some men aren't looking for anything logical. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
- Michael Caine playing the character Alfred Pennyworth in the film The Dark Knight, speaking about The Joker
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