Last nightI was part of the thousands that flocked to go see the final and greatest chapter in Heath Ledgers career. Instead of spending the rest of my day texting all of the people in my massive phone book, I decided to share my joy and sorrow with you all. I have been counting down the days to see this movie, and the movie did NOT disappoint.
The blogs I have read in the past about the intro to the Joker all said the same thing…it shows how dangerous and chaotic the character is. I am not going to spend a massive amount of time praising Ledger’s performance…yet.
When the movie opens, Gotham is still in a state of disarray. Criminals are being criminals and Batman (wonderfully portrayed by Christian Bale as he reprises his role) is being imitated by others and his role in the city clean up is questioned by the public. Harvey Dent (brought to life by actor Aaron Eckhart) is the new District Attorney for Gotham and he wants to get Commissioner Gordon (lovingly portrayed by Gary Oldman) to get him closer to Batman…which ends up being the ultimate downfall for Dent, the “White Knight” of Gotham. Enter the Joker, riding on the wave of hate and fear the underworld has for Batman (oh, and watch out for Joker’s “killer” magic pen trick). Joker convinces the bosses of the underworld to allow him to take on the Batman.
This movie was beautifully written and the story was beautifully translated to the big screen. One of the hardest things to do is to translate a comic book or video game based story to the big screen, and this team did it flawlessly. The cast was on point…which leads me to the sad irony of the Joker.
Most people know that Joker is Batman’s biggest foe. Joker represents chaos (wonderfully detailed in the line “I am like a dog chasing a car, I wouldn’t know what to do with it if I caught it…I just need to chase the thing”) and Batman represents order by “extreme sacrifice”. The Joker feeds off the reaction to his chaotic actions, and everyone in Gotham is a victim of their own instinct. The most fitting line in the movie is “You never truly know who a person is, until the very end” Joker stated this in reference to the final moments in a person’s life. In this film we saw a man at the height of his career, playing the role that will make people truly see how much of an epic performer he was.
The writers have to come up with a way to fill the void of the Joker…which is a really big one after seeing this movie. Every time Ledger was on screen, the entire theater stood still and watched every movement this man made. The Joker was not portrayed as over the top…he had the menacing calm psychotic behavior the Joker was initially written with. The Joker portrayed here could skip through Armageddon, and enjoy every bit of it.
The most intriguing character after the Joker is Harvey Dent. People who know who he is watches that character the same way Batman does to make sure he is truly committed to cleaning up their city. Dent’s “White Knight” persona was crudely and tragically knocked off his horse in a way that would change any person.
This movie lived up to the hype.
