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- First reviewJuly 18, 2008
- Last reviewJuly 18, 2008
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TheBestBear's Reviews
Overall rating
5
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5
PostedJuly 18, 2008
TheBestBear
from Newton, NJ
Last night, I had the privilege of making it to an opening night showing of Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight." Me and some friends of mine went the extra mile and dressed up as characters from the Batman comic book series. Walking around the theatre while people applauded us may have somewhat biased all of our opinions, but we all thoroughly enjoyed the movie. In my opinion, it is without a doubt the best superhero movie of all time. I also believe it to be the most important movie of our generation. This has nothing to do with how action-packed, how psychologically-thrilling, and, at times, how heart-wrenching it was. This has nothing to do with Christopher Nolan's superb direction. This has nothing to do with James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer's incredible score. I'm sure you see where I'm going with this by now.
On the 22nd of January, 2008, Hollywood lost one of it's best actors. I didn't realize it until seeing "The Dark Knight" how incredibly talented the late Heath Ledger really was. Heath was of a different breed of actor. When you fished out 10 bucks to see a Heath Ledger movie, you weren't paying to see Heath Ledger. You paid to see the Joker, or Ennis Del Mar, or Skip, and that's what acting is really all about. I don't want to see Jason Statham being Jason Statham, or Vince Vaughn being Vince Vaughn. I want to see actors stepping outside of their comfort zones. I want to see the effort in every inch of their body. I want to see them blink differently, raise their eyebrows differently, lick their lips differently, laugh differently.
If you have the free time, go to imdb.com and look at Heath Ledger's page. The first movie he was really noticed in was "10 Things I Hate About You" in 1999. Since then, he went on to star in "The Patriot," "A Knight's Tale," "Monster's Ball," "Lords of Dogtown," "Brokeback Mountain," "I'm Not There," and finally, "The Dark Knight." In nine short years he had already accomplished so much, but had still left so much yet undone. Had he lived longer, I think he would be considered just as great an actor as Johnny Depp, Daniel Day-Lewis, or Tom Hanks.
Even if he was alive to make more movies, I think "The Dark Knight" would still be the pinnacle of his career. Heath Ledger took a role that everyone believed he could not pull off without looking like a fool compared to Jack Nicholson's Joker. But he took it, and he made it his own. Heath Ledger's Joker is not only a departure from himself, but a departure from humanity. For the first time in cinema history, I believe audiences were actually frightening by a comic book villain. Everyone who once claimed Heath could not pull it off, myself shamefully included, left the theatre last night kicking themselves for thinking something that couldn't be further from the truth.
On track to possibly become the highest grossing film of all time, I hardly need to tell you to go see "The Dark Knight." But if you're not a Batman fan, not a comic book fan, not an Aaron Eckhart fan, or even not a Heath Ledger fan, you still need to see this movie. Critics are already calling for the first posthumous Best Actor award since 1976, when Peter Finch won Best Actor for "Network." There is much more importance to this film other than just being another Batman sequel.
While I sat in the theatre, watching the movie in my full Joker costume, there was a certain surreal ambience to be felt as we all saw Heath performing his best and last role. In the months following Heath's death, it meant nothing more than a topic of conversation to me. "The Dark Knight" showed me exactly what we lost in January. Actors of Heath Ledger's caliber are in short supply. It is not often that we are given the chance to see an artist performing his trade with such skill and mastery that we can only assume it must be God-given.
Go see "The Dark Knight." Get over your homophobia and go rent "Brokeback Mountain." Deal with the fact that you might not fully understand a movie and watch "I'm Not There." Resort to seeing a movie you probably know nothing about and get your hands on "Lords of Dogtown." And when "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" is finally released, get yourself to the theatre on opening night. Don't do it as a tribute to Heath, as some personal way of paying your respects. Do it for yourself. For far too long have we settled for sub-par performances from our paid entertainers. For far too long have we written million dollar checks to actors so that they can vomit an exact replica of their true personality onto every film they make. Go watch "The Dark Knight," and see what acting and moviemaking should be. R.I.P Heath.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
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