The Joker Looks To Revamp Movie Villainy
June 26th 2008 09:59
Back in 1989, Jack Nicholson sported a purple fedora and a load of lipstick and slapsticked his way to the bank as everyone’s favorite killer clown, the Joker, in Tim Burton’s Batman. Nearly two decades later Hollywood decided to give the Clown Prince of Crime another shot, this time with Heath Ledger behind the face paint in Christopher Nolan’s followup to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight. I loved the first Batman movie mostly because of Nicholson, and his portrayal has already gone down in movie history. It was perhaps my favorite Nicholson performance prior to The Departed. (Although the Shining is close.) But in a time where movie villains have become more sly, greedy slime balls than sick, darkly demented killers, the Joker needs to make a comeback.
For those of you who haven’t seen the trailer to this film, check it out. Ledgers voice is somewhere between Richard Dawson and Charles Manson and the splotchy face paint and grungy hair are ideal for the new incarnation as opposed to the sleek and pristine mask and slick gangster do that had Nicholson looking more a pimp than a murderer. In the trailer when Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) asks if they found any identification on the Joker a policeman responds “Nothing in his pockets but knives and lint.” The perfect teaser to prepare us for this new breed of bad guy. I’m going to say right now that Ledger's Joker could do for villains what Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man did for heroes.
When Ledger’s death was first announced, buzz for this film went through the roof and, while not at all doubting his ability as an actor, I feared that reviews of the film and his performance would lose much of their objectivity due to the tragedy. Now, after seeing several trailers and reading Peter Travers’ review, I know that this performance would have been hyped just as much if not for the added drama. Ledger’s Joker will be this years big character, mixing the debauched brilliance of Daniel Plainview with the demented callousness of Anton Chigurh. He was robbed of an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain and the Academy would do well to pay him back in spades with the first posthumous Oscar in more than 30 years.
I know I’m speaking boldly for someone who has yet to see the film, but I’m a movie geek just as much as I am a tech geek if not more so, and there’s nothing I love more than a great villain. I don’t think great villainy will stop here for this new Bat franchise either. I may be getting light-years ahead of myself, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Aaron Eckhart could knock the role of Two-Face out of the park. I’m not a big sequel guy, but as long as Christopher Nolan is directing and Christian Bale is dawning the cape, I think this could be the superhero genre’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.
On a more tech related note, I saw the new Guitar Hero for the DS advertised on TV the other day. I feel bad passing judgement on it without picking up the stylus, but does anyone else find the mere idea of this incredibly ridiculous? Let me know
For those of you who haven’t seen the trailer to this film, check it out. Ledgers voice is somewhere between Richard Dawson and Charles Manson and the splotchy face paint and grungy hair are ideal for the new incarnation as opposed to the sleek and pristine mask and slick gangster do that had Nicholson looking more a pimp than a murderer. In the trailer when Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) asks if they found any identification on the Joker a policeman responds “Nothing in his pockets but knives and lint.” The perfect teaser to prepare us for this new breed of bad guy. I’m going to say right now that Ledger's Joker could do for villains what Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man did for heroes.
When Ledger’s death was first announced, buzz for this film went through the roof and, while not at all doubting his ability as an actor, I feared that reviews of the film and his performance would lose much of their objectivity due to the tragedy. Now, after seeing several trailers and reading Peter Travers’ review, I know that this performance would have been hyped just as much if not for the added drama. Ledger’s Joker will be this years big character, mixing the debauched brilliance of Daniel Plainview with the demented callousness of Anton Chigurh. He was robbed of an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain and the Academy would do well to pay him back in spades with the first posthumous Oscar in more than 30 years.
I know I’m speaking boldly for someone who has yet to see the film, but I’m a movie geek just as much as I am a tech geek if not more so, and there’s nothing I love more than a great villain. I don’t think great villainy will stop here for this new Bat franchise either. I may be getting light-years ahead of myself, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Aaron Eckhart could knock the role of Two-Face out of the park. I’m not a big sequel guy, but as long as Christopher Nolan is directing and Christian Bale is dawning the cape, I think this could be the superhero genre’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.
On a more tech related note, I saw the new Guitar Hero for the DS advertised on TV the other day. I feel bad passing judgement on it without picking up the stylus, but does anyone else find the mere idea of this incredibly ridiculous? Let me know
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