Heath Ledger A Favorite For Posthumous Oscar Win?
The reviews for The Dark Night are coming in, and the reviews for Heath Ledger’s performance are overwhelmingly positive. Some people even say that his portrayal of The Joker could very well win an Oscar:
Critics have described the performance as ’spellbinding’ and say it is his best ever.
The Dark Knight received the rave reviews after critics were shown a preview of the new blockbuster at the weekend.
The Australian actor died of an overdose in his New York apartment soon after shooting the film, in January this year. [...]
Heath was nominated for an Oscar following his performance in Brokeback Mountain in 2006 but missed out on the award to Philip Seymour Hoffman.
In Rolling Stone magazine, critic Emmanuel Levy described Heath in his Dark Knight role: ‘ can only speak superlatives of Ledger, who is mad-crazy-blazing brilliant as the Joker.
‘It’s typical of Ledger’s total commitment to films as diverse as Brokeback Mountain and I’m Not There that he does nothing out of vanity or the need to be liked.
‘If there’s a movement to get him the first posthumous Oscar since Peter Finch won for 1976’s Network, sign me up.’
Now, I’m going to say something, at the risk of being totally skewered. I agree that Heath was an extremely talented actor and he probably deserved more accolades for his talent than he received during his short life. But there are a lot of other talented actors out there who deserve the same thing. I haven’t really heard much buzz on who might be nominated, but there’s no doubt that the Oscar field will be packed with talent…people just as talented, or perhaps more so, than Heath.
Don’t get me wrong, I mean no disrespect. I haven’t seen the trailer, but if Heath’s portrayal truly deserves to win then I sincerely hope it does. From everything I’ve read, it’s the best of the Batman movies thus far, and Heath’s performance is a huge part of making it so. But I don’t want him to win because it was his last completed role and because of sympathy or sentimentality…I want him to win because he deserved it, because anything else would cheapen his memory.
(On another note, does that picture give anyone else the total creeps?)
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Yes that picture is horrible – enough to make me avoid the movie.
Comment by Sarah — July 4, 2008 @ 1:25 am
Sarah, chances are high that if the pic is what’s scaring you off, I and a lot of actual fans are extremely glad that you decided not to go. The reason The Joker is THE Arch-Nemesis of The Batman is he was fear incarnate. There are gimmicks, there are lame attempts at getting your attention drawn back to someone you haven’t seen in 15 years, and then there’s The Joker.
Never mind the Scarecrow, Joker helped rid the world of superheroes once before and at the end of it he was sad. SAD. The comic had him sitting with a party hat on, frowning (if you know ANYTHING about Joker that should be an immediate red flag) with an arrow pointing at him, the text “Why is this man frowning?” hovering over it. Anything he does, everything he does, is for his own personal enjoyment. There’s no real malice towards anyone in his actions, he’s just doing it for the lulz.
As to the “Does Heath deserve an Oscar?” Did you like Batman Begins? Enough so for it to get nominated? That was featuring a very much B-level villain. I’m not saying SC isn’t good, but this has not only Joker, but Harvey MF Dent. If you know a bit more than anything about Batman, you should be able to see what’s coming from there.
Jack did the funny. Heath’s bringing the horror in on the act and keeping it hilarious all the way from what I’ve seen in the trailers. I NEED this to be The Joker I remember from Alan Moore’s epic masterpiece. I NEED this to be More than Oscar-worthy. I need this to be The Joker doing what he did that made me fascinated with him so long ago.
Comment by Anon — July 5, 2008 @ 3:22 am