A few years ago, despite repeated critical praise and entreaties from friends and colleagues, I gave up on ever wasting my precious time on earth watching another Steven Spielberg film. Time and again I was told by others, "No, this time I really mean it, it’s a GREAT film," and time and again I would leave the theater angry or nauseous.
Now I am at the point where I feel the same way about all Hollywood tripe. As with the Spielberg crapfests, I was told how wonderful excrement like Brokeback Mountain and Crash were. They weren’t. Similarly, almost all the reviews of The Dark Knight were glowing; especially praising the performance of Heath Ledger (the cock-mumbling hero of Brokeback Mountain) as the Joker. And with his demise shortly before last year’s premiere of the film, the inevitable chorus of Oscar buzz for his performance rose, with him, indeed, snagging a posthumous Best Supporting Actor nomination and win (a la James Dean). So, was this the greatest film of all time? Was Ledger’s performance one for the ages?
No.
In fact, not even close. And, as badly hyped as the Spielberg stool has been, and as nauseating as the PC films named above were, The Dark Knight, and Ledger’s performance, have to be the two most over-the-top, unbelievably hyper-hyped things Hollywood has ever unfurled. Why? Simple. The picture barely rises above mediocre, and Ledger is nowhere near as good a Joker as Jack Nicholson was, twenty years ago, in Tim Burton’s Batman. What’s odd, though, is that this film’s title is a play off of the 1980s reinterpretation of the Batman lore in Frank Miller’s seminal graphic novel of the same name, yet it was Burton’s film, made closer to that era, that really captures Miller’s grit, if not wan stab, at heightened realism. The Dark Knight is not only NOT a great film, it’s not even close to being a great superhero film. Hell, it’s not even close to being as good as its predecessor, Batman Begins, a film which was not as good as either of the first two Spider-Man films, still the apex of comic book cinematic expression.
As for Ledger, he is a one note. His character has no background, no shading, and no complexity. Compared to Christian Bale’s Batman he’s a tabula rasa, and a dull one. Compared to Jack Nicholson’s Joker, he’s not even interesting. Nicholson’s Joker had a backstory — not a deep one, but one that nonetheless allowed growth and expansion, as well as a semi-believable dementia and downfall to grasp on to. Nicholson’s Joker was also not seemingly supernatural. He did things with reason and within limits.
Article comments
1 - Deano
this is a very naive and unprofessional review
2 - Dano
I'm getting so angry reading this review. it's so disrespectful to heath ledger-
"in a sign of the film franchise gods’ revenge, the script decision, by director and screenwriter Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan Nolan, to kill off Dent, played by the still alive Eckhart, and keep alive the Joker, played by the still dead Ledger, is the only justice associated with this film"
that's really harsh mate.
And besides, THE DARK KNIGHT was an amazing movie. stop trying to be an individual mate, just admit u love it!!
3 - Jordan Richardson
stop trying to be an individual mate
Erm...
4 - Deusx
Hey, Dan. I respect you as a book critic and as a poetry writer, but you need to stop reviewing movies and stick to what you're good at. You remind me of one of those guys who predetermines whether he will like a movie or not based on it's general appeal. Your non-objective attitude causes you to miss things, like when wrote about the 'agent of chaos' scene having no irony. He's wearing a woman's dress during the whole scene! Of course he's lying. You've done this with a lot of other popular movies too, like Blade Runner. It's not just that you call good movies bad, but when you hold up a piece of shit like Spiderman as being better, you just make an ass of yourself. You guffaw at Gordon's speech but not at 'this is my curse.'?? That's the only WTF I can think of. It never takes itself seriously, is that why Spiderman is better? Please. I guess that means Date Movie is funnier than Annie Hall.
5 - Deusche Schneider
Dan Schneider,
Please channel your [baseless] writing toward something you happen to have a clue about. My guess is you have no experience with acting, composing, screenwriting, OR directing. You also clearly lack any ability to detect well-done, artistic craft when it presents itself. I don't know how you believe Burton's interpretation touches more on realism than Nolan's. Every piece of The Dark Knight's plot is carefully devised in a way that exposes justice for the way it is, whereas in Burton's Batman, Nicholson waltzes around with stupid toys and contraptions, blowing shit up in public simply to show that he's "crazy." Jack Nicholson doesn't lend a commendable performance whatsoever as the Joker, he simply acts as himself. As for your homophobic issues, get over them. You're lame as fuck and have no business writing about any art form. Try sports.
6 - Allyson Christy
That is possibly the worst review I have ever read. Heath Ledger owned Jack Nicholson's Joker. Sure Jack did an amazing job but Heath just put more effort into the role. He completely devoted himself to his role and did the best Joker i have ever seen. And as for the homophobia and comparing it to Heath's role, that's just plain immature. Get better at reviewing movies douchebag.
7 - Claire W
Finally an intelligent review about a vastly overrated movie. Thank you!
8 - James
[personal attack deleted] Jack's Joker character might have been better but his performance was not. jack played Jack in makeup. Ledger transformed himself into the character by drastically changing everything from voice to laugh to mannerisms to facial expressions. He was 100% immersed, couldn't believe it was the same guy from A knight's tale.
9 - James
Keep in mind this is the same person who praised Spiderman 3 and at the same time bashed TDK, Brokeback and Crash(3 of the most well respected acclaimed films of the decade). He has also praised Topher Grace's Venom character(which was just grace as himself) and bashed Ledger as Joker(which was Ledger transforming himself into the character).