Joker-Only Dark Knight Cut Really Showcases Heath Ledger's Overacting
I know that it's absolute heresy to so much as whisper the possibility that anything at all might be wrong with The Dark Knight, but a new supercut from the folks who brought us The King's Speech: Just the Stammering goes a long way to spotlight one of the blockbuster's weakest links: Heath Ledger.
The late actor's Oscar notwithstanding, is there any more glaringly showy, scenery-scarfing, overindulgent, "I am so bad! Look how bad I am!" villainy in the modern comic-book canon than Ledger's turn as the Joker? How brainwashed were all of us four years ago when we walked out of Christopher Nolan's spectacle thinking we'd seen the genre's definitive evildoer, only to look back at this 10-and-a-half-minute showcase of cackling, lip-smacking, hand-clapping camp and wonder, "What was that?"
I mean, it's fine! The movie's good! I'm looking forward to The Dark Knight Rises, etc. etc. But keeping it to Academy Award-winning supporting actors alone, something tells me that we wouldn't be cringing as much at all of Christoph Waltz's bits standing apart from Inglourious Basterds, or every longing, bittersweet note of Christopher Plummer's performance drawn out from Beginners. (Hint, hint. Someone should get on that.)
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I know that it's become very fashionable and cool to bash all things Nolan, but really? "Overacting"? I'm sure you could put together a 10 minute reel of Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood and make it look over-the-top. Come on Stu, this seems kinda desperate...
I wouldn't disagree about DDL! Someone should make that supercut, too.
Yeah, the character of the joker is intentionally over the top, meant to contrast with the gravity of the rest of the film.
I actually thought it was a little more subdued that I recalled, especially in regards to him licking his lips. People like to complain about how much he does that, which is actually relatively little as evidenced by this supercut. He does a few times in the interrogation scene but not really that much anywhere else. Not to mention that it's kind of silly to say it's annoying when he licks his lips since the whole point of it is to make the character seem off-putting and disgusting.
If everyone in the movie were as over the top as Ledger, it would have been a big, campy mess. But if he behaved like everyone else it wouldn't really make any sense for the character.
How about a supercut of Forest Whitaker's most over-the-top antics in Last King of Scotland?Or of Jack Nicholson in the last half of The Shining? Or of Jack Nicholson throughout most of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? Or how about supercuts of Johnny Depp's Edward Scissorhands' mooning or Willy Wonka's most Carol Channingesque speech patterns or the Mad Hatter's hyper ramblings or Jack Sparrow's boozy antics?
Those ten minutes are a fraction of the screen time he got in The Dark Knight, so this is a pathetic case of picking and choosing scenes and then presenting them completely out of context. It's a credit to Ledger and to Nolan that a character so completely over-the-top was completely and utterly believable and fit so perfectly into this unbelievable world. Movies have become so lame at making me believe anything going on up on that screen, yet I sat there in constant dread wondering what was going to happen next. Furthermore, The Joker was INSANE! Since when are insane people in movies UNDER-the-top? I suppose he should've played the character as if he were on Prozac; wouldn't that have been great?
I know, right? Because what I want in a Joker is a subtle, nuanced performance...
So now it's overacting? Way to hop on that Marvel bandwagon.
Seems like this guy is suffering from douchebaditis.
All roles are different and are portrayed differently. Everyone i know that saw the film walked out in awe. If he toned it down to meet the needs of Senor Douchebag here, perhaps we would not have enjoyed it so much. filmsnork.com
Good one, you've elevated hate to a new level. Let's just shit on Hannibal Lecter, Darth Vader, Freddy Kruger (okay you can shit on Freddy) etc etc. You could say the same thing about EVERY iconic villain in cinematic history. Please consider more bran in your diet, this article is goofy, hahaha. And the video is sick
um yeah NO. The character of the Joker is batshit, over the top, sooo Heath Ledgers performance still just as amazing as always. S. T. Vanairsdale you are wrong on this one.
Every performance needs context. What you call overacting fits in perfectly with the works of Gotham that Nolan created. Why is it so trendy now to bash the Dark Knight?
Great point, Bassbone. Anything can (and often will) look terrible when it's decontextualized. This holds true for almost any medium. Think what some fragments of Joyce's Ulysses would look like decontextualized from the whole of the work.
This is just a silly article.
Really? Neither a huge comic book fan nor Christopher Nolan fan, but this really doesn't seem over the top at all - he was playing the Joker. At the time, as now, I think it was an interesting/unexpected take on an iconic character. Is this article what the kids call "trolling"?
Feel a little sanity saving in the comments here, don't get the article at all.
Thank you! I thought I was the only one who felt this way (and in regards to a poster above, yes, I think Daniel Day Louis is the current chairmen of the overacting board). I don't quite understand why its taboo to admit that Ledger's performance wasn't the be-all, end-all of villains.
I understand his character and I understand why Ledger played it the way that he did - I didn't 'miss the point' like some commenters are assuring you you did - I didn't even have a problem with it when I saw the movie....I'm just not fawning over it like most fanboys. God forbid someone have a difference of opinion when it comes to Nolan's Batman. No one is arguing the movies' worth, so calm down.
This must be the dumbest article there has ever been on Movieline. It jump cuts through everything he does, they don't show the scenes in their entirety so theres no context for his performance.
If you reposted your article with every other word cut out it also wouldnt make any sense (although it wouldn't be any worse)
Name a comic book villain that's not an over the top egomaniac. Even American Splendor Pekar is his own villain. Perhaps I give Ghostworld a nod for modesty. I know they tell you in reporter school to dumb things down but this article is far worse then the acting its about. Perhaps if you spun it into a top 10 list of over the top villiains you could get a pass. Try more better, I do not want an article on how Scarlett Johansson failed to pull off Emma Peel in the new Avengers film.
I have an intense hatred for mouth noises and watching this film in the theater was downright painful for me because of Ledger. Objectively I think he did a pretty good job but I never want to see that movie again and the thought of watching that video makes me shudder.
Honestly, Movieline is so desperate to knock on everything, it makes me tired of even reading these so called "articles". I've stomached enough of the overzealous, nauseating, "we are women, hear us roar" shenanigans, that have nothing to do with the films they're discussing, from the likes of Jen or whatever the hell there names are , but I'm getting tired of every article on here being about as snarky as a prepubescent teenager waiting for their first period. And I don't mean first class of the day.
These are not people who understand the industry, I would know, I work in it (as I'm sure many readers do). These are bloggers who are always behind in the race, behind the likes of much better, much stronger, actual NEWS reporting sites like Comingsoon.net, Aint It Cool News, and a list of whole big boy sites that know what the hell they're doing.
No one on this site would know what to do if THEY made an actual movie (and if they did, I'm sure it sucks hardcore). Lord knows with such juvenile writing skills, you can assume they find some leg-up program, junior high English-class dropout and give him a job.
Here... eat cheetos and complain about everything like your opinion matters and like you have an idea of what you're talking about.
Let's face it, they don't.
I'd take Harry Knowles calling something "penis shit" or something over this drivel.
As far as "The Dark Knight" goes, I'm not wildly defending Heath Ledger. I see where the flaws are in that film and performance. And, although looking forward to "The Dark Knight Rises", I'm not a comic book fan or fanboy of any kind.
I read this site because I used to consider this site part of my "trades". Why would I do that? This isn't news. This is gossip and heresay that wouldn't be worth The National Enquirer's time. Childish and immature opinions that, really, only remind me that the cancerous nature of these sort of "cinephiles" or "film critics" (which, let's face it, they're none of) are the worst part of this industry. And some of the worst people in society.
Go make something of your own and see how the world reacts.
Or, let's all just accept the fact that you can't do anything.
Not a single thing.
Because frankly, all of you can barely even write an article. And certainly, none of you can report a damn thing.
Catch up guys, the internet is far ahead of you. I see only a short while before this dump of a site is left in the dust... and you visit movieline.com to find a broken web page.
Can't wait for that. Because these over-opinionated, under-educated, childish and mouthy products of this idiotic generation need to go.
And fast.
With love,
Screw you Movieline.
Did you write this from prison?
Now make a youtube video with all the scenes WITHOUT Ledger so people can see how he's the only thing that actually elevated it into greatness.
Though a huge fan of The Prestige, I've never thought much of the rest of Nolan's oeuvre. Inception had the lamest dream sequences ever. My dreams are bonkers and make perfect sense when I'm in them. Yet, the best Nolan could do is a big shoot out on a mountain top? Now, the Batman movies. Won't even talk about Batman Returns, which was just so confused (who WAS the villain in that movie). The Dark Knight's only virtue was Heath Ledger. He at least was having fun in a movie caught up in its own ponderous seriousness. And could never understand a word that Bale was saying as Batman. Anyway, long way of saying if you isolate anything from the rest of the whole, you can make it look like overacting or, in the case of, say, the documentary the Celluloid Closet, certain Hollywood movies can be made to look very gay. Context is everything.
Utterly pointless post. This is an old FOX News technique. Thanks again, Movieline.
Come on now. I myself aren't one of the many who think The Dark Knight is the best comic-book movie around (I find Batman Begins is better), but as others have said here, the Joker is an "overacting" character. He is out there. Just like Jack Nicholson's "overacting" in the 1989 Burton Batman fit, Ledger's "overacting" fits Nolan's vision.
And, maybe it's watching all of Ledger's Joker lines in one video that makes someone think Ledger is just hamming it up for hamming-it-up's sake, but there's a reason why his Joker is only in the movie for around 10 minutes and yet his presence is always lurking... over everything.
Wow, way to fish for attention.....
Next time, put some *real* effort into it.
Your ability to argue that Heath Ledger is the weak link would suggest that it isn't absolute heresy to whisper the possibility that anything might be wrong with Dark Knight. Unless of course we're all so attuned to annihilate at the barest whisper that a blowhorn gets by for, of course, being an absurd impossibility.
Wow... talk about a desperate attempt at writing an article, and no I'm not just saying that because I disagree, it just seems like an attempt to see who agrees with a far-fetched, illogical opinion.
This article was written only to be inflammatory because that = comments. And for an online mag, more comments = more $$$ . . . to which I've just contributed. Oh well.
The problem with this whole approach is that Scenes in a movie don't exist in isolation, but within the context of a movie. Showing the Joker sans any context whatsoever just underscores this point
I'm tired of these "supercuts". Heath Ledger's Joker was the best thing about The Dark Knight.
I thought the Joker was one of the saving graces in this film....what was up with that batman voice though? I cringed every time the caped crusader spoke
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