The Dark Knight has been nominated for an Oscar. Heath Ledger is nominated for best supporting actor.
I was a little suspicious of the accolades being given to the late Heath Ledger. Sometimes in death, people find extra to praise about a person. Boy, were my suspicions wrong. He elevated The Dark Knight (2008) from a good movie to an excellent movie with his take on the Joker.
Batman has long been a character of moral ambiguity...obsessed with justice and vengeance...with or without the legal system. And with Christian Bale playing him, that has stood out more in the last two Batman films. But, with Ledger's portrayal of the Joker, we see this ambiguity flipped on its end...we see the result of the moral choices the Batman makes.
The Joker is chaos...and in the Batman mythos, he is the result of not having clearly defined right and wrong...and Ledger displays that chaos so well, so totally, that we will never be able to think of the Joker the same way again.
The Dark Knight is a great action movie too, not just a movie about ethos. And all the actors do a very good job. With Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart to Maggie Gyllenhaal and Eric Roberts, the cast was great. The story was nicely scripted, and even at 2.5 hours, it was not overlong.
But yes, it was Ledger that made this movie as good as it was. He was amazing and transformed himself, and the movie.
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