Ledgermania is running wild across the states recently. The anniversary of his death was yesterday, The Dark Knight is rereleasing on IMAX, and he’s got a slam dunk Oscar coming to him for playing the Joker. This was a stupendous performance, an acting tour-de-force and all that…
Really? Let’s have a keep it real moment. Ledger was great in The Dark Knight, but he played The Joker. He was good in it, sure, but The Joker is a hard role to screw up. You cackle. You act menacing. You get in the heroine’s face and say badass shit. The phrase “comic book villain” was created just to sum up the simplistic bad guy! Despite the stress and hype placed on this role, there’s probably a dozen actors in Hollywood who could have played the role just as well. Death tends to elevate people and create more hype for them, and he was coming off Brokeback Mountain, another massively hyped movie. If Robert Downey Jr. had died after Tropic Thunder, there’d be an equal amount of fanfare over his passing.
Nostalgia is the third most powerful force in the universe. Compound interest is second. Potential nostalgia’s out in front. So I mean, be sad the dude died, but chill, seriously.
Arright, just wanted to get that off my chest.
Tags: Brokeback Mountain, Heath Ledger, mini-rant, Nostalgia, Robert Downey Jr., The Dark Knight, Tropic Thunder