A fortnight ago I moaned about Hollywood’s penchant for sequels. At the time I was feeling kind of frustrated with the phenomenon. That was until I saw the trailer for Christopher Nolan’s second Batman adaptation, The Dark Knight.
In the last five months the film has gained a grim significance, not in anticipation of Nolan’s ever-bleaker Gotham, but because the young actor playing its anti-hero is tragically no longer around. ‘Why so serious?’, the Joker’s catchphrase, now seems weighted with the blackest irony. Heath Ledger, found by his housekeeper in late January, having died from an overdose of prescription drugs aged 28, had apparently thrown himself body and soul into the Joker, even spending a month living alone in a London hotel room to prepare for the role. It is a small consolation that he described the role as: “the most fun I’ve ever had, or probably ever will have, playing a character”.
Christopher Nolan has witnessed to Ledger’s commitment to his craft on-set, while Michael Caine described Ledger’s interpretation as “in a different direction than Jack [Nicholson]… Jack was like a really scary old, nasty old uncle with a funny face. Heath is like the most murderous psychopath you’ve ever seen on the screen…”
He certainly scared the hell out of me, and that’s just the trailer. It’s something about that blood-stained carnivorous smile; the empty, lunatic eyes; and then the voice, which sounds like no-one you’ve ever heard and definitely not like Heath Ledger.
Other elements of the film are likely to be eclipsed by the temporary celluloid resurrection of the actor, and if he was as proud of his performance as Nolan says, then it’s right the movie should stand as a tribute to his talent. I’m glad to see Maggie Gyllenhaal replacing the insipid Katie Holmes as assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes, and Christian Bale exuding his usual grave charisma. But aswell as applauding Ledger’s standout performance, with this film, as with its predecessor, a huge share of the credit should go to the director. Nolan is one of the few great British filmmakers we have right now, and his Batman films have reinvented a tired franchise and shown how sequels and remakes really should be done.
The Dark Knight is due for UK release on the 25th July. If you can’t wait, get a load of The Gotham Times.
