http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/BjLewis/7990 So I was wondering, with all this praise that the late Heath Ledger is receiving for his turn as the Clown Prince of Crime in The Dark Knight, can he be the catalyst for a comic book movie earning an Oscar? And I mean a serious Oscar, an acting one. I mean I don’t want to see best sound FX or best editing or stuff like that. What I want to see is a best acting or best supporting actor nod. I will admit, no comic book movie, as entertaining as they have been, has had performance on an Oscar level. Could Ledger’s Joker be it? I will admit I was one of those people who was skeptical of the choice to have Ledger as the Joker. To me the Joker was two people, Jack Nicholson in Burton’s 1989 Batman and Mark Hamil’s voice acting turn as the Joker in the animated DC Comics universe. My fears were smoothed over after seeing the first couple shots of Ledger in full Joker mode. Wow. The man definitely had the look. Then came the first teaser, a snippet of dialog and a laugh. "Starting tonight, people will die. I'm a man of my word" *insert laugh* Mmmm k....so it was getting better. And now to see the trailers, to see the TV spots and here Ledger as Joker....man you can’t even tell it’s him. As people have said, it’s not so much Heath Ledger playing the Joker as Heath Ledger being replaced by the Joker. This was a dedicated man. I do hope his dedication to the role is not what led to his demise. Multiple clips have been released with footage from the movie. While my geeked-ness pushed me to check out all the Iron Man and Hulk clips I could before those movies were released, I am going to resist checking out anything Dark Knight-related save the promo I am including in this blog as it is just awesome. I am more than ready for the midnight showing on the 17th. I intend to be there early and to get a good seat so I can enjoy what should be a great great movie and maybe a little Oscar history. So I was wondering, with all this praise that the late Heath Ledger is receiving for his turn as the Clown Prince of Crime in The Dark Knight, can he be the catalyst for a comic book movie earning an Oscar? And I mean a serious Oscar, an acting one. I mean I don’t want to see best sound FX or best editing or stuff like that. What I want to see is a best acting or best supporting actor nod. I will admit, no comic book movie, as entertaining as they have been, has had performance on an Oscar level. Could Ledger’s Joker be it? I will admit I was one of those people who was skeptical of the choice to have Ledger as the Joker. To me the Joker was two people, Jack Nicholson in Burton’s 1989 Batman and Mark Hamil’s voice acting turn as the Joker in the animated DC Comics universe. My fears were smoothed over after seeing the first couple shots of Ledger in full Joker mode. Wow. The man definitely had the look. Then came the first teaser, a snippet of dialog and a laugh. "Starting tonight, people will die. I'm a man of my word" *insert laugh* Mmmm k....so it was getting better. And now to see the trailers, to see the TV spots and here Ledger as Joker....man you can’t even tell it’s him. As people have said, it’s not so much Heath Ledger playing the Joker as Heath Ledger being replaced by the Joker. This was a dedicated man. I do hope his dedication to the role is not what led to his demise. Multiple clips have been released with footage from the movie. While my geeked-ness pushed me to check out all the Iron Man and Hulk clips I could before those movies were released, I am going to resist checking out anything Dark Knight-related save the promo I am including in this blog as it is just awesome. I am more than ready for the midnight showing on the 17th. I intend to be there early and to get a good seat so I can enjoy what should be a great great movie and maybe a little Oscar history. en-us Don't know about Batman, or Ledger as the Joker, etc. But you mention that no comic book movie has had acting on an Oscar-worthy level. Full disclosure, I am not a comic book movie fan (yes, I know, I know, I don't mean to break your heart  :(       )....BUT, I think that Samuel L. Jackson came pretty close in "Unbreakable" for supporting actor-oscarworthiness (is that a word? It is now.)  That was a comic book movie of a slightly different color. Of course, Bruce Willis was excellent (as always). I think that John Travolta was also oscar-worthy in "Pulp Fiction", which was comic-booky(of course, I am biased - I have had a crush on him for 30+ years.). SO THERE! Just my humble opinion. Will Ledger's performance make up for the sins of these being overlooked? I hope so. Just so sad that if he is to be nominated, it will be posthumously. http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/BjLewis/7990/#c_57563 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/BjLewis/7990/#c_57563 Don't know about Batman, or Ledger as the Joker, etc. But you mention that no comic book movie has had acting on an Oscar-worthy level. Full disclosure, I am not a comic book movie fan (yes, I know, I know, I don't mean to break your heart  :(       )....BUT, I think that Samuel L. Jackson came pretty close in "Unbreakable" for supporting actor-oscarworthiness (is that a word? It is now.)  That was a comic book movie of a slightly different color. Of course, Bruce Willis was excellent (as always). I think that John Travolta was also oscar-worthy in "Pulp Fiction", which was comic-booky(of course, I am biased - I have had a crush on him for 30+ years.). SO THERE! Just my humble opinion. Will Ledger's performance make up for the sins of these being overlooked? I hope so. Just so sad that if he is to be nominated, it will be posthumously. The first time I saw Heath Ledger was in "The Patriot," the Mel Gibson movie about a family caught up in the American Revolution.  His performance in that movie immediately stood out for me.  I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I kept telling people he had the gift and would go far.  His next couple of movies were disappointing, but he wasn't.  In "Brokeback Mountain" I was very disturbed by his character and it made me think and think and think.  I hated the movie, it was so depressing to me.  And I kept wondering what Heath was doing.  After seeing that movie I read an article where he explained he wanted to portray that character as a lost and depressed individual who just could't figure out his place in the world.  Bingo!  I got what he was doing. Whether or not the Academy honors him with even a nomination for this role, I have to assume it's the best role he's had, but like James Dean, not the best he would have done if he had lived.  I'm not a big fan of comic book movies, but I'm familiar with the characters in the Batman series, and I do look forward to this experience.  To tell you the truth it scares me a little because, BJ, I'm almost convinced that creating that character and folding himself into it, Heath Ledger may have died because of it.  Seeing the movie is my tribute to him for what might have been had he just gotten a good night's sleep and lived.    What a loss. http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/BjLewis/7990/#c_59003 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/BjLewis/7990/#c_59003 The first time I saw Heath Ledger was in "The Patriot," the Mel Gibson movie about a family caught up in the American Revolution.  His performance in that movie immediately stood out for me.  I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I kept telling people he had the gift and would go far.  His next couple of movies were disappointing, but he wasn't.  In "Brokeback Mountain" I was very disturbed by his character and it made me think and think and think.  I hated the movie, it was so depressing to me.  And I kept wondering what Heath was doing.  After seeing that movie I read an article where he explained he wanted to portray that character as a lost and depressed individual who just could't figure out his place in the world.  Bingo!  I got what he was doing. Whether or not the Academy honors him with even a nomination for this role, I have to assume it's the best role he's had, but like James Dean, not the best he would have done if he had lived.  I'm not a big fan of comic book movies, but I'm familiar with the characters in the Batman series, and I do look forward to this experience.  To tell you the truth it scares me a little because, BJ, I'm almost convinced that creating that character and folding himself into it, Heath Ledger may have died because of it.  Seeing the movie is my tribute to him for what might have been had he just gotten a good night's sleep and lived.    What a loss.