Sensational, grandly sinister and not for the kids, "The Dark Knight"
elevates pulp to a very high level. Heath Ledger's Joker takes it
higher still, and the 28-year-old actor's death earlier this year of an
accidental overdose lends the film an air of a funeral and a
rollicking, out-of-control wake mixed together. In "The Dark Knight,"
Ledger makes all other comic book screen villains look like Baby Huey.
Like Shakespeare's Iago or Richard III, like Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal
Lecter or Javier Bardem's implacable murderer in "No Country For Old
Men," this is no Method maniac, asking or telling anyone about his
character's motivation. At one point Ledger throws up his hands and
says, agitatedly, that it's a waste of time looking for a rationale
behind the Joker's smeary psycho-harlequin makeup.
"I'm a dog chasing cars," he says. "I wouldn't know what to do with one of them if I caught it."
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