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blew me--away. I thought the whole cast was good, but while Margan Freeman, let's be honest, is always good, Aaron Eckhart, Christian Bale, and goood-god-damn, Heath Ledger did a hell of a job with a story that had a few levels. More than a few. The violence was the point, and it was unpleasant--sorry--that was the point.
See, violence is bad. Batman exists because he witnessed the violence of his parents' deaths when he was still quite young. He knows violence exists and he hates it--but he has to also accept the strength of his weapons in order to fight the evil. He has to be violent to try and stop violence, and not let the violence take over who he is. He is, still, somehow, Bruce Wayne. A billionaire and a very smart individual. The trick is keeping these two personae in balance. But it's hard. Because Bruce Wayne deserves love, and a life. Batman is a symbol, and a mask. How do you live as a mask? You can't, not really. Bruce likes the idea of Harvey Dent's purity and open-approach to fighting crime because it is an alternative to his own vigilantism. He also sees that if Dent becomes the face of crime-fighting in Gotham, he can retire Batman, be himself, and maybe even get the girl.
All natural things to want. But crime is chaotic, and the face of crime is the Joker's. A twisted one. Unpredictible. Warped, and arbitrary. And Heath Ledger tore that role up.
He embodied a chaotic force and pulled the drama of a psychopath down to the silver screen where people could see. He "channelled" that crazy energy and made it work. He expressed a nerve of vital destruction working out the endorphins, letting you feel why destruction was a viable alternative--
If you really did not like his Joker, then you really got his Joker--every quip, every slap and suck in his speech, and the made-up stories about his scars, and his rant in nurse's uniform in front of a graphically (great make-up) wounded Dent, all of these contrive to let you know what dangerous, mad, bad crazy is. He just did things--and he claimed he did not have a plan--but wasn't the very first scenes of the bank heist proof he did plan? And his little game of playing the mob? He lies a lot, and that's his secret--he isn't honest. Dent was. Batman wishes he could be. When Dent is damaged, he gets a rousing pep-talk from the Joker, and he is turned.
Batman is a mask--he gets to be seen as a villian, but he knows inside he is doing the right thing. Because he is anonymous, he has the freedom to accept being reviled--Dent didn't--he was all too human. Because he was a man, he is remembered well--because Batman is a mask, he doesn't have to be.
Because Joker is insane, he confesses, and ends up in Arkham, probably--the fates are unkind. Ledger was so brilliant, he should have lived to reprise this darker than the dark knight villian. He really showed himself off here. He had a lot of promise--such a waste.
I loved this movie, and kind of want to see it again to memorize every great Joker Line. It was that good.
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