Over the weekend, some of our discussions (meaning, you know, Mister Faded Glory and Franklin the Cat) turned to the tragic demise of film star Heath Ledger, who passed just over a week ago, and depending on how you look at it, upon the precipice of his seminal role.
A celebrated film-star who remained reportedly down-to-earth, it’s an unsettling and sad end – echoing Kurt Cobain or James Dean or whomever you preferred to compare Ledger. A supposed heartthrob who desperately attempted to shed any teen-beat matinee idol fawning, often appearing aloof (think Val Kilmer) while searching for challenging roles, the entertainment world already misses him, and we even felt like we’d actually miss Ledger further discover his talent.
Which seems fairly weird at first, because we can’t recall a single Heath Ledger movie we actually would recommend, or enjoyed. The Patriot? Absolute dreck. Monster’s Ball? Dull as hell. A Knight’s Tale? Cringe. Brokeback Mountain? You know where we stand. Lords of Dogtown? Abysmal. There’s more than 10 things I hate about this movie. The Four Feathers? Woof. Mr. Ledger was en route to a Nic Cage-like career of competent acting, but film choices ranging from bombs to overrations to aberrations to drudgery.
Until this summer, that is.
Perhaps the most anticipated movie of 2008 and certainly Batman fans’ most anticipated movie of all time, Ledger gained some early buzz upon what seemed to be his dubious casting as The Joker, and as photos, quips, film snippets, trailers, and ghost sites leaked out, even the most hardened Batgeek approved of Ledger as film choice. (Nice wrap-up of the zeitgeist at BOF.com). In seven months, it’s destined to be Ledger’s epitaph.
Monumental? Certainly. Haunting? Absolutely. Fitting? 
Just as James Dean’s final catalog is now Giant in film lore, Ledger’s impending potrayal of The Joker stands to be classic, cultish, larger-than-life, and hopefully scary. The Joker himself is one of literature’s most intriguing, scary, shocking, evil, yet strangely charismatic creatures – let alone his standing in comic book history.
From his inception in 1940, in Batman #1, to the madman returning in The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge, the diabolical genius of The Laughing Fish, the bitter, whimsical crime boss in Tim Burton’s Batman, the global maniac of A Death In the Family, and general acceptance as evil personified throughout Batman’s universe, The Joker is prone to reinterpretation, and during each portrayals, it’s clear no one’s really nailed it yet.
Until now?
The details of Ledger’s demise are a bit shady still, but, honestly, is it grim to wonder if, uh, The Joker killed him?
Intensely devoted to his own portrayal of The Joker, Ledger, new to Batman literature, and with early help from director Chris Nolan, modeled his character after The Killing Joke, a frightening and psychopathic origin story of Batman’s evil nemesis, Ledger locked himself into an apartment in Manhattan, frantically discovering the role. Presumably he forced himself to channel, juxtapose and embody torturous amounts of agony, rage, humor, genius, whimsy, obsession and schizophrenia in order to craft his perfectly fractured Joker.
“It is a physically and mentally draining role — his Joker is a “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy” he [Ledger] said cheerfully — and, as often happens when he throws himself into a part, he is not sleeping much.
“Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night,” he [Ledger] said. “I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.” (NY Times.)
Maybe The Joker killed Ledger. Is that so hard to believe? In his discovery of rage, criminality, and evil – maybe the talented, driven Ledger fully disappeared into his seminal role, and craft, character, and the dark side of humanity was too much? Even now, Nolan says he nailed it. And this coming from a director who has yet to make a Batman misstep, drawing on The Long Halloween and The Man Who Falls as inspiration for The Dark Knight’s universe. Even now, Christian Bale agrees.
“The Joker. How do you deal with somebody who has no code? No sense of any decency or morals? He does what he wants to do….Heath‘s an incredible actor and he’s brought a very, very scary Joker to life.
It’s shocking. He’ll shock you. Heath will shock you.” (Moviehole, via Batman-On-Film.com)
Even now, Warner Bros. is mulling their entire marketing strategy, initially focused on cryptic, haunting imagery relating to the principal archvillain.Is it wrong to ask? Well, maybe. Is it fair to idyllize Ledger for his posthumous Joker? Maybe not.
But it is, perhaps, a lasting tribute to the man, endlessly devoted to his craft. Ledger may or may not have discovered the absolute essence of one of fiction’s most mesmerizing villains, a character who has vexed, challenged, and enthralled millions of comic-book readers, film-noir enthusiasts, actors, directors, writers, artists, and theatregoers throughout nearly a century of reading.
Ledger‘s sheer devotion to discovery and perfection itself of a dark, bloody, psychotic character is admirable. Throughout 68 years of portrayals, the Joker’s insanity, villainry, and clear, wanton evil often proved obsessive, with terrifying results. Creative genius, sadly, can take shape the same way.
And for Ledger, it’s now tragically so.