Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Heath Ledger Remembrance Forum
The Dark Knight: News, Reviews, your Views. "SPOILERS" welcome!
Fran:
--- Quote from: belbbmfan on August 06, 2008, 02:02:30 am ---I'm still apprehensive about watching it though :-\
--- End quote ---
Fabienne, don't be apprehensive. I'm not really a fan of super-hero movies, but even I got caught up in the plot of "The Dark Knight." Just let yourself get swept up in the story, and it'll be a very entertaining experience for you. It's a pretty amazing movie on a bunch of different levels. And, of course, Heath is outstanding, but he's so convincing in his performance that you'll be thinking Joker, not Heath. Well, at least that is how it was for me.
Brown Eyes:
Yes, I agree with Fran. There's no need to be apprehensive. It's such a good movie and really interesting in many ways. And, just remember that the violence is "cartoon/ comic-book" violence. Think of all those Batman comic books where they write out the word "Pow!!" in a thought bubble, etc... but on a big scale.
Fabienne, I do think you're right that Batman is much more bland than the Joker (or any of his villains). In a lot of super hero movies the villains seem to overshadow the heroes in their often extreme eccentricities and outlandishness.
Marge_Innavera:
--- Quote ---Fabienne, I do think you're right that Batman is much more bland than the Joker (or any of his villains). In a lot of super hero movies the villains seem to overshadow the heroes in their often extreme eccentricities and outlandishness.
--- End quote ---
That's pretty much a rule of thumb in acting, directing and writing -- villains are much easier to make interesting than heroes; same with tricksters vs good guys. It seems to be related to another 'rule' -- i.e., that it's much harder to make people laugh than to make them cry. As George Carlin said, to make an audience cry all you have to do is "have one collie die" but to get from point A to laughter is much more of a challenge. Heath's Joker did make me laugh more than once, especially that schtick with the detonator that didn't go off when expected.
--- Quote ---Note - after reading this article, I looked up when Sid Vicious died. 2 months 2 days before Heath was born.
--- End quote ---
Choi oi, that makes me feel old -- I was an adult and then some when Sid Vicious was alive! ::) But the karmic aspect of that is intriguing.
cmr107:
I just saw it last night. WOW. Some thoughts:
Is anyone else completely fascinated with the Joker's voice? I was just astounded by how different it was from Heath's normal voice. I don't understand people who can do things like that with their voices. Someone posted an article somewhere around here that Heath was studying how Chicago residents speak while they were filming for inspiration for the voice. I heard a little bit of that (my college is just outside of Chicago) and I thought it was really interesting.
Speaking of Chicago, I thought the city was pretty recognizable as Chicago. I knew they were filming there but I thought they would use whatever camera tricks they use to make it look like just a generic city. I was fun but also distracting to see so many familiar places.
I thought Two-Face's face was horrifying at first, but after a couple more looks at it, it started to look almost comically fake to me. While it was still gross, it looked so fake that it didn't bother me anymore.
I agree that there was absolutely zero chemistry between Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal. It made it really hard for me to believe Harvey Dent's freak-out after she died. That kind of thing hardly ever bothers me in movies, but it did in this situation.
I LOVE the little tidbit that the Joker's nurse uniform had a Matilda name tag. I really wish it was big enough to be visible. Those of you who have seen it on IMAX, can you see it on the bigger screen?
The friend that I saw it with just got done with a music production internship at Warner Brothers. She said that they used two different composers in TDK, one for Batman and one for Joker. I want to see it again anyway, and I'd like to try to notice the different music for each of them.
Heath's performance was amazing. I realized that I was kind of tense when he wasn't on screen because I was looking forward to him coming back, but I was still tense when he did reappear because there was absolutely no way to know what he would do next.
I had heard the phrase "body bag scene" somewhere around here in discussion about TDK, but I didn't know exactly what the scene was. Goodness. How unpleasantly startling.
Um, I think that's all for now. I glad I can finally read this thread! I had been avoiding spoilers. :)
Mandy21:
--- Quote from: cmr107 on August 07, 2008, 05:41:02 pm ---I just saw it last night. WOW. Some thoughts:
Is anyone else completely fascinated with the Joker's voice? I was just astounded by how different it was from Heath's normal voice. I don't understand people who can do things like that with their voices. Someone posted an article somewhere around here that Heath was studying how Chicago residents speak while they were filming for inspiration for the voice. I heard a little bit of that (my college is just outside of Chicago) and I thought it was really interesting.
Speaking of Chicago, I thought the city was pretty recognizable as Chicago. I knew they were filming there but I thought they would use whatever camera tricks they use to make it look like just a generic city. I was fun but also distracting to see so many familiar places.
I thought Two-Face's face was horrifying at first, but after a couple more looks at it, it started to look almost comically fake to me. While it was still gross, it looked so fake that it didn't bother me anymore.
I agree that there was absolutely zero chemistry between Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal. It made it really hard for me to believe Harvey Dent's freak-out after she died. That kind of thing hardly ever bothers me in movies, but it did in this situation.
I LOVE the little tidbit that the Joker's nurse uniform had a Matilda name tag. I really wish it was big enough to be visible. Those of you who have seen it on IMAX, can you see it on the bigger screen?
The friend that I saw it with just got done with a music production internship at Warner Brothers. She said that they used two different composers in TDK, one for Batman and one for Joker. I want to see it again anyway, and I'd like to try to notice the different music for each of them.
Heath's performance was amazing. I realized that I was kind of tense when he wasn't on screen because I was looking forward to him coming back, but I was still tense when he did reappear because there was absolutely no way to know what he would do next.
I had heard the phrase "body bag scene" somewhere around here in discussion about TDK, but I didn't know exactly what the scene was. Goodness. How unpleasantly startling.
Um, I think that's all for now. I glad I can finally read this thread! I had been avoiding spoilers. :)
--- End quote ---
Hi CMR107, I love the way you stated all that. From the "WOW" all the way down to the "unpleasantly startling". I did feel the exact same way while watching. I couldn't wait for Heath to appear, was pleasantly startled when he appeared so quickly, and then just held my breath and then my tears for every time he appeared thereafter. I'm afraid I might have been one of the first spoiler-makers to mention the body-bag scene. It just threw me for a gigantic loop, was never expecting that. I haven't been able to go back and see it a second time, but am treasuring and reliving the memories of the first time in my head ever since. I think I've watched every single Heath movie a few dozen times since his death, excepting "Candy", which I can't watch for personal reasons. Watched BBM probably 100+ times since then. You are right in your description. Heath took a huge risk and turn of pace in being The Joker, but he most absolutely positively WAS that character -- grimacing and comical and horrifying and entertaining and mesmerizing. I was thinking the whole time that if he wasn't a homicidal maniac, I would give anything to have him as my best friend. If that makes any sense at all...
Genius, to the very end.
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