Welcome to the "Spoilers welcome" thread about The Dark Knight.
A similar, but "No-Spoiler" thread can be found in The Culture Tent forum here.
Clarissa
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23903388-5012980,00.htmlHeath Ledger's transformation left Caine speechlessShannon Harvey
June 22, 2008 12:00am
THEY say what's done on film can never be taken away. It's there forever - a permanent celluloid record for the world to see.
If that’s true, then from all accounts the world is about to see the crowning achievement of WA’s most successful Hollywood star. Sadly, Heath Ledger’s highly anticipated performance as The Joker in the upcoming Batman Begins sequel, The Dark Knight, will be his last full performance.
The 28-year-old was a third of the way through filming The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus when he died of an accidental overdose of prescription medication in New York. His role will be finished by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell.
Since news of Ledger’s death shook the world in January, the actor’s The Dark Knight co-stars have hailed his performance in the role made famous by Jack Nicholson in the original Batman film. Christian Bale, who returns as the Caped Crusader, told Details magazine: “He was incredibly intense in his performance but incredibly mellow and laid-back. I can’t do anything else but hope that it will be an absolutely appropriate celebration of his work.”
Michael Caine, who returns as the butler Alfred, said before Ledger’s death that he was so terrified by the actor’s transformation on set that he forgot his lines.
“You think Jack Nicholson in the role and you can’t imagine anyone topping him,” he said. “But Heath’s just as good in another direction. He’s terrifying. It will frighten the life out of people.”
Director Christopher Nolan has already dedicated the film to the late star’s memory, and is adding a dedication to the end of the film.
With Ledger’s villainous performance as the mass-murdering pyromaniac clown now getting Oscar heat, The Dark Knight has become the most anticipated film of 2008. Not just here in Ledger’s hometown of Perth, but all over the world, with predictions of record-breaking box office results. The odds are it will be the year’s highest grossing film.
Yet Ledger’s shock death has proved a sensitive issue for film studio Warner Bros., which is struggling to market The Dark Knight sensitively, without exploiting the star’s untimely death.
Executives have consulted the family every step of the way about how Ledger will appear in everything from trailers to posters.
It is, after all, a sensitive issue. Ledger’s ghostly looking Joker make-up doesn’t help the cause. There are persistent rumours the actor was haunted by playing such a crazed character, and that he was physically exhausted after a gruelling schedule away from family and friends.
Those and other much-publicised mysteries at the time led some to speculate that Ledger’s death wasn’t as accidental as it appeared.
Yet mystery has surrounded the roguish blonde with the big smile ever since he fled Perth with a few bucks in his pocket and drove his bombed-out car across the Nullarbor to chase fame and fortune in Sydney.
Blessed with good looks, confidence and an abundance of charm, Ledger had already impressed on stage at Guildford Grammar and as a gay cyclist on the local TV series Sweat.
Under the guidance of his business-minded father, Kim, Ledger rejected a long-term contract on Home and Away after appearing in a handful of episodes and landed a breakthrough role in the US series Roar.
His rugged turn had chins wagging in Hollywood and star-making roles followed in 10 Things I Hate About You, Two Hands and The Patriot, in which he co-starred with his boyhood idol, Mel Gibson.
Some choices turned out to be turkeys. Despite his rising stocks, A Knight’s Tale, The Four Feathers and Ned Kelly all flopped, and The Order was so bad it was renamed The Sin Eater in Australia.
Some critics labelled Ledger bland or unappealing. His handling of the media often made matters worse.
Although incredibly shy and uncomfortable in the spotlight, he toed the studio line by doing his share of interviews – where he had a habit of putting his foot in it.
He naively mocked the shark-attack death at Cottesloe beach of WA man Ken Crew, peeled and ate an orange during a TV interview and called then-PM John Howard “a dick”.
He goaded paparazzi with finger signs; they hit back with water pistols. While he often apologised for his faux pas, it was painfully obvious he struggled to deal with the trappings that go with being a young star.
He never really gave a candid, in-depth interview about what made him tick. Perhaps the walls were up. Perhaps he didn’t quite know.
Yet there was a clear sense that Ledger began to feel more at home in his skin during the last few years of his life, especially after his Oscar-nominated role in Brokeback Mountain, where he met Michelle Williams, the mother of his only child.
Ledger has said his favourite role was father to daughter Matilda, but he also became more accepting of his fame and more in charge of his career in his last few films.
And that flowed into his richer, more soulful and nuanced performances in his final films, Candy, I’m Not There and, by all accounts, The Dark Knight.
If Ledger was really coming into his own, then his bold, wild, off-kilter turn as The Joker will be something to see.
Will there ever be another Heath Ledger to come out of Perth? Of course not. He was one rogue cowboy who blazed a trail all the way from the most isolated capital city on earth to the capital of showbiz.
He left a legacy that will live on like his movies. He proved someone from Perth could make it in Hollywood, on their own terms. It’s a legacy currently being fulfilled by rugged Rockingham lad Sam Worthington, who leads the upcoming Hollywood blockbusters Avatar and Terminator 4, and local supermodels Emma Booth and Gemma Ward, who are receiving great reviews after switching from the catwalk to the silver screen.
Maybe there will be many more stars to come, but there will never be another Heath Ledger.
The Dark Knight opens in Perth on July 17.
