DARK NIGHTS

“Step aside, Spider-Man 2 and Superman II,” says People Magazine. “The phenomenal The Dark Knight now reigns as the greatest superhero film of all time... While [Christian ‘Batman’] Bale again astounds, The Dark Knight’s real star is the late [Heath] Ledger.”

Listen to these pans of Ledger’s performance as the villainous Joker... “I’m tired of the early Oscar talk too, but when you’re talking the best performance in years, if not decades, it’s worth talking about.” Or try: “I can only speak superlatives of Ledger, who is mad-crazy-blazing brilliant as the Joker.”

Heath Ledger was a talented actor. His credits include 19 films, most notably Monster’s Ball, Brokeback Mountain, and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. I especially enjoyed him in The Patriot, as Gabriel Martin, the independent, eldest son who moves into manhood all-too-quickly, witnessing the horrifying carnage resulting from the Revolutionary War.

But even though I, too, was a Ledger fan, there is something about the current rave reviews and Oscar rumblings that make me uncomfortable.

Ledger died at the age of 28 from an accidental drug overdose. Note his interview with the New York Times 2 months prior to his death, having recently completed filming The Dark Knight: "Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night. ... I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." Ledger said prescription drugs were not helping. It is reported that Ledger suffered significant insomnia and nightmares, as he portrayed a character dripping with evil. This wasn’t your DC Comics Joker or the 1960’s Cesar Romero, whose comedy-themed crimes entertained some of us as children. Ledger’s character was, according to film reviewers at www.pluggedinonline.com, “an embodiment of nihilism, a manifestation of pure, unapologetic evil.” In other words, the role had the potential to create in its portrayer an unprecedented “disturbedness.”

Shortly after Ledger’s death in January of 2008, Jack Nicholson, who played the Joker in 1989, simply and eerily stated, “I warned him.”

My question is this... Obviously, the ability to portray a character so striking showcases Ledger’s natural talent. He was gifted. But if that role led Ledger to the nightmares, prompted such unrest, and motivated him to take an overabundance of pills (oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine) - should we be celebrating that role? Should we ignore the impact that role had on his mind? Would Ledger even want us to honor a performance which polluted his head with pure, unapologetic evil?

When the Oscar winners are announced on Sunday, February 22nd, I will tearfully smile when I remember Heath Ledger and his consummate gifts. Yet if the Academy awards him the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his 2008 Joker performance, I’m not sure I can applaud.


AR