How did the late Heath Ledger steal the show (and ace Jack's Joker) as Batman's new nemesis in the hotly anticipated Dark Knight?
KEY POINTS:
The much anticipated sequel to the 2005 action hit Batman Begins stars Christian Bale reprising his role as the Caped Crusader/Bruce Wayne, and introduces an electrifying performance from the late Heath Ledger, delivering one of the most menacing villains we've seen since Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter. In short, Ledger steals the movie in his last foray on the big screen.
Batman Begins director Christopher Nolan gathers the famed Bat-cast: Michael Caine as Batman's faithful butler Alfred, Gary Oldman as Lieutenant-turned-Commissioner Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, and newcomer Aaron Eckhart as District Attorney Harvey Dent aka Harvey Two Face.
Thankfully, critically acclaimed Maggie Gyllenhaal replaces the utterly forgettable Katie Holmes in her role as Rachel Dawes, the object of both Batman and Dent's affections.
With a darker tone than its predecessor (which raked in US$370 million at the box office), which was mainly centred on the origins of Batman himself, The Dark Knight is a contemporary movie with political overtones. It opens with a bank heist sequence that sets in motion the criminal rampage of the Joker and reveals him to be the brilliant-yet-deadly mastermind.
He may look like Marilyn Manson on steroids; however, he is clearly in control of the heinous plans put on the good people of Gotham City and his media-savvy methods are reminiscent of a modern-day terrorist. The Joker, a sado-masochist, isn't motivated by money. He is inspired to wreak havoc and chaos for the pure joy of evil itself.
Says Christian Bale: "The first scene I did with Heath was in the interrogation room. I saw in him a hell of an actor who was completely committed to the character and he totally got the tone of what Christopher Nolan was trying to do. It wasn't just an actor revealing his enjoyment of playing a wacky caricature. It was treated as a serious drama, as ridiculous as that might sound. But Heath embraced it. And as you see in the movie, Batman starts beating him up but the Joker enjoys it. And Heath was behaving in a similar way. He was egging me on to hit him harder because he said it would look better," Bale recalls, shaking his head. "And then when Heath took the mask off, he was great company to be around.
"The problem with his performance is that I doubt any actor is going to want to do a Batman sequel as the Joker. Heath has raised the bar and made it impossible to follow."
Shot primarily in Chicago (including the Sears Tower, the tallest building in the United States), this two-and-a-half-hour sequel features spectacular aerial shots and costume designs, even more so than in Batman Begins.
Nolan is the first director to use IMAX cameras (including the opening six minutes) to film sequences in a traditional feature film release. This enables some of the action scenes to be shot with a realism rarely seen. And due to a high-tech bat-suit, Bale was able to do most of the fight scenes himself and didn't have to rely on special effects as much as he did previously. Of course, Bale had to bulk up for the role, and as per his past characters - from The Machinist in which he lost 27kg, to buffing up for American Psycho - he is no stranger to shape-shifting his form for the sake of cinema accuracy.
Says Nolan: "We all felt a challenge to build on what we'd done in the first film. For me, the idea of doing a sequel was, you have to make it better or bigger or more vital. Otherwise, why bother?"
In this superhero-infested blockbuster season, The Dark Knight, from DC Comics and reinvented by artist Frank Miller, is in another league to the Marvel mob of The Incredible Hulk and the critically acclaimed Iron Man.
The legacy of Batman has never relied on bland, black-and-white characters. Batman isn't endowed with superpowers, and is presented as very relatable (as far as comic book heroes go) yet complex and three dimensional. And, like real life, he doesn't always get the girl, and he doesn't always win the fight. Bale is without question the most similar to the original comic book hero compared to our former rubber-clad actors Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer or George Clooney.
But arguably, this is Ledger's movie and Oscar buzz is rife in Hollywood at the notion Ledger may garner a posthumous Academy Award. Nolan says: "I'm gratified that people are receiving his performance the way I know he intended it to be taken. My responsibility was to make sure we crafted that performance in the right way."
Like Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow in The Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Ledger appeared to be channelling Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten, a touch of Buster Keaton, with some Charlie Chaplin movements thrown in. Says Nolan: "We also talked about the character of Alex in A Clockwork Orange. He's an anarchist but somehow has great charisma.
"Obviously I was impressed with his performance in Brokeback Mountain and, like most actors who put so much into their performance, I was worried Heath might take himself too seriously. But he didn't. He was very warm and fun to have around. A great collaborator and, really, just a lovely person."
There's no doubt that the screen comes alive when Ledger appears. Of course, there are eerie moments, and some that take you out of the movie experience, in particular when The Joker wields a gun, pointing it at himself. Understandably, we are jolted back into the inescapable grim reality of Ledger's death in January of this year and the horrific images of real life tragedy spring to mind.
It's not surprising that Ledger had difficulty sleeping during the filming of this dark epic, but speculation that this condition contributed to his death is completely false.
Oldman scoffs at the idea. "Because of his death, people are looking for a darker story than there really is. But as intense as he was, I remember sitting down on the curb with him. He was having a laugh, a cigarette and hanging out talking about his daughter Matilda," he says.
"The thing is, Heath discovered something. Just like Jack Nicholson in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, or even Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet. It's when an actor goes through the sound barrier. That's what Heath did. He went to a place that is definitely among the scariest screen villains I've ever seen. But he wasn't a method actor. People say Christian is a method actor. Well, he's still alive, isn't he? And I'm still here, too. So, I think it was probably just a case of a tragic accident. It wasn't the Joker that drove him to ... [his death]."
Oldman smiles. "Heath's probably looking down at us going, 'I can't believe I'm going to get an Oscar'."
LOWDOWN
What: The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman franchise reinvention Batman Begins, again directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart.
Opens: July 24
