Piling on the praises for Batman

Went and saw Batman Dark knight with Anthony this weekend. I am joining hands with all those who admire and praise the movie. I am a hard movie goer to please. I over scrutinize the plots, the story, the message, the emotion, the delivery, effects, imagery and impact a movie has on me. I am rarely impressed. I enjoyed the movie although, I am sure for an entire different set of reasons than most people. It drives me crazy that I can’t enjoy a movie. Because I examine the story so much I often don’t even pick up on how well an actor is doing in his/her role. I am considering each line not how well it was acted. Until I saw Batman. I was completely floored by Heath. Mouth agape I marveled at how much more he added to the movie with his presence. I am not saying this to honor the dead. Despite what has happened to him since filming, the role was acted marvelously.

Driving to work this morning I was wandering around the radio dial as each station would go to commercial break. I turned to one station as they were commenting that Heath Ledger did an OK job acting as Joker. They theorized that anyone could fill in the part in a sequal… even Bill Cosby. I was surprised to hear this as this radio DJ that was saying this is often gone from his radio show on different acting gigs. As an actor I would have thought he would be able to recognize good acting. At one point Heath says this line “I am like a dog chasing a car. I wouldn’t know what to do if I caught one” 95% of actors out there would just say the line the audience would glaze over it as we anxiously wait for the next explosion or some skin. The way Heath said it made a chuckle rumble through the crowd. Here is a villain that we hate, but we all of a sudden find him humorous and witty just because of acting. When you write something like that, there is no better villain you could create. One you hate but like. One you want to see lose, but also feed bad when they do. You write something like that and it is genius. I think Heath pulled more out of that role and took it a step beyond what the writers even intended. I found myself wishing Joker were in every scene. Until I saw this movie I don’t think I had very much respect for what actors do. For the most part I think they are way over compensated. A movie is made or broken in it’s writing. I present The Office as exhibit A. I have heard several people comment that Steve Caroll is the best actor because in The Office the audience feels embarrassed, feels sorry for, loves, hates, and adores Michael Scott. I submit that it is decent acting, but the writing is what makes Michael Scott such an intriguing role. So many times people confuse good writing with good acting. That’s where we get actors like Keanu Reeves and Nicolas Cage. Up until now I believed the best actors could only bring a movie to the level the writers intended it, nothing more and usually far less. In my opinion, Heath made Batman a fantastic movie out of a good movie. The next time, or if it is the first time you are watching the movie, pay attention to how the tone of the movie drops down just a bit when the Joker is off screen and how it bumps back up a few notches whenever he is back on screen. That is all because of acting not so much writing… and that sort of acting commands my respect.