January 5, 2009

• i’m catching up on some blogs that i missed while i was out and expectedly there are a lot of Best of 2008 lists.  expectedly again, The Dark Knight is on almost all of them.  (Best Hardwood Floor Scrubber of 2008 is…. The Dark Knight!)  though most people seemed to have come to their own conclusion that Heath Ledger and The Dark Knight are indeed worthy of praise and not just beneficiaries of Ledger’s sudden death, there are still little contrarian pockets out there that claim that The Joker is being praised solely because he died.  in response to that i have two words: River Phoenix. 

  River Phoenix was another beloved young actor who was showing some signs of serious potential.  Running On Empty was his breakthrough film performance that earned him an Oscar nomination.  no one said one peep about his latest films when he died several years later.  he wasn’t unpopular and his career wasn’t in decline.  the roles simply weren’t worth celebrating.  while it definitely happens sometimes, hollywood and the world don’t always dump praise where praise isn’t worthy just to capitalize on misfortune, and imo, definitely not this time.  sometimes we get it right. 

  to conclude that The Dark Knight and/or Ledger’s performance aren’t worth unanimous praise is one thing.  you are free to judge as you see it, like i am free to judge you an idiot.  but to say that the world is being lead by a sensationalist media to see something that isn’t there, you’d be denying yourself the pleasure of witnessing a great thing in the making.  decades later from now, Heath Ledger’s death will be a footnote, but his Joker will be enduringly featured as one of the best ever. 

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