thematahara

Yes I believe Heath's performance will go down as one of the best acting performances of all time. Watching the film, if I had no idea who was playing the Joker I would never have guessed it was Ledger, and not because of the make-up. It was a complete transformation. His appearance, speech, walk, everything was a complete performance.

Even when watching the truly great actors, you never forget who is playing the character. Off the top of my head, I cant remember the last time I witnessed an actor transform so much for a role. Nicholson, DeNiro, Pacino, Hackman, Duvall, Eastwood, Hanks, Brando are all fantastic actors, but for better or worse, their roles always retain a certain amount of themselves.

For the record, I was nowhere near a Heath Ledger fan prior to this movie. In fact, I didnt like him at all. Every other time I saw him I still pictured him as the guy singing on the bleachers to Julia Styles in 10 Things I Hate About You.

I cant remember being left in complete awe by a performance like I was with his Joker. Give the man an oscar already and put this one down as one of the all-time greats.

Thoughts?

RichC2

Thoughts? This didn't really deserve its own thread and is just asking for a flame war.

Michael Corvin

Moving to Batman sub-forum.

JPRaup

No need for another thread, but I completely agree. I was actually trying to recognize Ledger during the movie, and could barely even picture him under the make-up, that's how damn good he was.

lopper

Really?

You couldn't recognize someone underneath a bunch of make up and prosthetics?

He really was amazing. Somebody nominate this guy for sainthood already.

Michael Corvin

That credit would go to the make-up and visual effects department not Ledger.

rw2516

There is a movie called THE LIST OF ADRIAN MESSENGER. It features Tony Curtis, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra and George C. Scott. They are all in make-up/disguise. The ads for the film dare you to try and figure out who's playing which characters. You can't. The end credits show each actor removing his makeup/disguise.

PopcornTreeCt

Noirfan is going to kill himself. Nice going.

Seantn

I wouldn't call it a "bunch" of prosthetics. Besides the scars on his face, what else was there?

Seantn

Partially, but I didn't recognize his voice or the way he was acting. With Jack Nicholson you'd have to be blind and deaf to not know who that was (which is not knocking him at all, I'm just saying that Heath really got into this part)

Maxflier

Besides being a huge Batman fan, I can't wait to see this movie just to see for myself if Heath Ledger's performance really is all that or just hype.

JPRaup

I was talking about the way he moved his mouth, the way he moved, everything about the physical aspect of his performance was so far from playing himself that he completely transformed for the role.

lopper

The "bunch" was referring to the make-up, not the prosthetics.

My apologies for the confusion.

Cornelius1047

My thoughts exactly.

Wait, you're a huge Batman fan and you haven't seen this yet? Go. Go now. No, no, no, I don't want to hear it. Go now. Immediately.

K

tucker

haha

there should be sub-form!

Maxflier

With the exception of Star Wars movies, I never see any big movies on opening weekend. I always wait at least a week or 2 because I don't like packed theaters.

Drop

It was a great performance, but I had no trouble seeing Heath in it. It's not big deal though, great is great.

But of all time? I don't know, not yet. I think there is a certain amount of excitement and hype that clouds his performance a little. It seems like a very fun role to play and I don't think emotionally he was stretched that far, he had about two modes he was in, psychotic and mastermind, often at the same time. He had to push himself, but mostly in one direction. He did a lot of great little things that created a character and depth without having to know a history. Most of all he was an absolute joy to watch.

I'd compare him to Depp's Jack Sparrow in that regard, but better if just because he's grounded slightly more in reality. But the problem I have with roles like that is they get to go to place that isn't exactly real so they have more room to breath. I'm more impressed by someone playing a normal person that goes through a wide emotional range and completely pulls it off, even if it isn't as fun.

Seantn

You probably shouldn't see this one for at least 2 more weeks in that case.

PopcornTreeCt

I'm going to go as far as saying he was much better than Javier Bardem in NCFOM and Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter. I think he put in the best "supporting" performance I've ever seen.

That's my opinion after seeing it twice.

Groucho

It was a very good performance, but it wasn't even the best performance in the film. (That would be Oldman).

B5Erik

I guess you haven't seen Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York. Now THAT was a transformation. The guy's accent changed continents and eras, his physical demanor changed - that was a complete transformation, and it's not the first time that DDL did it, either.

You're just on a TDK high right now...

Supermallet

Agreed.

mcnabb

I love TDK, but I think people need to temper on Ledgers performance. Not that it wasn't great, cause it was, but when you start throwing around 'greatest performance of alltime' I think it is a bit much. When you are villain, you can go anywhere with that character, especially psychotic like his character. Many people are saying it blows Nicolson's Joker performance away, but they are two different Batman movies with two different styles. Batman '89 was more campy, and not so serious, so Nicholson played it over the top in a comical way, TDK is a more adult serious drama that Ledger had to play it more pyschotic, yet not too campy. Both depictions of the Joker were great, and they were just playing them to the tone of each movie.

Supermallet

It's only more campy by comparison to TDK. At the time, Batman '89 was considered very dark and brooding. The only point of comparison back then was the 60's TV show, which was all camp.

The Cow

I thought the Gordon performance and the Harvey Dent performances were both better.

But bottom line, these were all good because of the direction and production.