Yesterday I went to see Michael Clayton at the Arclight in Hollywood. (Yes, I guess it is worth $12 a ticket plus $2 in parking to avoid the rabble; this was a much better movie-going experience than I had last week.) The usher introduced the film as two hours of George Clooney, which it is. (Someday, I have to write a blog about the Arclight ushers.) However, before the film itself began, we in the audience had to watch half a dozen trailers. The first one disturbed me so much that I still haven't quite come to terms with it.
It's for the film The Dark Knight, the latest Batman movie. The movie doesn't open until this summer, but the trailers are already on the screens. Thankfully, I haven't seen one on television yet, but can it be long before that happens too? I did see Batman Begins, the first of the series to feature Christian Bale as the title hero. However, what sets this new film apart from the rest is the actor playing the main villain. It's Heath Ledger as the Joker.
Now, perhaps it's a coincidence that the trailer was shown the same week as Ledger's funeral in Australia and just one day after the release of the toxicology report that led to a ruling of accidental overdose in his recent death. But I couldn't help but think this was an attempt by Warner Brothers to capitalize on the news coverage, to get themselves some publicity while one of the actors was being discussed so much. There's no pressing reason to advertise a film in February that isn't scheduled to open until July. Couldn't the studio have waited, say, another month before starting to show advertisements for it? I hope that I'm wrong because I don't want to believe that a studio could be so uncaring about the feelings of the Ledger family, so unsympathetic even to the feelings of the moviegoing public who perhaps haven't yet come to terms with the young actor's sad death. As little as I often like the studio system nowadays, I don't want that to be the case. But the trailer is an intriguing one. The image of Ledger in his Joker make-up is withheld for a long time, building the suspense for the revealing of his face. It makes me a little suspicious that it's been edited that way.
Maybe it's just too soon to be seeing Ledger in his final performance as an actor. I'm certain the reviews are all going to mention his death. I almost wish the studio would pull the film and reshoot it with someone else in the part. I know that isn't financially sound advice, but it seems that the release of the film is likely to engender a couple of expected responses: people who are going out of some sort of morbid fascination to see the performance "that killed him" or people who are upset with the studio for exploiting the death of an actor in order to make more profits. I think you can tell which camp I am in at this point.
2 comments:
I'm not sure I think that the studio is really going to capitalize on his death.
I saw the trailer weeks ago, being married to a fan of the Batman franchise, and heard of Ledger taking the role before production even started. I have been in eager anticipation of the movie, and even more intrigued that Ledger was going to take on the role of the Joker, one so sinister and manical.
Ledger's death came as a terrible shock, I even teared up, which I've never done for a celebrity that died, although I was really sad when Jim Henson died. Anyhow, I probably will see the Batman movie opening weekend, as I did the first installment, and I think it will be comforting to see Legder do what he does best -- act.
I don't think that Ledger would want anyone else in the part that he put so much effort into. Of course I don't know him personally, but I know that if I was working on a work of art passionately, and I happened to die before it was released, well, I would still want people to see it, to see me...you and I communicated about the movie the Misfits, how disturbing it was, not only because of the content, but because of the actors in the movie that were near the brink of death. I'm going to wager that you struggle with the tragic art in the film reflecting the tragedy in the actor's life, and also I think that you are very emotionally attached to the concept of privacy. Of course I don't know if this true, but I get the feeling. Privacy is a tricky thing -- it cavorts with other things like lonliness, identity, possession, persona, and even things like reality and conciousness. It can be a touchy subject.
I don't think Ledger would have wanted anything about the production to change, and I am going to see it, with sadness, of course, with a little morbid fascination, but, ultimately I feel a whole lot of respect for the guy. I get it. Money, fame, art, sex...sometimes it's not enough. Sometimes the monster gets us, and we don't get to be the hero -- sometimes the villan is more confortable. Sometimes the villan wins.
I understand completely your perspective on this, and I think you are quite likely correct about how Ledger would feel about his "final" work. I do hope that it gets the kind of respectful attention that it deserves. It was just such a nerve that it struck that day with me.
You are correct in your analysis of my attachment to privacy. It's odd that you mentioned The Misfits because I remember you and I having that conversation. It's as if there are moments when the actors in that film are no longer in character. They are just themselves, and we are allowed to see into their hearts and into their minds. For me, it's an incredibly uncomfortable feeling because of what is so often contained there: all of the pain and rage and despair and hope that one feels. It's almost as if I'd prefer not to know that about the people in the movies that I see. Yet, of course, that isn't possible either. We do spend so much time watching films with certain performers looking for exactly those cues. I'm thinking here of Judy Garland in A Star Is Born or Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris or any number of other performances.
I guess that's what I'm wondering about in terms of Ledger's performance in this Batman movie. Are we going to have that same window into his soul open up? Will we see all of the torment and pain that he endured, all of that agony that we've come to hear about? Will people go looking for it now that it's been in the news? How are we going to deal with it if we are given access to it?
I don't know that I could watch it myself. I don't even know how I'm going to sit down and watch Brokeback Mountain again for The Oscar Project now. That movie already makes me cry at the final scene, and now all of this just seems to make it even more resonant but in a desperately sad kind of way.
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