When early reviews of the latest Batman flick, The
Dark Knight (which opened last weekend), started surfacing a few weeks ago, I
couldn’t help but be cynical. Critics, reputable ones, used words like "brilliant” (Rolling Stone) and “terrifying” (New York Times) to describe the
late Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker. Folks were chanting “Oscar”
before the thing even got spooled up on the reels.

In stills from the film, the character appeared
shabby and greasy – like Johnny Depp’s Willy Wonka with a bad hangover. And how
“brilliant” could a grown man in smeared clown makeup possibly be? We’re
talkin’ Batman here, not Gone With the Wind.

And then I saw The Dark Knight for myself. All I can
say is HOLY CRAP!

It’s tempting to bust out all the appropriate
critic-speak (“multi-layered,” “nuanced,” “electrifying,” etc.), but none of it
would be adequate to describe how amazing Ledger’s Joker truly is. It’s almost
as if the drab clothing and half-assed makeup (it looked half-assed, but was
somehow perfect) created an empty vessel for the actor to fill with a numbing,
complicated evil.

Director Christopher Nolan promised that we “would
be blown away” by the Joker. And I am. Unlike the vain, stylish Jack Nicholson
“Joker” from Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, Ledger’s villain is intelligent, droll,
unspeakably cruel, and absolutely relentless. It’s not greed or a lust for power
that drives him: It’s a sociopathic rage so deep that he seems to have
forgotten exactly where it came from.

And if the “empty vessel” idea seems a bit on the
philosophical side, Nolan’s interpretation of the character is very much a
study in Eastern philosophy and Western psychology. In a particularly tense
scene with Aaron Eckhart (in the dual role of good guy Harvey Dent and bad guy
Two-Face), Ledger’s Joker, disturbing even in a nurse’s uniform and a wig, sums
it up like this: “I’m an agent of chaos – and we all know what chaos is.” He
leans into Eckhart and mutters seductively, “Fear.”

As with all great film villains, this Joker is also
charming as hell. He may be Gacy-style crazy, but the guy never loses his cool.
And even though this film is two and a half hours long (you’ll need a catheter
to watch the whole thing comfortably), it flies by. In my estimation, Christian
Bale as “Batman” is kind of an empty (bat)suit compared to the titanic talent
of the supporting cast (Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman,
Maggie Gyllenhaal). But, with Ledger around, it hardly matters. Batman is
simply there to give the Joker something to do.

I can say, unequivocally, that I believe Ledger deserves an
Oscar for this performance – and not because he got robbed for 2005’s Brokeback
Mountain (as did director Ang Lee, who should have won Best Picture over the
forgettable Crash), but because he’s created a truly iconic character. And,
though critics suspect Ledger’s posthumous Oscar will remain out of reach
because the Batman franchise is viewed as “popcorn” fare, I would argue that
his performance is every bit as thought-provoking and intense as Javier
Bardem’s villainous turn in 2007’s No Country for Old Men. Bardem, who won
Best Supporting Actor last year, played a similar character in the film – but
his role required only a fraction of the vivid, warped mania that Ledger had to
conjure for The Dark Knight.

Though I’ll refrain from buying into the rumor that
the sleeping pills and anxiety medication that caused his accidental overdose
were a byproduct of the role, I will say that it’s a shame this talented guy,
only 28 at the time of his passing, couldn’t have stuck around longer. Jeff
Robinov, president of Warner Brothers Pictures Group, told the New York Times
that, in light of the tragedy, director Nolan felt a “massive sense of
responsibility” to do right by Mr. Ledger’s “terrifying, amazing” performance.
He has done exactly that. And if this is to represent Ledger’s
final work (he died during early production for Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium
of Doctor Parnassus), we could hardly have asked for better.

Hopefully, the Academy will put aside the hype and the biases this January and give Ledger the nomination (and the Oscar) he so richly deserves.

Wendy Case is the MOLI View's contributing editor for Arts & Entertainment.