"The Dark Knight" (2008) Directed by Christopher Nolan

“Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I’m an agent of chaos”.

“The Joker” (Heath Ledger) Whilst a Batman film, Heath Ledger’s performance is so astonishing as to steal the film completely in much the same way as Jack Nicholson did so brilliantly in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman. Both times the Batman characterisations are excellent, both here from a returning and brilliant again Christian Bale and Michael Keaton’s underrated portrayal in 1989. Here though is Ledger’s stage and his take on a favourite character of many people’s youth, but twisted and adapted for the 21st Century.

His psychopathy is balanced unevenly with his regular turns of phrase and cutting gags which are interspersed with brutal violence and a complete detachment from the situation. The drivers for his psychopathy are immediately evident yet as the film and performance progresses these can be disregarded as The Joker wants one thing, and one thing only. Batman takes second billing to a phenomenal tour de force performance from Heath Ledger which is astonishing and his portrayal without equal.

Every head tilt, his languid style, poise and presence is perfection, and his use of the screenplay and his particular cryptic language is superb. Every scene that Ledger is in (though less than you would imagine if you haven’t seen this film) you are drawn to his performance, and every second he is on screen he is mesmerising. A real loss to film and a loss to life itself, this is both The Joker’s finest moment, and Heath Ledger’s cinematic legacy.

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The above paragraphs are taken from my very first written blog from over a decade ago and first opus blog on the entire career of a director and namely, Christopher Nolan. The original blog article containing the entire career of Christopher Nolan, from "Following" in 1998 through to "Tenet" in 2020 is linked below and can be read in full and for free:

https://medium.com/@stephenblackford561/christopher-nolan-and-his-entire-cinematic-catalogue-ed5c07e44a67

This spoiler free review is also integral to my 7 volumes of "essential film reviews collection". Currently only available as an e-book, each huge volume of multiple film reviews are priced at £4.99 per volume, however should you have an Amazon Kindle "Unlimited" package you can read each and every volume for free:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4HZSTTH?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn

https://www.patreon.com/TheBlackfordBookClub
https://www.paypal.me/TheBlackfordBookClub
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/steveblackford

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