The
Dark Knight hit the screen with record-breaking numbers and universally
positive reviews, but I wonder how much of it is the Tupac Syndrome—the
idea that, once an artist is wacked or meets an untimely death—like Tupac
Shakur, for example-- his or her body of work, and especially their last completed work, is now the greatest example of the genre in the history of mankind.
NOT TRUE.
Not to needlessly knock the dead, but we need a reality check here: Heath Ledger was an Australian
acting import on par with Mel Gibson or Olivia Newton John. Ledger took some risky roles, but didn’t change
the game remarkably. He basically picked his roles 'by the numbers.' While
I’ll give that he puts a different stamp on the role of The Joker, I don’t
know if it was worthy of all the posthumous Oscar talk floating around. The film
owes as much to an inventive script and a stellar cast as it does to any one
actor. But we have a weird kind of snuff fetish with the works of the recently
departed, and I think Ledger benefits from that.
