It was the best performance of his career (yes I think it was better than his performance in Brokeback Moutain). It was, in my opinion the single greatest performance ever given in a comic book based movie (yes, that includes Ian McKellen as Magneto in the X-Men flix). It was also one of the best all round performances of the year, so clearly and understandably many people have been talking about a possible Oscar nomination for Heath Ledger for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight.
The thing is, most people up to this point have been talking about that possible Oscar Nomination in he context of Best SUPPORTING Actor… you know… because he was a supporting actor in the movie. But there have been some people poking their heads up to suggest that Warner Bros. should push for Ledger to be considered in the Best Actor category. A move that I contend would be both technically incorrect and an attempt to capitalize on the tragic death of Ledger.
#1 – TECHNICALLY INCORRECT
From a technically correct perspective, this has been a real issue with me for a couple of years now. To me, when you don’t have a clear definition of a category or fail to respect the categories boundaries… then that category looses all credibility and meaning. There are two categories… Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. Sometimes a film clearly has two leads who share essentially the same screen time and number of pages. The horrible DiNero and Pacino film “Righteous Kill” would be an example of that. But in The Dark Knight, The Joker was not the lead character. Yes he stole the movie, I completely agree with that… but that doesn’t make him the lead and as such he is a supporting character.
The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is NOT a consolation prize. It’s not a second rate award. It is an award of excellence for those who filled roles of supporting characters. When people try to blur the lines between them I believe it degrades and demeans the category all together.
Heath Ledger is in the opening sequence of the film, but then disappears for a good amount of time before re-emerging at the mob boss meeting. He’s also missing for most of the third act of the film. NONE OF THAT DIMINISHES HIS IMPORTANCE OR HOW WELL HE PLAYED THE ROLE. It just highlights that he was not the “lead”. There is nothing wrong with that. “Best Lead Actor” does not mean better or worse than whoever is “Best Supporting Actor”. They’re just different roles that need to be played. But they are different and there are two different categories for a reason. Heath was magnificent… but The Joker was a supporting character, not the lead.
#2 – MORALLY WRONG
There were some people who charged that Warner Bros. were capitalizing on the death of Heath Ledger because of how they were marketing The Dark Knight. I firmly disagreed with them on this charge. I actually believe that Warner showed great class in how they handled the tragic passing of Ledger and didn’t feel they, in any way, attempted to cash in on the news of his death. I was afraid we’d see commercials and billboards proclaiming “See Heath Ledgers’ final complete performance… yadda yadda yadda”, but they never came. If anything they underplayed it and I believe they deserve much credit for that.
However, should WB make a move to push Ledger into LEAD Actor consideration, I think they’d erase all of that. In my opinion it would be nothing short of a stab at pulling money out of a dead man’s wallet, trying to capitalize on the buzz and tragedy all to gain higher exposure for their film. No one understand that business is business better than I do… and I don’t fault a studio trying to discover ways to make more money… but to me this would be such an overtly slime move that I’d recoil.
It should be mentioned that WB has not said that they’d push for a best LEAD nomination for Ledger at this point. That’s just what some pundits out there are speculating… but you know they’re considering it. And considering is fine… just don’t do it. It would be both the technically and morally incorrect thing to do.
For an opposite point of view with some good thoughts, check out the article over at In Contention.
