Oscar Buzz for Heath

[**Julie**]

Oscar buzz for Heath

The Daily Telegraph

June 28 2008

HIS sad passing drew the curtain on his promising film career but Heath Ledger is poised for his first Oscar after his role as in the upcoming Batman movie scored him the most influential praise yet.

In his critique this week of the upcoming flick The Dark Knight, Rolling Stone magazine's film editor Peter Travers has called for Ledger to be awarded the ultimate acting gong for his performance.

Describing his portrayal of The Joker as "mad-crazy-blazing brilliant," Travers flagged an Academy push for the posthumous prize.

"It's typical of Ledger's total commitment to films as diverse as Brokeback Mountain and I'm Not There that he did nothing out of vanity or the need to be liked."

"Ledger's Joker has no gray areas - he's all rampaging id," he writes. "He creates a Joker for the ages."

The Aussie actor, who died from an accidental drug overdose in January, had been nervous over the anticipation for the film and the role most famously portrayed by the great Jack Nicholson.

Comparisons aside, Travers has championed Ledger for his own Oscar gold.

"If there's a movement to get him the first posthumous Oscar since Peter Finch won for 1976's Network, then sign me up."

Ledger and a special-effects technician, who also died before the superhero movie's release, will be remembered with a joint, onscreen dedication.

The four-line tribute, "In memory of our friends Heath Ledger and Conway Wickliffe," will roll in the end credits, Warner Bros said yesterday.

The Dark Knight opens next month.

[KaitieL]

Now I don't doubt that he's a really good actor, but would they be making all this fuss if he was still alive? I don't seem to think so and I get the feeling that people are just trying to cash in on his death. Now doubt that this movie is going to be huge. People who normally don't like Batman will go just because it was his last movie.

[Mez83]

^ I don't really think you can say that until you see how he acts the part as the joker. From what I've heard, he's awesome and it's his best movie yet.

[Pierced Musie]

This buzz was going round before his death. When he was first cast as The Joker, millions of fangirl/boy hearts burst with excitement.

I know mine did.

[emmasi]

I seem to remember there being a massive buzz about him being the Joker even before he died (posted at the same time Musie!), so I don't think that's what's going on here. I also don't think that it would do any good to compare him to Jack Nicholson, which that reviewer is wise about, because from the little I've seen of Heath's performance it's nothing like Jack's - Jack's was a campy comic book character, which is how all those old Batman movies were made, and they were brilliant in their own right, but Heath seems to have played it as if The Joker was a real live psychopath - not campy, SCARY. There was a guy dressed as his version of the Joker at Supanova - creeped me out, even though it was obviously just a fan with a good eye for detail lol. I'm really looking forward to seeing the movie, and going by the rest of the cast, this won't be a typical genre flick - it's going to be huge. I saw a billboard for it and had to do a double-take to make sure that I was reading all the names right - there's like 6 or 7 critically acclaimed superstars... for a Batman movie It's already blowing my mind... and I'm sure by the time I actually see Heath as the Joker (who was always my favourite Batman villain) I probably won't be able to speak

I swear I'm not a Batman fangirl, lol, I just got a little excited thinking about the movie...

In conclusion, yeah, I'd very much believe that Heath is worthy of an oscar nomination for this movie. Even without having seen it, by all reports, he is like Satan himself - scary and evil beyond all reason, but a powerful force to be reckoned with.

[Formerly Known as FKAJ]

I don't deny that Heath is deserving of an Oscar, but I don't know that a Batman movie would be the best vehicle to demonstrate his talents. If he only he'd had the chance at another Brokeback Mountain or Ned Kelly. Then again, Sigouney Weaver was nominated for Aliens.

[emmasi]

It's a shame in a way that Candy was an Australian film. If it had been American, he'd have got that Oscar already. Not that I'd change that movie for the sake of getting an Oscar - I love it how it is.

I think that Jake Gyllenhaal gave the better performance in Brokeback Mountain. Maybe I just liked his character better.

[KaitieL]

Ah ok, I didn't know how much of a deal it was before he died. I hadn't heard anything - must have been living under a rock.

I just don't want to see the movie bosses cashing in on his death, it's disrespectful.