by Thaxton Lewis

Created on: January 05, 2009

It seems inevitable that people would move toward discrediting an Oscar nomination for an actor or motion picture simply because it is based on a comic book or comic book characters.

It is strange that in the homeland of animation, of comic books, that the American public, so deeply into these stories as cinema, would not want to pay respect to the performers and performances that bring them to life.

Heath Ledger took a very well known cultural Icon and elevated it to a status that I do not think a comic book villain has ever been brought to before.

His representation of the Joker, a dark, mysterious madman hellbent on turning Gotham inside out and proving that chaos is what truly governs the human heart, not decency or the facade of civilization, is a performance for the ages.

Ledger's Joker, though in makeup, though named the Joker, is not a funny guy. This is a serious, dangerous, brilliant, over the top villain who uses human psychology to manipulate all those around him.

This is a Joker who is not campy, not goofy, not watered down or funny. This is a ruthless, anarchistic killer, who sees corruption in ever human heart and wishes to exploit it because he can.

Presenting a character who has been portrayed by Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson in campy or strange ways, to making a character the main antagonist in one of the year's best criminal noir films, (because at it's heart the Dark Knight is crime noir), is an amazing accomplishment.

Heath Ledger is simply brilliant as the Joker, and it should not even be a question of whether or not his representation of the joker merits an Oscar, it has more than earned the Oscar.

If those who scrutinize cinema and give out those Oscars ignore this performance, so be it. They are only human beings after all, and old biases are hard to break.

However, that being said, we all know that this film, and this performance of the Joker, will not be trumped any time soon, and will remain the penultimate representation of the Joker, across mediums. This includes the very comic book origins of the Joker.

Already, in the world of comics, the Ledger representation of the Joker is influencing comic book writers and artists. It will influence others in the future.

So, if the Oscars do not acknowledge Ledger's great performance, time will, history will, and the world will.

But of course, is sure would be good if the Oscar's did too.

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