by Christina Anderson

Created on: March 25, 2009   Last Updated: March 26, 2009

I definitly believe so, to those of us who know all the Batman movies by heart and have always looked forward to the personality differences in the villains, The Dark Knight was a huge highlight in the saga. The Batman movies have always made the characters open our eyes and even our hearts to see them in a different light. The Penguin who really wanted to know his parents made us pity him and still feel sick in the pits of our stomach. Hoping for him to have a happy ending, yet also wanting to see him go down. The Iceman, wanting to save his wife and just not doing it the right way. Purest of intentions, yet still a bad guy due to his behavior.

Then there was Joker. The reason that I always loved him was that he shocked me and made me laugh at the same time. He was a bad guy that you loved for his humor and hated for being the bad guy. All the jokers in the cartoons and movies had that connection. They laughed, looked funny, and were also a villian. Small story lines in the big picture. I never read much more into it then that. I connected with them as much as you can a villain, and waited for justice to prevail. But Heath, he took Joker to a whole new level of excitement and made me forget about the big picture and just get lost in the moment. Forget that you are watching a movie. Isn't that the point; to get out of your own head for just a little while and get in someone else's?

When Heath took the stage he upstaged anyone there. Where as in previous Batman movies, Joker was always a secondary character. When Heath did Joker it was unlike any other Batman movie. He actually took the focus off of Batman and put it on himself. In my opinion, they should have changed the name to Joker, not The Dark Knight. I had no idea that it was even Heath as Joker. I was so lost in the character not seeing Heath as I had in any other roll, but at the edge of my seat waiting to see what he would do next.

When he first showed up on the seen his voice and his movements. The way he was the character, licking his lips, he took over the movie. He would make it so you couldn't take your eyes off the screen. I would listen to his voice as he spoke and get lost in his laugh. He entranced me in The Dark Knight in ways that A Knight's Tale never did.

Though I have always loved Heath in his bad boy model look, in my opinion, that role as Joker was the best of his career. I believe that no matter who it was, if they did that role as well as Heath did, they should get an Oscar as well. You have to give credit where credit is due, and to Heath, major credit is due.

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