the dark light

And people clapped beautifully. And we all understood, believed the same, even if for a spellbound moment. A glimmer of truth arose and spread its iridescent wings and encompassed us all in the dark auditorium, reminding us of sincere beauty, reclaiming it from the cryptic night - of what can be, what we will consummate. I thank from the bottom of my timeworn soul the Nolan brethren and all whom collaborated for The Dark Knight.

It is not too bold to declare this film, this exemplar of compromise, the most all-encompassing cinematic achievement of our history - so comely a message blazoned for the most embracing medium: the masses. The Dark Knight is "pitched at the divide between art and industry, poetry and entertainment", as Manohla Dargis (who has become to me the beacon of critical sanctity) annotates. This compromise, this consummation of the theatrical and sincere and of art and commodification encapsulates New Sincerity. Such the potential of Pop that it can enthrall and evoke, amuse and muse.

Furthermore, though tragic, I discover resplendent, purifying symbolism in the death of Heath Ledger, an artist lost before we were able to receive fully his alms. Beyond the exploration of primal moral complexities, The Dark Knight is the reflection, the symptomatic mirror, of an existence yearning to transition from the postmodern nihilism which broodingly afflicts it. The Joker, that projective figure of all damned postmodern indulgence, devices to triumphantly express to us, those seethed in caustic recklessness, that we are better than that, we are sheer potential ready to be noble. And more emphatically, revealing what we are not: chaotic, depraved, manufactured - this impediment something we were contrived and deceived into thinking. But, magnificently and humanly so, never believing.

As Batman himself espouses, and this not verbatim, Gotham needs a hero with a face, not a mask. Heath Ledger as The Joker embodies that last fancy of the antihero, of the masquerading figure which only desires glorification. In his last role, he became a martyr. For us, he died incarnating postmodernity, he died so that we could awaken truth in the symbolic manifest destiny of the film. As in art is in life, Heath's Joker symbolized the receding dark waves of postmodern excess and the coming tides of solace of New Sincerity. It was destined and it is to be willed!

The new artist will no longer be a veil, a face of many revolving mysteries. No, he will simply be - embracing his commodification, but not indulging it, endowing his real namesake, signifying wisdom over tact, purpose over advancement of personal celebrity.

heath ledger, aloha

Actors like Heath Ledger only come around every so often. In an industry that publicizes and herds every quasi-talented pretty face into leading man status, Heath rejected starring in hokey, uninspired studio fare. He rejected being a studio cash cow.

He was not merely an actor, but an artist. A student of the craft. A breed in entertainment becoming more difficult to come by. He enabled opportunities for cinema by choosing audaciously diverse roles. He enabled cinematic works that were impassioned to challenge, to explore human expression. He helped to ensure that such works would continue being made. By spurning trite commercial fare, he made a principled choice. Not many in his position do.

He was in a class with Gael, Gosling, and Gordon-Levitt as one of the brightest actors of our generation. He was just barely getting roles tailored for him. Perhaps he coulda been one of the greats. One thing is certain, we've lost a soldier in the good fight.

Brad Renfro, you will be remembered as well. Thank you for The Cure.