Roger Ebert doesn’t get The Joker
July 24th, 2008 by Justin Richards in FilmHere he is on Heath Ledger’s character:
His clown’s makeup more sloppy than before, his cackle betraying deep wounds, he seeks revenge, he claims, for the horrible punishment his father exacted on him when he was a child.
No, Rog, he doesn’t. The whole refreshingly nihilistic point was that this Joker defies simple psychoanalysis. He tells that (somewhat pat) story about his father in an early scene, and then later on, he gives another (dense and compelling) explanation for his scars. In a climactic scene, before he’s interrupted, he prepares to tell Batman what will probably be a third story to explain the same result. He’s not motivated by some childhood trauma, he’s not really motivated by anything. He’s just fucking around.
July 24th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Ebert leaves his post mere days after anyone with their “two big thumbs up” their ass could figure that out. Coincidence?