A Knight’s Tale (2001)

Director: Brian Helgeland

Cast: Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell, Paul Bettany

Have I Seen it Before: Never, which elicited a fair degree of shock from Lora… I have a vague recollection of it being the centerpiece of a girl’s night that my girlfriend at the time and her friends went to on opening weekend…

Christ, I’m already exhausted writing about this movie.

Did I Like It: The strengths of the movie are fairly easy to quantify. Health Ledger was both a discernible movie star, and a nimble actor in equal measure, and people were beginning to sense that even at the point this film was released. He was probably at the height of his popularity as a heartthrob here, and there are far dumber reasons to make a movie than it has attracted the interest of a handsome man with an Australian accent. 

A modernly wry take on Chaucer certainly is something that would have attracted more than a little top-flight talent, which then fills out the cast with more than a few stellar supporting talents. It’s a fun idea for a movie, if nothing else.

But then there’s the actual movie itself. The soundtrack choices, too, are clearly supposed to be fun. But who are they actually for? I kind of like many of those songs, and I couldn’t help but find them distracting and betraying a deep self-consciousness on the part of the filmmakers. The teeny-boppers of the era would have found the then-classic rock passé (believe me, they certainly did when they were what was playing on my radio at the time), and anyone who might be in the demographic for the film now would find the whole exercise preposterous in the extreme.

Not everybody can be James Dean, ultimately. And even those that can approach the legend-cut-down-too-soon status can’t make a great film every time they step in front of a camera.

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

Director: Gil Junger

Cast: Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik

Have I Seen it Before: Yes. I’m struggling to remember if I saw it in the theater. I know being an adolescent in the early portions of the 21st century, I might have just absorbed the movie, but I want to say I actually went and saw it in the theater. It’s telling about me that I’m far more bothered by not remembering when I first saw this movie than I am by not remembering anything that actually happened to me before I turned age 18.

Did I Like It: There’s no denying that in the post-Hughes era of teen comedies, this one is—if not smarter—certainly the most literate entry. Orange County (2002) is perhaps more manically funny, Election (1999) is a little more relevant to our current rolling national nightmare, but this one’s based on a Shakespeare play, and the movie will not let fifteen minutes of screen time roll by without reminding us of that. It’s still something of a virtue. 

The title is… fine. If it had nothing more to recommend it, I have a vision of it disappearing in the gust of wind that swept every last Blockbuster Video from the earth.

Its more tangible virtues lie in the sudden emergence of Heath Ledger as a verifiable movie star. He’s certainly the most interesting actor on first blush, but the fact that he seemed to arrive with all of his charisma in full on this, his first major release. Maybe his reputation as a latter-day James Dean only makes this debut more remarkable, but name for me the amount of verifiable film stars that arrived like this. Maybe the film around him could have been more memorable, but it could have also been a real shitshow.

The Dark Knight (2008)

Director: Christopher Nolan

Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine

Have I Seen it Before: Oh, yes.

Did I Like It: While my love for Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) is a pure love that can never be diminished or destroyed, it’s pretty hard to argue that this isn’t a superior film on every measurable level.

I’ve damned with faint praise some movies as being the best possible version of the material. Saban’s Power Rangers (2017) is the best possible film about Power Rangers. Halloween II (2009) is the best possible Halloween film directed by Rob Zombie. And—although I haven’t seen it yet—Bumblebee (2018) is likely the best possible film about Transformers.

So it is, too, that the middle-entry of Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is the best possible Batman movie. Thing is, I love Batman, and therefore this film is instantly propelled into contention for one of the best movies of all time.

It’s odd having a verified classic that’s this new. There is the awkward period where every douchebag of woman born ran around yelling “Why So Serious?” like it was a symptom of Tourettes. It also illuminates how truly bad some of its contemporaries are. I remember that summer of 2008 being more positive about Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull than I had any right to be because I truly believed that it would age better with time. It didn’t, and now The Dark Knight was also a transcendent experience on first viewing and holds up under continued scrutiny.

Equal parts James Bondian adventure and epic Michael Mann crime drama, Nolan is not just imitating these forms, but can stand toe-to-toe with them. Gotham is always a city, and never a soundstage. Every character has a thoroughly and elegantly designed motivation and a scheme to accomplish their goal, until they run headlong into the one person who never met a plan he didn’t like to destroy. 

I love every inch of this film. But, my goal here is to provide some measure of criticism. I reach desperately for some flaw, and come up tragically short. All right, all right, there are two little editing things that never quite make sense to me, and that’s to be expected as somehow editing can become the one glaring flaw in Nolan’s body of work. 

First, I have no clue how Batman (Bale) arrives at Harvey’s (Eckhart) fundraiser to battle the Joker (Ledger). The camera turns, and all of a sudden, he’s there. Sure, The World’s Greatest Detective is a master of the disappearing act, but this particular stealthy entrance happens in the middle of a well-lit, heavily populated penthouse apartment. There isn’t even some kind of air vent he could have popped out of?

Second, it’s not at all clear if Sal Maroni (Eric Roberts) survived the wreck caused by Two-Face, or, if he didn’t survive, how Two-Face managed to walk away from the wreck.

Oh well. Given how the rest of the movie runs like the most exquisitely designed machine ever created, I don’t want to dwell on those nitpicks too much. I love this movie, and I’m glad I live in a world where it exists.