This Post is NOT About The Dark Knight

I will spare my readers (Is pluralizing “reader” necessary?) from another one of those Dark Knight this and that by not writing about the movie despite me appreciating it and finding it as good entertainment.

Oops, forgive me for slipping that note back there.

I just feel lucky that the first movie I ever got to see here in Singapore is a movie worth-remembering.

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At my dead hours here, some ingenious individuals somehow save me by uploading full episodes of TV shows I’d normally watch in a marathon. But I have to make do with what is available to me so even if I have to watch an episode from the 4th season of House in five parts, I don’t mind. (The only problem now is that I cannot find episodes beyond the 7th one.)

If I wasn’t able to follow House, I would hate it altogether. But I guess that’s not the point of the show. House is the foil of all the protagonists we’ve met while growing up. House is grumpy, not at all a gentleman, suicidal, manipulative, harsh—in short House isn’t perfect.

The audience will just have to take pleasure in watching him make a fool of himself with how human he is. And even though House may seem obnoxious at times, he does throw in efforts to keep the integrity of his image.

I just had to chuckle for a scene in the 6th Episode of Season 4 (from 0:24 to 2:05) where House was discussing with his friend, Wilson, how he could be “that guy”—the usual guy who’d look and act stupid for a girl.



And just as Wilson said, every guy could be “that guy”—the person he never expected himself to be.

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Speaking of "that guy," who would have thought that Christian Bale, the actor who plays Batman in The Dark Knight (and Batman Begins), will become “that guy” when he just played a highly righteous and prudent hero everyone is raving about? And when I say “that guy” I meant the guy who’d be arrested for assault as filed by his mom and sister.


So much for separating reality and fantasy.

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Six months ago, we learned that Heath Ledger, the Joker for this year’s Batman franchise, was “that guy”—the guy who’d one day be discovered dead inside his own apartment. Everyone would think that he is special—talented, wealthy and good looking, too. But as it turned out he had his demons to battle with to which he somehow lost by virtue of intoxication “resulting form the abuse of prescription medication.”

I first became aware of Ledger’s existence through the movie Ten Things I Hate About You. During the time it came out, I was in the habit of buying Hollywood entertainment magazines and this Ledger guy was always present, one would just have to discover what the fuss about this Aussie boy was all about.


Heath later nailed a serious spot in Hollywood when he played Mel Gibson’s son in The Patriot. Then he earned a regal status at least in the eyes of his fans when he became Sir William Thatcher in A Knight’s Tale which reminds me how I’ve always wanted to acquire a copy of that movie. I still believe that The Brothers Grimm is a sabotage project to Heath’s gifts. That movie is no good. But no worries, Brokeback Mountain later redeemed what-was-deprived-of-Heath’s-talent in The Brothers Grimm. He earned an Academy, Golden Globe, and SAG nominations for Best Lead Actor thanks to Brokeback. Plus he got to make out with Jake Gyllenhaal, the brother of Maggie Gyllenhaal whom Heath, as the Joker, kills in The Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight is the last movie Heath completed. Dead or alive, everyone would agree how brilliant he was. He was successful in portraying the haunting and disturbing Joker. For that and the explosives he detonated in the film, we can say that he went out with a bang.


But the “joke” part is this: in the last movie where we can get our final glimpse of Heath Ledger from beginning to end (I read that he had a pending movie where another actor or CGI will take over his role) we do not see much of him. All we see is a smudged face of a scarred clown and behind it, a disturbed and probably sad young man.