the later parade

Yesterday was untypically insane. Scott and I capped the insanity with a 10:05 screening of The Dark Knight @ Sunnyside's finest theatre. 2 hours and 15 minutes into the 2.5 hr. film, the lights flipped on, and two cops came nabbed a guy who had been laughing at Heath Ledger's Joker delightedly for the entire movie. No one knew what was going on; the girlfriend of the guy screamed hysterically and it seemed like 56 people who worked at the theatre had orchestrated the bust.
For the rest of the movie my heart pounded like the place could get shot up at any moment. This excitement killed any chance I had at real crying for Ledger. I teared up 2x during the film but his performance was so stellar that I forgot who played the Joker most of the time and thus avoided the crying fits that seized me nightly on the couch this winter. It says a lot for Heath Ledger to be able to portray a villain who already exists in the minds of the public as a Jack Nicholson trademark and to make it his own... and at the same time the audience can come home and flip on Bravo to see Ledger playing the role of Ennis in Brokeback with just as much skill, sincerity, and passion. Passion is such a sentimental and loaded word, but for me, it fits in this case.
It was the last time we will see new footage from one of our generation's great players... unless they release that Terry Gilliam film he didn't get to finish. Nevertheless, whether or not the media/studios are playing up the dead actor hoopla to get more ticket sales or Oscar nods, Ledger deserves recognition and acclaim.