Radio Australia Today Editorial

Heath Ledger. Mickey Rourke. A great year.

23 February 2009

There have been some turkey years for the Academy Awards, years when there have been some slim pickings for the judges.

This is not one of them.

For more than 18 months we have been hearing about an extraordinary performance by Australia’s Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight. Ledger’s death only built the momentum, and put him in a space occupied by others who died too young, like James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. For both of these actors, we were left to wonder what kinds of performances these magnificent actors would have given as they aged.

The same will be said of Heath Ledger. His performance in Monster’s Ball was a portent of the great things to come. His subsuming of himself in Brokeback Mountain was a coming of age. Sadly, Dark Knight will be seen as his pinnacle. I say ‘sadly’ because although he gives one of the great screen performances of all time, he could’ve (and would’ve) done so much more.

Ledger has won every major award so far for his Joker. The Academy Award would give him a clean sweep. Let’s hope.

Mickey Rourke as the Wrestler is Rocky thirty years on. Stallone deserved an Academy Award for his Rocky, but had to be content with a Best Picture in 1976. I’m sure he’s not hurting too much though. As for Mickey Rourke, after years of bad times, he’s proved that when you’ve got talent, you’ve got talent. He will probably win, and his win will be all the stronger because of the field that he’s up against: Sean Penn in Milk; the fabulous Frank Langella who superbly played Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon; and Richard Jenkins, who broke our hearts in The Visitor. If you haven’t seen this film, then you have missed a great two hours. In any other year, Jenkins would win the Oscar.

The year also belongs to Slumdog Millionaire. This is a film that does everything. It’s a gangster film; it’s a love story; it’s a social critique; it’s even a comedy at times. It will rend you as any three-cry film does. If it wins the Academy Award for Best Picture, it will be well deserved. It is simply the most complete picture of the year. It is a movie that takes you on a journey and blanks out the rest of your life for those couple of hours.

And there is nothing more praiseworthy of any movie.

Yes folks, it’s been a great year in film.

                                                    – Phil