
Heath Ledger Joker bobblehead, presented without comment.
“Three episodes into this second season, Mad Men already has delineated the shadings between good and evil — between a sense of fairness and callousness — in a way far more profound than anything in The Dark Knight.”
That’s Steven Rosen, in a Cincinatti City Beat story in which he considers Don Draper, the protagonist of my beloved Mad Man, as “sort of dark knight himself,” and the “moral compass” of a world that may not have devolved into the violent chaos of Gotham, but underneath its outwardly controlled facade is melting into a soup of generational conflict and moral relativism.
Rosen cites the men of Mad Men’s various reactions to the 1962 crash of American Airlines’ Flight 2, the real-life event that inspires the fictional conflict driving Season 2’s second episode, as proof of his point:

Heath Ledger Joker bobblehead, presented without comment.
Is Bruce Wayne, as John Carney wonders at Dealbreaker, “exactly the ‘better class of criminal’ that the Joker describes”? Spoileriffic analysis of Batman’s white-collar misdeeds follows.
The Dark Knight is hands down the best Batman movie yet, but has Christopher Nolan painted himself into a corner by using up the only viable Batman villains? Most of the Batman villains left are either too campy (the Penguin, the Ventriloquist), depend too much on flexible comic book logic (Clayface, Killer Croc), or are just watered-down versions of the Joker (the Riddler, the Mad Hatter).
Tim Burton’s Batman featured The Joker (Jack Nicholson) for good reason. The Clown Prince of Crime, always Batman’s most threatening foe, represents (among many things) an unwillingness to take human life seriously. In that moral void his vibrant personality explodes like a fireworks display of mania, menace, and eccentricity. The Joker is the calling card of chaos and evil at its sexiest. Batman isn’t the reason we watch Batman over and over again, the Joker is. Of course Michael Keaton brings gravitas to Batman, but let’s face it–as sweet as Batman is, he’s just not good company. Ever notice how passengers in the Batmobile feel like they’re at the end of a bad date? …Read more
Dark Knight Producer One: Hey, I heard the Bloggy-Sphere already loves the movie!
Dark Knight Producer Two: Yeah, real critics dig it too!
Dark Knight Producer One: Holy crap we are amazing. I mean we are really great.
Dark Knight Producer Two: Do you think there is any way we can screw this up?
Dark Knight Producer One: I don’t know, but it sure would be fun to try!
Dark Knight Producer Two: I’ll call Comcast.
Dark Knight Producer One: I’ll call Domino’s.
So Warner Brothers is planning to work a “tribute” to the late Heath Ledger into their New York premiere of The Dark Knight next month. Reports OK! Mag (yeah, I know):
The studio behind the Batman Begins sequel is planning a tribute to the late actor at the New York City premiere and has been working closely with the Ledger family to make it come to fruition.
If all goes according to plan, Heath’s family will be flown in from Australia for the event and Michelle Williams, his ex and mother of their 2-year-old daughter Matilda, will walk the red carpet as well.
So: will this amount to a trashy trotting-out of a widow to ensure maximum tabloid coverage of a tentpole from a studio that could really use a big hit to justify their recent swerve away from producing smaller films? Or is it actually a classy way of explicitly acknowledging the obvious cloud that hangs over this wannabe blockbuster? I took an informal poll via Twitter, and responses leaned towards the latter, but do use the comments to tell us what you think.
Last week, I wondered when the presidential campaign and Warner Brothers’ campaign for The Dark Knight would merge. Today, the political and the movie promotional have become fully intertwined, although on a much more local scale than I had originally predicted.
According to the Village Voice (via Gothamist), Queens Councilman Hiram Monserrate is lobbying to officially brand New York City with the nickname Gotham City in time for The Dark Knight’s July release. Apparently, Monserrate thinks associating his city with a fictional flying crime fighter and a deranged, make-up wearing lunatic will be good for tourism. “I see that as a marketing tool,” he told the Voice. “‘Come visit the real Gotham City,’ taking advantage of this movie which will be one of those gate-breaking, record-selling movies like it always is.” He then mumbled something about how how Christopher Nolan’s Chicago-shot movie will help New York’s “art community to strengthen its reconnection to being a Gotham City,” and also something else about how frappuccinos embody the spirit of Batman.
Check out the full crazy at the link, and then tell us: if a studio were to, uh, make it worthwhile for a city official to sponsor a crackpot resolution involving one of their films, would that be bribery, or just really, really good viral marketing?
The New York Post has an image of one of two Joker action figures based on Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the villain in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. One version will come armed with a rocket launcher (!), the other with a plain old utilitarian knife. Mattel plans to release the toys in May.
You knew this blog post was coming when Warner Brothers issued a say-nothing statement hours after Heath Ledger’s body was found last week. Now, a little over a week later, the scraps of news and speculative think pieces are flooding in; I read them and put the relevant information in a bullet-point list so that you wouldn’t have to.
More on Ledger, The Dark Knight, etc etc:
The Dark Knight trailer: Chris’ Review
Joker Prequel: The Nontroversy (the prequel itself no longer exists on YouTube, but here are two posts about what it was like).