Editor,
I thought I'd chime in here as a lost and lonely voice defending some of the older interpretations of Batman in the wake of the fully deserved avalanche of acclaim for the "The Dark Knight."
There isn't any doubt that Heath Ledger deserves tons of accolades for his amazing and regrettably final performance in this film, and it is a great Batman movie. But the idea that it is the best is not universal and is widely generational. There is always an initial critical tendency to dismiss past performances as instantly irrelevant, particularly among younger reviewers who don't have an emotional stake in the distant past.
I still have very fond memories of the Michael Keaton "Batman" from 1989, and I also remember the 1960s television series "Batman" including more positive emotions than the "campy stupidity" the review in last week's Daily Lobo described. Of course, I grew up with that show, and I remember vividly how my brother and I used to play Batman and Robin. Adam West was my idol then, and there is still a place for him for this old Batman fan.
Christian Bale's Batman is, like all of them, very much a product of its time. The 1960s Batman was a product of a simpler era obsessed by the Cold War and the emerging youth culture. People today seem to want a Batman that reflects the general sensibility of the post 9/11, Internet-obsessed generation: snarky, angry, self-obsessed, apathetic and bored with almost unlimited amounts of information.
The new Joker is easily the most intense and least personable version we've had, and in some ways it's a bit disturbing that the modern fans identify with him so much. As to whether Jack Nicholson's Joker "cannot hope to match" Ledger's performance, it's entirely a matter of opinion, and it would be interesting to be able to compare the two without the added weight of Ledger's untimely death adding to the panache of his great work.
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So, with no heavy criticism of the current phenomenal movie, just remember that not everybody is willing to automatically dump earlier interpretations of the Batman to the scrap heap. Pop culture seems to be a blind idiot addict with no long-term memory, and "The Dark Knight" Batman is its current mania. But it too will be relegated to the past by future critics, and a new Batman franchise will have its legions of fans ready to dump on Bale and Ledger as no longer cool. Then today's fans will find themselves writing letters about the good Batman they remember from way back in 2008.
Darrell Leland
Daily Lobo reader
