Letters to the Editor

"The Dark Knight" The most anticipated movie of the summer has arrived -- and Heath Ledger's Joker is nothing to laugh at. By Stephanie Zacharek [2008-07-17]

• @timothyhulsey

  QUOTE: "I'm not sure THE DARK KNIGHT is a bad movie, but it certainly feels like a racist movie, doesn't it? African-American characters in this film fall into three categories: Gangsta thugs, buzzard bait, and Morgan Freeman. (I know, I know: Welcome to Hollywood.) Yet in the comics, Harvey Dent is an African-American politician with a distinct if unintentional resemblance to Barack Obama -- both conceal (or at least Obama seems to conceal) barely suppressed rage beneath superficial placidity. (And Obama's most fervent netroots supporters have already hauled out the "Two-Face" label over the FISA bill.) In any case, it's no surprise that Hollywood has run screaming from yet another three-dimensional African-American character, and although Aaron Eckhardt is good in the part (even better, I'd say, than Heath Ledger's Joker), I can think of half a dozen African-American actors who could have handled the part just as well without compromising the character."

  Timothyhulsey, you are clearly incorrect on one point, and arguably bizarre on another.

  First, 'in the comics' Harvey Dent is decidedly NOT African-American. He is Caucasian, and always has been. He has been portrayed on film as African-American once - in Burton's original Batman - by Billy Dee Williams.

  Thus, 80% of your weird diatribe means nothing. More interesting is your implied (wrongful) argument that because Dent is a black man in comics, he should be played by a black man in the film. Since Dent is clearly white in the comics, doesn't that automatically mean, according to your logic, that a white man should play him? And isn't that focus on skin color over ability just a little bit....racist?

  As for your bizarre Dent/Obama comparisons, the less said the better. I am no "Obamaniac," and remain a committed independent, so I have no partisan motivation when I say that your reference to the "barely suppressed rage beneath superficial placidity" is ludicrious and baffling.

  -- George Kaplan
  [Read George Kaplan's other letters]
  Permalink Flag Friday, July 18, 2008 10:47 AM
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