jack nicholson

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As a reaction to The Batman Theater Shooting, I wrote this as my Facebook status. Some friends thought I had something here, so I made it into a video. Sorry that the sound is a bit off. Original post (July 20): "A floating thought and I don't mean disrespect to recent events: In some tribal cultures, one would put on a mask, be overtaken by a god and take the role of that god. Say it is a god of justice and it had to kill a member of the tribe. It isn't the person with the mask who killed him. It was the god that the mask evoked. Heath Ledger was warned by Jack Nicholson that the role of the Joker can take over you. Ledger died shortly after production of the Dark Knight and Nicholson's reaction was 'I told him so'. Holmes claimed to BE the Joker. He took on the role and it took over him all too well. There is something very powerful about that character. That archetype. He evokes something foolish and dark. In some respect, the Joker is REAL and he killed Ledger and he killed those moviegoers (might I add, in a less allegorical pointof view, Holmes killed those people). A being from a less real realm breaking into ours. Maybe we need to do these days, during these hard economic times, these strange and beautiful times, is to evoke heroes. Be Superman. Be Batman. Be the Green Lantern. Be Gandhi. Be Buddha. Be Christ. Be your hero. The media tells you you should be young, famous, sexy and stupid. And so many have taken them as their role models. Be all the great attributes of your heroes. Truth. Justice. Courage. Wisdom. Intelligence. Love. Why? Because the Joker is 'real'." Also posted that day: "It is sad. Here is a kid who had no record of trouble, on his way getting a PHD. If his symptoms were noticed, would a simple pill help him? If he had stronger legs for the weight of the world, would he be just another face in the crowd? I feel sorry for his family just as much as I feel sorry for his victims. He deserves whatever sentence he gets. He will get what karma or god or public opinion will throw at him. But it is sad that he ended up this way. Like so many untamed animals that threaten our lives, what needs to be done should be done out of duty for the greater good. And not the perpetuating madness that we assume is normal behavior."