Heath Ledger The Joker Performance Exacerbates Stereotypes Against Mentally Ill
Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning portrayal of The Joker in the 2008 Batman film The Dark Knight gives the public the wrong impression of people with mental health problems, according to one European charity.
Dr. Peter Byrne, a film expert and consultant psychiatrist at Newham University Hospital in London, who wrote the report for the Time to Change Campaign, claims the humor and violence of the hit film was based almost entirely on the stereotypical potrayal of the mentally disturbed.
“Batman describes the Joker as a schizophrenic clown, and when the film’s second hero Harvey Dent becomes ‘Two-Face’ and embraces evil, the familiar stereotype of schizophrenia is activated…The incorrect stereotype in both cases, to a lesser and greater extent, is that schizophrenics have multiple personality disorder, and that that second personality is always evil.”
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On August 18th 2009, Simon wrote:
That’s crazy. This guy must be insane or paranoid to realize The Dark Night is a film based on fictional characters, as such, must be reality vs. entertainment. Genius.
On August 18th 2009, justgroovy wrote:
You mean playing a criminally insane criminal in an insane fashion is insulting to insane people? What about insulting to criminals, huh? What about that? What is for sure is that Dr. Byrne is lacking in cognitive abilities (common sense) and obviously is overdue for an appointment to see his therapist.
It’s a freakin’ fantasy movie, Mister Doctor expert! If they only made movies about rational, emotionally balanced people, what fun would that be? They might as well board up the doors on all the theaters and he would have to call it quits as a “film expert”; whatever that is supposed to be.