When it comes to iconic performances, Heath Ledger’s Joker from The Dark Knight is certainly very high on the list. While there were those who had questions about the actor taking on the role that Jack Nicholson had made so popular in 1989’s Batman, those questions vanished once he actually appeared on screen. Sadly, Ledger’s performance would end up being one of his last, with the actor dying ahead of the film’s release.
His posthumous Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor win for the role would cement The Dark Knight as one of Ledger’s best films, but it’s just one in the actor’s brief, but impressive body of work. Over the course of his career, Ledger proved to be extremely talented and adept at just about every type of role he tried, from drama to comedy to romance and he’s left behind some incredible performances — some of which are cult classics. Here are the actor’s five best movies that aren’t The Dark Knight.
5) Monster’s Ball
While Ledger’s appearance in 2001’s Monster’s Ball is brief, it’s pivotal and his performance is without question one of his most powerful. Monster’s Ball stars Billy Bob Thornton as Hank, a racist corrections officer and Ledger plays his son, Sonny, who works alongside him. However, the pair do not have a good relationship and after Sonny has a bad reaction while leading a man to his execution, a confrontation between Hank and Sonny leads Sonny to end his own life — and changes the entire trajectory of Hank’s. The film also stars Halle Berry who won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film.
To be clear, Thornton and Berry are the stars of this movie. The film is about Hank and Leticia (Berry) who end up in a relationship with Berry unaware Hank was involved with her husband’s execution. It is very complex story. However, Ledger’s performance is incredible. It’s incredibly nuanced and moving and even painful to watch in the sense that you genuinely feel how he’s suffering and fully understand why he does what he does. It’s tragic and incredible.
4) A Knight’s Tale
2001’s A Knight’s Tale is tonally extremely different than Monster’s Ball. Lighthearted, high energy, and full of modern pop music, A Knight’s Tale is the underdog story peasant squire William Thatcher (Ledger) who poses as a knight to compete in tournaments and manages to truly become what he pretends to be. It’s wild, it’s funny, it’s very silly, and it’s easily one of Ledger’s greatest performances.
Part of what makes A Knight’s Tale stand out in Ledger’s filmography is that it fully showcases his comedic skills. Contrasted with how serious and dramatic Monster’s Ball is — which came out the very same year — you start to get a very clear picture of just how versatile and talented of an actor Ledger is. There’s also a good bit of romance in this film so you get a taste of his range there as well and let’s face it: it’s just flat-out fun.
3) 10 Things I Hate About You
Given how great 10 Things I Hate About You is it’s wild that it is only number three on this list, but that also speaks to just how great of an actor Ledger was. Released in 1999 (which was a great year for Ledger as another fantastic performance from that year also lands on this list), 10 Things I Hate About You is a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and it’s a modern classic all on its own. The film follows a new high school student, Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who is interested in BIanca (Larisa Oleynik.) However, Bianca can only date if her very antisocial sister Kat (Julia Stiles) also starts dating — it’s their father’s strict rule. So, Cameron enlists Patrick (Ledger) to ask her out. Of course, because this is a romcom, a genuine romance actually grows between Patrick and Kat.
While 10 Things I Hate About You is a teen romance comedy, it’s also a very good movie. It has a great script and all of the performances in the film are incredible. Stiles and Ledger in particular play perfectly off one another, but Ledger in particular is a standout. The film shows yet another side of the actor. The film was a hit when it was released and has only become firmly cemented as a classic in the decades since. In fact, if for some reason you don’t know Ledger from The Dark Knight or one other film on this list, 10 Things I Hate About You is the movie you recognize him from.
2) Two Hands
When I said that 1999 was a great year for Ledger, I wasn’t joking. It was also the year that a film many American moviegoers may have missed was released: Two Hands. The Australian crime comedy follows Jimmy (Ledger), a young man in debt to a local gangster named Pando thanks to a mistake. Desperate to not get himself and his girlfriend killed by the gangster for this mistake, he plans a bank robbery to get himself out of the debt.
The film is a wild ride. It’s fast-paced and surprisingly full of action. It is also, without question, one of Ledger’s best ever performances — he was nominated for Best Actor by both the Australian Film Institute and Film Critics Circle of Australia for the role. What makes his performance great? Ledger is surprisingly vulnerable as Jimmy, who really got in over his head but is determined to get himself and the woman he loves out of a very dangerous situation. It’s obvious when watching Two Hands that Ledger is destined to be a massive star.
1) Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain might be Ledger’s best performance of all time even if you did include The Dark Knight. It is, in a very real sense, the culmination of every facet of the actor we’ve seen up until this point in his career and even at that, Ledger manages to go even deeper emotionally to give viewers something that is absolutely heartbreaking. Released in 2005, Brokeback Mountain is an adaptation of Annie Proulx’s 1997 short story of the same name and tells the complex love story between two cowboys, Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis (Ledger) that develops in the ‘60s and ‘70s, a time when they have to keep their story hidden.
Ledger earned a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for the role and it was very well-deserved. He brought an incredible amount of nuance and emotion to his role. While some will argue that his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight is better, there’s something to be said about the quiet intensity Ledger brought to Ennis and it’s a performance that endures and continues to be beloved and moving 20 years later.
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