The police officer who made the statement to the press wasn’t an Aurora cop. He was Ray Kelly, New York City police commissioner. No idea why he was the one giving statements. I certainly find the claim that he said that shaky.
But, I think some people underestimate the effect the Ledger performance had on a lot of people. It was a performance that was embraced by its audience on a game changing level. He is considered THE fucking Joker for a generation. That particular scene did resonate with a lot of people. I can see some madman watching a scene that blew his mind, taking a random aspect of it and running with it. He could as easily have worn a nurse’s hat instead and it would have made ‘sense’ to me.
But, ‘blew his mind’ is the operative phrase. The man is sick. So, I don’t think that Batman fanboys should take the media response personally at all. No rational observer is going to assume that counter-culture fans are ‘unhinged’ over this. It’s not about the Joker even if it was about the Joker. It’s mainly been about the media exploiting the most affecting aspects they can find in order to make sure the story drives emotions in the viewer.
ETA: Kaylasdad99, my point is that I think for certain fans nowadays, my linked Joker IS THE joker. Here is a linkto a man in Maryland man who threatened violence in the name of the Joker. I have no way to know one way or the other, but if I were a betting woman, I would bet he means Ledger’s Joker.
He may have been in front of a camera because he was talking about movie theater safety measures in New York. Or because he just wanted to be in front of a camera, for that matter.
Well, yes, but at the risk of making a bunch of people feel old, Jack Nicholson played the character in 1989. The shooter is 24, so if he is talking about the Joker, he is probably talking about Heath Ledger. That’s not so much because Ledger was great (although I think he was) as because that would be this guy’s pop culture frame of reference.
And the counter-culture (if you want to call it that? I think of Batman and his rabid fans as much more in the mainstream at this point) is getting tarred with this brush. Lots of theaters are now making rules forbidding people to come in costume to opening nights, which is a bummer. And they’re doing is because “supposedly” this guy was dressed as the Joker. If he HAD been dressed as the Joker, I could see it, but since it’s entirely a media fabrication - and one that everyone should recognize because the ONE identifying feature is entirely wrong - it’s very aggravating.
It was probably like one of the Simpson things. He was respecting the letter of the copywrite by making a subtle change in look. You certainly wouldn’t want to risk being sued by DC after a murder spree.
I erased the original post because I though I remembered there was other evidence that he was inspired by Batman. But googling, the other stuff I remembered was pretty weak as well. So I’ll go back to my original claim: he may have been inspired by Batman, but the actual evidence he did so is pretty much that one quote about being the Joker that was mentioned by a cop being interviewed on the other side of the country. It’s entirely possible he just picked a crowded movie showing at random. If he’d cracked last summer, he may have been just as happy shooting up Avatar instead.
I doubt such bans will last very long, but I can’t blame movie theaters for banning costumes. Whether Holmes was actually dressed up or not, there’s a perception that he was, and rationally or not people are scared of copycatters. Since theater owners want people to come to their movies with a minimal fear of being shot by a body-armoured nutbag, a temporary ban seems reasonable.
There are a few separate issues here. Nobody is saying he wore a Joker costume. Even hair dye would not have made that a Joker costume- on a basic level I think you’d need a purple suit, white face paint with red lipstick, and green hair. Reports are saying maybe he identified himself as the Joker. The costume ban is idiotic and I hope it will not last, but as far as I can tell, the justification for that is twofold: there are some reports that nobody was alarmed when he re-entered the theater with guns, a helmet, and body armor because they thought maybe he was in costume. I would think that that made minimal difference, but maybe if people had started running immediately instead of a few seconds later maybe some more people would have made it out of the theater unharmed. On top of that, banning costumes and fake weapons would make it easier to find someone who was carrying a gun or wearing armor even though the shooter was dressed normally when he bought his ticket and took his seat.
At least one person who knew the shooter in 2008 mentioned that he was a Batman fan. That doesn’t mean there is a straight line between his fandom and the shooting, of course.
I contributed a sincere WAG because it seemed a sort of rational question, but now all I can hear, for the second time in as many weeks - sorry, I don’t recall the other thread- is the OP being posited in Sheldon Cooper’s voice.
The quote I saw was: ’ “There were times when he would talk about superheroes. He was really into that,” she said. “Batman was one of them.” ’ Its not really clear from that quote if was really into Batman so much as comic books in general (he was a science PhD candidate, so an interest in comic books isn’t exactly shocking). And its a quote from someone who already knew that Holmes shot up a Batman movie, so I’d presume the specific mention of Batman is because the person is trying to link what they knew of Holmes to the movie.
The other piece of evidence I saw a few places was that Holmes left a message at a gun range that was reported to be trying to imitate the Joker. But the actual quote from the gun range owner was that he’d left a bizarre message and that ““In hindsight, looking back – and if I’d seen the movies – maybe I’d say it was like the Joker – I would have gotten the Joker out of it,” Rotkovich said. “It was like somebody was trying to be as weird as possible,””
Again its someone stretching to connect Holmes to Batman after the fact, and in this case the person in question hasn’t even seen the movie.
In general, I think most or all of the evidence that Holmes specifically targeted a Batman movie, as opposed to just a crowded movie with a lot of gun violence to cover up his own firing, is from people bending the details after the fact to connect stuff Holmes did prior to the shooting to the film franchise.
I don’t think The Joker is very well known in Europe. Darth Vader is of course, as a second I’d say the guy in James Bond with the white cat or the other one with steel teeth.
I cannot understand for the life of me why this would make a difference. The quote says he was into comic books including Batman.
Yes, true. But it sounds like there is a link. It doesn’t indicate he was into Batman to some kind of crazy degree, but it does demonstrate a pre-existing interest.
I think you’re reaching a bit. There is some evidence he was a Batman fan and didn’t just pick the movie at random. It might not be overwhelming and it doesn’t justify a lot of the speculative nonsense in the coverage, but it’s one factoid.
Which is being reported as a “Batman fan”, which isn’t really what the quote said.
It doesn’t really matter one way or another of course. Whether Holmes’s particular paranoid delusion was focused on Batman or podpeople or whatever doesn’t matter to anyone but him.
I just think its an interesting example of how the press, and people in general, come up with a narrative and then stretch stuff to fit that narrative. Red hair become a Joker costume, “into superheroes” becomes “Batman fan”, a voicemail with “slurring words” becomes “trying to sound like the Joker”.
It’s reasonable to interpret ‘He was really into superheroes, including Batman’ as ‘Batman fan.’
That one doesn’t work for me either. I doubt I’ll ever heard the voicemail message but it sounds more like a description of Christian Bale’s Batman voice than anything I remember Ledger doing.
“Batman fan” to me makes it sound like he had a specific thing for Batman. And maybe he did, but the actual quote makes it pretty clear that the “including Batman” thing was added because the speaker knew people were interested in linking Holmes to Batman, not that she knew he had any specific love of Batman as opposed to other Superheroes.
With the quote regarding the voicemail, its even more clear the gun-range guy is answering a question specifically aimed at trying to get him to link the voice to the Joker.