Heath Ledger's Joker

Recently, I read an article online submitting that, while a great performance, the late, great Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker was far from the best.

And while the author tried to convey a guise of objectivity, repeating staunchly that no one version of The Joker can be proclaimed the best, simply based on the fact of the character’s 70 + year history, they betray their neutrality by then going on to praise Mark Hammil’s rendition as the be all and end all of Joker performances, defending this position by highlighting what they believe to be limitations in the version as put forth in “The Dark Knight”, simultaneously expounding on why Hammil's version lacks any such limitations, and, so, is “better”.

Already the author has contradicted themselves, but that’s beside the point.

After opening their article by, essentially, insulting Heath Ledger’s abilities as an actor, going on in rather malicious ferocity about how lackluster each and every one of his performances were, prior to “The Dark Knight”, they then proceeded to concede that his performance as The Joker was, indeed, fantastic, but begrudgingly so, as they very blatantly attempt to disservice it’s brilliance by allotting credit to the writers and director.

While obviously a large amount of credit is deserved by Christopher Nolan and the screen writers for so thoroughly understanding the character of The Joker, giving said credit while accessing Heath Ledger’s performance makes the author’s agenda quite clear.

Simply, they dislike Heath Ledger. This is obvious. And they harbor clear resentment towards the praise Ledger’s performance garnered.

The author further pushes their agenda by then insisting that The Joker’s purpose and intent in the film makes him a limited and ultimately pitiful, ineffectual character. They argue that The Joker’s attempts to prove the futility of man-made law and order makes him just as sad and without hope as the rest of humanity. That by trying to prove a point, he makes himself the same as they.

And the author then proceeds to again exalt Mark Hammil's performance of the character and explain its vast superiority.

I disagree with this person on both counts. Both with their proclamation that Ledger’s Joker in inferior to Hamill’s, and with the assessment that “The Dark Knight’s” vision of The Joker is no good.

I in fact feel that the characterization, both in terms of writing and acting, was as accurate and pointed as has ever been done with The Joker. I don’t believe the character has ever been done greater justice.

What first must be remembered about the character of The Joker is, he is a villain. His entire purpose, his entire point for existing, is to serve as a foil to Batman, to oppose and counter him. And when you take a look in to Batman’s world, how utterly dark, depressing and tragic it is, you realize that, at his core, in order for The Joker to be effective against such a brooding, serious hero, he himself must be frightening. He must emit horror and fear. He must be a threatening presence.

What the writers of “The Dark Knight” understood about the character so well was exactly what it is that makes him such an intimidating foe.

Batman operates on fear, on his ability to frighten and intimidate criminals.

What makes The Joker such a deserving and evenly matched opponent to the caped crusader, and what Nolan and the writers understood so well, is that The Joker is a fearless character, someone unable to be bullied or threatened, someone you cannot intimidate or persuade or blackmail in to doing your bidding.

He is a wholly apathetic person, a true nihilist who regards everything, his own life included, as nothing more then a meaningless, cruel joke, not to be regarded with any sort of gravity, not to be taken seriously.

So you can’t scare him. He isn’t afraid to die. He doesn’t care about money or power. He doesn’t care about profit or control or anything tangible, about anything you can give or do to him.

Put in basic terms, he simply doesn’t care, about anything, and so, he can’t be stopped.

How do you stop someone who isn’t afraid?

The only way to stop him is to kill him. To actually kill him.

Because the threat of doing so won’t.

And that is what makes The Joker so scary. That’s what makes him such a horrifying, intimidating force.

His unpredictability, the impossibility of knowing what he’s going to do is simply something to enhance the fact of his being unstoppable. It makes it that much worse, being unable to foretell his intentions.

But make no mistake, it is knowing full well that whatever it is he plans, whatever he desires, whether to play some harmless prank or murder millions, you won’t, no matter what, be able to dissuade him from it.

The fact that The Joker, several times throughout the film, places his own life in harms way, serves to highlight this quality of the character very well.

The best portrayals of The Joker highlight his fearlessness, in my opinion. It’s what makes him unique among Batman’s diverse rogues gallery. And it’s what makes him Batman’s most dangerous rogue.

And Heath Ledger brought those qualities to life.

And that’s why Heath Ledger’s performance was great.

More then great, it was brilliant.

A good actor will make a character convincing enough so that you can enjoy the performance without the distraction of knowing its all make believe.

A great actor will make you forget that it’s a performance at all, to the point where you believe that what you’re watching is not a film, but something actually real. They’ll make you forget that it’s them in the role, and make you believe that whoever it is they’re playing, they really exist.

And that’s precisely what Ledger accomplished when he played The Joker.

It would be hard for me to watch Ledger on screen, knowing that he’s now past away, if he didn’t so thoroughly disappear in to the character of The Joker, if he didn’t actually become The Joker. But he did. And while watching “The Dark Knight”, I find myself not thinking at all about Heath Ledger, the real person. It never even crosses my mind that it’s him behind the make up, that he’s no longer on this earth. I believe whole-heartedly that I’m watching The Joker. The comic book character. I believe, while watching Ledger’s performance, that The Joker actually exists, that he’s real, and it never occurs to me that I’m watching an actor, that I’m watching a fantasy.

That’s the mark of a truly brilliant performance, and a truly brilliant talent.

And for the record, while Mark Hammil is fantastic in the role of The Joker, I believe it’s his portrayal which is limited to a more light-hearted, child-friendly medium, while Ledger’s captures the essence of The Joker, who the character is at his core.

His portrayal is off-putting, unsettling and strange. He seems bizarre. From the opening scene, before you even know it’s the Joker behind the clown mask, and he shoots the bank manager, the way he cocks his head and just stares at him afterwards, as though he’s fascinated by what he sees, enthralled by it even, that’s The Joker. He derives something from hurting others, whether pleasure or curiosity, interest, joy, excitement, etc… Ledger’s subtle body language exudes this quality of the character, and he does this throughout the film. As does his peculiar manner of speaking, the way he drags certain words out, or cuts them off. The way he switches so suddenly, so unexpectedly from whimsical and humorous to violently aggressive.

And yes, The Joker IS funny in “The Dark Knight”. Those who think not are missing subtleties in the performance, and those all belong to Ledger.

An example is when Gamble becomes outraged and yells at The Joker ‘You think you can steal from us and just walk away?!’ and The Joker responds with ‘Yeah.’ It is Ledger’s delivery of that line, his facial expression and the inflection in his voice, that makes it a laugh out loud moment. Instead of delivering it with a matter of fact tone, smugness or self-assuredness, he darts his eyes to the side while backing away, his tone conveying a sort of confusion, as though he’s asking, “Well, yeah, why wouldn’t I be able to?”. It’s as though he genuinely wouldn’t understand why that would be a problem.

It’s absolutely hilarious.

And it’s all in Ledger’s delivery.

He goes from that to a scene like the one where he’s captured Brian, the Batman impersonator, and he seems absolutely mean, absolutely cruel in the way he taunts and intimidates the man. Or how he dismisses his own men as worthless, as exampled when one of them tries to remove Batman’s cowl and is met with electrocution. The Joker laughs maniacally at his misfortune, running up to him as he’s lying unconscious on the ground, and in an instant, his hilarity switches to malice and disgust as he mocks how the henchman spazzimed before spitting on him. You can feel the hatred just oozing off The Joker in that moment, and how little he really respects those who work for him, how little he cares for them.

Again, it is in Ledger’s performance. The subtlety of how quickly and abruptly his moods can shift. One moment he’s screaming at Batman with viciousness to run him down, the next he’s skipping with apparent glee towards the hero after he’s crashed, and just as suddenly, he’s showing disdain towards his own hireling. And though the changes are abrupt, they somehow flow and seem perfectly acceptable and appropriate.

What Heath Ledger did was, he took a wide variety of character traits, ones which seemed to contradict one another, ones which seemed as though their coexistence within the same person would be an impossibility, and made it seem entirely plausible, right even. As though it could be no other way.

Character shifts are generally regarded as a no-no within writing, but paradox is a part of The Joker’s character, its part of what makes him up, and Heath Ledger made that paradox work beautifully.

He’s as convincing holding a blade alongside the corner of Gamble’s mouth, ready to slice it wide as he is dressed as a nurse, trotting out of the hospital like some little boy, or acting taken aback when yelled at by Harvey Dent and jumping in surprise when the bombs he set himself explode.

He’s at once frightening and intimidating, violent and vicious, mean and cold and cruel, but he’s as well funny, and even cute, and you as a viewer find yourself so enthralled and captivated by the character, that you end up on his side, desiring for him always to be on screen, sympathetic towards his philosophy with the realization that he’s right about the world and the people in it.

I think, equally, credit should be given both to the writers and to Heath Ledger for doing the character of The Joker justice for the first time in a major motion picture. The writers provided the characterization, characterization more like The Joker as he exists in the comic books then has ever been provided in any other medium, in terms of The Joker’s essence and the varying facets of his personality.

Heath Ledger brought that characterization to life. He made it palpable, he made it real.

As the author of the article which promoted me to write my own said about Mark Hammil, I say Heath Ledger was The Joker, and that the character was written for “The Dark Knight” exactly as he should be, a charismatic, engaging, humorous villain who, above it all, is an utterly frightening, vicious and dangerous being, deserving of his title as Batman’s greatest foe.

Until They're Gone

Until They’re Gone

By: Nicole Reis

I have to admit to something of which I’m not too proud. You know the saying that‘you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone’? Well, for me, in regards to the late Heath Ledger, the statement could not ring truer. And I feel ashamed because, in many ways, my new found appreciation for the man is a cliché, having not grasped the actual value of his artistry until it was lost to me and this world, having not shown my gratitude for him until it was too late. Isn’t that classic? What good does my awe and admiration do, now that he is gone? The realization makes me sad. I’ve witnessed the first loss of one of my generation’s only true artists. And I didn’t understand or acknowledge him while he was here.

You see, I just returned from my second viewing of the “The Dark Knight”, and as I had been the first time around, I was utterly taken with the performance Mr. Ledger gave in portraying the film’s main villain. He was spectacular.

Essentially, what Heath was able to do was take a character who, by all logical argument, should have been totally unsympathetic and freighting, and turn him in to a character for whom you genuinely felt, someone who you actually found yourself not only liking, but loving, someone you rooted for, from beginning to end. Who in the audience actually cared about Batman or his crusade to rid Gotham city of its crime when you had in his antagonist a most charismatic and likable figure? Heath brought to the character a charm and a sweetness which caused you, as a viewer, to dismiss with ease his violent and inexcusable acts and to actually smile at the sight of him, to cheer for him, and to desire his ultimate victory.

It didn’t matter that the Joker was murdering innocent civilians and public service officials with apparent satisfaction, or that his philosophies were so drastically cynical and displaced with civilized society. All that mattered was, in doing all of this, in being all of this, Mr. Ledger made the Joker seem the most sincere and real of all the films players, almost disarmingly honest, despite the dialog having him tell many a lie throughout. Somehow, with as unattractive and as against all principle and morals as the Joker’s perspective was, Heath made him seem right, he made him seem logical and sane, as insane as his actions were, he made him seem more deeply perceptive and intelligent then the rest, more genuine, like you could absolutely trust him, above anyone else.

Mr. Ledger’s timing of it all was flawless, down to his delivery of the dialog. His expressions were phenomenal. The way he would react, with his face, to another character, the way his eyes would go, and his brow, or the angle at which he looked at you. His mannerisms, how he would constantly lick his lips, or run his fingers through his hair, or how he would ring his hands forward in trying to make a point. The way he held himself, with an almost child-like floppiness, as though he were uncoordinated as a child is. He in many instances exuded a cuteness, even whilst exploding buildings and holding knives to people’s throats. What Heath accomplished was a perfect balance between spine-tingling sociopathic behavior and innocent charm. And no one quality seemed less real then the other. That innocence, despite actions which belied it, didn’t at all seem contrived. It seemed as true a part of the Joker’s personality as was his volatility and meanness. And that was what made him so appealing.

I sincerely hope that Heath wins an Oscar for his role in this film. Not because he passed away, but because he absolutely deserves it. I cannot recall a finer acting performance in recent times then the one he rendered here.

Looking at Heath on screen now, one becomes so acutely aware of just what a tragic and monumental loss his death is. Knowing we won’t again be blessed to receive his gifts, it pains the heart. He was a brilliant talent. What happened to him was so completely unfair.

As is often the case in our world, the ones who are special, the ones who stand out as something larger then life, the ones who show us truth, they suffer. Perhaps it is because they don’t fit in, that they feel out of place and lost, a suffocating loneliness taking them over. Their lives are filled with a struggle which only they can ever know or understand, and sometimes, that struggle is too great a burden to bear. They succumb to it, finding it easier to simply let go, and to drift away. Away from a world which could never fully accept them, away from a world which could never understand them. A world which was able to show its gratitude only after they were gone; when we, at last, finally realized just how much they really meant to us all.

We Shouldn't Forget

We Shouldn’t Forget

A few days ago, I saw the trailer for the new Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises”, and while on message boards and internet forums, there’s a general buzz of excitement over the film, I myself can’t help but feeling depressed over it.

I know, it seems irrational, right? And I suppose it is. But one can’t always help the way they feel.

What the depression stems from is, I’m well and truly afraid that in the excitement and anticipation of this new movie, people will forget Heath Ledger and forget what an absolutely astounding performance he gave as the Joker in “The Dark Knight”.

You see, even in the short preview clip, and from what I’ve heard the actors involved say about the film, you can definitely see a concerted effort on the part of the filmmakers to “top” “The Dark Knight” with this one, to up the stakes, create a villain even more menacing then the Joker himself, to create a film more immense. And though I know, rationally, that it isn’t at all the intent of those involved to make people forget the last movie or Heath Ledger’s performance in it, I can’t help but feel as though it’s somewhat disrespectful to Heath and what he accomplished in “The Dark Knight”, what he accomplished with the character of the Joker.

I’m literally terrified that people are going to forget him and forget his incredible acting. That the new film will push “The Dark Knight” and Heath Ledger’s performance from people’s minds.

The thing is, if Heath were still alive, I’m certain I wouldn’t feel this way at all, because he would still be here making films, still sharing his astonishing talent with all of us, and no one could forget him then. He would still be prominent in all our minds.

But, he’s not here anymore, and he won’t ever be able to make another film again.

His role in “The Dark Knight”, as the Joker, was his last, completed film role, and one of his greatest roles. The role he’ll likely be most remembered for and the one that will forever be freshest in people’s minds. With this new Batman film, with them so obviously trying to top the last one, I can’t help but feel upset and worried over the notion that people’s last impression of Heath, their last memories, will be pushed aside or made to fade away. That people will become so caught up in this new movie, that they’ll forget what Heath was able to do in “The Dark Knight, what he was able to create. I don’t want that to happen. But I’m so scared that it will.

I want people to remember Heath Ledger, to think of him still and appreciate him still, to always admire what a brilliant talent, and a brilliant person he was.

A part of what’s so painful about this to me is, I think very clearly, at the end of “The Dark Knight”, they were setting it up to have the character of the Joker return in any sequel they might have been planning, that he would have played an important role in any subsequent film. But Heath Ledger passed away, and they couldn’t do that anymore, because no one else could have played that role. Not like him.

So now we have a new film, with a new villain, with them trying to show the stakes are higher, the threat is greater, and I’m depressed over the thought that with it, people won’t remember “The Dark Knight” or how incomparably amazing Heath Ledger was in the film, how masterful, and how he created and brought to life a villain you never, really could top, a villain whom would be impossible to be more threatening then, or more intimidating.

I can only hope, that when people go and see this new Batman movie, that while they’re watching it, they still keep Heath Ledger in their minds, that they don’t forget him, or forget how extraordinary he was, how brilliant an actor he was, and how he showcased that brilliance so breathtakingly in “The Dark Knight”.

I know no one could ever top Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker, that no one could ever do better then that. He was awe-inspiring. And that, along with his other performances, will forever remain.

I pray people keep Heath in their minds, and in their hearts, that they remember him and remember how magnificent, how unprecedented he was in “The Dark Knight”, even while watching “The Dark Knight Rises”.

I pray people show Heath Ledger that respect, that they keep hold of the admiration, the veneration they had for him when “The Dark Knight” was new.

I know I always will. That I’ll never forget him, or how amazing he was, no matter how “epic” they make the next film, or any film here after.