Heath Ledger Is Not the Best Joker
I never really “got” the whole Heath Ledger thing. In his breakout role as aloof heartthrob Patrick Verona in 10 Things I Hate About You, he channeled about as much depth of character as Luke Perry playing Dylan McKay…just with longer hair. Ledger was so bad in The Patriot he actually distracted from Mel Gibson’s hammy performance and the usually-solid Jason Isaacs’ best (worst?) Snidely Whiplash imitation. Ledger was completely one-dimensional in the laughably awards-pandering Monster’s Ball, and he displayed an abject lack of comedic timing in The Brothers Grimm.
While Brokeback Mountain bored me so much I never finished watching the movie, I can’t complain about Ledger’s work in the film. Guided by the inconsistent Ang Lee, I finally saw in Mr. Ledger a glimpse of the charisma and talent so apparent to everyone else. But given his history of okay-to-bad performances in crap movies, I was pretty disappointed that director Christopher Nolan cast him as the Joker in The Dark Knight. Of course, I was the only one disappointed, it seemed, as everyone and their mother blogged about how great Ledger was going to be. But not me. I didn’t drink the Kool-Aid. I didn’t buy the hype.
I defy you to tell me I was wrong to question casting this man as a homicidal clown criminal genius
Well, internet…I admit it. I’m stupid. You’re smart. I was wrong. You were right. You’re the best. I’m the worst. You’re very good-looking. I’m not attractive.
Heath Ledger was amazing as the Joker. It was the best performance of his life. The best performance of any actor in a supporting role that year. One of the best performances of a villain ever put on film. But it wasn’t the best Joker of all time. Not even close.
The Dark Knight
Ledger deserves a great deal of praise for his portrayal of the Joker. However, he must share that praise with the wonderful part written for him by David S. Goyer, Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan. The script was very obviously influenced by important works in the Batman comics canon. Notably, TDK’s Joker publicly announces his intent to assassinate public servants, then follows through. This is spot-on the plot of the Batman #1, which also happens to be the Joker’s first appearance.
During the course of TDK, the Joker relates multiple different origin stories, leaving the viewer ignorant of how the Joker evolved into the monster he is. This echoes the Paul Dini one-shot Mad Love (1994), as well as issue #85 of the Robin series, “Fools Errand” (2001) by Chuck Dixon.
And perhaps the greatest influence on TDK’s Joker – as well as the overarching themes of the film itself – is Alan Moore’s legendary 1988 one-shot Batman: The Killing Joke
The Joker, as seen in "The Killing Joke"
In very similar fashion, TDK’s Joker is out to prove a point: he wants to prove that the people of Gotham can be just as ruthless as he is under the right circumstances. He tears down Gotham’s White Knight, Harvey Dent, in brutal, spectacular fashion. He challenges the citizens of Gotham to kill citizen Coleman Reese to spare their own lives. And finally, he pits a boat full of prisoners and a boat full of citizens in a deadly game of chicken against one another.
Yes, Goyer, Nolan and Nolan did their homework. They drew upon the well-established Joker canon to create a complex, multi-layered Joker. Their Joker is a man who plans extensively in order to fulfill his mad intentions – be it a bank robbery, a hostage situation or the aforementioned boat scenario – but can convincingly ask his prey, “Do I look like a man with a plan?”
Ledger dove into the role, filling out the complex character with 40% Charles Manson, 40% The Crow (1994 movie version), 10% Rain Man and 10% Groucho Marx. The character is dark and murderous, with nervous ticks, gallows humor and enough charisma to mesmerise even the most jaded cinemagoer. He’s fascinating…like crime-scene photos or that horrible car crash on the 405 you pass by a little too slowly, hoping to catch a glimpse so you can later regret seeing something that can’t be unseen.
Tragically similar, explosive performances
There are two big problems, though, with TDK’s Joker. The first problem is that Goyer, Nolan and Nolan cherry-picked elements of the Joker that fit into their grim, “realistic” take on the world of Batman. Their Joker is an amazing character, but their Joker can only exist in the world of Batman that they’ve created.
The second problem is that the Joker from “The Killing Joke” sucks. That’s right, fanboys. Go ahead and piss your pants. “The Killing Joke” sucks. Even Alan Moore knows it, calling his lauded work, “clumsy, misjudged, and [devoid of] real human importance.” The fact is that a Joker who beats Robin to death with a crowbar, a Joker who tries to patent disfigured fish, a Joker who acts on violent impulse is a compelling Joker, a Joker who reflects the pitiful nature of man’s desires and plans. A Joker who actively strives to reflect the pitiful nature of man’s desires and plans is just another pitiful man with pitiful desires and easily-thwarted plans. When the Joker understands his purpose, the subtext that makes him so compelling becomes text. Taking away the Joker’s subtext makes him a shallow character, good for nothing but shock value. That’s one reason why Moore’s “The Killing Joke” rings hollow to him.
The Joker
In the 70 years since the Joker was first created, hundreds of comic book writers, artists and editors have helped shape the character. On screen, a handful of actors have been given the opportunity to bring the character to life. So many different portrayals of the character across so many different eras of American pop culture make it impossible for anyone to claim a “definitive” version of the Joker.
Take, for example, Joker’s appearance in Batman #2 (1940), where he is a murderous jewel thief, medieval weaponry expert and head of Crime Syndicate, Inc. Or think about Julius Schwartz and Denny O’Neill’s nine-issue Joker series (1975) which features a nearly harmless Joker playing tag with Two-Face and breaking open a gumball machine to steal the pennies inside. Or what about Jim Starlin’s Joker – from the storyline “A Death in the Family” (1989) – who accepts a role as the Iranian ambassador the U.N. only to attempt to assassinate the entire U.N. Security council?
Jim Starlin & Jim Aparo's take on the Joker
While each of us comic book fans might prefer one version of the Joker over another, each version of the Joker – no matter how different – makes a valuable contribution to the Joker myth.
Batman: The Animated Series
In 1992, Batman: The Animated Series debuted on Fox. If you’re nerdy enough to be reading this article, then you probably don’t need to be told how utterly AWESOME this program was. Who cares about the Emmy awards it won? Who cares about its commercial success? It was simply bad ass. The artistic design paid deep homage to the classic Max Fleischer Superman cartoons, yet mixed goth, gothic and art deco styles with a pulpy, film noir tone to create an aesthetic sensibility all its own. The scripts were kid-friendly while maintaining adult themes consistent with – and often inspired by – the darker, grittier Batman comics. And then there was the voice acting.
All of the voice acting in Batman: The Animated Series was excellent, but Mark Hamill’s portrayal of the Joker stood out like the moon in a night sky filled with stars. On the surface, his cartoony voicework seemed more akin to Caesar Romero’s portrayal of the Joker in the classic, campy 1966 TV series Batman. This was a slapstick Joker, a Joker that didn’t curse or kill. This was a Joker that rode roller coasters for fun and pouted when he didn’t get his way. But beneath the surface, this Joker was a homicidal maniac.
Kid-tested, mother-approved?
Have you seen The Silence of the Lambs? Do you remember the scene where Hannibal Lecter meets with the senator whose daughter has been kidnapped by Buffalo Bill? Do you remember how Hannibal Lecter tells the senator, “Love your suit!” with delicious malice? Foppish, humorous, completely inappropriate in tone and context, but not at all vulgar or offensive out of context. That is Hamill’s Joker.
Hamill’s Joker locked Batman in a trashcan, stabbed holes in the trashcan with a 12-inch blade, then kicked the trashcan into Gotham Bay. Hamill’s Joker kidnapped the mayor’s son not with brute force, but with charisma and charm, only to reveal his murderous intentions when Batman showed up to rescue the boy. Hamill’s Joker has the ability to convincingly and effortlessly shift from harmless prankster to horrible psychopath and back again…all in a few moments. He may spend much of his on-screen time skipping and singing his own theme song, but he does so while leading his enemies into death traps.
But there was something missing from Hamill’s Joker: true horror. While Batman: The Animated Series consistently pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in a children’s cartoon, Hamill’s Joker was nonetheless relegated to PG-13 status.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Reprising his role in Batman: Arkham Asylum, Hamill’s Joker finally got the opportunity to dive into Alan Moore territory. Arkham Asylum’s Joker kills in cold blood. He sells out his henchmen, openly rooting for Batman to crush them. He tosses off vulgarities. He frees the whole of Arkham Asylum’s inmate population from their cages for no purpose other than to effect disaster on the world.
What is truly impressive, though, is how Hamill’s performance in Arkham Asylum doesn’t at all deviate from his performance in TAS. His voice inflections, his sudden shifts from whimsy to anger…they are exactly the same. Hamill’s Joker is just as comfortable pandering to censors and 10 year-old kids as it is indulging comic book geeks’ darkest fantasies. Hearing Hamill’s voicework in the context of an R-rated Arkham Asylum game reveals how R-rated his performance in TAS truly was. Arkham Asylum doesn’t really free Hamill from his kid-friendly shackles so much as it frees our understanding of his Joker from our minds’ kid-friendly shackles. And that’s scary. Imagine as a kid you saw Anthony Hopkins play Hannibal Lecter on Sesame Street and offer Big Bird some KFC. As a kid, you probably wouldn’t really get it. As an adult, you’d watch Silence of the Lambs and think, “Wow, that episode of Sesame Street was fucked up.”
Only one is cage-free, but both are delicious
To be sure, Hamill’s performance in Arkham Asylum isn’t a tour de force of acting; it’s simply another addition to his breadth of experience playing the Joker. Arkham Asylum takes Hamill’s interpretation of the Joker and places it an a different context, and in doing so emphasizes the depth and nuance of his work on Batman: The Animated Series. I used to watch TAS and think, “Wow…I can’t believe that’s Luke Skywalker playing the Joker.” After playing Arkham Asylum, I watch Star Wars and think, “Wow…I can’t believe that’s the Joker playing Luke Skywalker.” Because Hamill’s interpretation of the Joker is versatile enough to fit comfortably in any version of the Joker yet written. Hamill’s Joker supersedes the art design that accompanies his voicework. Hamil’s Joker fits appropriately into any context. Hamill’s Joker is never limited by any creative director’s vision, but rather allows any creative director’s vision to inform his performance while simultaneously informing the creative director’s vision. Hamill’s Joker pays homage to nearly every version of the Joker while making its own unique contribution to the Joker canon.
To the Actors
Heath Ledger, you delivered a performance that will serve as a benchmark not only for all future Joker performances, but for all future comic book villain performances. Hell, you delivered a performance that will always be mentioned among the great performances in cinema.
But Mark Hamill, you are the voice in my head every time I read a line in a comic book delivered by the Joker. You transcend comparisons. You embody the spirit of the character. You. Are. The Joker.
Mark Hamill, the Joker
One question…
Would Mark Hamil have been a reasonable if not adequately proportional selection to play the Joker in Nolan’s Dark Night?
good article
I loved TAS because of the gritty and dark way it broke the mold of stereotypical after school cartoons. You are right about Hamil’s voice acting and the portrayal TAS offered to Joker fans. It was this specific series that thrust Joker into my world as the one true anti hero I could really get behind, even secretly wish I could be.
Many of our generation first saw Joker brought to life by Jack Nicholson’ s perverse but lazily disinterested performance. Looking at his role compared to Heath’s it is interesting to whiteness the startling leaps, growth, and depth of character the years in between motion pictures granted. Jack seemed almost hindered by fear of being in unfamiliar thespian territory or genuine lack of understanding of the true psychosis rampant in the Joker genome. Ledger obviously paid homage to Nicholson with the role, but certainly had the balls to through out any notion of Hollywood fences that often prevent main stream actors from pushing the limits of their talent. Congrats to Hamil on his reprisal in the video game version, it is obvious he enjoys the dark side. Lucky for us and whole new generations of gamers and Joker fans we have several different interpretations to manipulate into our own idea of a super Joker: Heath Ledger voiced by Mark Hamil wearing Caesar Romero’s wardrobe.
his role as the Trickster on the Flash tv series has a lot in common with his work as the Joker. I guess it’s the closest we will get to seeing him as a live-action Joker.
@ Rev. Shad — I agree that Hamill’s emotional intensity and Ledger’s physical presence would make a great Joker. I’ve never seen Hamill own a role the way Ledger owned the Joker, and I wonder if Hamill would have been capable of that kind of intensity if he’d worked with a true actor’s director…
While I think you have a point about Heath Ledger’s Joker performance overshadowing the at least equally great Joker performance by Mark Hamill, I also think this article kinda misses the point.
By all means this is a pretty darn good article, well written with many good points. However if you are gonna compare two actors portraying the same role, should you not focus on the actual acting and not the material used in the scriptwriting?
Sure I understand how important scripts are for a performance (just look at “Revenge of the Sith”). I just don’t think that alone is a decent way to compare actors. It feels more like we are being lured in by two big names in the business, just to get taught historical facts about comic history. You do mention some of the actual acting in your conclusion, but it’s rather superficial compared to the rest of the article.
Personally I like them both. I was however already a fan of Heath Ledger and had little doubt he could do the task at hand. He also managed to create an equally upsetting Joker, that against odds seemed both feasible and believable. Mark Hamill’s Joker on the other hand is the over the top theatrical Joker that is just impossible not to “like”.
Anyways just my 2 cents
Absolutely spot on. Hamill got the character of his life and gave the performance of his life when he voiced the animated Joker.
Hamill told a story in an interview about how he used to practice on his way to the voice studio by laughing maniacally as he drove his car on the 405 freeway in HelL.A. And all around him, people in the other cars would stare with horror and veer into other lanes.
Classic.
This article is like a drink of cool water after 40 days in the desert. You are not alone in your feelings.
Will be linking to this from my Joker-devoted blog!
Just one correction: it’s not implied at all in TKJ that anyone sexually assaults Barbara, apart from stripping her naked and photographing her, that is. That point is highly debated.
Completely agreed.
If there’s ever another Batman movie, I want to see Mark be The Joker. He’s the voice I hear when I read comic panels with the Joker in them. He’s the voice I try to emulate when I make a joker-related joke (usually only when watching TAS with my brother and wife – we’re all fans). Mark Hamill *IS* the Joker, and despite a great performance by Heath Ledger, Mark Hamill will always be the Joker to me.
I’m not sure why people even have this argument. Each and every Joker are separate iterations, mutations on a character that started out as a campy fool.
Each Joker is a facet of a many-sided mirror, reflecting something sick yet intrinsic to society.
I loved Nicholson (“Never rub another man’s rhubarb…”)… this was the lovechild of Tim Burton’s sweet, sinful lovemaking to this franchise.
The Batman cartoon I watched from the cusp of my late childhood into my early teens. That cartoon went from childish to deep, and Hamill made his own twisted Joker, the constant tormentor. Brilliant. And he truly was amazing in the Arkham Asylum game.
And Ledger’s performance… shit. The purity of it was amazing, shocking, a performance that people who like tasting the darker side of life could REVEL in. (And what the fuck is with the Crow comparison? Does anyone else NOT see that whatsoever except for the similarities in makeup?)
To play the “Which Joker is better” game is just foolish, because the character will keep changing, each iteration will be different. That’s pretty much the beauty of it.
@Rabbit Fly
I completely agree with your 2 cents. I think both Ledger and Hamill rocked as the Joker, and it’s an apples/oranges comparison.
Sorry if you felt “reeled in” by the title. Both Ledger and Hamill gave amazing acting performances as the Joker, so I didn’t feel that there was much to critique about the acting. Rather, it was the roles that they were given that defined their Jokers, so I wanted to explore how hearing Hamill in AA really exposed a new dimension to his performance that hadn’t fully been explored.
[...] Heath Ledger Is Not the Best Joker [...]
Whoever wrote this article tries to do the impossible: argumenting a matter of taste. The title (“Heath Ledger Joker Is Not the Best”) condemns the text to fail in this task. In my opinion, the Ledger’s Joker is the best. My brother prefers Nicholoson. My nephew says Cesar Romero was best. Who’s right?
vaffanculo figlio di puttana con questo articolo di merda,heath ledger e il miglior joker dei tutti i tempi,e tu sei una merda che non fa altro a trovare cazzate,ma tu non fai niente a heath lui era un star e tu sei nessuno,ok merda fottiti e non scrivvi piu cazzate
Heath sucked not he fault its the director. his makeup sucked to whats with the scares. also where the exploding toys the acid toys the chemical smile gas the over the top laughter . He just a thug in the movie in gay rodeo clown makeup. if he had not died(not making fun of his death) every one would have agreed with me.if it had been bat VS a crazy gangster it would have been great.there is almost no joker is is performance. i would rather to have seen mark hamill any day of the week and twice on Sunday or even jack agian
I completely agree with this article.
I didn’t even manage to finish the Dark Knight film that I had borrowed off a friend. I was intrigued by the bank robbery at the start but then it started to bore me. Although I kept it on and waited for each and every Joker part, seeing as he is my favourite character, although I was very dissapointed with Heath Ledger’s performance.
I appreciated the way Heath Ledger had changed the Joker, from a phycotic, homocidal lunatic where everything was a joke to a phycotic, homocidal lunatic where NOTHING was a joke.
I mean, change is good but changing something into what it’s not isn’t. The Joker should always keep his crazy scream of a laugh that Jack Nickolson just managed and Mark Hamill perfected. So, all in all, Heath Ledger was not a good Joker. Whatever Mark Hamill looks like, he would have made a better on-screen Joker than Mark Hamill.
I completely agree with this article.
I didn’t even manage to finish the Dark Knight film that I had borrowed off a friend. I was intrigued by the bank robbery at the start but then it started to bore me. Although I kept it on and waited for each and every Joker part, seeing as he is my favourite character, although I was very dissapointed with Heath Ledger’s performance.
I appreciated the way Heath Ledger had changed the Joker, from a phycotic, homocidal lunatic where everything was a joke to a phycotic, homocidal lunatic where NOTHING was a joke.
I mean, change is good but changing something into what it’s not isn’t. The Joker should always keep his crazy scream of a laugh that Jack Nickolson just managed and Mark Hamill perfected. So, all in all, Heath Ledger was not a good Joker. Whatever Mark Hamill looks like, he would have made a better on-screen Joker than Heath Ledger.
If you can’t get Mark Hamill to play the Joker, then use him for a voice over.
I guess I’m still the only one that didn’t dring the kool-aid.