Purple suit. Clown make-up. Psychedelic laughter. Wintry smile frozen on the face. Blood. A lot of blood. And then laughter again…..
There are some film performances that stay in your mind forever. I remember when I first saw Batman. I was just seven years old but I still have a very clear picture in my head that I had nightmares after that. I dreamed that the Joker is going to catch me. 15 years later I saw the film again and he was still scary for me. Maybe some childhood memories were waken up. But in The Dark Knight I discovered I new Joker, a very different one. Who is better?
It is really hard to compare both performances. On one hand you have a real “monster-actor” like Jack Nicholson who stands on the top list of old generation actors together with Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Anthony Hopkins and many others. Jack Nicholson can not act badly, he can not have a medium performance. He is a brilliant actor.
But on the other hand Heath Ledger represented the new generation. Let’s put aside the fact that he died recently. Many people are arguing that his sad death contributed more to admiration than his real acting in The Dark Knight. I have the opposite opinion. For me, his performance as the Joker is incredible. And he definitely deserved the Oscar.
So, we have Jack Nicholson versus Heath Ledger as the Joker in two Batman movies. Let’s first observe the fact that the time gap between the movies is 20 years and the special effects play a key role. Of course The Dark Knight looked more shinny, more exiting. All those car chasing, and bus explosions….they were cool. But this is what a blockbuster is about. Both Batman and The Dark Night are emblematic for their own time. And from all Batman villains Joker remains the most memorable one. He represents pure evil – craziness mixed with pleasure from causing pain and chaos. I agree that both Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger managed to achieve high-profile performances.
The Cast
Let’s take a deeper look at the original Batman movie. For it’s time that film was a revolution. Tim Burton managed to reconstitute the atmosphere of one of the most popular comics of all time. And Bob Kane, the Batman creator, personally chose Jack Nicholson for the Joker part. An important fact is that at that time Nicholson had already been very famous and had won an Oscar for One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest (1975). He had proved that dark crazy characters are his specialty. That’s why it is not surprising at all that Kane decided on him. Who else would have been perfect for this role. And Jack did not disappoint, he acted perfectly.
In comparison Heath Ledger was more like a surprise. We knew him from very different movies. He had always played charming, young, sweet characters. Remember Casanova (2005), A Knights Tale (2001) or his big break Ten Things I Hate About you (1999). He was just not typical “dark-actor” and that’s why his performance was unexpected. There were a lot of speculations about who was casted for the Joker role but Christopher Nolan admitted in an interview that there was no doubt, Heath Ledger was his only choice because “he’s fearless”. They had discussed together the film even before the actual script was done.
The appearance
Thinking about the looks of the two Joker characters the similarities are obvious. They are both wearing purple suite and clown make-up - the Joker trade mark. But Jack Nicholson’s Joker appeared in many scenes without the make-up. He seemed like torn apart between his past and his present look. He couldn’t decide who he wants to be. After the incident he referred to himself as the Joker and not as Jack Napier but there was a part of him which still wanted his past personality back. Nicholson’s character is based on the clown figure - kind and evil at the same time. All his evil actions were always accompanied by laughter. He is scary in a crazy way.
Heath Ledger’s Joker never showed his real face. The make-up looked so natural on him as if he’s been wearing it from his birth. And I don’t think somebody would want to see him without it. His real name was not mentioned in the movie. He had no past or future. He had just the present of the chaos he wanted to live in. Heath’s character is totally different from Jack’s one. Ledger’s Joker is a real psychopath.
Motives
It’s is typical for the comic movies as a genre that the bad guy has a personal vendetta with the super hero. Usually the hero had done something in order to provoke the bad character to be bad.
In the Batman’s case Jack Nicholson was defaced by Batman while they were fighting. And even though the super hero tried to save him, Jack Napier fell into a cauldron of acid and remained marked forever. Joker was born because of Batman. The hero created the monster. From this turning point on the Joker started to pursue vengeance. His actions were launched to destroy Batman. He felt threatened by him because the public seemed more interested in Batman than in Joker. Jack Nicholson’s character suffers from megalomania. In the museum scene he says that he wants his face to be on the one dollar bills. When he kills he makes all his victims look like him.
The Dark Knight presents a whole different staring point. Joker’s motives remain unclear. He has nothing personal against Batman. He just likes to challenge him. He realizes that without a bad guy the superhero is useless and he accepts and enjoys the role of the villain. But exactly as Batman needs the Joker in order to be a hero, the Joker also needs Batman in order to be what he is. He does not want to destroy or kill Batman, this would destroy him too. He just wants to play with him. The game of the evil and the good is his life‘s meaning. That’s what he’s living for - to be the bad part of a whole.
Characteristics
People from The Dark Knight crew stated that Heath Ledger took his role more seriously than any other actor from the cast. He spends six weeks in a motel room in order to concentrate on his character and develop all his mimics and appearance in detail. Heath used to practice every tic and the Joker typical sadistic laughter. He gained inspiration from the look of punk rocker Sid Vicious and the psychotic manners of Malcolm McDowell’s character from A Clockwork Orange (1971). He even designed the face paint himself. And the Joker’s distinct tongue spin developed from Ledger’s own habit of running his tongue over the edges of his prosthetic make-up. Sir Michael Caine admits in an interview that when he met Ledger for a first time in the scene where the Joker comes to Bruce Wayne’s party in his penthouse Heath was so frightening that Caine got scared and forgot his lines.
Nicholson’s character seems like a mixture of his former roles in Chinatown (Jake Gittes), One Flew Over the Cuckoo`s Nest (Randle McMurphy), The Witches of Eastwick (Daryl Van Horn) and of course The Shining (Jack Torrance) but he adds some new characteristics and presents a character with an unique style. The purple suite was a trade mark of Jack Napier. Keeping his old style (the suite) and putting the new one (make-up) makes him look absurd and frightening in the same time. Nicholson reveals: “The thing I like about The Joker is that his sense of humor is completely tasteless”. He also says that the Joker character is one of his favourite together with his performances in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and As Good As It Gets (1997).
Appraisal
Even though Nicholson’s Joker did not win an Oscar his performance is ranked #45 on the American Film Institute's 100 Heroes & Villains. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe and BAFTA award. Nicholson won in total 60 Million Dollars from his role in Batman which makes his Joker role the highly paid in his entire career.
It is not clear how much was Ledger’s payment for the role but it is notorious that he was honored postmortem with an Oscar for best actor in supporting role and won the phenomenon 24 different film awards. His Joker performance will remain as the most memorable one in his career.
