Joker-a-Thon Part 3 - Heath Ledger as the Joker

Well, I guess we're to that time all the fan boys love. That's right, now we're gonna talk about the Joker, as played by Heath Ledger. Thanks to timing and the death of Ledger himself, this Joker became just as popular, if not more popular than Nicholson's Joker. Let's take a deeper look...

HEATH LEDGER as THE JOKER
The Dark Knight (2008 feature film)

This is the one I've gotten a couple e-mails (no joke, lol) for, requesting me to start off with it. However, I chose to go in a different order than just linear. I went in some illogical, ass-backwards order. Why? Because I felt like it, so suck it.

Perhaps the best known publicity picture of the Joker

Anyway, Heath Ledger's Joker threw people a curve-ball in theaters around the world. When first announced that Heath Ledger would portray the clown prince of crime in the film, many were shocked. I mean, really? The guy who played the queer in Brokeback Mountain? What's worse is that he had to act with Jake Gyllenhaal's sister, Maggie in the The Dark Knight. Talk about awkward, I mean how did they meet on the set? "Hey, Maggie, I had sex with your brother in front of a camera for money. How's your career going?", Heath would say. It must've been awkward as hell.

The Joker in this film was not only insane, but scary as fuck. I mean, sure, Nicholson's Joker came off as creepy at most times in Batman, but seriously, Heath Ledger took the worst parts of the Joker and brought them to the surface. This Joker is hardly funny, he hardly laughs but like three times in the movie, and he doesn't have the traditional "Joker back-story". Many felt that he was going to bomb, as well as the movie. How wrong was the audience? WRONG!! They were so fucking wrong that it makes gay marriage look right! Heath Ledger was not only fit for the role, he dominated that movie. He stole the show, even from Batman. The Joker was marketing engine for the movie, no question, and now we can see why.

Batman: The Killing Joke, the inspiration
for Ledger's Joker performance

The Joker, however, was not on a mission of revenge like in previous Batman installments. This Joker was more on a mission to simply spread chaos. During one of Alfred's many laborious and drawn-out speeches in The Dark Knight, he compares the Joker to a man he hunted in Burma, claiming the man stole things just because he "enjoyed the sport". Alfred then said that some men aren't looking for reason, or any certain purpose; instead, he explained how some men "just wanna watch the world burn".  Bruce later makes the comparison to the Joker, how he only wants to "have some fun" at the expense of human life, and he just wants to spread anarchy at the cost of innocent lives...

It really is a powerful story, and it perfectly reinvents the Joker for modern audiences, who are looking for something different. Let me tell you, that once this movie came out, many people who loved Nicholson's Joker immediately dropped him and fell in love with Ledger's Joker. Ledger's Joker became the biggest villain of the modern era of comic book films. Ledger helped make the Batman franchise the top grossing superhero franchise of all time, and he brought a new take on the Joker that modern day comic book artists are basing their Joker's off of. It''s ironic to think that new Joker's are inspired by Heath's Joker, when it turn, it was inspired by the Joker from "The Killing Joke" Batman graphic novel...

Anyway, let's end the same way we did with the other two posts. Here's a clip from The Dark Knight, which includes the famous "pencil trick" scene:

Here's a clip of Joker's first appearance in the movie:

...and to cap it off, here's the famous TV scene where Heath Ledger's Joker really shines:

Check out Parts 1 & 2 if you haven't yet to see my opinions on the other Joker's in the popular media...Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in February!