Ledger's performance as The Joker

Cafe Society
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[QUOTE=TheBoltEater]
I think people might appreciate this performance even more if they could read the script. His portrayal is the perfect example, to my mind, of how a gifted actor can take great writing and make it even better.

In the interrogation scene alone…

“You have all these rules and you think they’ll save you.” I would’ve read that as a threat. He read it as a chance to actually help Batman become a better person (by his own twisted idea of what could make him “better”).

'…they’ll cast you out, like a leper." Somehow he decided that the “like a leper” part should be really kind of a cheery thought. It makes no sense, but it totally works.

And, of course, the simple look on his face when he meets Harvey in the hospital and says, “Hi.”
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I also liked his delivery of the simple word, “yeah,” when all the mob bosses asked him if he thought he would be able to steal from them and just walk out. I think a less imaginative actor would have delivered the line with a lot of bravado and defiance. Ledger delivers it in an almost puzzed tone of voice, as if the question of failure had never even crossed his mind.

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[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
I also liked his delivery of the simple word, “yeah,” when all the mob bosses asked him if he thought he would be able to steal from them and just walk out. I think a less imaginative actor would have delivered the line with a lot of bravado and defiance. Ledger delivers it in an almost puzzed tone of voice, as if the question of failure had never even crossed his mind.
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Definitely. The most laughs I think I’ve ever heard from an audience out of a half-second long speech.

23

[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
I also liked his delivery of the simple word, “yeah,” when all the mob bosses asked him if he thought he would be able to steal from them and just walk out. I think a less imaginative actor would have delivered the line with a lot of bravado and defiance. Ledger delivers it in an almost puzzed tone of voice, as if the question of failure had never even crossed his mind.
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Agreed. That was such a beautifully delivered line, as though he’d been asked if he were looking forward to the kegger at Dave’s this weekend.

My favorite: “If you’re good at something, you should never do it for free…” (Or something like that.)

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Heath Ledger had never even pinged my radar before this - I knew he was in Brokeback Mountain, but I haven’t seen it yet. (I know, I know, all my LGBTQalphabetsoup friends are horrified, too.) Now I am genuinely sad that he died, because seeing someone play - credibly, enthusiastically, and in the I’m-a-kid-in-a-bloody-candy-store sense PLAY - a dyed-in-the-wool psychopath is so distressingly rare in modern theater. The sense of adventure, the sense of fun, and overall, the sense of being so completely divorced from everyone else’s sense of what’s right and wrong that you might as well say “The sky is paisley” as “Killing people is inherently wrong”: all those things made him resonate for me as a real villain, a real character, an accurate portrayal of someone who is genuinely, clinically mad.

Which, naturally, made the movie itself much more enjoyable.

[QUOTE=TheBoltEater]
“You have all these rules and you think they’ll save you.” I would’ve read that as a threat. He read it as a chance to actually help Batman become a better person (by his own twisted idea of what could make him “better”).

'…they’ll cast you out, like a leper." Somehow he decided that the “like a leper” part should be really kind of a cheery thought. It makes no sense, but it totally works.
[/QUOTE]

THIS. The world the Joker lives in is Not Our World. He doesn’t play by the same rules, his mind doesn’t work in the same way. In his world, being a leper might well have some sort of twistedly cheery context. In his world, he’s doing Batman the favor he would do a brother - helping him become more, better, stronger, by forcing him outside his box. Hell, in his mind, he might be the best public servant that the world has ever seen, because he is forcing everyone out of their box and into a new way of thinking, a new mode of honesty.
It takes a very, very good actor to “get” that, to internalize it, and to bring it out in a way that communicates to the audience that this fellow is Not Right. The walk, the tics, the differences in inflection - the attention to detail is what sells the performance, for me. I’ve seen a lot of half-assed “psycho” acting, and a lot of mediocre “look at me, I’m CRAAAAAAZY!” acting, and this was neither.

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[QUOTE=A Priori Tea]

THIS. The world the Joker lives in is Not Our World. He doesn’t play by the same rules, his mind doesn’t work in the same way. In his world, being a leper might well have some sort of twistedly cheery context. In his world, he’s doing Batman the favor he would do a brother - helping him become more, better, stronger, by forcing him outside his box. Hell, in his mind, he might be the best public servant that the world has ever seen, because he is forcing everyone out of their box and into a new way of thinking, a new mode of honesty.
It takes a very, very good actor to “get” that, to internalize it, and to bring it out in a way that communicates to the audience that this fellow is Not Right. The walk, the tics, the differences in inflection - the attention to detail is what sells the performance, for me. I’ve seen a lot of half-assed “psycho” acting, and a lot of mediocre “look at me, I’m CRAAAAAAZY!” acting, and this was neither.
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BINGO. Really summed it up for me right there. I was trying to tell a co-worker about it. She asked if he was scary… and I had to pause and think about it. He’s not. Not really (at least to me). What’s scary about him is that he’s so… earnest about what he’s doing. Very few people have every gotten the disconnect of a real villain quite right, but Ledger is probably the closest I personally have seen to date.
What scared me the most about it is that it showed me a bit of myself. As a younger man, I was real big into the whole “the rules don’t apply to me, I am a force unto myself” mindset. Ledgers’s Joker shows me where that road can lead to, if taken to the extreme.

Chilling, and sadly, I hope they never try to use the Joker again. Anyone that can’t get this one just right is going to ruin the character.

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A great performance; the best thing about the movie, IMHO.

If you want to see Ledger in a totally different role, check out A Knight’s Tale, in which he plays a goodhearted knight who just wants to joust, have fun and win the girl. Ahistorical (to put it mildly) but a damn fun popcorn flick. He’s very good in it, totally genuine (just as he is in The Dark Knight), and that’s the mark of a great actor.

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Just occurred to me: if he did win an Oscar, who would accept it for him? His family would probably be too broken up. Maybe Jake Gyllenhaal?

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Christian Bale, methinks.

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Heath Ledger was so casual throughout the movie, no matter what he was doing. He was casual about everything from murder to a malfunctioning bomb at the hospital. There were very few moments where he got “worked up” and so it made those moments even more shocking.

I loved the design of his makeup and costume. The makeup looked like something he could have actually put on himself, instead of a professional. His entire appearance was a lot less cartoon-like than Jack Nicholson’s. It took me a while before I noticed that his hair was green and his suit was purple. It was more subtle and I liked that a lot.

Some of my favorite moments (that haven’t been mentioned):
*“I’m noT” in response to one of the mob guys calling him crazy.
*when he mouthes the word six after the cop says how many friends he killed.
*“you complete me” HILARIOUS!
*skipping and humming over to Batman who is laying on the pavement after crashing.
*clapping for Gordon when he gets promoted
*“Evening CoooMissoner”

The odd thing about his performance was I smiled every time he came on screen, I looked forward to it. He’s sick, but so entertaining! I always wanted to see what he was going to say or do next. His performance fascinated me!

If he doesn’t at least get nominated for an Oscar I will cry.

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[QUOTE=queenquimarie]

*when he mouthes the word six after the cop says how many friends he killed.

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Actually, he mouths “ten.” Because he’s including the four cops he’s about to kill with his exploding henchman in the holding cell.

31

hmmm…I will respectfully disagree for now.

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I’ll tell you what I loved about this Joker and Heath Ledger’s performance, in addition to what everyone else has said already.

I was (and still am) a HUGE fan of the '89 Batman movie and Jack Nicholson’s performance. I’ve probably watched that film 20 times. There is a scene in that movie and in TDK that is almost identical, in that it involves the Joker standing, very vulnerably, in the middle of the street, egging on an almost insanely angry Batman to come and get him.

Nicholson’s Joker knew that Batman wouldn’t kill him and was simply enjoying the taunting. But Ledger’s Joker is different. In his case, the Joker wins either way: either Batman is himself and can’t bring himself to kill the Joker, or he does kill the Joker, meaning that the Joker has thus succeeded in destroying who Batman was. I get the impression that dying in the process of such a success would be of absolutely no consequence to the Joker.

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[QUOTE=Asimovian]
Nicholson’s Joker knew that Batman wouldn’t kill him and was simply enjoying the taunting.
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IIRC, at that point in the movie, Batman had already blown up the Joker’s Smilex factory, and killed a couple dozen of his henchmen in the process. So I think he’s probably got a bit less certainty of coming out of the confrontation alive than Ledger’s Joker does.

34

[QUOTE=Asimovian]
I’ll tell you what I loved about this Joker and Heath Ledger’s performance, in addition to what everyone else has said already.

I was (and still am) a HUGE fan of the '89 Batman movie and Jack Nicholson’s performance. I’ve probably watched that film 20 times. There is a scene in that movie and in TDK that is almost identical, in that it involves the Joker standing, very vulnerably, in the middle of the street, egging on an almost insanely angry Batman to come and get him.

Nicholson’s Joker knew that Batman wouldn’t kill him and was simply enjoying the taunting. But Ledger’s Joker is different. In his case, the Joker wins either way: either Batman is himself and can’t bring himself to kill the Joker, or he does kill the Joker, meaning that the Joker has thus succeeded in destroying who Batman was. I get the impression that dying in the process of such a success would be of absolutely no consequence to the Joker.
[/QUOTE]

I got the same sense when he had given Dent the gun in the hospital. He didn’t have a preference as to how the coin toss turned out. He would “win” either way.

35

Whoops. And I absolutely loved everything about Heath’s performance. Down to his multi-colored socks and smacking lips.

36

Thanks, Argent - right church, wrong pew :stuck_out_tongue:

VCNJ~

[QUOTE=Argent Towers]
Actually the character was called “Scorpio.” Zodiac was a different killer, who actually existed in real life. “Scorpio” was loosely based on him.
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