I wouldn't give Ledger ALL the credit for his take on the Joker. It was amazing and pretty much the best Joker performance ever...it was like watching a graphic novel on the movie screen. But Ledger's Joker is very similar to the Joker characters in The Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum, and Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. The way he bases his existence on Batman's is one of the themes in The Dark Knight Returns. He's absolutely insane in Arkham Asylum and absolutely sinister in the Killing Joke. Ledger probably used these various portrayals of the Joker to help him mold his own unique character. He was absolutely brilliant. I'm so happy that the Batman movies now are based on the graphic novels...now we don't have to sit through George Clooney's Batman and his rubber nipples.
There was absolutely no way to include a backstory to the Joker. How he became who he was etc etc would have made the movie a 4 hour marathon. Besides, the Joker just is. He's the iconic arch-nemesis of Batman. If he was suddenly portrayed as a nice guy magician who was down and out and had to partake in a shady venture, thus triggering a series of events in which Batman ultimately creates his own worst enemy, we (the audience) would sympathize with the Joker and that just wouldn't do. Not in this movie, at least. He's just this whirlwind of anarchy and chaos that engulfs Gotham and there's no reason to make him anything less than that.
Whoops. http://www.cnn.com/ LONDON, England (AP) -- Batman star Christian Bale was arrested Tuesday over allegations of assaulting his mother and sister, police and British media said. "Dark Knight" star Christian Bale pictured in London Sunday ahead of the movie's European premiere "Dark Knight" star Christian Bale pictured in London Sunday ahead of the movie's European premiere The 34-year-old actor spent four hours at a London police station before being released on bail. British media had reported that Bale's mother and sister complained he had assaulted them at the Dorchester Hotel in London on Sunday night, a day before the European premiere of his latest film, "The Dark Knight." The Sun newspaper said police did not question the actor Monday because they did not want to interfere with the premiere of the movie. Asked Tuesday whether Bale had been arrested, a London police spokesman did not refer to him by name but said: "A 34-year-old man attended a central London police station this morning by appointment and was arrested in connection with an allegation of assault." The spokesman spoke on condition of anonymity because force policy did not authorize him to be identified. British police do not name suspects before they are formally charged. Don't Miss * 'The Dark Knight' European premiere * iReports: 'Dark Knight' * 'Dark Knight' sets box office record * Fans pack theaters for late 'Knight' * Review: 'Dark Knight' a stunning film The force later said in a statement that the man had been released on bail pending further inquiries and told to return on an unspecified date in September. U.S.-based representatives for Bale didn't immediately return messages seeking comment. Repeated phone calls to Bale's London representative went unanswered. Wales-born Bale first made a splash as the child star of Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" in 1987. His screen credits also include "American Psycho," "The Machinist" and "Batman Begins." advertisement In "The Dark Knight," Bale reprises the role of wealthy playboy Bruce Wayne and his crime-fighting alter-ego Batman, a brooding vigilante superhero still scarred by the murder of his parents. The Warner Bros. film, which stars the late Heath Ledger as Batman's nemesis The Joker, took in a record $158.4 million at the box office in its opening weekend in the U.S. last week.
I agree. The actors, writers, director, etc deserve a ton of credit, no doubt. But it's not like they created this out of thin air or they elevated the original source material 10 fold. There's over 50 years of history there with plenty of great stories and characters. Finally someone decided to make a movie out of a comic book w/out thinking 'I have to fit this mold of what non-comic book fans think a comic book is (whiz bang action with 'zaps' and 'pows') and instead just make a good movie and take the source as seriously as you would most other stories and novels.
Like I posted earlier: Movie trivia time from IMDB: "To prepare for his role as the Joker, Heath Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's psychology, posture and voice (the last one he found most difficult to do). He started a diary, in which he wrote the Joker's thoughts and feelings to guide himself during his performance. He was also given Alan Moore's comic "Batman: The Killing Joke" and "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth" to read. Ledger also took inspiration from A Clockwork Orange (1971)'s Alex and Sid Vicious." "Heath Ledger improvised when he started clapping inside his jail cell in a mocking and sardonic capacity as Gordon is promoted. The clapping was not scripted but Christopher Nolan immediately encouraged the crew to continue filming and the sequence was included in the film."
I'm very curious to know what Jack Nicholson will say about Ledger's performance and portrayal of Joker.
Yes he did. I think I saw it on yahoo. Its under the Dark Knights trailers & clips. It has the clip of him giving his interview.
Things he DIDN'T base on any comic book version: The way he walked, the way he talked, his various physical idiosyncracies (and there were so many), his absolutely anarchic emotional shifts. None of that is in any way representable in the comic book format and it was all a revelation for a character that's been around for nearly 70 years and has been portrayed multiple times in TV, movies and cartoons. The craziest The Joker's ever been, the scariest he's ever been (and I would suggest that was in Dark Knight Returns, Killing Joke and Arkham Asylum) didn't even brush up against Ledger's version. And we have it on authority from Nolan that this all came from Ledger -- that, in fact, it was his pitch for a brand new take on the character that got him the job and wound up defining a great lot of the movie's arc. I agree that Nicholson and Ledger can't rightly be compared via the same metrics since they had different directors with different aims and different scripts. But, in so many gigantic ways, this Joker was created by Ledger more than by Nolan or even Kane, O'Neill, Miller, Moore or Morrison.
TMZ is now reporting that Bale was arrested for VERBAL assault. http://thesuperficial.com/2008/07/christian_bale_arrested_for_al.php That's pretty screwed up for his mom and sister to get him arrested for yelling at them.
The first thing I heard was he was upset he wasn't asked to reprise the role. He's apparently out of touch and thought this movie was a sequel.
i saw on ET there are very few interviews. he couldnt talk about the movie or something, or how he was gonna portray joker...but this was MONTHS ago
Words can be quite powerful, I'm sure his mom and sister know him best, anyway why are we talking about someone's family problems?? This obsession with celeb's and their private lives is crazy.....
Ohh & I thought this movie was one of the best of all time, IMO of course. I couldn't get enough. Heath Ledger was the best joker by farrrrr.... If he dosn't get an Oscar nodd for his performance it'll be a damn shame!
saw the interview of ledger on yahoo.com and he looks real jittery. He licks his lips a lot like in the movie and he cant stay still. It seems like there is no quick on and of switch between characters for a great actor like him. if it took him a month to get into that characeter then im sure it would take him at least that much to get out of it. cant wait to watch it again. the more time passes the more i miss the character. it will be my third time watching it next time i go.
