Joker Vs Joker

I had a chance to watch ”The Dark Knight” before the world could watch it. We had a special screening for our team the day before it released. I’m sure everyone was amazed at Heath Ledger’s performance. Bale was almost over-shadowed in the movie. When I returned home I started reading articles and reviews about the movie. Almost everyone agreed that it was a masterpiece and Ledger had given a performance so that the world will remember him for a long time. People started comparing his performance with Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of Joker in Tim Burton’s Batman. I came across this wonderful video on youtube that compares the two Jokers. When people said that Heath Ledger’s performance was better than Jack Nicholson’s, I could not believe it. No one can perform any role better than Nicholson. I got Batman’s (1989) DVD from Netflix and watched it. It was a truly magnificent performance from Jack Nicholson as usual. I also understood why people felt that Ledger was better than Nicholson.

One of the major reasons for Ledger’s performance was the characterization of the Joker. The credit goes to Christopher Nolan. He is a master director and he completely changed the way Joker was portrayed on screen. In all the previous versions (Nicholson and the animations) Joker was portrayed as a crazy, animated  person with exaggerated reactions. He was portrayed a sociopath who sings, dances and then mercilessly shoots people. Nolan portrayed Joker in a manner that would have impressed even the creators of Joker (The credit for the original creation of this character is still being disputed) and Heath Ledger gave life to Nolan’s Joker. The dialogs were powerful and it was a battle of minds. Ledger does not even use guns  in the movie (One of my favorite quotes from the movie: “Do you wanna know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can't savor all the... little... emotions. In... you see, in their last moments, people show you who they really are. So in a way, I know your friends better than you ever did. Would you like to know which of them were cowards?”).

If you were impressed by Ledger try to watch the older version. You‘ll know that Nicholson has done justice to his role. It is unfair to compare Ledger and Nicholson. It just shows that Christopher Nolan is better than Tim Burton. It is not Ledger’s Joker Vs Nicholson’s Joker. It is Nolan’s Joker Vs Burton’s Joker and the former wins hands-down.