One movie is sweeping the box office this summer, “The Dark Knight.” The latest Batman installment from Christopher Nolan’s revitalized franchise is bigger and better than even I personally expected. The story is good, the action is good, and most notably the characters are excellent. Although the movie is centered on the caped crusader, the character who really keeps you fixated on the screen is the frightening Joker played by the late Heath Ledger.
Ledger’s Joker is a vast departure from Jack Nicholson’s version in 1989’s “Batman.” While Jack portrays the clown prince of crime with a silly goofiness and clearly defined clown makeup, Ledger makes the Joker dark, scary, and psychopathic. His hair is green, greasy, and unkempt. His makeup is flaky and smeared mightily across his face. It looks as though a madman or a two year old applied his red lipstick and the black halos around his eyes. The transformation of Ledger, an actor who started years ago as a teen heartthrob in “10 Things I Hate About You”, into a unrecognizable lunatic is incredible. He changed his movements, his voice, and his laugh in order to fully become the Joker.
The Joker is not an intriguing character just because of his physical mannerisms, but also due to his mindset. Most people’s actions are shown to be driven by common motives such as love, power, money, or revenge. The Joker doesn’t appear to be motivated by any of these things. He wants to create mischief and chaos simply because he enjoys it. He laughs at the best laid plans of others around him and revels in exposing society’s hypocrisies and denied truths. Alfred describes the Joker best when he tells Bruce Wayne, “…some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
When the movie debuted, I was watching a History Channel show about Batman’s psychology. In one segment, they decided to focus on the Joker. They talked about how Batman and the Joker serve as counterpoints to each other, especially with their philosophies. Batman is a man who was scarred by the senseless murders of his parents at a young age. His hurt leads to anger and a thirst for revenge. He believes that the world is divided between good and evil, justice and injustice. He feels he could be an agent of influence who sways the world’s balance between these extremes toward what is good and just. The Joker on the other hand doesn’t believe in justice. He thinks that the world is simply chaotic and unpredictable. His shocking actions further illustrate and contribute to this overall mayhem and chaos. To the Joker, the world and life are just a big joke. So he figures he may as well enjoy himself while exposing and laughing at others.
His biggest challenge is Batman. The caped crusader is very steadfast and true to his principles and beliefs. The Joker’s goal is to break him down and show that the structure of his philosophy is flawed. The Joker figures that Batman’s actions are all for nothing. If there is no sense of justice or good in the world, then there is no point for Batman to even exist. This is the ultimate opposition to Batman’s philosophy.
