The Dark Knight TDK's Joker: The best film villain of all time?

[Blue Sugar]

He is up there for me no doubt.

My top ten film villains without order and from the top of my mind:

The Joker (Heath Ledger) from The Dark Knight
The Terminator (Arnold Schwarchenegger) from The Terminator
T1000 (Robert Patrick) from Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) from The Star Wars Saga
Darth Vader (Prowse/Christiansen/Earl Jones) from The Star Wars Saga
Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) from The Shining
Death (Bengt Ekerot) from The Seventh Seal
Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman) from Léon
John Doe (Kevin Spacey) from Seven
Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) from Casino Royale

And the line between a classic main villain and just another bad guy/antagonist/henchman is thin. And also I didn't count more animal like characters like Alien and Jaws.

 

[LegendaryCaleb]

I certainly think he is...but that's just my opinion!

 

[Knight Rise]

I think MOTP Joker is a little higher, but he's not the best either IMO

 

[moviedoors]

Whatever does happen on that matter, I feel Mark's Joker was more playfully psychotic than Heaths. When I watched TDK, it didnt seem like a Joker having fun or just forming it in a humorus way. I would've loved a laugh when he sat up from the table to attack Gambol. He keeps saying "Why so serious?" when he's actually a serious character...

I couldn't possibly disagree more. I'm so glad they didn't make him laugh every two seconds. His laugh was like his screen time: exactly enough.

 

[DC Batman]

A little off topic, but I recently made a music video of TDK

Here is the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBwTmt0mlOE

 

[Frontier]

He is certainly up there. I wish you had a "top 3" or even "top 10" option.

I'd rate him top 3. Hannibal Lector and Darth Vader with him. Though in what order... I don't know.

He's without a doubt the best comic villain, the best villain of the past 15 years. Every 20 years or so has an iconic villain. Those 3 are it.

I think anyone who tries to play the Joker in a future Bat film ((which I hope doesn't happen for a good solid 20 years; much as I love the Joker/Batman relationship, Ledger simply knocked it so far out of the park that any attempt sooner than a decade plus would seem like it was either being done for hollow reasons)) is going to have to really out-do himself.

 

[roach]

Best film villain...no...Lector, Vader, Spacey from Seven, Kaiser Soze....IMO were better

Best comic book film villain...probably

 

[Nevincer]

One of the best. But I have to say some of the villains being listed in this thread are overrated as hell, and got cult status due to other factors, not the raw performance like with Heath's Joker.

 

[roach]

One of the best. But I have to say some of the villains being listed in this thread are overrated as hell, and got cult status due to other factors, not the raw performance like with Heath's Joker.

um Anthony Hopkins' Lector won the best actor Oscar for Silence of the Lambs...he only appeared in the film for a little over 16 minutes

also lets not forget that Joker was a popular character before Heath was cast

 

[Nevincer]

um Anthony Hopkins' Lector won the best actor Oscar for Silence of the Lambs...he only appeared in the film for a little over 16 minutes

also lets not forget that Joker was a popular character before Heath was cast

Um... I said some, I wasn't referring to Lector. I don't think he was overrated at all, and never did. Like Heath he won cult status through a great performance, as short as it was.

 

[roach]

well who would you consider over rated and got cult status due to other factors

 

[The Joker]

Well I don't think the likes of Le Chirffe from Casino Royale or Gozer from Ghostbusters warrant a cult status. If any Bond villains have cult status it's the likes of Blofeld, Goldfinger, Oddjob and Jaws.

 

[roach]

Well I don't think the likes of Le Chirffe from Casino Royale or Gozer from Ghostbusters warrant a cult status. If any Bond villains have cult status it's the likes of Blofeld, Goldfinger, Oddjob and Jaws.

I agree with this...I didnt see anything iconic about Le Chirffe

 

[The Caped Knight]

He's defiantly up their with Darth Vader.

 

[Doomed_hero]

no not best. While I found dark knight to be a really good movie, I feel there are better like Darth vader and Palatine from star wars. Plalpatine simply for being true evil, taking over the empire and killing millions, even billions, before he was taken down( no one can top that). And Vader for the character himself, there is alot more layers to him then health's joker.

Also i would put Bill the Buthcher from "gangs of New york' in front of him as well as hannibal. I think I would tie him with the 89 joker cause i think him and jack both had parts of the character of joker right.

 

[The Joker]

I agree with this...I didnt see anything iconic about Le Chirffe

As far as Bond villains go, he was decent enough, but not as great as the classic Bond villains I mentioned. He certainly is not even close to iconic villain status.

 

[redfirebird2008]

if i compare it with Nicholson's performance i dont really see that much diffrence.

I disagree, there is a legitimate difference between them. One of them completely disappeared into the role while the other didn't.

 

[webhead9707]

Does anyone else think Hugo Weaving's Red Skull and Tom Hiddleston's Loki may become iconic film villains?

 

[p4poetic]

I have to let movies age a bit before I can make 'best of all time' decisions personally.

 

[CelticPredator]

I could name a good 10 villains better then him. So no.

 

[Lord]

Does anyone else think Hugo Weaving's Red Skull and Tom Hiddleston's Loki may become iconic film villains?

Loki was a whining brat whilenred skull wasn't well enough used

 

[CelticPredator]

Loki was amazing. Well done fleshed out character. More interesting then The Joker.

 

[Lord]

Loki was amazing. Well done fleshed out character. More interesting then The Joker.

I liked Loki but he was kind of a girl sometimes

 

[Godzilla2014]

I'd say that Heath Ledger's Joker is the best comic book film villain and, at the very least, one of the best in film overall.

 

[El Payaso]

Loki was amazing. Well done fleshed out character. More interesting then The Joker.

He was the best in that movie, but Joker was big amongst bigs.