The Dark Knight The Reveal of The Joker: Your Personal Choice

[Kieser1]

This has been an interesting question that I’ve always been meaning to ask here on the forums since the release of The Dark Knight. With today being the one-year anniversary of Heath’s passing, I feel today would be an appropriate time to make this thread. So lets take a little stroll down memory lane...

I’m sure we all remember this one; the first image released to the public, of Heath Ledger as the Joker. I’ll never forget the online frenzy that followed its reveal. Memories come to my mind, of countless threads filled with arguing, analyzing, and criticizing every little detail, with no one really sure what Nolan had in store for us. It wasn’t until the first trailer that the suspicion and mysteries around Heath’s Joker started dying down and the real hyped started building, but damn those were some crazy times…

Now if it were up to you to choose the reveal of Heath’s Joker, which image do you think would have put most people’s fears to rest, or which one do you feel would have impressed you the most? Aside from that, can you recall your reaction to the first pictures, teasers, etc of the Joker before the release of the trailer?



My personal choices for the reveal…

Nothing say’s "The Joker" like these two do. Both perfect imo.

Anyway, discuss and post your choices!

 

[Wesley Dodds]

I hated the Make-Up. The scars... Everything. Still do too.
His performance was astounding, though... That makes up for it.

 

[ChocheTheHero]

It was quite strange... But i like it, in some way. I always trusted in Nolan.
Later, Ledger surprised me like no else!

 

[Kieser1]

^^Hmm, interesting.

Here are two more pictures that I think would have made for a great 1st Reveal..

If these were the first pictures I saw, I think my head would have exploded

 

[Soapy]

I've always really liked this one.

 

[goh78]

I've always really liked this one.

See I'm the opposite. I never realy liked that one...I didn't, and still don't, think that looks like Ledger's Joker. The hair looks gelled up and just....different.

 

[Goodfellas]

I have a picture on my computer of him about to slam that dude for the magic trick scene but i dont know how to get it on here

 

[Goodfellas]

oh yeah and the empire cover magazine picture is classic imo

So many good pictures that really capture Heaths Joker IMHO

 

[AgentChaos0066]

From the very first imaged released I got what they were going for ... even though alot of idiots were complaining.

But my favorite was the 1st full reveal. The EMPIRE cover.

Joker, sitting in a jail cell. Colorful goofy socks, curved dress shoes looking like clown shoes, the purple shirt with scale looking pattern indicating he's some sort of monster, the dirty hands with un kept and lengthy fingernails ... with a malicious leer on his makeup smeared face making him look like Alex from Clockwork Orange's even more evil son.

Yeah, thats the one for me.

 

[Kieser1]

I have a picture on my computer of him about to slam that dude for the magic trick scene but i dont know how to get it on here

Upload your picture to Photobucket.com and it will give the URL that you can use to post here.

 

[TDKfanatic]

I have a picture on my computer of him about to slam that dude for the magic trick scene but i dont know how to get it on here

For me this one.....whoa!

 

[Beanjuice]

 

[Wesley Dodds]

This poster would've been nice as the first ever image of him.
its a poster.
it has the tag line.
and it only gives you a tantalising taste...

http://towleroad.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/03/14/joker.jpg

 

[raynorWilm]

I LOVE LOVE LOVED the first image we were shown. It is THE reason that I got onto the boards and onto the viral. Ive always been a fan of Nolan and Batman, and we had all heard that this was going to be a darker take on the Joker. So when that picture surfaced, the way it was lit and Heath looking down at the camera, it gave me chills. My roommates and I talked about it for days and I showed everyone I could, it was the first proof that this was indeed going to be darker than anything we had seen on screen before...

 

[LegendaryCaleb]

I've always really liked this one.

always loved that pic...still one of my favorites all time....i hate the darker blurry shot of this pic(everyone post it and its obviously too dark and crappy)
this would have been a great reveal...but im glad with what was first released...because i was in shock and mad because the makeup looked messy around the lips like a kid tryin to put on lipstick and i thought things couldnt get worse....and it got way better.....wayyy better which got me excited for TDK

 

[Ace of Knaves]

When I first see this I knew, I just knew TDK was going to be spectacular. It makes me think of a horror film villain, something I've always compared the Joker to. This image sparked the hype for this film for me.

 

[Snoo]

From the very first imaged released I got what they were going for ... even though alot of idiots were complaining.

But my favorite was the 1st full reveal. The EMPIRE cover.

Joker, sitting in a jail cell. Colorful goofy socks, curved dress shoes looking like clown shoes, the purple shirt with scale looking pattern indicating he's some sort of monster, the dirty hands with un kept and lengthy fingernails ... with a malicious leer on his makeup smeared face making him look like Alex from Clockwork Orange's even more evil son.

Yeah, thats the one for me.

That cover was the reveal for me, as well. I remember they released it after a particularly nice viral game in late November '07 (the whole thing with setting the clock on your computer to open the vault on the site was hilarious and "out of the box" thinking as Joker suggested). Because the cover was offered as a goodie to the fans after the game was complete it became even more special and memorable to me:

The first "live" moment of the Joker that definitely did it for me was him clapping in the cell in the 1st actual trailer. That was the moment he became real to me. The look in his eyes and him hunching slightly even when sitting just transformed the Joker from a comicbook character to a real person in my eyes. I knew I was sold on Heath's portrayal right then and there, as weird as that may sound (though to many here it probably doesn't ).

It's amazing to think the very trailer made fans online start the Oscar buzz for Heath which was soon picked up by the media. Those who say there was no buzz before Heath died don't know the whole story. There was quite a bit of it but many tend to disregard it today since it wasn't the media that started it but the fans and a lot of the media only started paying attention to what fans were saying after Heath died. But buzz there was and it was growing steady, it just shot through the roof once the newspapers got a hold of it and once Heath was gone.

I'll never, ever forget the clapping moment. The truck flipping over after he claps still makes me chuckle and grin like an idiot. I'm like: "Yay, you made it flip just by clapping!" *laugh*

 

[Kieser1]

Hmm, it really seems like that Empire Cover is quite the fan favorite. I must agree, the Joker does look amazing there. I remember when that picture was released, a lot of fan's complaints were put to rest. Any fears of the Joker not looking insane enough, or too much like Heath, were instantly killed with it's reveal.

 

[Boom]

The Empire cover. Still my favorite Joker picture to date.

I love the way his hair looks in it. Slicked back as opposed to combed over.

 

[BLACK-SPIDEY]

that pic screams joker right in your face.

 

[Caped Crusader]

This one would have been cool as the first picture IMO

 

[nickyg641]

I think the image they released was probably the best they could have used for the Joker's reveal. Appropriately mysterious, moody, sort of set the tone for the character. One reason I'm grateful that this was the first image we saw is that it isn't completely apparent that it's all makeup. One could still have assumed that the uneven tone of the Joker's skin is simply Nolan's answer to a realisitc form of chemical bleaching: blotchy and disfigured.

You see, at the time, I don't think there was much thought on the matter of whether or not the Joker would "permawhite". It was simply taken for granted that this particular element would remain unchanged. It was quite a polarizing event when the fans finally came to the conclusion that, indeed, he would be "made up". I myself took a very long time to get used to the idea of makeup as opposed to "permawhite". I think for many fans, warming up to that idea was something of a process, one that took most of the time from that first photo to the eventual release of the film. I mean, look at how long the "To Bleach or Not to Bleach?" thread lasted.

Had one of the pictures above been the first released, one in which half the makeup on his face has eroded away showing fleshtone underneath, I don't think my initial reaction to the Joker's radical new look would have been as warm (just for the record, I think the Joker's appearance and the use of makeup worked absolutely brilliantly in the film. I really just love to look at Ledger's Joker.)

 

[mrbrownie]

See I'm the opposite. I never realy liked that one...I didn't, and still don't, think that looks like Ledger's Joker. The hair looks gelled up and just....different.

I agree, I did liked it, but it's really weird looking, the make-up looks peachy not white, and he looks disfigured. And the hair is really different from all the hairstyle's we see him with (long/med/short).

I agree with nicky, the first one was the perfect one, they nailed it, setting the tone and letting big freaking room to speculation and discussion.

 

[Rolf]

I was very dissapointed by the first two reveals of the Joker, particuarly the one where he held Rachel at knife-point, I spent the rest of the evening complaining about it to everyone who would listen.

I had become dissatisfied with Nolan long before I saw those pictures, as I learned more about his realistic approach to Batman which I feel is completely out of charecter my doubts began growing that I was going to get a comic-true or likable interpratation of the Joker, in a way I was right and wrong.

I was both inteterested and worried about how they would portray the Joker, I guess I always have felt that, as a charecter he is not open to interpratation, he iether looks almost exactly how he does in the comics or you don't do him at all.

If it were not for Heath's preformance I think this would have gone down as the worst on-screen interpratation of the Joker in film history and Warner would be sacking Nolan and getting another director to work on a reboot right now.

While I have little to no doubt that they will reboot the franchise again, it will not be due to TDK, it will be due to what happens in the third movie, I think all franchises fail in their third installment, it must be a curse which I don't think even Nolan can avoid.

the could at least have made the Joker more colorful, like so:

 

[Ace of Knaves]

The Joker isn't open to interpretation? He is one of the most dynamic fictional characters ever. There is no set Joker. Yea we associate acid spitting flowers and hand buzzers with him, but to honest, that wouldn't of fitted in the world Nolan created in Batman Begins. The Joker can be interpreted in many different ways. Jacks Joker used make-up and handing out money to kill people. That is perfectly suited to the "yuppie" days of the 80s and early 90s. Ledgers Joker is the ultimate urban terrorist, he has no real reason to do what he does. Something that really hits home in this day and age. What I'm saying is that Joker is one of those characters that can be moulded to pose a threat for his particular time. The gangster who uses peoples superficial lifestyles against them in the 80s and the unrelenting, unstoppable terrorist who kills at will for the terrorist fearing age of today.