The Dark Knight What is your ideal portrayal of the Joker?

[Doc Samson]

This seems almost futile since Keyser Soze hit the nail on the head in this thread. But my idea Joker for this movie, Nolan's movie, would be Heath Ledger in Jack Nicholson's makeup. Ledger seems to be making the role his own and that's great. Of course, along with Nicholson's makeup would be the same theme, motivation, and exposition of the classic Joker. But ultimately the onus is on Nolan in whatever he does with the character. He just has to make what he does work on screen.

With hopes of not beating a dead horse, Nicholson's Joker may have been perma-white, but the lips were definitely makeup. In the scene where he kills the man with the pen on the steps of City Hall, his lipstick is very tiny and not all around his mouth as opposed to the rest of the film. On top of that Kane himself invented the Joker from Conrad Veidt who had a cut smile in the first place. That being said, I truly think this version will be close to ideal at least to me, just for the fact of what the source material is. Using the Joker's first appearance in the comics along with one of his better stories in the Killing Joke, I believe the potrayal has no choice but to be pretty darn good...

 

[Juanigi]

he could've just put white makeup over his red lips

 

[jesse custer]

A killer with no identification and completely looney. Someone who can't explain his actions, because all he understands is chaos. Someone who is the ultimate counterbalance to Batman's idea of law and order.

thank you

 

[Nepenthes]

My ideal Joker escapes from an interogation cell and runs into the police station yelling "Some one call the cops!"

 

[michael]

My Ideal Joker?

Take a lot of his character from The Killing Joke,

and add a decent amount of character from Batman #1.

Make him look like this but with red lips:

And finally, have him sound mostly like Adrian Brody with a little dash of Mark Hamill for the laugh.

 

[Superman45]

I think the Joker shouldn't laugh at everything. Only laughs after doing something not funny at all.

Example:

Joker walks out of the bank with a hostage. Asks why the chicken crossed the road. Then mows down the police W/ a machine gun, laughing as he does it.....Joker then speaks "To avoid the gun fire." and walks back into the bank or something.

 

[Monster]

Woah.

My ideal portrayal Joker is to be almost like Saw. Setting people in traps to escape.

Or we could have a Joker that's totally out of it, maybe he gets sprayed by Scarecrow at one point.

Spoiler

Like in the scene where Scarecrow sprays Batman again in TDK during the deal between Joker & Scarecrow (Not confirmed)

That'd be pretty cool.

 

[fcrowelle06]

three words: MARK F!@^&$* HAMILL

 

[aaron irvine]

Awesome first post! You and I see eye to eye on a lot of this stuff, judging by your post. I too was nonplussed that Heath Ledger was the Joker, but now that we've gotten some insight into his portrayal, I'm pumped about it. Here here on the punk rock thing, too.

thanks. yeah, i remember reading the bof forum when bale gave that interview and people there were all heartbroken over the punk reference. i thought they were being a bit melodramatic about it (and a little snobby, too).

 

[gwynplaine]

Daniel Day Lewis in Bill the butcher mode, add a nice chemical bath that bleaches his skin.
Joaquim Phoenix, crazy like his Emperor character in Gladiator, falls into the chemical vat. From the man in black to the man in purple.
But now I' m pumped about Heath cause he has that nice Killing Joke frame and looks pretty creepy and Badass. Like someone said in another post, "The Joker begins."

 

[TedKordLives]

I think the Joker shouldn't laugh at everything. Only laughs after doing something not funny at all.

Example:

Joker walks out of the bank with a hostage. Asks why the chicken crossed the road. Then mows down the police W/ a machine gun, laughing as he does it.....Joker then speaks "To avoid the gun fire." and walks back into the bank or something.

Haha, awesome
"Cause he didn't wanna get shot, like a jerk!"