Interesting enough though. This is out of respect cuz you know I loves ya Stormin. But you do make great points about how Nolan is getting the
characterization right on Two-Face it seems to me he has hit the nail on the head. And I love what we have of Two-Face so far. Though some have complained about his look, not being perfectly half and half like it is in the comics. Yet you do not mention this. To me this is the same with the complaint of the Joker not being Permwhite. One little visual aspect, that is different. Yet Nolan has hit the nail on the head with the
characterization of the Joker. And this to me is the same with Two-Face perfect characterization, but visually a little different then from before.
A while back I wrote this on the Makeup Page about the Joker. I hope you like it, to me its how I see what Nolan has done with the Joker.
I kinda took some time to write out why I don't mind the Joker not being perma-white. Now I'm not saying that, because I'm right, but I fully understand why Nolan took this route, and saw it still as the core of what makes the Joker, the Clown Prince Of Crime.
First I want to look at just the classic (and great) comic book version of the Joker. He is a man, no one really knows his history before the accident but that can always be left up for imagination. Yet when he fell into the chemicals by most versions his skin was bleached white. Now, I always try to look at it from a different point of view. Joker gets out of the vat of chemicals, now he is bleached. Technically being bleached skin does not make a person automatically a clown like person. There are real people out there with bleached skin, or pigment issues and right away one does not go: Hey its a clown! When the Joker saw himself in a mirror or what ever, he himself decided, and felt that he looked like a clown, then in deciding to make that so, he did many things to give him the clown appearance. White skin is just one step in looking like a clown. He put on theatrical clothes, of odd colors: purple, orange, green. To give him a more theatrical and some what comical look such as a clown. Adding red lipstick or black eye shadow on his eye sockets, to make himself look more clown like. Not only that he chose to use toys, and act like a clown, and laugh like one too. These for the most part are choices, though fate was thrust upon him, these were still choices made by him.
Technically the bleached Joker could have gone out people would of looked at him like a freak, but not necessarily a clown. And he could of gotten black paint and made himself look like a Zebra, and called him self the Zebra Killer but he did not, he chose the clown persona. And acted as such, either because he felt that is what he looked like or not, he still chose that look for himself.
Now look at the Joker in The Dark Knight we have a guy who we have no idea what his past is. Yet he clearly had a deformity thrust upon him, which was this time the accident is not chemicals but a freakish scar that made it look like a smile on his face. With this deformation just like the comic book Joker this one decided he looked like a clown, and put on make up, and made a clown ensemble: the purple, green, and orange look. Not only that he put on the red lipstick and black as well, though yes the difference is that he put on the white and the green hair as well. Yet he still has a deformation that makes him stand out in his own eyes, so because of this event he feels he needs to look like a clown, for what ever reason that may be, we will never know, its the Joker, he is truly and unknown in so many ways.
Yet again it seems to me that Nolan has the core of the character, yes he made one twist on it, but still the results are the same.
Both Jokers:
A. Had an accident that caused some type of deformation.
B. Both felt they must of looked like a clown in their own eyes.
- C.They both created the clown ensemble around their deformations.
Though I know some see it differently and that is fine. But to me Nolan contained the core of the Joker, in why he does what he does, and why he looks like a clown. Though the approach is different the results in some way are the same.
Though I know some people go well, a scar is not as deforming as a chemical bath. Well, I say untrue to that. People think scars are so easily fixed by plastic surgery, well they are not, besides TDKR why doesn't Two-Face right away turn around and get plastic surgery? Because its deeper then that, its not just because they physical deformation they are freaks, but the Joker is also a freak because of his mind, and the way he thinks. He is a sociopath he does not follow norms.
Technically if the Joker wanted to he could cover up being perma-white, with make up just as Joker did in B89, if he truly wanted to fit in. But he does not, the Joker does not fit in because he wants to be a freak. And he just adds to it by creating an clown ensemble.
And to me the scars in TDK are not just for visual alone. They are visuals in the sense that Nolan decided it to be the deformation process, yet on top of that, they are the deformation that sends the Joker over the edge, and making him, or having him dawn the clown persona. So the scars and the perma-white are both in a way two different deformations yet they achieve the same person we know as the Joker. In principle.
So in final words as I see it the Joker in TDK, and the Joker in the comics though they have a huge alteration, still achieve the same character, and characteristics of one another. I wrote this because some of the fine gentlemen on this board maybe wonder why I am completely fine with a make-up Joker. And this is because I see it this way. That they are both the Joker, and besides one deviation they both are the same character that we know and love.
t: .
