Heath Ledger - The Joker - Best Performance in a Batman Movie?

barely scrapes into the top 3 "Joker" performances in Batman Films!
(behind Jack & the guy from the tv show/film)

let alone best performance in any batman film.
 
I'm 33 and thought he was miles better than Nicholson's ham-fisted version. Far more nuanced balance between the tragic and the comic. How young does one have to be?

He's up there with Mark Hamill's animated version as the most interesting and well executed interpretations of the character, IMO.
 
Nicholson's Joker was written as a ham-fisted version. Nicholson played his take on the character accordingly.

Ledger's Joker was written to fit in with a grittier, less cartoonish Gotham and so felt more layered as a character.
 
Ooooh, look at you all conciously contrary!

There was more of a story than Batman Begins.

Ledger's performance was amazing, there is NOTHING of the actor himself there. It is rare that an actor can so totally aborb himself in a role as to be totally unrecognisable. Look at all the actors that just play themselves.

Every expression, inflection, tic, movement and emphasis was a masterclass in character acting. The result, a truly chilling yet entertaining villain.

Almost as bad as Ledger dying is the morons coming out and giving the tired 'nobody would think he was any good if he hadn't died'. :rolleyes:

Conveniently forgetting the massive buzz about the performance long before the accident. Actors die every year, including ones with a fuller CV then Ledger's. They don't all get such acclaim. There is no reason for Heath Ledger to get much attention unless the performance was good. Which it is.
Otherwise, no-one could win anything unless they were dead.
 
I thought he was great in the role. Quite frankly I think the film would not have been anywhere near as good without him.

Both films have flaws, but I think Batman Begins is actually a slightly better film overall. The Dark Knight was far too long and Batman as a character seemed non-existant. But that's just my humble opinion.

And before anyone says it, I'm not joking and I don't need to 'get real'. :D
 
I agree completely. Just goes to show you... all the praise seemed to come from the massive buzz created by the media and the fanboys after his death, and it worked. Great performance, but Oscar worthy... not really. The film itself was also quite a dissappointment, good but not great, especially when compared to it's image by many as "zomg!! best moovee evur!!!1!"

Hype has a lot to answer for.

Paddy :p
 
Encore une fois:

Look at some of the dire shite that has won an Oscar in the past, and you'll agree that Ledger deserves an Oscar - the bar was set low ages ago, with some of the pathetic wins that took place.
 
I don't get people's opinion that, just because unworthy actors/performances have won Oscars in the past, this somehow means another unworthy one deserves to. If the bar is low, shouldn't it be raised, not left as it is?
 
I didn't like this movie - too dark and depressing - but Heath's performance was amazing, unsettling and creepy. Someone once said I think about Peter Sellers that he didn't just play characters in films but became them - I think it was the same with Heath especially in the Dark Knight, Brokeback Mountain and LorRAB of Dogtown - just think what he could have accomplished, it was just the beginning - R.I.P. dear Heath.
 
I think the fact that Heath was so completely unrecognisable as the joker shows how great a performance it was.

Its definately my best performance... I would like to hear who people think did better.... someone said Mr Freeze by Arnie, in which I lost all respect for them. Batman and Robin was the worst superhero movie ever!!! and Arnie was one of the many reasons!
 
Just about everyone in The Dark Knight gave stellar performances. Most notably Ledger as The Joker, Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent and Gary Oldman as Gordon. Christian Bale is almost too dependable. You know he's gonna give a good performance but maybe it's too predictable. He was brilliant in Batman Begins but pretty much exactly the same as Bruce here in The Dark Knight. The next one will be the real test for Bale.

I think Oldman and Eckhart deserve supporting nominations but Heath Ledger is the one who went the extra mile, and this is REGARDLESS of his death. Everyone knew how amazing his performances was before he died. The buzz was there. It's a GREAT character actor performance, and not over the top or ridiculous (like Jack Nicholson's Joker). Jim Carrey was great as The Riddler in Batman Forever, but that film was so crazy his performance had to match and it was just too much. You can't compare those films to what Nolan is doing with his series.
 
It was an absolutely brilliant performance - and totally deserving of an Oscar. Has anyone even compared it directly to the performances of the people he's likely to be up against in the category at the Oscars before saying he "isn't worthy"? Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert Downey Jr., Josh Brolin - in my mind Heath is the best of the lot.

It's ironic, but I think the people whose opinions of his performance are most coloured by his death are those saying "it's overrated because he died". Personally I was all ready to be cynical about it when I saw the film for the first time, after having heard people rave about how great Ledger was - but it turns out that they were right. He did something quite special, and it annoys me to see people putting it down to "sympathy" when he was excellent, and when there is evidence in his back catalogue that says he was an excellent actor before his death as well as after. :rolleyes:

The Dark Knight as a whole was kind of overlong & confusing, though. Ledger was the star. (Especially when placed next to drab performances like Bale's. Ugh.)
 
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