![]() Heath Ledger’s Joker gained mythic status before The Dark Knight even hit theaters, thanks in part to a sensational marketing campaign but largely because of Ledger’s death at the age of 28. Whether he’s murdering a museum full of people, having dinner with Vicki Vale, or losing a fight to Batman, it’s all a joke to him. Nicholson gets it, playing the Joker as someone having the time of his life every moment he’s onscreen. It’s all a joke to him (and some of his jokes are genuinely funny), and he’ll do whatever he wants and kill whoever he wants as long as it amuses him. He has no real master plan, no real motivation. So sure, Nicholson’s Joker might be an aging mobster with a penchant for the music of Prince, but he captures the essential elements of the character: He’s funny AND he’s scary. ![]() And maybe most importantly, he had one of the most memorable smiles in Hollywood. ![]() Nicholson made a career out of playing charismatic characters who felt dangerous, who seemed like they could snap at any moment and turn violent. It commits the unforgivable sin of giving the Joker a real name. The film’s screenplay makes a significant change to the source material by making the Joker the killer of Bruce Wayne’s parents, turning Batman into a more conventional revenge story. The actor was in his 50s and a little doughy around the midsection. Jack Nicholson’s Joker has a lot working against him. But he keeps things upright, delivering a cheeky, scrappy, and above-all-hilarious Joker on a journey to the self-actualizing realization that he can be his own person, without Batman’s attention. With a motivation of “I want Batman to recognize how important our relationship is” it would have been easy for the Galifianakis to slip into a tired, homophobic pastiche. After all, what other Joker can say they’ve rallied King Kong, the Wicked Witch, the velociraptors from Jurassic Park, and Sauron himself to their villainous banner?Īnd though most of that is due to the meaty and hilarious script on The Lego Batman Movie, and though the physicality of Galifianakis’s Joker is reduced to Lego constraints, the actor still makes the character his own. In a movie where Batman’s biggest foe is arguably his own self doubt, Galifianakis’ Joker still machinates his way into what might be the most ambitious win scenario of any of his cinematic peers. Rarely has there been a Joker so endearing, so sympathetic - and not in a twisted way - than this blocky lil trickster. Zach Galifianakis in The Lego Batman Movie ![]() ![]() No matter how bizarre and menacing his laugh, or how many knives he arranges in circles on the ground, it’s hard to take a villain seriously when he tattoos his own name across his abs. The result is a character who feels less like the Joker and more like a low-rent criminal who took his Joker fandom way too far. He’s not even the primary villain, but rather a pest who shows up every twenty minutes or so. In the end, all this was in service of a character who is almost entirely inconsequential to the story of the film. And leading up to the film’s release, an endless stream of articles detailed Leto’s infamous on-set behavior, in which he went so deep into the character that he would antagonize his co-stars by sending them bizarre, disgusting gifts like dead pigs, live rats, or anal beads. There was his radical new look, covered in tattoos (“damaged”) and with a shiny grill in his mouth. It was his first role after winning an Oscar three years earlier, and the character’s first cinematic appearance since Heath Ledger’s iconic take. Jared Leto’s Joker arrived with maximum hype. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |