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Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous
So your beef with the Nicholson is the writing more so than the acting? Meh
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No, actually. I think Nicholsen was typecast. I mean, he's THE Hollywood "crazy guy," right? But his performance in the shining (post-madness) was more Joker-like than his performance as the Joker. He was way too cute and goofy (and wayyy too fat) to pull off that role. He just acted silly-crazy... Not a tough job for him.
He had some good up-close moments, like "wait'll they get a load of me" and I thought it was really creepy when he put on skin-colored make-up to look "normal."
That is, I thought it was creepy until that moment in Dark Knight where Ledger, posing as one of Gotham's finest, shed all make up to appear in the firing-squad so he could take a shot at the mayor (who died without ceremony in TDKR) ... I know it was only a split second, but seeing him dressed as a cop, with those scars on his face, fucking with rifles like someone who actually knew how to use them... That was a jump out of your seat moment if ever I saw one.
Ledger's joker was a master combatant. A truly skilled marksman and an explosives expert (though how he acquired those skills is entirely up to us as viewers to decide... Former military? Special forces?)
He was so formidable. He took down that burly detective who he coaxed into laying hands on him while he was still locked up, and SECONDS later to my genuine surprise he had the guy overpowered, and taken hostage with a stray piece of glass held against his throat.
The off screen implications of Ledger's joker were truly fucking scary. He even beat Batman's ass in the end. It's a goddamn shame that an actor of that caliber left the earth before he really had a chance to prove himself. I remember thinking he was as good as Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood... Better than Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs. He was just electric.
So my beef really isn't with anyone. I'm just saying Leger danced around Nicholson like a butterfly. He owned that role forever, and fuck DC if they even think of recasting the joker in any live action capacity before Ledget's versipn has had a decade or more to linger in the public consciousness.