This will be the first in a series of articles about different "Villains" from film history and how bad they truly were.
The Joker is argued, by many, as one of the greatest villains in fictional history - the others being Darth Vader and Stuwie Griffin.
There have been so many amazing depictions of the character but we’ll focus on Christopher Nolan’s adaptation. This is partly because of the near perfect performance the late Heath Ledger brought to the the crime Prince of Gotham and because I feel that Christopher and Jonathan Nolan’s writing really brought out the best (or worst, depending on your view) of the Joker psychologically, creating a thought provoking personality in the process.
Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s “The killing Joke” was iconic in many ways and to try and understand Nolan’s Joker, it certainly deserves a mention. The Nolan Brothers (Christopher and Jonathan) drew heavy inspiration from The Killing Joke when designing their joker.
At one point in The Dark Knight, the Joker told Batman “Madness is like gravity, all it takes is just one push.” The statement can be compared to something The Joker also said in The Killing Joke “All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man to lunacy.”
The Joker’s main mission in The Dark Knight was to show Batman that anyone can go crazy, all it takes is one bad day.
How did he achieve this? By manipulating identity and thoughts, knowing what his victims loved and hated.
Although his origins are unclear, the Joker might have been a psychologist in a previous life because he seemed to have deep and immense knowledge about the human psyche. How it works and how to exploit it. He knows exactly what to say to his victims to get them to do something they would be otherwise unwilling to do.
To understand this more, let’s talk about the interrogation scene in The Dark Knight. Batman appears out of nowhere in the dark, like he usually does, and tries to intimidate Joker into answering his questions. The Joker, however, is not impressed by Batman’s intimidation techniques and totally ignores Batman’s questions.
It seems that even before Batman stepped into the interrogation room, The Joker already had a target in mind; to make Batman riddle himself with self-doubt.
He achieved this by trying to manipulate the Dark Knight’s sense of morality, blaming him for the murders the Joker committed. Disputing Batman’s morality. Making him know that he is not the good guy he always thought he was after all.
Batman tries to intimidate him some more but the seed of doubt had already been planted and Batman becomes uncertain of his own actions. He begins to wonder; What if he really was not a good guy? What if he was just some nut job running around in a black suit telling himself he was doing something that matters?
The Joker even tries to create a narrative alluring to the similarities that both characters have. Both loners, operating outside the rules society decided on. Both seemingly involved in a life changing tragedy, the difference being Batman chose to put on a suit and fight crime while Joker thrived with the chaos. He embraced it.
The hospital scene in the Dark knight is a turning point in the film. Harvey Dent, a symbol of lawful Justice and order throws away all his achievements, his commitment to fighting crime and his obsession with order in a single moment, all because of a 5-minute conversation he had with the joker.
The scene portrays the Joker at his best. Able to maneuver through complex situations, unscathed, with nothing but his voice.
In the hospital with Harvey Dent, The Joker practically dismisses his guilt in the murder of Rachel (Harvey’s love interest) and Harvey’s deformed face, even though it’s absolutely clear that Joker was the prime cause of both incidents. He claims to be the innocent one caught in the web of the corruption in Gotham city.
Towards the end of the conversation, Joker leaves Harvey with the choice of killing him or not. The Joker would have won if either of those things happened. This is because Harvey Dent, the lawful hand of Justice was already gone, in his place lies Two-face Harvey. The Joker had succeeded in manipulating Harvey’s thoughts and feelings from a freshly experienced traumatic event and pushed him to his breaking point and thus creating an identity crisis.
The Joker creates chaos and assumes the identity of chaos, he wears it like a cloak because chaos is unpredictable and can happen at any where and at any time. This makes people believe that the Joker is insane and psychotic and to a point, unpredictable.
This is the persona he wants people to see him as but it’s far from the truth. Joker does everything for a reason. The conflicting stories about how he got his scars gives him an aura of power and makes people doubt his sanity whilst still being shrouded in complete mystery. People fear mystery.
The Joker might be the single most thought provoking experiment ever created in a fictional setting because it examines character and identity. Finding purpose and understanding what it truly means to be human and what it means to not be.
Thanks for reading. twitter.com/kebiruesuana
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