JM Classic Performance Dissection : Heath Ledger as The Joker

Well, i have to confess that i ain't that fan of Heath Ledger, I did not like him much in Broback Mountain, or in that movie where he plays a knight, still he was a decent actor, but his swan song performance of the Joker was mind blowing

Think about it, the "other" joker being Jack Nicholson, who gave a great performance as the joker in "Batman", the odds were really against Ledger, how do you compare to Nicholson, that would bring cold sweat to any actor's forhead, but this guy was fearless

Ledger plays "the joker" in "The dark knight", well i was not so enthusiastic about that movie since it made that much money, but you know everybody was saying it was good and blah, so i watched it, and frankly his performance is so faithful to anybody's joker that you sometimes forget that it's just acting, of course this performance owes a lot to the Directing and the Writing of Mr Nolan, the fact that he never shows the origins of the joker, to make him "absolute", but Ledger did dive into his character, it's known that he spent six weeks isolated in a motel room working on the mannerism and the madness of the character, and when delivery time came, he made such a credible and scary performance, that he is a serious contender to be the second actor to ever receive a posthumous oscar (hint, he will surely win)

The Character in the movie spread havoc throughout gotham city, and makes character make sometimes non human personal choices, he is drilling to draw everything in each other character that is pure evil, and of course he does that with class, and wit and fun, and .... fearlessly

Fearless is the keyword to that performance, fearless to compare to Nicholson, Fearless to do whatever it takes to spread chaos, Fearless of the mob, the batman, death, failure, or as he just says "I just DO things"

so for anybody who didn't see this, the time is now, and as Bruce Wayne said in the movie "you either die a hero, or live enough to see yourself become the vilain", well Ledger died a hero, with such a performance, and unfortunatly Nicholson lived enough to become the vilain, becoming sometimes a cartoon of himself, and what he was in the golden years.