by Allen Alberson

Created on: June 23, 2009

Heath Ledger sadly left us before he could ever see his last film performance. His death was sad enough on its own, but was made even sadder by the realization that his portrayal of the Joker will never be repeated. Up until his turn as the clown prince of crime in The Dark Knight, Jack Nicholson held the crown of best Joker on screen. Not to take anything from Jack, his Joker was dark, twisted and wonderful, but he in no way captures the pathos in Ledger's Joker.

Maybe part of it is in the writing and directing. Tim Burton's Batman is a completely different film for a different time. It's almost in a different genre, more of dark fantasy, where the recent revival is closer to a horror movie. Plus Jack was at the top of his game and his celebrity brought a lot to the role. Heath was still on the rise and no one knows what heights he would have reached if the pressures of stardom had not taken him from us. His tragic death obviously drew a lot of attention to the film, but even if he lived his role would be just as Oscar worthy.

Jack's character had a human face. It was a evil face but still human, and his Joker had a reason to hate batman. Ledger's Joker was an enigma. He was chaos personified. The ultimate foil to Batman and you can say that he actually won in the end. Batman could not destroy him and he effectively ended the Dark Knight as a hero. The Joker was the boogie man in the night who brought a city to chaos. He had that ability to make the character comical and at the same time utterly chilling. Who knew how to bring out the worst in all of us, to crawl into that dark place and bring out our demons. His eyes shone with an insanity that we could believe was real.

There is no way for me to know exactly how much of the character was Heath's versus the director's but that is true in all film roles. Look instead at the way he carried it off. The emotion or lack thereof in his voice. The facial twitches and constant tongue movement (which I have heard was Heath's idea.) Look into his eyes and you can see how deep he went into this character. Here is a man far removed from Ennis Del Mar or Jacob Grimm. A man who got so far into his character that I forgot I was watching Heath Ledger. It wasn't until the film was over when I again thought of how much we had lost. That didn't happen with Jack, maybe he was just too famous. Heath's make up was a bit more extensive than Jack's and that does help, but still, he became the Joker.

I think as much as Heath Ledger gave new life to the clown prince he just as effectively killed him. I can't imagine anyone else playing the Joker. I am sure eventually he will prance across the screen, spewing insane laughter, but hopefully not too soon. I think it would be tragic for the actor that played him. I cannot see fans of heath or the Dark Knight accepting another Joker. It's sad but Batman is diminished by this loss.

I am a big fan of Jack's Joker. I in no way want to take away from it, but Heath Ledger raised the bar. He made me shiver and he made me cringe. He made me laugh, then immediately feel sick about it. He redefined the character and made it his and in my mind it will be his forever more.

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