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A lot of film fans and comic book fans were skeptical about how Robert Pattinson’s version of the Batman would turn out, and they were similarly scared when Joaquin Phoenix took on the role of the dreaded DC villain Joker. As it turns out, both the movies (The Batman and The Joker) were handsomely received by audience and critics at large. But, to be fair, they were right to be terrified. Arguably, there hasn’t been a better Batman movie since Christopher Nolan’s 2008 release The Dark Knight, where the late Heath Ledge played Joker, even as Christian Bale reprised his Batman from Nolan’s Batman Begins.
While Bale was as usual brilliant, it was Ledger’s portrayal of Joker that took the cake. Heath even ended up winning an Oscar posthumously for it. Nolan had earlier shared during a press meet that Ledger was open to experimentation, and that he could actually do something special with it. In the same chat, the director stated that sometimes he would halt shoot for a good interval of time in order to let Heath feel hungry and desperate enough to do something unique on screen. As someone who has watched The Dark Knight, I can attest to the fact that the team succeeded in pulling off what they are were aiming for. Ledger’s version of Joker was frightening, entertaining and easily one of the most original performances.
There are many scenes which come to mind when discussing The Dark Knight’s Joker, but the one which stands out is the interrogation sequence featuring Bale’s Batman and Ledger’s Joker. Nolan showed us a brutal, scary Batman and a deranged killer with serious issues. As it turns out, the interrogation scene happens to be Nolan’s favourite too. In an earlier chat with Los Angeles Times, the acclaimed director had said, “When we were writing the script, that was always one of the central set pieces that we wanted to crack. On the set, we shot it fairly early on. It was actually one of the first things that Heath had to do as the Joker. He told me he was actually pretty excited to tear off a big chunk early on, really get one of the Joker’s key scenes up in the first three weeks of a seven-month shoot. He and I both liked the idea of just diving in, as did Christian [Bale, who portrayed Batman]. We had rehearsed the scene a tiny bit. Neither of them wanted to go too far with it in rehearsal. They had to rehearse some of the fight choreography, but even with that, we tried to keep it loose and improvisational.”
Adding that he could talk about it ‘for hours’, Nolan explained why he also really enjoyed what Bale ended up doing that day: “Originally, at the end of that scene, once the Joker reveals his information, Christian dropped him and then, almost as an afterthought, he kicked him in the head as he walked out of the room. We wound up removing that bit. It seemed a little too petulant for Batman in a way. And really, more than that, what I liked was how Christian played it: When he drops the Joker, he has realized the futility of what he’s done. You see it in his eyes. How do you fight someone who thrives on conflict? It’s a very loose end to be left with.”
The Dark Knight not only earned BAFTA, Golden Globes and Academy Award nominations, it also emerged as a major hit at the box office, minting over a billion of its 185 million-dollar budget.
Also starring Gary Oldman and Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Dark Knight is available to stream on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
Click for more updates and latest Hollywood News along with Bollywood and Entertainment updates. Also get latest news and top headlines from India and around the World at The Indian Express.
