With the Joker movie out everyone is developing theories about the movie and choosing their new favorite Joker. I decided to jump on the bandwagon and compare Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix and choose which actor played the iconic character better. I am choosing the better of the two by five categories: style/look, convoluted plots, laugh, motivations/madness, and finally voice. There are some spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen The Dark Knight or the new Joker movie, so this is my spoiler warning! With that being said, here we go! Style/look Phoenix: Phoenix wears more of a traditional suit and for the most part it follows the typical color scheme of Joker. Purple (or in this case burgundy), yellow and green. He also rocks green hair and a traditional clown look for his face paint. He has blue triangles around his eyes, red eyebrows, and red lips. Ledger: Ledger, like Phoenix, rocks a purple suit. Where they differ in regards to the suit is Ledger's suit, has a long trench coat and has no trace of yellow in his suit. Apart from that, it's a standard Joker suit. Ledger also rocks green hair and a white face, but he has black around his eyes. He also has red lips, and oh yeah, don't forget about his scars! This category was tough for me to choose one. I love both of their looks and I had to narrow it down to what I love most about the Joker. With that being said, I am a girl who loves the classics so I chose Joaquin Phoenix for this round! Convoluted plots Phoenix: He doesn't plan to start a movement when he killed the guys on the Subway. He was just protecting himself. He also didn't plan to be on the Murray Franklin show. What he did plan was killing himself on live TV, but ended up killing Murray instead. In this adaptation, I see Joker more as a psychotic killer. I know, the Joker is a psychotic killer, but he does it in a different way. Ledger: Even though Heath Ledger's Joker claims he's not a guy with a plan, he totally is. He planned to corrupt Harvey Dent into madness. He wanted to show people that anybody can take on a life of crime by being pushed to their limits. He may not have used the Joker's gags such as gas, joke toys, and others but he planned something to get into the heads of the people of Gotham and the crime bosses. Since Phoenix never really planned anything this round goes to Ledger. Laugh Phoenix: Joaquin Phoenix and director Todd Phillips were very open about the origins of the laugh Phoenix used. Phillips had Phoenix watch videos of people who suffer from Pseudobulbar Affect and he based his laugh on those videos. I remember watching the trailer and that laugh made me cringe. What makes it more creepy is it comes out of nowhere. It typically starts off low and quiet, but then quickly goes into a cringing high pitch. Ledger: Heath Ledger literally locked himself away for weeks preparing for this role! My interpretation of his laugh is no one truly knows what laugh he will use at what time. Ledger uses different laughs for different situations. Sometimes his laugh is high pitched and quick. Sometimes it's low, slow and diabolical. He is completely aware of the right time to laugh, and it's usually at a time that torments not only the person he is interacting with but the viewer as well. Both laughs made me cringe at one time or another, but I have to give this one to Phoenix too. I left the theater hearing that laugh in my head and it gave me chills. Ledger's laugh has been my ringtone and doesn't give me chills. Motivations/Madness I have labeled this category as motivations/madness because I'm measuring it by cringe-worthy moments. Phoenix: Joaquin Phoenix's Joker is flat out psychotic! He is diagnosed with a mental illness and has uncontrollable laughter. Most people in the movie find Arthur odd/creepy. He is isolated by society and after killing the men on the Subway, stopping therapy and stopping his meds, he lets his madness take over. He kills Murray Franklin and tells him he deserved it. I left the theater happy but slightly paranoid. Ledger: "Some men just want to watch the world burn." Ledger's Joker was intense. You never knew what to expect. He played a lot of mind games to get what he wanted. He tortured people, took people's lives, blew up a hospital, and burned the money he "earned" from crime bosses just because he could. With that being said, Ledger's Joker wasn't as cringe-worthy as Phoenix's. Ledger killed it getting into the head of the Joker, but Phoenix made me question how I treat people. This one goes to Phoenix! Voice Phoenix: Joaquin Phoenix used a mellow quieter voice. His voice is empathetic and calm. It isn't until he starts killing people that he remotely sounds the way I believe the Joker should. He is rather polite most of the movie and even after his kill list grows he still sounds polite. That made his voice that much creepier because to the public (and maybe the audience) he's just a regular guy we could come in contact with daily. Ledger: Heath Ledger went with more of a standard villain voice. It's raspy and go can go from one extreme to the next. His voice is recognizable, you can definitely distinguish the Joker just by his voice if you were blindfolded. Just like his laugh, he changes his voice for each situation. He can be calm and polite like Phoenix or lower his voice to an intense growl. This category wasn't easy for me to decide, but I'm going to have to give this round to Ledger. I went this route because to me, he is what I feel the Joker should sound like. Going from one extreme to the next depending on the situation and making people cringe just by the sound of his voice. Don't get me wrong, Phoenix being polite and quite the majority of the movie along while killing people made him super creepy but I didn't feel he lived up to the Joker we all know and love with the voice he chose. Finally, with that being said, the final tally goes: two to Heath Ledger and three to Joaquin Phoenix. It was difficult being objective when these categories are subjective, but I think with my explanations I was pretty fair. This was a contest to see which Joker was better of the two different actors. However, I feel they both killed it with their performances. Ledger got an Oscar for his performance and I believe Phoenix deserves one too.
Who is your favorite Joker and why? Let me know in the comments!
2 Comments
KG
10/15/2019 06:43:00 am
I love your break down and definitely mirrors a lot of my opinions. I too go with Phoenix as my favorite and better of the two. I really hope he wins an Oscar and this gets best picture because it is well deserved!
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9/8/2020 10:03:14 pm
I have no words to describe how impressed I am with this blog. Your style of writing is amazing and make it really interesting for the readers.
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