Joke's on Jared Leto, he can't pull off Heath Ledger's Joker
Harboured between sentimentality and a fascination for the way things are, some of us couldn't care less for the new avatar of Batman's arch nemesis, Joker, in the upcoming film Suicide Squad.
Just a few years ago when Heath Ledger enthralled the world with his interpretation of the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008), his last role before his untimely death and also the one that made him the only actor to win an Academy Award for a superhero film, it was believed that no other version of the Joker could ever come close.
But Hollywood loves to fix things that aren't broken as they rake in big money and, instead of a traditional reboot like it did with the Spiderman films, it went ahead and pitched Batman against Superman (Batman Vs Superman - Dawn of Justice) and put the Joker in Suicide Squad, where imprisoned supervillains from the DC Comics' universe come together to save the world.
Right from the time the production revealed the first look of Jared Leto as the Joker in Suicide Squad there has been enough chatter about how the Oscar-winning actor is all set to take one of the greatest comic book villains to new heights.
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| Each and everything about Leto's Joker seems intent on screaming, 'I'm the JOKER!'. |
The anticipation notwithstanding, the internet is rife with reports on how Suicide Squad is a bit of a let down.
For many fans of the Joker and the dark world he inhabits, such a result was almost a given, thanks to Leto's Joker and its apparent trying-too-hard to be different effort.
Each and everything about Leto's Joker seems intent on screaming, 'I'm the JOKER!'
The thin line that separates something from being insane and being crazy is where the Joker finds himself at home, and Leto's green hair, the 'ha' tattoos as well as the shiny mouth grill, all appear a desperate ploy on Leto's part to convince himself that he is the Joker more than anything else.
What could be a bigger giveaway than the "damaged" tattoo Leto's Joker sports on his forehead?
The Joker isn't like any other villain in the pantheon of comic book antagonists. He is the personification of evil and he doesn't need to shout from rooftops to tell you that.
Following the Joker in comic books and graphic novels is an unmitigated treat and, when compared to the film versions, it's only The Dark Knight and, to some extent, Batman (1989) that come close in translating the character.
Ledger and Jack Nicholson best interpreted the two ends of the spectrum -horror and madness - that the Joker dwells upon.
Of course, Nicholson's Joker is far more flamboyant but the alchemy of funny and chilling that conveyed the Joker's primal nature was nothing less than a milestone that separated him from all previous versions.
While most actors would opt to play the Joker on the edge, not knowing when the explosion would take place, Ledger's internalisation of the evil added another dimension when he walked the tightrope between exploding and imploding.
Watching Ledger in The Dark Knight is a disturbing experience, especially at places such as his final scene when the Batman lets go and the Joker is falling down to his apparent death.
Even in the final moments, the Joker isn't moved and instead of feeling anything remorseful, all he offers is a bloodcurdling laugh.
Compare that with Leto's gimmickry where he has to rely on visual tropes to be scary but ends up coming across more as Jim Carrey's The Mask masquerading as the Joker than the real McCoy.
One look at the two and you know that Ledger is the Joker. Seeing Ledger you believe that his Joker couldn't be held back by a prison or he wouldn't be a guest at the Arkham Asylum for too long; he can waltz out and destroy half the city just to see how Batman would react, and he doesn't have to get tattoos to convey that.
Ledger's sudden death following the completion of his work on The Dark Knight also awards a certain sense of permanency to him as the Joker.
A recent documentary, Too Young To Die, shows the actor's father, Kim, share a diary that Ledger maintained to make notes during the time he was playing the Joker.
It is said that Ledger locked himself up in a hotel room for a month or so to galvanise the upcoming character in his mind, and while it was typical of Ledger to do this on any movie, this once he found it hard to return.
Ledger became dependent on prescription medication and a subsequent overdose along with the depression caused due to the ending of his engagement to Michelle Williams, the mother of his then two-year-old daughter Matilda Rose, led to his death.
Irrespective of how Leto might finally play the Joker, he is bound to garner both attention and praise (he, too, holed himself up in isolation to prepare, etc.) and this might inspire the studios to belt out a few more films featuring the Joker.
But one thing's for sure.
The Joker's not going to go out there and merrily puncture our sense of illusory superiority, a cognitive bias whereby individuals overestimate their own qualities and abilities, the way Ledger's version did in The Dark Knight.
Not anytime soon at least.