I'm sure many of you will instantaneously jump to the conclusion that Heath Ledger was by far the best Joker, but I beg to differ. You see it is not as cut and dry as you may think. Jack Nicholson - the original Joker in the first Batman - was to me absolutely superb. Barring special effects and the type of Joker you wanted to be represented, I would say his performance was actually quite stellar. Many people forget this, and I only really realised when watching the original Batman on SABC 3 on Friday night for the first time in many years.
The script that he played out was one of a more fun loving humorous Joker, as the movies made back then were not as dark and evil as they are now, yet he still managed to portray the importance of the joker as a vindictive, cunning and superior villain. In fact the joker was rated no.2 on the all time top 100 super villains over all comic genre's only just losing out to Magneto of the X-men.
The fact that he actually posseses no real super powers at all, shows you what a feat this actually is, and how important this character is to the comic book world as a whole. So there is a huge responsibilty on the actor playing this character to really represent the hidden themes of the relationship between Batman and Joker (Basically the feeling that Batman cannot survive without the Joker and vice versa, as they are connected in such a dramatic and twisted way, neither can actually kill the other - and they were both really created as a result of each other)
If you look at the more modern Batman movies - Batman begins and The Dark Knight - you will find that they take the movie to a much darker place - a more sinister representation of the Batman and the Joker - Where one must say that Heath Ledger was absolutely brilliant. He completely captured the psyche of the Joker in a way I thought was not possible. The difference is the script that he recieved allowed him the freedom to explore the darker side of the Joker whereas the script that Nicholson was handed made him move more along the lighter comical side, yet still madly psychotic at the same time.
Another comparrison to show you how hard it really is to compare is the James Bond question, Who is truly the best James bond? After Casino Royale many people were starting to have their doubts if it really was Sean Connery at the head of the list, after an awsome performance by Daniel Craig and many believed that after a few more of these roles he would take the mantel and replace Connery as the best. Bottom line is that that could never happen. Sean Connery made James Bond who he is today. If weren't for Connery there would not be Casino Royale for Daniel Craig to star in. If Connery had the budget and the script that these guys get today, he would undoubtably be the greatest James bond of all time....Undisputed.
In many ways I feel this is the same as what happened to the new Joker comparrison. Taking nothing away from Heath Ledger, as I said before he was brilliant and deserved an Oscar, but I believe that Nicholson with the same script and effects, could have produced a very similar if not better performance, not to mention the fact that his original performance basically made the original movie, without him it would have been a flop. Christian Bale has obviously been by far the best Batman, all the old batman movies were also basically flops as opposed to the new renditions, But the 2 Joker performances both demand a lot of respect and I believe the hype surrounding the modern movie itself, Ledgers personal issues and of course brilliant acting, has shadowed what to me was one of the greatest comic book performances of the last century by Jack Nicholson.
Of course that is just my personal opinion, but I recommend watching them both at the same time with an open mind as to the generation gap of movie making and the theme that is portrayed by each individual movie maker, which was incredibly contrasting to say the least, and then decide who your favourite Joker really was, or if maybe it is a tie, which is what I am giving both these great actors for their roles as one of the most influential comic book bad guys of all time!!!!
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