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Was Jack Nicholson's Joker "too normal" prior to his transformation?

posted 4 years ago by TMC-4 (19392)
12 replies | jump to latest

http://www.manic-expression.com/a-look-at-10-actors-who-were-the-joker/

Nicholson brought the character into the 80’s. By taking Romero’s wacky Joker and dialing him nit a notch, in a way only Nicholson could! The make-up was pretty amazing for 1989 too. However there is one big problem with this version that bugs me. When he we fist meet Jack Napier (his alter ego in this version) he is waayyy to normal. In order for the character to work he needs to be a tragic figure before anything pushes him over the edge. In this version is perfectly reserved, so in hindsight is flipping out after the change is a little harder to believe. Does this mean this is a bad version? Oh hell no.

I mean when we first see Nicholson as Jack Napier, he's really just a sleazy gangster, nothing more, nothing less.

https://www.quora.com/What-are-your-thoughts-on-the-psychologies-of-the-three-movie-Jokers-Nicholson-Ledger-and-Phoenix/answer/Anthony-Murlin

[–] TandyMan (10335) 4 years ago

Personally i'm a big fan that the toxic goo completely remade him into a new person. Not everything needs to be a tragic story with tons of over explaining motivations.

[–] HelpMeRhonda (1154) 4 years ago

He did gun down Bruce's parents right in front of him, for no good reason. And he had the weird, eerie line, "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?" He was crazy and evil even before the transformation.

[–] ss5mmyers (156) 4 years ago

He appeared more Joker-ish when he was younger and gunned down the Waynes. I think it's similar to Nolan's Joker in that he wasn't happy with the rules of organized crime and the transformation gave him the push to madness that deep down, he really wanted.

[–] TMC-4 (19392) 4 years ago

I'm now starting to wonder how a prequel involving a young Jack Napier could've looked like? They could've naturally, gotten Christian Slater to play the part, if they wanted a "real" actor (with all due respect to Hugo Blick).

[–] Ratman (126) 4 years ago

To be honest I don't always buy into this thing that Joker was some decent guy, but his accident suddenly turned him into a psychopathic homicidal maniac (like The Killing Joke). I do prefer back stories where he always had a twisted side to his personality, such as the 1989 Joker, and the other versions from the animated series and Gotham.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

No.

[–] TMC-4 (19392) 4 years ago

https://film.avclub.com/1844183179

While its a common assumption that Nicholson as the Joker was just adapting the nihilistic, sardonic persona he had crafted throughout his career, there’s a lot more to his characterization. His Jack Napier is a riff on the traitorous henchmen found in many gangster and noir films of the 30’s and 40’s, most notably imo the vain, scheming lothario who conspires with the girlfriend of James Cagney’s gang boss in White Heat. One can also see that he is mining the gothic horror and drama characters from films from the silent era through the forties, like Nightmare Alley, Freaks etc., to inform his Joker.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Indeed.

[–] LockardTheGOAT (342) 4 years ago

How was he "too normal"? He was already a murderer and the head of a major criminal empire. His transformation was perfectably believable.

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7393) 4 years ago

I disagree that Joker should be sympathetic. The new Joker origin movie (which is probably where this comment in bold comes from) is not how the Joker's origin has to be. I frankly don't mind the twist that Joker killed Bruce Wayne's parents. I do like that he was a bad man who just goes even badder after having an incident. And by the way, I still think Batman deliberately dropped him into the toxic chemicals. The look on Batman's face before he drops him in is an angry look that says, "You deserve to die!"

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

If you study criminology, many truly sick men appear completely normal, even fooling their own family.

The B.T.K. killer was a loving father to his daughter, she had no idea that in his youth, he had murdered so many, and then restarted his killing spree as a middle aged man.

So for the Joker to keep things a little bottled up, is actually how things happen.

After the accident, there is very little ability to keep it under lock and key anymore. He was the crazed serial killer he may have always been.