Joker Speed Art and Live-Action Ranking
Hey Jack, I'm back with me another Speed-Art, this one is of the Joker from the 2019 film, and instead of ranking his movies – since he's only starred in 1 major theatrical film as the lead, instead, I'm going to rank each of his appearances, kinda as I did for the Hulk before. Now before I go ranking the Clown Prince of Crime I'd love to know what you guys think so feel free to rank the Joker's in the comments or just let me know which one is your favorite, so enough gobblygook, let's just jump into it!
6. Jared Leto (Suicide Squad)
Coming in last is Jared Leto's Joker from Suicide Squad. Ok, so it may not be fully his fault, Jared Leto is an Academy Award-winning actor and I don't doubt he can do a good job with the material, but I feel like this film was cut in such a way that it made it almost unwatchable. His scenes are so short and relatively unimportant to the film that it feels like he's actually taking away from the film as opposed to adding to it, which for every other iteration of the Joker is the opposite, and his weird quirks like his growling or odd laugh just feel like odd character choices with little thought put into them. I would also like to point out that his creepy behavior off-camera during the Suicide Squad shoot really missed what the Joker is about, it's like he read about what Heath Ledger did for his Joker role and just did the cliff notes version. But that's enough for old Crocodile Joker, let's move on.
5. Gotham
Okay so the next one may not count fully, but I'm gonna add them here anyway, so the show Gotham featured two characters that felt Jokery enough to scratch that itch, first Jerome then Jeremiah. They're both played by the same actor, but played very differently, so to rank them both I'd have to put Jerome in the bottom spot, while I like how he acted in the first episode, really sneaky and his ultimate reveal as a psychopath was really nice, I feel he got a little too cartoony, kind of like Heath Ledger un-hinged, even changing his voice to be more grandiose. That's not to say I didn't like his portrayal, but between the two brothers Jerimiah felt more contained and less of a Heath Ledger clone and a little more Hannibal-like, which was a take on the character that I haven't seen in live-action and I found to be more interesting, and then when he goes full Joker he kind of changes his character again and feels a little more un-hinged but there was always a bit of a ticking-time-bomb to his performances which I really liked.
4. Jack Nicholson (Batman)
And next up is Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton's Batman. So not everything about this movie stands the test of time, the Prince music and the pacing are somewhat a shock to younger viewers, but I loved it so much when I was younger – well I loved the whole series until Batman and Robin came out and ruined it. But nonetheless, Jack Nicholson brought a certain levity to the role, he's portrayed many different types of crazy before – The Shining and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest come to mind – but his portrayal of the Joker was something new and fresh for 1989. To me it feels like a stepping stone between Cesar Romero and Heath Ledger, marrying the campy with the dark. The best scene of the whole movie is, in my opinion, the botched surgery scene in which Nicholson shows his full range, and like most movies or TV shows featuring this character he completely steals the limelight from Batman.
3. Joaquin Phoenix (The Joker)
So the 2019 Joker film made more than a billion dollars and got an Oscar win for Joaquin Phoenix's portrayal of the Joker, and his placement in third here isn't a bad thing at all, there have just been so many great versions of the Joker. With that said Phoenix perfectly embodies this film’s bleak Arthur Fleck, masterfully showing the descent of a mentally unstable person, leading up to the amazing Talk Show final. This is the first time the Joker has gotten the starring role in a live-action fim, and that allows us to dive deep into his psyche, and yeah this performance and this film deliver that perfectly.
2. Cesar Romero (Batman: The TV Series)
So this may upset some younger people or just those who haven't watched the original 1966 TV Batman series, but coming in number 2 is gonna be Cesar Romero's Clown Prince of Crime. Yeah, he's a little campy and comedic, but if you watch the show that's exactly what was needed for the performance. While the show never goes dark and deep into his psyche, we get to see the Joker go through about 10 different attempts at some big scheme and the whole time it's just captivating to watch Cesar Romero ham it up on the screen along with Adam West and Burt Ward. So if you haven't sat down and watched the TV series, I definitely recommend checking it out.
1. Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Okay, it may be a little predictable, but nothing really beats Heath Ledger's amazing portrayal in The Dark Knight. His high-intensity stakes mixed with his kind of shrug-it-off demeanor is a match made in heaven. Now I know it's easy to look at his performance and Heath Ledger and think this was always a match made in heaven, but there was a lot of hate when he was the first cast as the Joker, I have a whole video going through casting decisions that angered fans that goes into why people were so mad about this casting, but I'm so glad they didn't pull a Sonic and scrub Heath Ledger from the movie, he's perfect, all the prep work that Ledger did paid off in spades, and when watching the film you totally forget that there's an actor on screen, it just feels like the Joker.
Okay so that's my rankings of the Jokers, let me know where I got it wrong and your own thoughts on him down below, and until next time my name is Aaron and I'll tell you something later!