Jack Nicholson's Joker was truly, without doubt, a classic in that era! I defined Nicholson's Joker not just psychotic, but demonicly psychotic. HIs persona was so deveious and devlish along with his grin. It honestly paved the way for The Batman Animated series, to the Justice League Animated series. Jack's performance of the character took the spotlight from Batman. Mostly because the Joker was colorful, yet choatic. Where Batman is dark, and driven.
I feel like his transformation made his narcissism worse. Before he committed his crimes in the shadows biding his time but as joker Gotham became his stage and he must have the spotlight! He makes his new face the logo of his gang, putting it on his followers’s uniforms, his vehicles, even making his victims resemble his Grinning face. He’s the “ homicidal artist” remaking the world in his image.
This is probably the most complex screen Joker. His vanity is definitely a big part of his need to kill, however I also would go further to say it combines with need or power. He says Carl can’t run the city without him, and he has a sense of needing to eliminate any competition for power. The Detective challenges him and is killed, Carl tried to kill him and was killed in return, Tony (?) defies him at the meeting and is killed, and so on. He refuses anyone to be a hindrance or obstacle, be it friend or foe. Combine this with his vanity and desire to push is disfigurement onto others, and you are much closer to the Joker. At his core he is an anti-social psychopath, and it is fuelled by vanity and drive for power. A true villain.
He was relatively unstable before his chemical bath, but you could still see he could be responsible to an extent. Take a scalding hot chemical bath right after you get both sides of your face sliced open being set up by your own boss and having your entire body permanently altered? I dare a TON of people to not lose their minds after that.
Nicholson just captured aspects that make this specific joker especially fascinating to me. Someone rejecting any humanity/morality to be as expressive and spontaneously evil as he aspires. A psychotic “artist” let loose, leaving his imprint of damage and chaos behind. where everything is a meaningless joke and he gets the last laugh. It makes his final scene with the laughing box quite haunting
I like this version, such nostalgia. As a kid I liked seeing the Joker go crazy and do all sorts of bad lol, but the scene where he's speaking to the charred corpse was always unsettling when I was young. Ofc now they've expanded upon the character in both comics and movies, but Jack Nicholson was the first to dip into the darker nature of character in live action. Awesome video, you really dug into the character and revealed some things that I didn't realize.🃏
In was this video here that made me realize there is a parallel between Nicholson's Joker, which is my favorite and Shakespeare's Richard 111 who is also deformed and states directly in the opening scene that he IS the viillain.
And the other guy must be Joe Chill though he could be Bob because they both scream "let's go". Bob urging him when they're at axis chemicals right after killing lieutenant Eckhart.
1:47 When he first fell into the chemicals he thought his looks had been ruined but after getting used to his Joker appearance he saw himself as a work of art.
@@inthemindofavillain ledgers Joker planned things out and wanted to prove a point but Nicholson's Joker crimes were not as deeply planed out and had no point to make thus he felt more unpredictable and dangerous. Again, Great video.
I Kinda preferred if The Joker had more ambiguity and vagueness to his character in this film. I feel like some sadism and masochism would’ve made him more disturbing and menacing. Would’ve very much set the tone of his character and the entire film imo.
Also Him poisoning make up products probably killed thousands, possibly millions and caused terror and paranoia in peoples homes and streets ledgers joker could only dream of, this mf was a whole menace 💀
@@Emmanuel-ms8pr he IS the creepiest version of the character. Who else? The only person who comes close is heath ledgers joker bcuz he also had some dark and scary moments but Nicholson takes it for me
Another great video my friend. To me Jack Nicholson's Joker is still the best one out of the others. Although I love Joaquin Phoenix, Jared Leto and Cameron Monaghan's Jokers as well and my favorites. But Nicholson's Joker is the definitive Joker. Nicholson understood both sides to the Joker's character
Very intriguing! Tim burton's 1989 batman is my #1 favorite of the WB released films😎 burton's eccentric imagination meets a icon comic book character and world is breathtaking! Thanks for the dive in psyche 😎
@@inthemindofavillain tim burton's batman defeated the joker with...a gargoyle lol its intriguing how much matt Reeves took from the comics etc to put together his adaptation of the batman lol as well as sticking to nolan's surreal formula. As to burton,we step into his head trip😎
Well he was a perfect-blend of the Adam West's joker, And Tim Burtons vision right before the DC-EU had that event where the one-storyline-reality that had been there as the only storyline since DC's inception became couunnttless new-worlds in alternate-realities in the comics and as such in every other adaptation leaving the one-reality's world where Adam West's batman had been left b a r r e n in that dimension forever. It was only fitting that someone as lethal and strong as Burtons Joker (Who was revived in the sega videogame btw, More stronger and dangerous than ever) Was kind of the catalyst for that event.. Where with that creepy grin and the manner in which he died? It was as if he died smiling, Wordlessly telling us 'I never truly-die, There will be a joker to torment Gotham-City forever.. And ever.' .. Did you notice all the sound-cues Burton ripped from 'The Shining' that followed Nicholsons character around, The entire batman-movie? Yeah.. Thats because like in that movie, Burton was so fond of it in Nicholson then that he wanted the same for Nicholson in HIS current-movie at the time as well, As if to say that Nicholson's-Napier was also a curse on Gotham here too..
I always felt that when Bruce Wayne reads Napier’s psychological profile and describes him as having “violent mood swings, highly intelligent, emotionally unstable”, Wayne felt those qualities could be applied to himself as well. Especially in Vicki’s apartment. It isn’t Joker that goes off the deep end in that encounter.
I might get killed for this, but I always liked Jack Nicholson’s Joker better than Heath Ledger’s portrayal. I mean Ledger played a great Joker but the Dark Knight trilogy felt more like crime thrillers whereas Tim Burton’s Batman movies felt more like comic book movies (as they should be). Nicholson’s portrayal felt like a comic book accurate version of the Joker being all eccentric and cartoony while also being terrifying and intimidating.
"I might get killed for this, but... I mean Ledger played a great Joker but..." There shouldn't be a fear of triggering Nolanites by admitting that you like Joker Jack best - the Clown Prince of Crime as portrayed in the comic books, while Ledger was clearly not the comics character and was trying hard to be edgy. Heath Ledger's was closer to the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Ledger's had an appearance closer to Brandon Lee's The Crow (1994) than the actual Joker that Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson created in the Batman #1 (1940) comic book based on Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs (1928). The book Jack's Life: A Biography (2015) explained that "Talking with Bob Kane, Nicholson learned that Kane had based the Joker on a character played by Conrad Veidt in a 1928 movie, The Man Who Laughs. The Veidt character wears a perpetual freakish grin because as a boy his check muscles were slit. Nicholson made an effort to track down the silent picture, directed by the German Expressionist Paul Leni, and watched it for pointers." That's why Joker Jack has that perpetual freakish grin with his check muscle nerves damaged.
Yep, definitely a psychopath. He killed his best friend on a whim like it was nothing. He's the perfect storm convergence of insanity and intelligence.
Sam Hamm is a genius. In the original Batman 89 screenplay Jack Nicholson's Joker killed way more and I think it explains his Joker a little bit more. I remember as a kid when Joker shocked that mafia leader by shakin his hands it scared the shit out of me and I'm like yep I'm never shakin no one hands and I haven't done so since then I only give a hug or a dap. The coolest thing about Batman 89 Joker out of all the other actors after him he's the only one who is compared to the comics the most and Sam said in the interview he used 2Face origin for Joker's disfigurement and transformation. He didn't change his voice nor his makeup was wiped off.
Actually Joker threw Alicia out the window himself the omelette comment gives that away. I have always thought Nicholson’s Joker was wayyyy more evil than Heath Ledger’s.
Not necessarily. He says 'Alicia, threw herself out of the window. Well you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs'. In other words this could be implied that he broke her mentally. He could have been trying something on her, like he sprayed her face with acid. Remember his philosophy, the new aesthetic, she was his living work of art. But I'm also saying that we don't know and he could have pushed her. He had no need for her now that he set his sights on Vicki.
He also killed and terrorized way more people than ledgers, him poisoning make up products probably killed thousands, possibly millions and caused severe paranoia for everyone in there homes
Not discussed here is an understated but very evident aspect of this Joker's pathology: misogyny. Given the type of victim he favors - and given the one he most obsessively preys upon in this movie - it's not much of a stretch to say that Jack Napier considers all young women to be alike, and all equally responsible for his disfigurement. (Or maybe he just thinks only ugly women will find him attractive. What do I know?)
I think the plastic surgeon reference near the end was just to imply to the crowd that he'd done that smile to his face intentionally, which of course, he hadn't. I don't think he'd ever gotten plastic surgery done before, he just doesn't seem like that kind of character. He's just vain, mean, power hungry, but a with definite screw loose.
I liked Heath Ledger's Joker more BUT Nicholson's Joker was much more evil. Everything Ledger's Joker did he did to prove a point. But Nicholson's Joker gassed those people in the street for NOTHING.
Jack Nicholson's Joker seems like a man who was born evil and was a demon from the get go. Therefore a psychopath. So I consider the jack Nicholson's Joker as the most evil version out of the character. Compared to Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix's versions.
every psychopath is narcissistic but not every narcissist is a psychopath just something i once heard in a interview with some doctor name of the RUclips channel was med circle if i remember right i just don't remember the name of the video
Did batman knew along he killed his parents and that's why he didn't put much effect to pull him up when he was over the chemicals and why he was so shocked to see him alive
Jack Nicholson's Joker was truly, without doubt, a classic in that era! I defined Nicholson's Joker not just psychotic, but demonicly psychotic. HIs persona was so deveious and devlish along with his grin. It honestly paved the way for The Batman Animated series, to the Justice League Animated series. Jack's performance of the character took the spotlight from Batman. Mostly because the Joker was colorful, yet choatic. Where Batman is dark, and driven.
My favorite live action Joker! 🃏
Nicholson was a great choice with his sinister smile IRL
its only joker capture joker in classic batman comics....ledger is just al capone with make up its not joker at all
it's the same with me
plus I'm not a comic book person
the only batman comic i have ever read was the killing joke
"Beauty and the beast. Of course if anyone else calls you beast I'll rip their throat out."
Another hint of his narcissism
*lungs
Nicholson Joker - Sadistic Gangster
Ledger Joker - Nihilist
Phoenix Joker - Lost Vengeful Soul
THE Joker = Chaos Incarnate
Well said
I feel like his transformation made his narcissism worse. Before he committed his crimes in the shadows biding his time but as joker Gotham became his stage and he must have the spotlight! He makes his new face the logo of his gang, putting it on his followers’s uniforms, his vehicles, even making his victims resemble his Grinning face. He’s the “ homicidal artist” remaking the world in his image.
This is probably the most complex screen Joker. His vanity is definitely a big part of his need to kill, however I also would go further to say it combines with need or power. He says Carl can’t run the city without him, and he has a sense of needing to eliminate any competition for power. The Detective challenges him and is killed, Carl tried to kill him and was killed in return, Tony (?) defies him at the meeting and is killed, and so on. He refuses anyone to be a hindrance or obstacle, be it friend or foe.
Combine this with his vanity and desire to push is disfigurement onto others, and you are much closer to the Joker. At his core he is an anti-social psychopath, and it is fuelled by vanity and drive for power. A true villain.
He was relatively unstable before his chemical bath, but you could still see he could be responsible to an extent. Take a scalding hot chemical bath right after you get both sides of your face sliced open being set up by your own boss and having your entire body permanently altered? I dare a TON of people to not lose their minds after that.
Batman basically gave Jack the gift of an excuse.
@@fynnthefox9078 He literally made a bad man worse
The best Joker 🃏
Nicholson just captured aspects that make this specific joker especially fascinating to me. Someone rejecting any humanity/morality to be as expressive and spontaneously evil as he aspires. A psychotic “artist” let loose, leaving his imprint of damage and chaos behind. where everything is a meaningless joke and he gets the last laugh. It makes his final scene with the laughing box quite haunting
This bag laughs
Jack Nicholson played a great Joker one of my favorites
“With a hair color so natural, only your undertaker knows for sure”
I like this version, such nostalgia. As a kid I liked seeing the Joker go crazy and do all sorts of bad lol, but the scene where he's speaking to the charred corpse was always unsettling when I was young. Ofc now they've expanded upon the character in both comics and movies, but Jack Nicholson was the first to dip into the darker nature of character in live action.
Awesome video, you really dug into the character and revealed some things that I didn't realize.🃏
Thanks, glad you liked it!
In was this video here that made me realize there is a parallel between Nicholson's Joker, which is my favorite and Shakespeare's Richard 111 who is also deformed and states directly in the opening scene that he IS the viillain.
Joker is a great villain. This version he was the one who killed Bruce's parents.
And the other guy must be Joe Chill though he could be Bob because they both scream "let's go". Bob urging him when they're at axis chemicals right after killing lieutenant Eckhart.
1:47 When he first fell into the chemicals he thought his looks had been ruined but after getting used to his Joker appearance he saw himself as a work of art.
Love your video. You hit the nail on the head. He's narracissist driven mad. I think he's more dangerous then Ledger's Joker.
Highest kill count among all the live action Jokers too
@@inthemindofavillain ledgers Joker planned things out and wanted to prove a point but Nicholson's Joker crimes were not as deeply planed out and had no point to make thus he felt more unpredictable and dangerous. Again, Great video.
I Kinda preferred if The Joker had more ambiguity and vagueness to his character in this film.
I feel like some sadism and masochism would’ve made him more disturbing and menacing. Would’ve very much set the tone of his character and the entire film imo.
Also Him poisoning make up products probably killed thousands, possibly millions and caused terror and paranoia in peoples homes and streets ledgers joker could only dream of, this mf was a whole menace 💀
Nicholson's Joker was the best Joker. I don't care what anyone says.
Absolutely! My favorite Joker. 🙂❤
He scared me the most cuz he was *BEYOND UNPREDICTABLE!*
why don't you give me a call when you want to take things a little more seriously ☢️🆔🏴☠️
I have to agree and Nicholson’s joker is truly one of the creepiest incarnations of the character.
@@Emmanuel-ms8pr he IS the creepiest version of the character. Who else? The only person who comes close is heath ledgers joker bcuz he also had some dark and scary moments but Nicholson takes it for me
Another great video my friend. To me Jack Nicholson's Joker is still the best one out of the others. Although I love Joaquin Phoenix, Jared Leto and Cameron Monaghan's Jokers as well and my favorites. But Nicholson's Joker is the definitive Joker. Nicholson understood both sides to the Joker's character
Thanks! He was the scariest one IMO.
You missed Ledger's version!
@@TheMathieu2011that's Cuzz deep down he knows ledger joker was the best real joker
Very intriguing! Tim burton's 1989 batman is my #1 favorite of the WB released films😎 burton's eccentric imagination meets a icon comic book character and world is breathtaking! Thanks for the dive in psyche 😎
Every Gotham city needs gargoyles on their roofs 😄
@@inthemindofavillain tim burton's batman defeated the joker with...a gargoyle lol its intriguing how much matt Reeves took from the comics etc to put together his adaptation of the batman lol as well as sticking to nolan's surreal formula. As to burton,we step into his head trip😎
@@inthemindofavillain but dont get me wrong,I think the batman by matt Reeves is a grade A+!
Well he was a perfect-blend of the Adam West's joker, And Tim Burtons vision right before the DC-EU had that event where the one-storyline-reality that had been there as the only storyline since DC's inception became couunnttless new-worlds in alternate-realities in the comics and as such in every other adaptation leaving the one-reality's world where Adam West's batman had been left b a r r e n in that dimension forever. It was only fitting that someone as lethal and strong as Burtons Joker (Who was revived in the sega videogame btw, More stronger and dangerous than ever) Was kind of the catalyst for that event.. Where with that creepy grin and the manner in which he died? It was as if he died smiling, Wordlessly telling us 'I never truly-die, There will be a joker to torment Gotham-City forever.. And ever.' .. Did you notice all the sound-cues Burton ripped from 'The Shining' that followed Nicholsons character around, The entire batman-movie? Yeah.. Thats because like in that movie, Burton was so fond of it in Nicholson then that he wanted the same for Nicholson in HIS current-movie at the time as well, As if to say that Nicholson's-Napier was also a curse on Gotham here too..
I always felt that when Bruce Wayne reads Napier’s psychological profile and describes him as having “violent mood swings, highly intelligent, emotionally unstable”, Wayne felt those qualities could be applied to himself as well. Especially in Vicki’s apartment. It isn’t Joker that goes off the deep end in that encounter.
Napier was already crazy. Joker was just Jack dialed up to eleven.
One o f the best Nicholsons Joker analisys i ever see subscribe.
I might get killed for this, but I always liked Jack Nicholson’s Joker better than Heath Ledger’s portrayal.
I mean Ledger played a great Joker but the Dark Knight trilogy felt more like crime thrillers whereas Tim Burton’s Batman movies felt more like comic book movies (as they should be).
Nicholson’s portrayal felt like a comic book accurate version of the Joker being all eccentric and cartoony while also being terrifying and intimidating.
I absolutely agree! I love Nicholson's Joker.
"I might get killed for this, but... I mean Ledger played a great Joker but..." There shouldn't be a fear of triggering Nolanites by admitting that you like Joker Jack best - the Clown Prince of Crime as portrayed in the comic books, while Ledger was clearly not the comics character and was trying hard to be edgy. Heath Ledger's was closer to the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Ledger's had an appearance closer to Brandon Lee's The Crow (1994) than the actual Joker that Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson created in the Batman #1 (1940) comic book based on Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs (1928). The book Jack's Life: A Biography (2015) explained that "Talking with Bob Kane, Nicholson learned that Kane had based the Joker on a character played by Conrad Veidt in a 1928 movie, The Man Who Laughs. The Veidt character wears a perpetual freakish grin because as a boy his check muscles were slit. Nicholson made an effort to track down the silent picture, directed by the German Expressionist Paul Leni, and watched it for pointers." That's why Joker Jack has that perpetual freakish grin with his check muscle nerves damaged.
😊perfect
His kill count is unaccounted for based on his background before joker and later on as joker unlike it's predecessors.
I like to think that he really, really cared about Bob.
Yep, definitely a psychopath. He killed his best friend on a whim like it was nothing. He's the perfect storm convergence of insanity and intelligence.
Scariest Joker IMO
Sam Hamm is a genius. In the original Batman 89 screenplay Jack Nicholson's Joker killed way more and I think it explains his Joker a little bit more. I remember as a kid when Joker shocked that mafia leader by shakin his hands it scared the shit out of me and I'm like yep I'm never shakin no one hands and I haven't done so since then I only give a hug or a dap. The coolest thing about Batman 89 Joker out of all the other actors after him he's the only one who is compared to the comics the most and Sam said in the interview he used 2Face origin for Joker's disfigurement and transformation. He didn't change his voice nor his makeup was wiped off.
While I love Heath Ledger's Joker, to me, Nicholson's is still the most dangerous and intimidating.
Actually Joker threw Alicia out the window himself the omelette comment gives that away. I have always thought Nicholson’s Joker was wayyyy more evil than Heath Ledger’s.
Not necessarily. He says 'Alicia, threw herself out of the window. Well you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs'. In other words this could be implied that he broke her mentally. He could have been trying something on her, like he sprayed her face with acid. Remember his philosophy, the new aesthetic, she was his living work of art. But I'm also saying that we don't know and he could have pushed her. He had no need for her now that he set his sights on Vicki.
@@shamrockballs1066 Either way he was definitely responsible for Alicia’s demise.
@@jackthomas6952 I 100% agree and love that its left ambiguous. I'm not saying you are wrong at all.
He also killed and terrorized way more people than ledgers, him poisoning make up products probably killed thousands, possibly millions and caused severe paranoia for everyone in there homes
His characters treatment of his girlfriend ( played by Jerry Hall) always haunted me.
I still like the joker 🃏 with fedora, since Batman TAS.
Not discussed here is an understated but very evident aspect of this Joker's pathology: misogyny. Given the type of victim he favors - and given the one he most obsessively preys upon in this movie - it's not much of a stretch to say that Jack Napier considers all young women to be alike, and all equally responsible for his disfigurement. (Or maybe he just thinks only ugly women will find him attractive. What do I know?)
Awesome and cool! ^_^
I'd love to see a video of your analysis of Heath Ledger's Joker.
This town needs an enema!!! 🤪🎉🤡
I think the plastic surgeon reference near the end was just to imply to the crowd that he'd done that smile to his face intentionally, which of course, he hadn't. I don't think he'd ever gotten plastic surgery done before, he just doesn't seem like that kind of character. He's just vain, mean, power hungry, but a with definite screw loose.
Can you do Jill Robert's from Scream 4
Are you planning on doing a video on Heath Ledger’s (RIP) Joker? He’s equally iconic as this one.
Nah, my theory is that he referred to that backyard alley surgon who restored him after his swimming experience with toxic waste.
I think that he has such a grin because the muscles of his face got ripped so his sergeant tried to make them normal so they became like that .
The Joker in the comics is the one responsible for the death of Jason Todd and the paralysis of Barbara Gordon (Batgirl).
I liked Heath Ledger's Joker more BUT Nicholson's Joker was much more evil. Everything Ledger's Joker did he did to prove a point. But Nicholson's Joker gassed those people in the street for NOTHING.
I kind of see this Joker as a more serious take on Romero's Joker.
Can you do Joaquin Pheonix’s, Heath Ledger and Anthony Ingrubers Joker (John Doe) (Telltale Joker’s)
Jack Nicholson's Joker seems like a man who was born evil and was a demon from the get go. Therefore a psychopath. So I consider the jack Nicholson's Joker as the most evil version out of the character. Compared to Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix's versions.
I think his smile is sorta bat shaped.
Lol now that you mention it
You should do phoenix’s joker
Check out the Vile Eye’s episode on him, great analysis.
🃏
every psychopath is narcissistic but not every narcissist is a psychopath
just something i once heard in a interview with some doctor
name of the RUclips channel was med circle if i remember right i just don't remember the name of the video
I can't understand why Tim Burton was let go because Batman returns I thought the first movie was much more violent
Thanks, A-hole.
you just forced me to go rewatch the entire movie.
lol
Did batman knew along he killed his parents and that's why he didn't put much effect to pull him up when he was over the chemicals and why he was so shocked to see him alive
Jack Nicholson's Joker is basically a devil in clown's clothing. Or should I say clowns makeup.
For me, Heath's is the BEST version, but Jack's comes close.
You sound like you could do a voice over and not sound bad as him aha.