Warning: This essay contains spoilers

When I first knew that I wanted to write about film, there were a handful of movies I knew I wanted to talk about, and The Dark Knight was one of them. More specifically, I knew I wanted to talk about Heath Ledger’s interpretation of Joker, not just because it’s utterly brilliant, but because it completely changed the way the character had been seen and understood aesthetically and culturally up to that point. Joker has always been my favorite villain in the superhero universe; Batman has always been my favorite superhero. As a kid, I loved the Batman television show that had been on in the sixties—although obviously I watched it much later—that featured Adam West as Batman and Cesar Romero as Joker. As a kid, I also loved Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) that featured Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as Joker. I watched that movie countless times and it was the only Batman movie that held my attention and affection until Batman Forever (1995) came out, featuring Val Kilmer as Batman and Tommy Lee Jones as Two Face (another superhero villain I admire). The point I’m trying to make here is that I felt pretty certain that the Batman interpretations into film had been pretty much cemented with those movies. When Christopher Nolan revived the Batman franchise in the mid-2000s, I was skeptical. I was especially skeptical when Heath Ledger was casted to play the role of Joker. Aside from the fact that I wasn’t a huge Ledger fan (he hadn’t really made anything I was interested in seeing, although I loved him in A Knight’s Tale which came out in 2001), I didn’t think he had the acting chops to compete with Jack Nicholson’s iconic interpretation of Joker, which to me, reigned supreme. Heath Ledger proved me 100% wrong. When I saw The Dark Knight for the first time when it came out in the theater, I was stunned—and I was glad to say that I was wrong. I saw the film at least four times in the theater and have watched it many times since then. It has become my favorite Batman film and Heath Ledger’s Joker has become one of my all-time favorite film characters.

There are many directions this essay could take, but to keep things simple, I’ve decided to narrow it down to two major points I want to make about why I think Heath Ledger’s Joker is the ultimate Joker—he is a heroic villain and he is an anarchist. And really, it’s actually one main point—he’s a heroic villain because he’s an anarchist. Heath Ledger’s Joker is principled, self-aware, and socially conscious. The case can be made that all villains in general have an anarchist sensibility about them because they reject society and create their own rules for survival and empowerment which usually causes chaos and suffering to those who live in civilized society—which is ruled by laws and intangible moral codes often expressed through religion or personal conviction. But out of all the villains, Joker is more specifically anarchist because he’s comical and as any comic understands, you have to know the world you’re mocking. Cesar Romero’s interpretation of Joker was purely comical, but still based on the premise that he understood how to use humor to his advantage as a villain. Jack Nicholson’s interpretation of Joker employed dark humor, partially because, being a criminal first and foremost all his life, his world was very dark. However, Heath Ledger’s Joker is purely postmodern. He is highly aware of himself as a comic and a criminal; however, he takes it further by conscientiously identifying as an anarchist. Heath Ledger’s Joker is still humorous; he’s still a criminal and a murderer, but he’s political. This is what sets him apart from past interpretations of Joker and, to a certain extent, makes him heroic.

In this essay, I want to discuss three key scenes in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008), co-written with his brother Jonathan Nolan, that highlight Joker as heroic and anarchic. Ledger posthumously won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, although to be entirely honest, he was the main character of the film, which is surprising, since Batman films always center around Batman. What these scenes have in common is the way they revolve around Joker as if he were a hero. In Burton’s Batman, this was also somewhat true for Nicholson’s Joker, who was given centerstage as well, but it was to highlight Joker’s distorted view of himself and the world he felt he had a right to control. In these scenes, Joker does not proclaim to be in charge; in the scene with Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) in the hospital, he refers to himself as an agent of chaos—like a true anarchist, he rejects leadership; which makes him all the more intriguing to those he interacts with in each of these scenes. As far as he’s concerned, he’s not a villain at all; he’s an anarchist with one goal: to dismantle moral society.

In the first scene I want to discuss, this is where Joker is featured for the first time as a full-on character. The film opened with him robbing a Gotham City bank; this scene showcases more of Joker’s mindset and personality. Here it is in its entirety:

The Chechen (Ritchie Coster) walks through a metal detector manned by two Chinese males. He opens up his leather jacket after the metal detector beeps. One of the Chinese thugs takes a gun from him and waves a metal detector wand across his body. He walks into an industrial-style chef’s kitchen/storage space and sits down at a table next to Sal Maroni (Eric Roberts). Their table (the mob table) faces the opposite table (the gangster table), where Gambol (Michael Jai White) and his men are seated. Two thugs bring in a box-shaped TV and set it on the perpendicular table. Someone asks “what the hell is this?” The TV turns on and Lau’s (Chin Han) face appears.

Lau: As you’re all aware, one of our deposits was stolen. A relatively small amount: 68 million.

Chechen: Who’s stupid enough to steal from us?

Maroni: Two-bit whack job, wears a cheap purple suit and makeup. He’s not the problem, he’s nobody. The problem is—our money being tracked by the cops.

Lau: Thanks to Mr. Maroni’s well-placed sources, we know that police have indeed identified our banks using marked bills, and are planning to seize your funds today…”

The scene shifts to detective Gordon (Gary Oldman) as he pulls up in his car along with a SWAT van and enters the bank. It also shows one of his colleagues (Keith Szarabajka) pulling up to a different bank accompanied by SWAT.

Lau: …And since the enthusiastic new D.A. has put all my competitors out of business, I’m your only option.

Maroni: So what do you propose?

The scene shifts to another one of Gordon’s colleagues (Monique Gabriela Curnen) entering a different bank with SWAT.

Lau: Moving all deposits to one secure location. Not a bank.

Gambol: Where then?

Lau: No one can know but me. If the police were to gain leverage over one of you, everyone’s money would be at stake.

Chechen: What stops them getting to you?

Lau: I go to Hong Kong. Far from Dent’s jurisdiction.

The scene shifts to Gordon entering a bank vault with SWAT, holding up his gun. Then the scene shifts to earlier as men are loading canvas bags into the back of a truck.

Lau: And the Chinese will not extradite one of their own.

Maroni: How soon can you move the money?

Lau: I already have. For obvious reasons, I couldn’t wait for your permission.

The scene shifts to show Lau sitting on a private jet in midair.

Lau: Rest assured, your money is safe.

There is the sound of laughter in the back of the room—a very conscientious, deadpan, but humorous laugh. The camera follows Joker into the room. The camera faces him as he walks up to the table in a purple suit, his white face makeup and red lipstick applied roughly, his shoulder-length hair green and greasy.

Joker: And I thought my jokes were bad.

Gambol: Give me one reason why I shouldn’t have my boy here pull your head off.

Joker: How about a magic trick?

[Joker slams a pencil into the table, point-down]

Joker: I’m gonna make this pencil disappear.

[One of Gambol’s men tries to grab Joker, but he slams his head down onto the pencil (forehead first) and he falls back]

Joker: Ta-da! It’s [waves his purple-gloved hands over the table as he sits down] it’s gone [Chechen looks impressed]. Oh, and by the way, the suit, it wasn’t cheap. You ought to know, you bought it.

[Gambol gets up]

Chechen: Sit. I want to hear proposition.

[Joker points at Chechen, then at Gambol, who slowly sits back down]

Joker: Let’s wind the clocks back a year. These cops and lawyers wouldn’t dare cross any of you. I mean, what happened? Did your balls drop off? Hmm? You see, a guy like me—

Gambol: A freak.

[Gangsters smirk and agree]

Joker: A guy like me—look, listen. I know why you choose to have your little [coughs] group therapy sessions in broad daylight. I know why you’re afraid to go out at night: the Batman. You see, Batman has shown Gotham your true colors, unfortunately. Dent, he’s just the beginning. And as for the…television’s so-called plan…

[Camera shifts to Lau]

Joker: …Batman has no jurisdiction. He’ll find him and make him squeal [clenches his gloved fist].

[Camera shifts to Lau, now looking uncomfortable]

Joker: I know the squealers when I see them, and… [points to Lau, who turns off the TV]

Chechen: What do you propose?

Joker: It’s simple. We kill the Batman.

[Everyone laughs]

Maroni: If it’s so simple, why haven’t you done it already?

Joker: If you’re good at something, never do it for free.

Chechen: How much you want?

Joker: Uhhh…Half.

[Everyone laughs]

Someone says, “you’re crazy.”

Joker: I’m not. No, I’m not [emphasizing the “t”]. If we don’t deal with this now, soon, little Gambol, here, won’t be able to get a nickel for his grandma.

Gambol: [Slams his fist on the table] Enough from the clown!

[He gets up, but so does Joker, who opens his suit jacket to show several rigged grenades]

Joker: Let’s not blow…

[Everyone jumps up]

Joker: …this out of proportion.

Gambol: You think you can steal from us and just walk away?

Joker: Yeah.

Gambol: I’m putting the word out. Five hundred grand for this clown dead. A million alive, so I can teach him some manners first.

Joker: [Addressing the mob] Alright, so listen. Why don’t you give me a call when you want to start taking things a little more seriously. Here’s my card.

He pulls a Joker playing card out of his pocket and sets it on the table. Then, he backs away, holding the wire to his homemade bomb, kicks the door open behind him, and disappears.

This scene in particular is so important for multiple reasons that have to do with setting up plot and the dynamics between the characters. Cinematically, it’s also brilliant, featuring a main character talking to other characters through a TV screen, and Joker’s blunt, humorous, and unsettling introduction as a speaking character. Plot-wise, the audience learns who Joker robbed in the opening scene of the film: the mob. This robbery not only tipped off the mob (who was robbed), it also tipped off the police, who now have an excuse to seize criminal wealth. This is what the mob is primarily concerned with: the safety of their wealth. This is where Lau comes in. He has taken the liberty of securing all of the mob’s funds as a way to prove that he should be the sole protector of Gotham’s criminal wealth. So, the mob, who used to primarily control law enforcement, is now at the mercy of the law, but also at the mercy of a foreign banker who proclaims to know more about how their money should be protected than they do. It is important to understand this so that Joker’s true motives can become apparent. When Joker enters the scene, he already understands that the mob’s problems really have nothing to do with money. It has to do with moral power. When Joker says “I know why you choose to have your little group therapy sessions in broad daylight,” he is indicating the true threat: Batman. And immediately after that, he dispels Lau’s authority by astutely pointing out, “And as for the television’s so-called plan…Batman has no jurisdiction. He’ll find him [Lau] and make him squeal.” Although Joker created this predicament by robbing the mob in the first place, he’s really an outside observer. And it might seem like he’s taking charge by offering to kill Batman for an extremely large amount of money, but what he’s really doing is planting the seeds of doubt in the minds of mob leaders, who in all honesty, really don’t know what to do about the situation.

This scene is also significant as a way to introduce Ledger’s Joker as a strangely articulate villain. Although the tone of his voice is unsettling, he’s really a very plainspoken person. He speaks in blunt, regular English. And although he’s threatening (he reveals a homemade bomb inside his coat jacket), he’s not grandiose. His makeup and clothes are disturbing, but he also talks very sensibly: “Why don’t you give me a call when you want to start taking things a little more seriously?” This is a complete departure from past Joker interpretations that were usually over-the-top and comedically obnoxious. This Joker, due to his anarchist principles, is understated. Yes, his voice and clothes are odd, yes he is vicious (he killed a man with a pencil), but he has a low ego—and this is key. What audience members find out later in the film is that he’s not after money at all; he’s after the destruction of modern society for reasons that make sense initially. The next two scenes will highlight his anarchic reasoning that makes him likeable even though he’s a violent murderer. This scene in particular introduces him to the mob and the audience, and sets him up as a different kind of villain who is less egotistical and more politically-oriented.

In this next scene, Joker gets interrogated by Commissioner Gordon and Batman (Christian Bale). A little context is important here. The main thing the audience realizes is that Joker wanted to be arrested. Earlier that day at a press conference, Harvey Dent confessed that he was Batman and was immediately arrested. As he was being transported that night, Joker and his henchmen attacked the armored car in an attempt to kill Dent. At the end of the scene, the real Batman appears and intervenes, causing Joker to go after him. After he fails to kill Batman and is arrested by Commissioner Gordon, it appears that everything has gone according to the true plan, which was to apprehend Joker. However, Harvey Dent and his girlfriend Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) were both kidnapped by Joker’s henchmen with the help of police detectives with mob ties while he was in police custody. Here’s the scene in its entirety:

Joker and Commissioner Gordon sit in a low-lit interrogation room. They are seated at a table, facing each other, one lamp to their right. The camera looks at Gordon from behind Joker’s right shoulder. Gordon’s hands are folded calmly on the table.

Gordon: Harvey didn’t make it home.

Joker: Of course not.

Gordon: What have you done with him?

The camera faces Joker who sits in the dark, his makeup smeared.

Joker: Me? I was right here [lifts his cuffed hands]. Who did you leave him with? Hmm? Your people? Assuming of course, they are still your people and not Maroni’s.

[Gordon stares at Joker]

Joker: Does it depress you, Commissioner, to know just how alone you really are? Does it make you feel responsible for Harvey Dent’s current predicament?

Gordon: Where is he?

Joker: What’s the time?

Gordon: What difference does that make?

Joker: Well, depending on the time, he may be in one spot or several.

[Gordon pulls out the handcuff keys]

Gordon: If we’re gonna play games… [uncuffs Joker] I’m gonna need a cup of coffee.

[Gordon starts to walk away with the handcuffs]

Joker: Ah, the good cop, bad cop routine?

Gordon: [Standing at the metal door] Not exactly.

As soon as Gordon leaves, lights flash on to show Batman standing behind Joker. He slams Joker’s head on the table. Then, he walks around to the front of the table and leans over.

Joker: Never start with the head. The victim gets all fuzzy. He can’t feel the next—

[Batman punches Joker’s hand]

Joker: [Unaffected] See?

[Batman sits down]

Batman: You wanted me. Here I am.

The scene shifts briefly to show Gordon and his people watching on the other side of the glass.

Joker: I wanted to see what you’d do. And you didn’t disappoint. You let five people die. And then, you let Dent take your place. Even to a guy like me, that’s cold.

Batman: Where’s Dent?

Joker: The mob fools want you gone so they can get back to the way things were. But I know the truth. There’s no going back. You’ve changed things. Forever.

Batman: Then why do you want to kill me?

[Joker laughs comically]

Joker: I don’t want to kill you! What would I do without you? Go back to ripping off mob dealers? No, no, no. No, you complete me.

Batman: You’re garbage who kills for money.

Joker: Don’t talk like one of them, you’re not. Even if you’d like to be. To them, you’re just a freak. Like me. They need you right now, but when they don’t…they’ll cast you out. Like a leper. See, their morals, their “code,” it’s a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They’re only as good as the world allows them to be. I’ll show you. When the chips are down, these, uh, “civilized” people, they’ll eat each other. See, I’m not a monster. I’m just ahead of the curve.

[Batman drags Joker over the table and holds him by the front of his shirt]

Batman: Where’s Dent?

Joker: You have all these rules and you think they’ll save you.

Batman slams Joker up against the wall. The camera switches behind Gordon and his people watching on the other side of the glass. Gordon asks “Who’s in control?”

Batman: I have one rule.

Joker: Oh, then that’s the rule you’ll have to break to know the truth.

Batman: Which is?

Joker: The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules and tonight you’re gonna break your one rule.

Batman: I’m considering it.

Joker: You know, there’s only a few minutes left so you’re gonna have to play my little game if you want to save one of them.

Batman: Them?

Joker: You know, for a while there [tries to loosen a bit from Batman’s grip on his chest], I thought you really were Dent. The way you threw yourself after her.

Batman flips Joker onto his back on the table. Joker laughs as Batman carries a chair to the door. Gordon runs out of the observation room.

Joker: [Turning over on the table] Look at you go!

[Batman shoves the chair under the door handle before Gordon can get in]

[Joker stretches]

Joker: Does Harvey know about you and his little bunny?

[Batman slams Joker’s head against the glass, cracking it and he falls to the ground]

Batman: WHERE ARE THEY?

Joker: [Still sitting on the ground] Killing is making a choice.

[Batman punches Joker]

Batman: WHERE ARE THEY?

Joker: Choose between one life or the other. Your friend, the district attorney, or his blushing bride to be [laughs].

[Batman punches Joker again and he laughs on the ground]

Joker: You have nothing! Nothing to threaten me with. Nothing to do with all your strength.

[Batman picks Joker up by the collar of his shirt]

Joker: Don’t worry. I’m gonna tell you where they are. Both of ‘em. And that’s the point. You’ll have to choose. He’s at 250 52^nd Street. And she’s, uh, on Avenue X. At Cicero.

[Batman throws Joker down and charges out of the room]

Gordon: Which one are you going after?

Batman: Rachel!

Gordon: We’re getting Dent!

In this scene, the audience is seeing a variety of things all converging at once. It is seeing Gordon’s desire to maintain control over the situation even though he has no idea where Dent is, Joker’s ability to not only predict law enforcement behavior, but capitalize off of it, and Batman’s utter rage and use of brutal force against Joker. I want to talk about Batman’s anger first because I find it incredibly compelling. Before he knew Rachel was also kidnapped, he merely thought he was dealing with scum, telling Joker, “You’re garbage who kills for money.” And although he did use some violence in an attempt to get an answer from Joker about the whereabouts of Dent, his anger didn’t come out in full force until love entered the equation. After that, he prevented Gordon from entering the room by shoving a chair under the door handle, and then proceeded to beat the shit out of Joker by slamming his head against the glass and punching him multiple times. Here, Joker exposes Batman has being willing to kill, although his ultimate goal is to get Batman to commit murder by making a choice—choosing one life over another. Although he keeps asking Joker “WHERE ARE THEY?”, the audience knows the truth—he just wants to know where Rachel is. And what the audience recognizes about Joker’s true aims (to get arrested) comes through from a different perspective: Batman’s rage. Yes, he wanted to get arrested because he’s playing games with law enforcement, but he’s also playing a game with Batman that involves defeating him with political willpower: I don’t want to kill you because I want you to recognize we’re the same and I will destroy your world to show you the truth: we’re both anarchists.

Another thing the audience notices is Joker’s immunity to violence. Batman can’t use force to get to him physically: “You have nothing! Nothing to threaten me with. Nothing to do with all your strength.” And since a good portion of the violence happens after Joker tries to show Batman they’re on the same page, it makes what he said all the more profound because Batman might be mirroring him to a certain degree by taking matters into his own hands (cutting Gordon out by jamming the door, employing heavy violence on his victim). Joker tells him point-blank: “To them, you’re just a freak. Like me. They need you right now, but when they don’t…they’ll cast you out. Like a leper….their morals, their “code,” it’s a sick joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They’re only as good as the world allows them to be.” The last sentence is significant because what Joker is really saying is that people are only as good as societal systems allow them to be. And when he says “I’m not a monster. I’m just ahead of the curve,” he absolutely is a monster, but he is ahead of the curve, too. And Batman and Commissioner Gordon’s failure to recognize this fact is what keeps them scrambling around throughout the film.

Joker wants Batman to understand that their principles are the same. And although Batman doesn’t entertain Joker’s logic, he doesn’t disagree with it, either. Joker’s interaction with Gordon was different than with Batman, although the desired result was similar: to expose law enforcement as corrupt in their attempts to control society through the illusion of protection, and to expose Batman as being an anarchist through his efforts to fight corruption on his own as a vigilante. Joker also sees himself as fighting corruption. In his mind, corruption controls and anarchism liberates. This mindset will become more apparent in the third scene I will be discussing. For now, I want to point out how his politics are building toward that aim of instituting anarchism as chaos from a place of manipulation and murder, which is not noble, and yet, I’m calling him a heroic villain. I am calling Joker a heroic villain because Ledger’s interpretation of him makes him politically complex: he is calling law enforcement out as being authoritarian (which they are) and he is calling Batman out for being dishonest about his identity (which he is). If he is willing to kill for love, then his one rule about not killing is hypocritical. And, in Batman’s attempts to be noble in ways that law enforcement can’t, he’s operating under the illusion that the law is on his side, which it isn’t. They are merely using him as a tool to regain authority after being infiltrated by the mob, and so in this sense, Joker is also right. Although he is a monster, he’s right, and as a villain, his main concern lies with exposing the truth, not with making money or gaining societal power, unlike the mob. In another scene in the film, he burns a huge pile of money just to prove this point to them. They don’t deserve to be criminals because they’re not principled. All they care about is money.

Prior to the final scene I will be discussing, the audience learns that Joker purposely gave Batman the wrong address so that he would save Dent instead of Rachel. And because the police were not able to get to Rachel in time, she was blown up. However, Dent had half of his face burned off after he fell in a puddle of gasoline and as the building exploded just after Batman rescued him, his face ignited. This scene is spliced with another scene involving Commissioner Gordon and Bruce Wayne trying to keep citizens from killing the man who knows Batman’s true identity that Joker publicly announced he wanted dead (he wants to keep the game going between him and Batman). For the purposes of this essay, we’ll just look at the scene as a seamless piece. It’s a conversation between Dent and Joker in a hospital that’s been evacuated because Joker threatened to blow it up unless someone killed the whistleblower who knows Batman’s true identity.

Joker raises Dent’s hospital bed. Half of his face has been burned off. Joker is dressed in a nurse’s uniform and wears a red wig. He pulls off his surgical mask. Dent struggles, but he’s tied to the bed. Joker drops the mask and sits down as Dent tries to attack him.

Joker: [Guilty] Hi [he takes off the wig and ruffles his hands through his greasy green hair]. You know, I don’t want there to be any hard feelings between us, Harvey. When you and uh—

Dent: Rachel!

Joker: Rachel were being abducted, I was sitting in Gordon’s cage. I didn’t rig those charges.

Dent: Your men, your plan.

Joker: Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it. You know, I just do things. The mob has plans. The cops have plans. Gordon’s got plans. You know, they’re schemers. Schemers trying to control their little worlds. I’m not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are. So, when I say that, come here [he takes hold of Dent’s hand], when I say that you and your girlfriend was nothing personal, you know that I’m telling the truth.

[Joker un-restrains one of Dent’s wrists]

Joker: It’s the schemers that put you where you are.

[He walks around the other side of the bed to un-restrain Dent’s other wrist]

Joker: You were a schemer, you had plans, and, uh, look where that got you.

[Dent tries to attack Joker again and he grabs Dent’s arm]

Joker: I just did what I do best. [In a sing-song voice] I took your little plan and I turned it on itself. [Holding Dent’s arm down] Look what I did to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple of bullets. Hmm? You know what I noticed? Nobody panics when things go according to plan. Even if the plan is horrifying. If tomorrow I tell the press that like a gangbanger will get shot or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all part of the plan. But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!

Joker: [Takes out a gun] Introduce a little anarchy. [Puts the gun in Dent’s hand] Upset the established order and everything becomes chaos. [Helps Dent place the barrel of the gun to his forehead] I’m an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It’s fair.

[Dent stares at Joker, then pulls out a coin]

Dent: [Shows Joker the undamaged side of the coin] You live…

Joker: Mm-hmm.

Dent: [Shows Joker the damaged side of the coin] You die.

Joker: Now we’re talking.

[Dent flips the coin]

At the end of the scene, Joker stands outside Dent’s hospital room, puts sanitizer in his hands, and cleans them as he starts to walk down the hall.

This scene serves as the climax of what Joker stands for politically in a way that makes sense. Later on in the film, he is exposed as being psychotic after he rigs a boat full of citizens with a bomb and a boat full of prisoners with a bomb and tells each boat that if one of them doesn’t blow the other one up, he’ll blow them both up, but is surprised when both boats decide to toss their detonators. In this scene in particular, he gets through to Dent, who has just suffered the loss of his fiancé and half of his face. What the audience knows about the coin is that it is a two-headed coin and Harvey used it playfully at the beginning of the movie to show Rachel how he “makes his own luck” before it got partially damaged in the fire (like him). Now, he uses the coin with a different purpose: to decide fate. Here, the audience sees how Joker creates Two Face, by encouraging him to become an anarchist. This might also be the first time Joker uses the word anarchy. Again, to Joker, anarchy is the institution of chaos as a replacement for moral society. He gives Dent a similar political speech that he gave Batman: “You know what I noticed? Nobody panics when things go according to plan. Even if the plan is horrifying. If tomorrow I tell the press that like a gangbanger will get shot or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all part of the plan.” By plan, he means that the gangbanger and the soldiers serve specific functions in society in order for it to function. The gangbanger is more than likely a criminal and without crime there would no need for law enforcement. Soldiers fight wars, and without war, there would be no need for a military. But then he takes his logic further: “…when I say that one little old mayor will die, well everyone loses their minds!” The mayor is a “leader” and a figurehead of moral society and therefore, he has more value than a gangbanger or a truckload of soldiers, who are expendable. What Joker exposes here is the illness of systemic oppression. He is not wrong here. And when he tells Dent to “Introduce a little anarchy,” he knows he’s talking to a different Dent—a receptive Dent.

Why is Dent receptive? Because he’s a victim of the very societal forces he upheld as a district attorney. As Joker points out: “The mob has plans. The cops have plans. Gordon’s got plans….You were a schemer, you had plans, and, uh, look where that got you.” But I think Dent’s receptivity goes much deeper than being a victim of his own moral desire to fight crime. Much like with Batman, it has to do with love. Ledger’s Joker employs love as an alternative source of emotional logic that counters the usual good versus evil logic, although he does use both. He’s trying to show Batman and Dent how they are complicit in corruption by being complicit with moral society, but he’s also less consciously showing how love can be a huge motivator toward reconceptualizing the self. Batman was willing to kill for love; Dent does end up killing for love—because his love was given up to be killed by “good guys” (corrupt cops) under the influence of “bad guys” (mob goons with the ability to bribe). I believe that Joker ignited Dent’s desire to kill in order to avenge Rachel’s murder, so for Dent, anarchy (by way of chaos) was a way to balance the scales. It’s similar to Batman becoming a vigilante—justice, for both men, can only be achieved outside the law, which is ruled by moral society. Although Joker is purely motivated by anarchism, and gives Dent the gift of empowerment through anarchy, I don’t feel that Dent’s coin flipping is political. It’s love-based. However, the reason why this scene is so significant is because it utilizes Joker as the voice of reason. He’s a villain, but he’s making a lot of sense. And in an interesting twist, because he ends up leaving the hospital room unscathed, and cleans his hands with sanitizer, the coin (chaos) proved to him and Dent that his motives are innocent. So, he was given the green light to continue to terrorize Gotham.

Here is where I want to point out a few things. Being an anarchist myself, I don’t condone Joker’s brand of anarchism. What I condone and admire about the character is his principled, political nature. He is the first villain I can think of who was successfully able to point the finger back at law enforcement as being just as corrupt as the mob, if not more corrupt: without us, who would protect you from crime? That is the ultimate foundation systemic society exists upon: the threat of being subsumed by crime. And what most people don’t realize is that crime is fueled by law. Crime exists because laws exist. And to take it further, there is no such thing as a purely moral law enforcement. The system can be infiltrated very easily because people can be bribed, coerced, and people aren’t always as noble as we like to believe they are. Just because someone works in law enforcement, it doesn’t mean they have moral convictions. And I think this is what Ledger’s Joker exposed: how law enforcement expresses authoritarianism. Ideologically, it is anarchic to expose systemic corruption, but where Joker crosses the line is when he tries to replace authoritarianism with chaos. And that’s something all villains do. They want to remove laws and institute chaos in the form of mob rule in order to gain power. However, what sets Joker apart from other villains is that he isn’t necessarily looking to rule the world through chaos; he’s just simply looking to institute chaos. This is because he’s a true anarchist in the sense that he does not want to lead and he does not want to gain empowerment through material wealth. A better brand of anarchism would argue for harmonic coexistence across humanity that is something akin to the natural world instead of instituting a distorted chaotic version of a defeated moral society. Because Gotham is already corrupt and crime-ridden due to authoritarian control, to institute chaos is to turn it into a literal hell, which is what Joker is trying to do. But I find Joker heroic because he speaks the blunt truths that Batman and Dent both needed to hear, and on a wider scope, what the audience needed to hear. Law encourages crime; it does not cure it. And systemic oppression operates on authoritarian means of control (like law enforcement) in order to maintain a restrictive society that does not allow for true liberation, which is anarchic in nature because it gives each person the individual choice to be who they are in the most natural sense without guilt, fear, or shame.

At the time I’m writing this essay, The Dark Knight is celebrating its fifteenth birthday. I think it’s safe to say that in terms of superhero films, this one will be of the select few that achieved cinematic timelessness. I think Heath Ledger’s interpretation of Joker is a big reason why. Through Ledger’s performance and demeanor, his character brought in a political component to the superhero medium that was not explicitly clear in the past. I can see it in flashes of the other Batman films I mentioned, but it’s very explicitly present in The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger took a big risk by not just playing Joker after Jack Nicholson’s version had become the standard for almost two decades, but the way in which he chose to portray Joker—with anarchist beliefs. I know that Nolan gave him a lot of leeway in terms of how he wanted to conceptualize Joker, and as an audience, we are seeing the results of Ledger and Nolan’s artistic vision in the film. It was a very conscientious decision to make him anarchic, although Joker has always been anarchic to some degree. Anarchism has now become explicitly intertwined with Joker and has caused other actors (Jared Leto, Joaquin Phoenix) to try their hand at radically reconceptualizing Joker in films that have been released after The Dark Knight. On a personal level, I found this film, and Ledger’s role as Joker to be incredibly influential in terms of how anarchism expresses itself creatively and culturally. I’ve also come to realize, as time has gone on, that Heath Ledger was the absolute right person for that role. It seems incredibly obvious now. He not only redefined the role of Joker, he also redefined the villain as heroic, even if in the end he was (like all villains) cynical and psychotic. I think he also added political complexity to a villainous character that at times felt too comical, obnoxious, and one-dimensional. He made Joker into a dynamic, underground character with political conviction, but who could employ humor in a very dark, nuanced, socially-smart way. His performance in The Dark Knight is unforgettable; I don’t think any other actor impressed me more than Heath Ledger did in terms of breaking my expectations about who I thought a character was, what I believed that character represented, and showing me what that character could be in ways I never thought possible. And that, to me, is also incredibly heroic.

July 31, 2023