Over on sister-site Zed’s Dead (movie reviews. no anal rape) there’s a write up with thoughts on the Ledger vs. Nicholson Joker debate. Of which I wasn’t really aware there was one.

My thoughts are kind of simple. Tim Burton created a Batman that had a bit of camp left in it — a holdover from the Adam West TV show, if you will — and Jack Nicholson portrayed that Joker with panache and flair. There was a lot of camp present in the series, although the second movie was way more guilty of it than the original.

Christopher Nolan’s Batman is darker — more of The Dark Knight Returns than POW! BIFF! BAM! – and plays more of the psychological fears of Gotham and the hero (I submit that Bruce Wayne is not the “secret identity,” but just a mask that Batman wears in order to gather information for his “true” identity — vis a vis, the Bat.)

Nolan is on record saying that Dark Knight is taking its influences from the darker sides of the Batman mythos — with special emphasis on the Joker from The Killing Joke. Heath Ledger is playing that Joker to a “T” in the trailer. Insane, yes. Psychopathic, yes. Perhaps a bit over-the-top, but not a criminal that is going to pump the place with laughing gas while he marches in to the soothing sounds of Prince.