Comparing Batman And The Dark Knight

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Madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little push!" is an iconic line in a recent superhero film. Signifying irony as well as insanity, this quote demonstrates how easily one may become mentally deranged. Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008) films tell the account of a fictional American superhero and his mentally ill archenemy, the Joker. The Joker from Batman and the Joker from The Dark Knight share a similar origin story; however, they have very contrasting personalities and appearances.
In the 1989 Batman film, before the Joker was introduced as the Joker, he was a man named Jack Napier. As a young man, Jack and his partner in crime mugged and killed Bruce Wayne's parents. Before murdering …show more content…

The Dark Knight borrowed elements from Batman: The Killing Joke, a 1988 DC Comics graphic novel, which provides an origin story for the Joker. The connection between the two leads to a similar origin story of the creation of the Joker through the influence of Batman. Batman's interference in The Killing Joke causes the Joker to leap into a chemical vat, which severely disfigures him. In The Dark Knight, the Joker himself also has multiple testimonies on how he came to be. He sometimes blames his abusive and alcoholic father for creating his mutilated smile while in a drunken rage one night. The Joker also claims that after his wife’s face was mutilated, he pulled a razor on his own to comfort her by showing that her damaged appearance didn’t bother him. After carving his own cheeks, he says that, “she couldn’t stand the sight of (him).” This disturbing attempt to make her feel better makes causes worse, resulting in his wife leaving him, furthering his mental instability. Although the scars are present on The Dark Knight version of the Joker, the rest of his appearance is cosmetic in contrast to the physiological image of the Joker from the 1989 Batman film. The Joker in The Dark Knight applies chalk white makeup to his face and dark products to blacken the spaces around his eyes. He also dyes his greasy hair green rather than having the chemically bleached green hair follicles of the 1989 Joker who fell into the bubbling green substance. Their personalities differ mainly by the 1989 Joker being more comical while The Dark Knight Joker being more psychotic. The Joker from The Dark Knight calls himself an “agent of chaos” and wishes to drag everyone down to his level of insanity and corruption rather than just kill them

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