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====''The Dark Knight'' (2008)====

====''The Dark Knight'' (2008)====

Tim Burton's series of four movies eventually departed to the camp of the 1960's television series with the release of ''Batman and Robin'' in 1997, a critical and financial flop.  Rebooting the franchise led to the [[Christopher Nolan]] film ''[[Batman Begins]]'' in 2005; the success of which enabled a sequel which was released in 2008.  Using the comic book stories ''The Long Halloween'' and ''The Killing Joke'' as inspirations, Nolan returned the Joker to the big screen in ''[[The Dark Knight]]''<ref>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/</ref>.  Almost universally lauded by critics and shattering numerous box-office records, ''The Dark Knight'' featured the final performance of [[Heath Ledger]] as a monstrous version of the Joker<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohU16OiduUs&feature=related</ref>, a psychotic who thinks the only sane way to live is without rules and wants to prove it to the world - and at the same time giving the artists and writers who penned the Batman stories a version of the Joker they thought was closest to their own.  "He's trying to police a villain the likes of which he's never seen," said actor Gary Oldman in a recent interview, describing just how evil he thought this film version of the Joker actually is. "He makes Voldemort (the villain of the ''Harry Potter'' series) look like a Sesame Street character"<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoSCGb5fJRs&feature=related</ref>.  The premise of the film, which begins in a hopeful manner with the arrests of mob figures and the reduction of crime, spirals downward as the remaining elements of the mob turn to the Joker, who turns out to be "a man they didn't fully understand"<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWw0ov-cAUg</ref>, and someone who is just as dangerous to the mob as he is to Gotham City.

Tim Burton's series of four movies eventually departed to the camp of the 1960's television series with the release of ''Batman and Robin'' in 1997, a critical and financial flop.  Rebooting the franchise led to the [[Christopher Nolan]] film ''[[Batman Begins]]'' in 2005; the success of which enabled a sequel which was released in 2008.  Using the comic book stories ''The Long Halloween'' and ''The Killing Joke'' as inspirations, Nolan returned the Joker to the big screen in ''[[The Dark Knight]]''<ref>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/</ref>.  Almost universally lauded by critics and shattering numerous box-office records, ''The Dark Knight'' featured the final performance of [[Heath Ledger]] as a monstrous version of the Joker<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohU16OiduUs&feature=related</ref>, a psychotic who thinks [[Nihilism|the only sane way to live]] [[Anarchy|is without rules]] and wants to prove it to the world - and at the same time giving the artists and writers who penned the Batman stories a version of the Joker they thought was closest to their own.  "He's trying to police a villain the likes of which he's never seen," said actor Gary Oldman in a recent interview, describing just how evil he thought this film version of the Joker actually is. "He makes Voldemort (the villain of the ''Harry Potter'' series) look like a Sesame Street character"<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoSCGb5fJRs&feature=related</ref>.  The premise of the film, which begins in a hopeful manner with the arrests of mob figures and the reduction of crime, spirals downward as the remaining elements of the mob turn to the Joker, who turns out to be "a man they didn't fully understand"<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWw0ov-cAUg</ref>, and someone who is just as dangerous to the mob as he is to Gotham City.

The effect of Ledger's performance has caused some fans to ask Warner Brothers to cease placing the Joker in any future films<ref>http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/02/heath-ledger-nu/</ref>.

The effect of Ledger's performance has caused some fans to ask Warner Brothers to cease placing the Joker in any future films<ref>http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/02/heath-ledger-nu/</ref>.