BATMAN

THE JOKER

VICKY VALE

ALFRED

OTHERS

The Joker - rarely the most stable person under any circumstances - is not happy. Formerly known as Jack Napier, one of Gotham's prominent thugs, he emerged from a horrible accident with a malevolent new persona. Now, his face bone-white, his hair green, his lips scarlet and his body outfitted in a grotesque variation of the traditional clown's costume, The Joker's sinister plans for the citizens of Gotham are in constant dnger of being thwarted by Batman's strength and cunning. ''Can somebody tell me,'' sneers the Joker, ''what kind of a world we live in where a man dressed up as a bat gets all of my press?!?!'' moments after shooting a TV-set showing news about Gotham's spectre.

''Jack… Jack is dead my friend. You can call me… Joker. And as you can see… I'm a lot Happier!!!''

For the role of the Joker - who mixes clownish humor and chilling evil - the filmakers knew whom they wanted… and that was Jack Nicholson. Producer Jon Peters, who had previously worked with Nicholson on ''The Witches Of Eastwick'' approached the actor, who finally became seriously interested and flew over to England to meet with Peters. ''He met Tim (Burton) and saw Beetlejuice, which he loved'', remembers Peters. ''When we told him we wanted Michael Keaton for Batman, Jack liked the idea immediately because it was an out-of-the-ordinary choice''.

Thus Nicholson donned white face and costume to bring The Joker to screen life. ''In a way'', explains director Tim Burton, ''the two characters of Batman and The Joker are related, one the flip side of the other. It's that particular theme, which is from the comic book, that we wanted explored even more in the film.'' He describes Jack Nicholson as ''perfect cating - almost too perfect. He simply is The Joker.'' With a record number of Oscar nominations plus two actual awards there are very few actors who would have brought so much expertise to such a mammoth project. His previous roles in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Shining, The Witches of Eastwick have laid the best foundations for roles of psychopaths. (Batman creator) Bob Kane says, ''I have always considered Jack to be the ideal Joker.'' He is one of the few actors who cvan convey both wickedness and fun in the twinkle of an eye.

The balancing of the performances of Nicholson and Keaton was absolutely imperative in Burton's vision of the film: ''It would have been too easy for Jack top dominate the action - Michael's energy is very important - they have a very similar style, they even have the same eyebrows!''

About Joker in the comics: 

The Joker's first appearance was in Batman#1 in Spring 1940. Since Batman was first conceived in 1939 it quickly became clear that no ordinary villain could convincingly match his abilities. Just as Sherlock Holmes had Moriarty, so the Dark Knight needed a worthy foe to launch the first comic book devoted entirely to him in 1940. The influences for the character were two-fold. On the one hand there was the Joker from a pack of cards - on the other hand there was the hideous grin on Conrad Veidt in the German Expressionist film The Man Who Laughs. The combination of idea produced a character who was both amusing and horrific.

Originally the Joker died at the end of this first story in Bat-Man#1, buct such was the impact of the character that the story was re-drawn and he was ''unkilled''-a process that was to become a tradition in comics and films. Over the years, just as Batman's character became less dark, so too did the Joker, reflecting the lighter tone of the Batman comics of the 60's. In the 80's, Alan Moore's graphic novel, Batman: The Killing Joke, has explored the psychology of the character, showing the true horror of the creation but also eliciting sympathy for the horrific results of the accident which turned him to crime. The Joker is really a flip-side of Batman. - Both of them are disturbed: the one on the side of good, the other on the side of evil.

The Joker is Batman's arch-nemesis in the comic book continuity. While Joker's origin is open to interpretations (he constantly tells differing stories of his life), it is possible he was a down-and-out comedian who joined a gang as Red Hood. Red Hood fell into a vat of acid during a robbery that Batman broke up, and his physical transformation, coupled with his wife's elecrocution during a freak accident, pushed him over the edge (as shown in the brilliant graphic novel The Killing Joke by Alan Moore). He is completely psychotic, making his crime spiels very difficult for Batman to predict. Joker remained free after Bane's breakout of Arkham until apprehended by Batman. He was then tried and eventually found innocent (thanks to Batman's efforts as chronicled in Devil's Advocate) of mass murder by poisoning postage stamps of comics.