Heath Ledger’s performance in 2008’s “The Dark Knight” was quite possibly the best Joker performance ever put to screen. It was a performance that both inspired millions of people’s Halloween costumes in the years since, and it even inspired Timothee Chalamet to get into acting. PLus, it’s also the #1 pick on /Film’s list of best Heath Ledger performances, a feat made more impressive by how stacked Ledger’s filmography already was. Even people who hated the movie can agree that Ledger nailed it here, and in the 17 years since, Hollywood has been trying in vain to capture what made Ledger’s version so special.
One element among many that contributed to Ledger’s take on the character was the book “A Clockwork Orange,” by Anthony Burgess. Much like the 1972 Kubrick movie of the same name, this book is about an evil, chaotic young man who simply seems to want to watch the world burn. Alex, the book’s main character, is someone who has no clear backstory that explains why he’s so evil; he just has an appetite for depraved violence and very few qualms about indulging it. Sounds familiar, right? Christopher Nolan sure thought so, which might be why he gave the book to Ledger as assigned reading before production began.
“We casted [Ledger] before the script was even written, so he had a very long time to obsess over what he was going to do,” Nolan explained in a 2018 IndieWire interview. “I sent him some material — I had him read ‘A Clockwork Orange’ for example.” Nolan didn’t elaborate much on why, but he didn’t need to. Not only is Alex DeLarge a lot like the Joker, but he connects to audiences for similar reasons. There’s something fascinating about a villain without shame, who operates without any apparent rhyme or reason. Alex and the Joker are both terrifying and revolting, sure, but many readers and viewers find it funny to see what crazy thing he’ll do next.
‘A Clockwork Orange’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ have similar legacies
Arguably the most relevant bit about “Clockwork Orange,” at least as it relates to Ledger’s Joker, is the final chapter that was cut from the original American publication and therefore, was subsequently not covered in Kubrick’s adaptation. That final chapter shows Alex finally having an epiphany of sorts, realizing that he doesn’t actually want to continue down this road of wanton violence. It’s a surprising bit of hope that helps prove that the book isn’t as nihilistic as its critics supposed.
In his introduction of the 1986 edition, the first American edition of the book to include that redemptive final chapter, Burgess explained how he believed his book was a little misunderstood by the masses, and his final chapter intended to make a more optimistic case about the nature of humanity, that everyone (even Alex) has free will and the ability to improve. Nevertheless, the much bleaker thematic conclusion implied by the original American edition — and the subsequent movie adaption based off it — is the one that’s stuck with most people.
It’s similar to how Ledger’s Joker is often portrayed as a true nihilistic agent of chaos, someone who really is just as evil, random and unplanned as he claims to be. That’s an interpretation that misses out on a few of the best layers to the character — mainly, the fact that this Joker both spends a lot of time planning things out and isn’t actually motivated by a pure desire to watch the world burn. This Joker is a bitter, insecure man who wants to prove to Batman that anyone can become as bad as him, and when the ferries choose not to blow each other up, he is definitively (at least as far as the movie’s concerned) proven wrong.
Despite its understandable reputation as a darker Batman movie, “The Dark Knight” is more optimistic in its worldview than it often gets credit for. I’m not sure Nolan had that part of the book’s legacy in mind when he recommended it to Ledger, but it certainly makes for an intriguing connection.
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