After the latest Oscar ceremony, much of the world's attention is on Joaquin Phoenix's portrayal of the Joker, but the real inspiration for his work is Heath Ledger's 2008 performance. Although there was an outcry when Christopher Nolan announced that Heath Ledger would be cast in The Dark Knight, his incredible dedication to becoming the Joker would eventually earn him recognition and popularity alongside a posthumous Oscar winner. This wasn't the first time the Joker character had appeared in a Batman film, so Ledger had a big role to fill. With Nolan's direction and writing, Ledger had all the makings of a great Joker. Heath Ledger's performance combined with Christopher Nolan's unique directorial style made The Dark Knight one of the most iconic superhero films of all time. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay To make this his most memorable performance of all time, Ledger pushed himself mentally and physically harder than he ever had. After hearing about a sequel to the iconic Batman Begins, he contacted Nolan to play the Joker even before the script for The Dark Knight was published. Heath locked himself in a hotel room and his apartment for over a month to prepare to become the Joker. Ledger would use this isolation to free up space in his head before taking on the role of Joker. He also used this isolation to create a totally new and unique version of the Joker, never seen before. The superhero community always judges how actors portray the Joker based on their voices and the actor's interpretation of the Joker's iconic laugh. Heath took this part of the Joker very seriously as he spent six weeks developing a unique voice for his character. According to Christopher Nolan, Ledger was studying ventriloquist dummies because he found their voices terrifying. His: "Why so serious?" line that he would say would be cemented as a legendary Joker quote. When Ledger would say, "You want to know how I got these scars?" would tell two damning stories over the course of the film. The first story is about how the Joker's father deformed his face with a knife and the second story he tells is how he deformed his face to make his wife happy. The two stories conflict but one can believe that the Joker did this to create fear. The answer is that they are not physical scars but emotional ones. Ledger kept a very detailed diary that often contained the film's script. He kept this diary on set and often flipped through it to get into character before scenes. Doing so would allow Ledger to immerse himself in the Joker's character. The diary also contained images of the Joker from the comics, Hyenas, and numerous images of Alex DeLarge from the film A Clockwork Orange. This dedication led Ledger to have strong input into wardrobe and makeup decisions for the character. He was so in love with being able to control what his character wore that he started face painting for the film. The prop crew even let Ledger decide between a variety of rubber knives for his signature weapon. Ledger also managed to direct part of the film under the supervision of Christopher Nolan. Under Nolan's supervision, Ledger managed to create hostage videos to appear to be shot from the Joker's point of view. To push Ledger's physical limits, he often asked Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne/Batman) to attack him during on-screen scenes to make them moreauthentic. Even though Bale wanted to throw punches, Ledger asked him not to and even encouraged him to punch harder during one scene. In another scene where there were tiles on the set, Ledger threw himself so hard that he ended up denting and breaking the tiles on the set. This impressive dedication to the Joker would eventually pay off for Ledger, but would ultimately lead to his untimely death. The amount of time and effort Ledger put into the Joker would end up causing him to battle insomnia and sleeping pill abuse, which would kill him at the age of 28, months before the film hit theaters. Ledger's death caused a stir in the community as it brought fame to his performance. Even though most superhero films are rejected by the Academy, Ledger's performance as the Joker brought attention to him from the Academy. Ledger's performance as the Joker earned him numerous awards such as a Golden Globe, a British BAFTA, a Screen Actors Guild award and a bunch of US and Australian critics' awards. His performance was legendary, making him the second actor to win an Oscar posthumously. Ledger gave the most disturbing and surprising performances of all time. Thanks to his dedication and commitment to doing his best, Heath Ledger was able to deliver one of the best performances of the Joker to ever appear in Hollywood. Before Christopher Nolan decided to make Batman in his own unique style, Batman was considered a joke. The old movies based on Batman treated him as a joke or a lighthearted character and even as a simple character. Nolan changed the game by reinventing the character as a darker, more thoughtful and complex hero. When he released Batman Begins, people praised Nolan and called him a hero for saving the Batman franchise. Christopher wanted to stay as true to the comics as possible. The Dark Knight does a good job of keeping the audience engaged with its intriguing story that has a strong impact on viewers. Nolan never fails to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Almost all superheroes rely heavily on CGI and special video effects, but Nolan decided to stay away from CGI. Nolan put so much time and work into this film that every scene is absolutely essential to the main story. Another aspect of this film that makes it great is the dark and realistic nature of the people involved in the story. He even demonstrates to the audience that even the best people can give in to the temptation of evil. We get our first glimpse of this when Harvey Dent says, "Either you die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." We see the current state of the people of Gotham with corrupt cops, politicians, mafias and criminals plaguing the city. Due to the amount of crime that occurs in Gotham and the Joker constantly forcing Batman to question the rules he has for himself; we see Batman display an uncontrollable amount of anger and brutality. He did a great job of keeping Joker's origin story mysterious by just having him show up and cause chaos. Nolan wanted his Batman to be like this because it reminds audiences how human Bruce Wayne really is. This also shows the audience how Batman is constantly faced with the problem of breaking his one rule, which is to never kill anyone. This rule is the only thing that keeps Batman from crossing the line between good and evil. Another reason why The Dark Knight is one of Christopher Nolan's masterpieces is because it focuses on right versus wrong, good versus evil, and sane versus crazy; other superhero movies focus solely on the attributes of.