There’s been a lot of talk about the new Batman movie, how it’s "visionary," "spellbinding," and "by far, the greatest thing civilization has created."

Likewise, there’s also been some kind word’s associated with Heath Ledger's performance as Caesar Romero (the Joker) in The Dark Knight; words like "transcendent," "Oscar-worthy," "Pant-filling," and "a performance way-better than the episode of Full House where DJ has an eating disorder." 

Yes, the Joker may be the world’s greatest trickster villain, but until now, he’s never been well-acted, or interesting.

Director of The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan, has rectified this. Yet, he is a modest man, and isn’t inclined to brag in interviews.

Luckily, thanks to my "thought brackets," (patent pending), we can now read what he is really thinking during interviews, which will help us understand his ingenious (and braggy) subconscious, which I believe is powered by his widow’s peek.

"The Joker is the ultimate screen arch-villain [eat it, Green Goblin!]," Nolan said and thought, during a Dark Knight Press-junket. "But we wanted to create a villain who is still coming from a place of reality [while creating a brilliant hairdo, so stringy and audibly crunchy, it could attract nesting birds].

"So in keeping with the tone we established in Batman Begins [like a fantastical car driving on rooftops], we determined he is a pretty serious guy, despite being called The Joker [and having makeup that looks like he slept with Bozo; that is what brought kids into theaters].

"So we began with the notion of The Joker as the most extreme form of anarchist [he’d make Mikhail Bakunin crap in his pants], a purposeless criminal who can’t be understood [which enabled the Joker compelling and recognizable; before me, Joker would often be confused as Mr. Freeze].

"As the screenplay developed," Nolan said, "we started to explore the effect one guy could have on an entire population [– the Bizzaro vision of It’s A Wonderful Life] – the ways in which he could take their rules for living, their ethics, their beliefs [their running in a mob skills], and turn them on themselves [– I wish other movies could have what we have]. You could say we’ve seen echoes of that in our own world [for example, the Smiling Fish Pandemic], which has led me to believe that anarchy and chaos are among the most frightening things society faces, [and cave trolls; those things are scary]."

Clearly, the Joker has captured audiences imagination, for The Dark Knight now stands as No. 2 on the all-time domestic ranking, passing the original Star Wars. It’s impressive, until you realize that in ‘77 you could pay for a movie ticket with bottle deposit slips.

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