20 Most Intense Movie Performances Of All Time

10. The Joker (Heath Ledger) - The Dark Knight

With The Dark Knight, despite his casting being sneered at widely, Heath Ledger changed perceptions of what actors could do in superhero movies. Not least because he won an Oscar, though even that seems scant reward for what he achieved as the new generation's Joker.

In contrast to Jack Nicholson's camp-edged Joker, Ledger crafted a performance closer to Nicholson's turn in The Shining: captivating, animated and terrifying in equal measure.

He might not have been a physical match for Batman (though taking a beating with a smile is one way to render him impotent), but he was capable of something far more dangerous: he could destroy the Bat's mind. He is an orchestra of affectations and tics, demented and playful and knowing the cost of the performance on Ledger makes him even more difficult to watch in retrospect.