18. A Brilliant Performanceand a Technical Glitch
The Jokers entrance in The Dark Knight is one of the most memorable scenes in the film, culminating with that huge IMAX close-up of him as he pulls off his mask and tells William Fichtners terrified bank manager that whatever doesnt kill you simply makes you
stranger. Its a brilliant piece of performance on Ledgers partand it almost wasn't in the movie, due to a rare technical stumble on the part of The Dark Knights (brilliant) crew. Perhaps because it was their first experience working with IMAX cameras (the bank heist sequence was the first thing shot), Ledgers close-up is ever so slightly out of focus. Its something no ordinary audience member would ever notice, but was niggling enough that Nolan wanted to reshoot it much to the chagrin of Ledger, who was
convinced, no matter
how many times Nolan reassured him, that there was something wrong with his performance. As it turned out, Ledger never was able to recreate the magic of his performance on the day; in the final film, its the out of focus take thats used.