7 Secrets Of The Dark Knight's Success
3. A Villain With A Story (It's None Of The Ones He Tells)
Ledger’s performance is a masterpiece, sure, but there’s more to the success of the film’s antagonist than a great casting director. Despite the film’s obvious pro-Batman outlook, the Joker is granted clear and believable motives and proves consistently fascinating as complex characters in his own right, occasionally even convincing in his moral arguments.
One fan theory goes as far as positing that Ledger’s Joker is in fact a veteran of one of America’s many recent and ongoing Middle Eastern wars, and not unlike the unseen antagonist of Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, he’s brought the sort of wanton terror accepted from soldiers overseas home with him. It explains his access to military grade weapons, his amoral nihilism, his anti-authority streak, and his staggering proficiency with off-the-cuff strategy—not to mention his perfect performance of during an honor guard ceremony in the flick.
It may be satisfying to see him defeated, but credit to Nolan where it’s due—the director doesn’t short-change his antagonist, and the moral issues the Joker raises are guaranteed to linger with viewers, particularly with this extra background filled in by fan theorizing.