Batman Movie Villains: 7 Perfect Performances & 7 That Sucked

5. Jack Nicholson - The Joker (Batman)

Jack Nicholson's Joker is probably a more pure adaptation than any of the others - and certainly Heath Ledger's - but there's absolutely no way to peel away what belongs to the source and what belongs to Nicholson's performance.

This Joker is like a more theatrical, more amplified extreme version of Nicholson's Jack Torrence - a man spun into the same moral descent but who started from a significantly less wholesome place in the first place. He's not so much a victim of his transformation into the Joker as he blossoms like a butterfly.

Nicholson keeps his Joker just the right side of camp - partly thanks to Burton's delicious commitment to darkness - and he's a true work of art.