WatchmenComicMovie.com Forum

I was going to submit this in a pre-existing thread, but I felt that a discussion that could potentially become as heated and long as this was deserving of its own thread. Personally, JEH's portrayal of Rorschach made the film for me. He was stunning. While Ledger did a commendable job, nothing compares with the acting we see from JEH in Rorschach's death scene.

Who deserves an Oscar more?

JEH. Hands down.

Ledger did a beautiful job to the role he was in, but it is simply Will Ferrel in comparison to JEH's Rorschach. I could not believe my eyes when I was watching the movie.

I cried manly tears when he died. His whole...everything. The delivery, the face movements, everything added up, and I bawled like a baby.

JEH deserves thousands of Oscars.

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Hurm...

Excellent casting on the team's part. When he first says "Do it", it's so pained and yet so determined. His second "Do it" was really forceful and so heartbreaking.

JEH.

Overall, I think it takes more chops to play Rorschach than The Joker - no matter how good Ledger's Joker was.

You could tell Ledger borrowed from Nicholson, or at least had his take as a frame of reference to build his performance on.

JEH had diddily.

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Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music - George Carlin

JEH. He was robbed back in '07, but I doubt he will be for his role in Watchmen. The man was amazing throughout this movie. Perhaps it was my eyes playing tricks, but when he spoke of the Grice flashback, it looked as though tears were welling in his eyes when speaking to Long.

Give the man the damn Oscar already!

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JEH. Hands down.

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Ledger for sure.

Not saying JEH was bad, but Ledger was better.

My opinion may be tainted because I thought the Watchmen film was pretty poor.

Ledger.

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"And all the politicians and whores will look up and shout "Save Us!" and I'll look down and whisper "No". "

Ledger.

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吾輩は猫である。名前はまだ無い。

I don't necessarily think that Ledger was bad, but there was little new about his Joker. Nicholson did a better job, from my perspective. JEH was able to take a masked character with only a few "human face" moments and make something wonderful out of it.

I can see your point.

Unfortunatly there was just something about much of JEH's performance that didn't work for me.

The only scene where I thought he excelled was the "DO IT!" scene. Completely nailed it.

I was hoping this was a thread about a Battle Royale, no-holds-barred, fight to the death in a dark alley between JEH's Rorschach and Ledger's Joker.

It's be pretty damn close.
Unlike the onscreen one. Ledger did an awesome job with his reading of the Joker and stole the film. Not neccesarily a hard thing to do in a monochrome, 2 dimensional movie, beautifully carved from wood. But JEH's nuanced, physical, wired mask-theatre was the work of an older, more lived-in actor of experience who is TOTALLY in control of his tool (sorry, that's what actors call it).

JEH by two lengths.

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...evidently chicken-town.

I can see what you mean, too. Ledger did a commendable job, but you could always see his face. His eyes, mouth, and expressions were there. JEH only had that luxury for a few minutes throughout the film. If you observe his body movements throughout the movie, they truly are incredible. The "YOU'RE STUCK IN HERE WITH ME!" and "Do it!" moments were absolute stand-outs. Breathtaking, really.

I know it's cool to bash The Dark Knight, but I have to say that this is a bit much.

It was a terrific film.

JEH.

Great performance all around. There was never a time when he wasn't Rorschach.

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The Dark Knight, Iron Man and Watchmen are the only true "comic" films out there, in my opinion. The Spiderman films were decent, but the third was highly disappointing, and Ghost Rider/Catwoman/Daredevil were all disgraces.

I need to see the film a 2nd time to really have an opinion, but I was amazed by Rorschach in the film. It literally made me sad that he died in the end. Even a day later, I had this gloomy feeling from the movie when I thought about it. I didn't have such a lasting impression from the GN. The GN Rorschach seemed like he needed to die; his character demanded it. But with JEH, I didn't want him to. There was a deep level of pity in his Rorschach that he really brought out.

My favorite masked Rorschach acting part is definitely:

DAN: "Well what do you suggest we do about it?"
RORSCHACH: (shrugs) Retribution.

I love the way his body language basically says "You idiot, what else would there be to do about it?" but not in a condescending way.

Ledger slightly above JEH. The problem is that we didn't get to see enough of JEH to make a fair comparison. Final verdict will be after the DC is released.

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Mexicano Al Grito De Guerra

It's hard to say which one is better than the other. It is even more difficult because I am a Batman fan from way back and love Watchmen. Both performances were amazing, but I am not sure it is fair to either actor to compare the two. To preface what I am about to say, I will admit that I think Watchmen was a better movie than The Dark Knight. This is not because I am a bigger Watchmen fan, but because on repeat viewings The Dark Knight has plot holes that are too large to ignore and I was extremely dissatisfied with the ending; not that Batman had to run, but that it was a stupid solution to the problem of Harvey Dent/Two-Face...in Watchmen, however, the ending made sense and worked; I also feel as a whole the performances in Watchmen were stronger than the performances in The Dark Knight.

So anyway, on to my comparison:

The Dark Knight, while drawing inspirations from past Batman comics/cartoons was largely original and gave Ledger a lot of room to develop the character and do his own thing with it. He was not restricted to a very limited history or source material. Not only that, but he also had a number of past performances to draw from and expand upon, most notably Nicholson in 'Batman' and Hamil in 'The Animated Series,' but excellent performances in their own right/medium. Furthermore, Ledger had the opportunity the rely on his entire body and face in his portrayal, as well as the excellent makeup job.

Jackie Earle Haley, on the other hand, had a very limited source material and could not deviate from what was within the Graphic Novel. Nearly all of his lines, actions, etc. were restricted to panels in a Comic Book. So not only was he restricted in that sense, but he had to convey emotion and get the audience to connect with his character through a mask that remained on for most of the film.

Both actors truly inhabited and became the character they were portraying. Both did a great job and gave powerful performances, but I think overall Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach/Walter Kovacs was the better performance. The emotion he put into the role and conveyed, both with and without the mask, was incredible. The scene where he killed Grice was such a nuanced and powerfully emotional scene that I got chills. Even with the mask, you could sense that his face was truly twisted in pain and he was conflicted with what he was doing. The shaking, the posture, the stance...and each strike was deftly executed with the utmost restraint and pain. And the scenes without his mask, most notably when he was having the mask ripped off by the police and his death, were very important scenes and I was worried they would not translate well to the screen; boy was I wrong. Haley nailed the performance, and I feel, gave the far superior performance of the two.

That being said, I do not think he will win an Oscar for this performance.

Jackie Earle Haley, hands down.

I still really love Ledger's Joker, though.