The Joker Pencil Trick

Gory, but Will it Qualify Dark Knight for Inclusion in the Most Violent Movie List?

Dark Knight aficionados are talking about the various aspects of the movie, including Heath Ledger's realistic portrayal of an arch villain. Part of the performance is the Joker pencil trick. If you have not seen the movie and do not want to spoil the experience for yourself, stop reading now.

The Dark Knight Joker Pencil Trick

The rest of you are curious and I don't blame you. I heard the buzz myself and was just as curious. When it comes to Hollywood blood, guts, and gore, the Dark Knight pencil trick ranks pretty high up -- if you ask me; setting up the trick, the Joker tells a room filled with threatening ne'er do wells that he is about to show them a magic trick during which he will make a pencil disappear.

He places the pencil standing up onto a table and as one of the goons approaches him he takes the man's head and slams is onto the pencil. The latter enters the body via the eye and completely disappears, presumably into the goon's head. This concludes the Joker pencil trick and serves to get the entire room of hoodlums to take note; for us movie goers it was one of those moments in the movie when you remember why you spent $12 on soda, candy and popcorn and another $18 on admission and feel you got your money's worth.

Will the Joker Pencil Trick elevate Dark Knight into the Hall of Gore?

Associated Content's own Erik Dell compiled a list of the most violent movies ever made and counted among them Braveheart - a sentiment with which Desson Howe from the Washington Post heartily agrees. Yet when compared to the noire gore of the Dark Knight, somehow not even Mel Gibson's blood soaked epic can stand up to the Batman and his Joker.

The gore that is evidenced in just the pencil scene is so psychopathic that it puts the movie into a league of its own. You might make a stretch to compare the buildup of the scene as a short version of the buildup in the Godfather II movie just before Vito shoots the Don. Moreover, you could compare the psychotic enjoyment of the Joker pencil trick to the Alex and his gang in the Clockwork Orange when senseless violence was the sport of the day.