Dir. Christopher Nolan
The villain's introduction. It's one of those filmic things that is a joy to behold. In the introduction of a villain/antagonist, the director normally chooses to sum up that villain's best capabilities, and more than anything, make it memorable. Hannibal Lecter standing alert in The Silence of the Lambs, Hans Landa and his pipe (spoilers!) in Inglorious Basterds, Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men, and most superhero films in general. Lecter uses his sense of smell, and his wits to outperform Clarice, Landa intimidates with charm and intelligence, Chirgurh, well he kills. There's a dual purpose usually, they are not only introduced to the characters, but to we the audience.
In The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger's Joker gets a few. The initial bank robbery, and the reveal of the insane man under the clown mask. Later in Bruce Wayne's apartment - "Hello ladies and gentle-men, we are tonight's entertainment!". But this scene, the pencil trick scene, the mobster scene, the magic trick scene, whatever you want to call it, this scene is a superb introduction to the Joker's character.
Here's a link to the scene. The role of the pencil is simple, the Joker enters laughing. The Mobsters turn surprised and incredulous. They threaten him. He responds "How about a magic trick?". He slams a pencil intro the table,"Now I'm gonna' make this pencil disappear", the mob goon moves to attack him. In one move The Joker grapples the goon, slams his head into the pencil, killing him - "Tah-da! It's...it's gone."
It's The Joker in an object. There's many others, his knives, his mask earlier in the film, his Joker card. But I think this object is the most important because it's the one used to introduce him. Oh sure, earlier in the film we get the smoke grenade in the bank teller's mouth, but this is personal, the pencil has theatrics, the pencil is a weapon, the pencil is a magic trick, a joke. The Joker's psychopathy is distilled into the deadly magic trick. We all know that magic tricks pretend to be deadly, sawing a man in half, tied up underwater, swords into a cabinet. But The Joker's, his are the real thing. The joke is on you if you don't realise this, and it's a deadly joke - A Killing Joke if you will (ha ha, nice reference). It tells you that the Joker is mean-spirited, at least on the surface. it's actually far more likely that The Joker genuinely thinks that this trick is funny. He's so insane that he needs the death to make it funny.
It's difficult for me not to refer to other Joker portrayals as they're obviously not part of the film. Every viewer's millage with The Joker will vary. But all the pencil makes me think of is The Joker's 'BANG' gun. It's a theatrical joke at first, then it fires the flag, harpoon like, killing you. The joke that kills you personified. In The Dark Knight, it's the pencil.
It's a perfect introduction to the Mobsters, as it's intimidating, it's a perfect introduction to us for all the reasons I've said above - it's The Joker's character distilled to an object. There's no clever film-making at work here in all honesty, just shot-reverse-shot, the element of surprise, and some damn fine acting. It's basic, it's old-school, it's...un-theatrical? Now isn't that interesting? Could this be Nolan failing to take advantage of his medium to really convey The Joker's character? Or is it more that Heath Ledger's Joker is so much more grounded than most other portrayals? His theatrics would be like this in the real-world, no camera-tricks, no fancy editing, just a pencil in someone's skull.
Then again, there is a slight degree of artificiality. The pencil clearly wouldn't be able to stand upright, or even penetrate the desk. The pencil would have to be solid metal for this to work...oh wait, it's The Joker isn't it? Hell, maybe it is metal! In all honesty I don't think we need to think about it. There's clearly an inconsistency in that Chang can even see the Joker and the mob, there's no webcam, it's an old TV, we see the goons carry it in. Was Nolan lazy? The more important question, did you even notice that Chang shouldn't be able to see events on your first viewing? You're a more pedantic person than me then, and frankly, you're clearly not enjoying Ledger enough as he is magnetic in this scene.
So there we are, The Joker's pencil. Theatrics, psychopathy, and magic, the magic of movies.
P.S And in an alternate universe:
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