De Niro in Raging Bull or Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight, which was the better acting performance?

Robert De Niro's performance in Raging Bull is not only his best performance but one of the greatest of all time. Playing a real person is difficult enough, but playing someone like the violent and unpredictable Jake LaMotta, whose life outside the ring sometimes played out like a fight waiting to happen, takes real skill. This performance is so much more scarier than Heath Ledger's Joker. Why? Because you simply never know what is going on in De Niro's mind. He is, at times, completely shut down, then slowly he begins to start to boil, before his rage begins to take over. Now, you have an uncontrollable animal who cannot be stopped. See the video below.

Ledger's performance was over-the-top in every way. It's like they just let him go and told him do whatever you want. I'm in the minority that feel his performance was too much of a distraction. I would have preferred a more cerebral, controlled Joker. I know most believe over acting takes more skill than calm and calculating, but I don't. Heath Ledger deserved an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain, not Dark Knight. He was brilliant in Brokeback Mountain. I can't stress enough that when someone appears on-screen and he seems more preoccupied in himself, it takes away from his performance. Everyone loved his performance, I didn't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOXp0ABEFC4...Show more

It's still not clear if Ledger's role was a performance, or just madness embraced.

So for performance, has to be De Niro, since he came out of it....Show more