by Nomad
What with all the outrageous things going on day after day,
you might not have heard of the controversy regarding the upcoming film called
"Joker."
Starring Joaquin Phoenix and directed by Todd Phillips, the film is many steps removed from the superhero genre that provides its source material.
Forget the capes and the spandex tights. Forget the glitzy special effects and the Marvel Comic cliches. This film is closer to "Taxi Driver” and “The King of Comedy” and "American Psycho." Grim and gritty and full of angst.
The Joker, one of the most iconic and perverse villains of the Batman comics, has been completely "reimagined" as a person who, as Variety critic puts it, "spends every moment trying to twist himself into a normal shape, but he knows the effort is doomed, so he turns it all into a “joke” that only he gets."
Starring Joaquin Phoenix and directed by Todd Phillips, the film is many steps removed from the superhero genre that provides its source material.
Forget the capes and the spandex tights. Forget the glitzy special effects and the Marvel Comic cliches. This film is closer to "Taxi Driver” and “The King of Comedy” and "American Psycho." Grim and gritty and full of angst.
The Joker, one of the most iconic and perverse villains of the Batman comics, has been completely "reimagined" as a person who, as Variety critic puts it, "spends every moment trying to twist himself into a normal shape, but he knows the effort is doomed, so he turns it all into a “joke” that only he gets."
Sneak peek reviewers have walked away both impressed and disturbed. Some more disturbed than impressed. David Ehrlich,
writing for Indiewire, called the film as "a visionary, twisted,
paradigm-shifting tour de force and a bar-lowering mess of moral
incoherence."
Beyond that high-end CriticSpeak, Ehrlich goes on to describe the main character as "a homicidal narcissist who feels entitled to the world’s attention — a man who’d rather kill for a good laugh than allow the world to treat him like its punchline." and, more to the point, "a toxic rallying cry for self-pitying incels."
Read this reviewer's description of Arthur Fleck, the Joker to be,
"Arthur is one of life’s victims, one of life’s “freaks”. He’s beaten-up, mocked, abused. He’s all too familiar with the taste of blood in his mouth. But he’s not just a loner or misunderstood; he can’t engage with the world at all. Everyday existence is simply impossible as the rules and codes that structure a society – even one as broken and busted as Gotham – remain unknowable to him.Clearly, this is- at least, in the beginning- meant to be a sympathetic character study.
He stands outside of the world instead, partly due to a condition which causes uncontrollable laughter (often in the worst situations), his eyes thick with pain and sadness as another laughing fit overcomes him and the world retreats yet further.In other words, every seething, ready-to-explode loser's hero. It reads like a Help Wanted ad for the next domestic terrorist position.
Another film critic believed the film would "stir up trouble." And he was not talking about poor ticket sales. He worried that the plot amounted to incitement and was likely to inspire a mass murder by some social misfit with easy access to assault weapons. He felt that this film “should be locked in a strongbox then dropped in the ocean and never released.”
Typical Hollywood hype, you say?
Not so fast.
The US military confirmed last week that it has warned service members about the potential for a mass shooter at screenings of the Warner Bros. film. The U.S. Army confirmed on Tuesday that the warning was widely distributed after social media posts related to extremists classified as “incels,” were uncovered by intelligence officials at the FBI.
Not so fast.
The US military confirmed last week that it has warned service members about the potential for a mass shooter at screenings of the Warner Bros. film. The U.S. Army confirmed on Tuesday that the warning was widely distributed after social media posts related to extremists classified as “incels,” were uncovered by intelligence officials at the FBI.
In a September 18th email, service members were instructed to remain aware of their surroundings and “identify two escape routes” when entering theaters. In the event of a shooting, they were instructed to “run, hide, fight.”When actor Phoenix was asked in an interview if he was worried that the film might inspire a mass shooter, he reportedly walked out without commenting. And when relatives of mass shooting expressed their own legitimate misgivings about the film. executives at Warners responded:
"It is not the intention of the film, the filmmakers or the studio to hold this character up as a hero."Michael Uslan, the executive producer of “Joker,” defended the film, saying:
“Look at what I consider some of the most important films: What have they done? They’ve held up a mirror to our society, and there are times when people don’t want to see that reflection, they want to run from it.”
But of course, people, traumatized by weekly or daily
massacres. are not running from reflections, but from angry misfits armed with AK-47s. Will this film give such dangerous people a license to kill?
Uslan, obviously a gambling man, added:
“If anything, I believe movies can shake people up and bring issues to attention, whether it’s about guns or the need to treat mental illness or the need for civility and for us to start talking with each other instead of at each other again...You can’t suppress that, you can’t censor that.”
It isn't as though mass shooters need too much encouragement
to gun down victims. And it is as though the NRA and Republican politicians have done much to keep battlefield weapons out of their hands.
But surely filmmakers must bear some responsibility to use caution and prudence when "shaking people up."
But surely filmmakers must bear some responsibility to use caution and prudence when "shaking people up."
The Presidential Joker
Such are the times we are currently living in. I saw a line in one of the reviews which I thought was
pertinent.
It’s also a movie about the dehumanizing effects of a capitalistic system that greases the economic ladder, blurring the line between private wealth and personal worth until life itself loses its absolute value.
Alleged billionaire Trump is precisely the product of this
blurring of the line of cash and character. That's not to say that Donald Trump is the actual cause or even the
main promoter of this idea. That dubious honor falls to the Republican Party which
gave itself over to the worship of money and power decades ago.
This failure of
moral character has become the main feature of today's GOP. What other reason
could the party leaders have for not taking action now, even as their own party
plummets off the cliff in Trump's clown car?
Of course, the theme of Donald Trump as our dangerous clown
president is not a new one. What else are we to think of a man with strange
hair and a painted skin saying ridiculous things that both amuse and horrify
audiences?
Early in the Republican primary season in 2016, leading conservative magazine, The National Review branded Donald Trump the “clown candidate.” Salon labeled him the “clown in charge.” The Federalist, a conservative online magazine, issued a “friendly reminder” that “Donald Trump is a clown.” Conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer called him a “rodeo clown.”
However, nobody's laughing at this misfit clown today. Like the Joker and hate-filled misfits, Trump demands the world takes him seriously and will do what it takes to guarantee it, regardless of the consequences, regardless of the greater costs.
Now let's conclude with where we started. Here's how Travis Langley, a psychology professor, analyzed the Joker character in the film.
“His behaviour does not neatly fit into any condition. The Joker is clearly a psychopath. He has no conscience. He has no empathy for anybody. He’s this agent of chaos and you’re just not sure, does he really know what he’s doing or not?”Need I say more?
