Do We Really Need Another Joker?

Are there not enough movies about white men and violence? Do we really need another Joker? I don’t know.

Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker sheds a whole new light on how the character is portrayed and the dystopia of Gotham. This portrayal seems to mimic modern issues in the USA and has even been critiqued for playing off of some of the social and political turmoil of the past decade.

In online communities, people have a lot to say about the Joker. It seems he has become a symbol of a revolution in the movie and in real life. It honestly is hard to not sympathize with Phoenix’s portrayal which speaks to larger social issues, especially the standard that we hold white men to. The movie makes very clear that Jack has a very odd and unhealthy home life, struggles at work, seems to be an outcast in general day-to-day life, and battles with intense mental health issues.

There are moments when you see him grabbing and touching his body which could be seen as a grounding technique to make sure he was not disassociating or hallucinating. This seems to speak to the severity of his mental health struggles; we are even invited into his government-run “therapy sessions”, which exposed just how little support actually existed for him. He sees the pain wealth has caused people, in particular, the roller coaster Thomas Wayne put his mother through. We see him succeed at comedy and in a relationship, or so it appears until we find out it was not real and he actually was not very successful. He was even mocked by his favorite late-night host for his stand-up routine. There is a lot more back story and exploration of who Jack/ the Joker is as well.

This movie makes fantastic points on mental health, wealth distribution, and systemic abuse so it makes sense that people are using the Joker as an image for change, or does it? One of the most critical moments in the movie is when Jack now the Joker is directly asked about starting a movement to which he replies that it wasn’t his intention and he doesn’t care. After the Joker is arrested we see that Gotham is in the middle of an almost anarchist revolution against the corruption and wealth of the city, with the Joker acting as the poster-child.

After the movie we got into a critical discussion about how we should perceive the Joker, is Batman actually the bad guy? Do bad and good even exist? Then we remembered Jack did not want this revolution, he wanted to seek revenge for his personal vendettas and thrives on chaos. But we saw critics, moviegoers, fans, etc. take the narrative of mental health, revolution, and justice as the main outlook of the movie, which is important and is relevant. This is also how many white men are treated in the media. What many people are not commenting on is the fact that the almost romanticization of the Joker by people in real life, mimics some of the forgiveness that is given to white men committing acts of violence all over the country. The character explicitly notes that he does not care about the “movement” and had no interest in it, but it still being credited with revolutionary prowess.

Overall this is a beautifully shot and hauntingly scored movie, it is a whole new type of hero/villain story and really makes us think about what good and bad mean. It also leads to important questions about responsibility and leadership when someone (imaginary or not) becomes the image of “change” despite their resistance and even rejection of the movement. And finally, it introduces an important topic to explore: who is worthy of sympathy and is granted a pass or even excuse for violence; and who’s violence or anger is inherently bad and a fault of their identities.

Picture from the motion picture shared on https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/movies/joker-movie-reviews.html