During October I like to focus on writing more macabre themed stories and poems, to celebrate my favorite holiday, so I was thinking to wait and write about this later. However I realized that this film really does fit within the October themed macabre feeling I like to go for.
To be honest I wasn’t really interested in going to this film, I will admit that I am getting a bit burned out when it comes to superhero films. That and I am more of a DC guy than a Marvel guy, granted as I have gotten older I have become a lot more of a Dark Horse guy, but so far the movies that have stolen the spotlight are Marvel and DC. Actually looking back on my life it is kind of interesting, when I was young I was really into Marvel, then when I was young adult (highschool and college roughly) I was into DC, and then now (late college and on) I am more interested in Dark Horse. It really did go from more action themed stories to deeper more thought provoking stories. Strange how that represents growing up.
The Joker movie, is very much an adult story, does it do it well, sort of. It does deal with mental illness and class structures, but they are a bit biased. Now I personally don’t see that as a bad thing, media has a hard time depicting mental illness, but sometimes they get close to it. I actually could see some of my own struggle when I was younger portrayed up on the screen. Now as to the struggle between the have and the have nots, that was a bit on the nose, but from my perspective not to far off the mark. I may be biased as well, or I could say that I have suffered from the greediness of those with power, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. Now having said that I want to clarify, I may make declarative statements, but like all declarative statements they are wrong. Perspective, especially an individuals, is flawed. I personally think the truth, the real truth, is somewhere in the middle. I am a Dionysus/Hegel/Spinoza/Budha inspired philosopher, which means that my perception will be influenced by those spheres. I am also a poor farm kid, though that to is misleading, my family was lower middle class, until the continuation of Reganomics/trickledown under W. Bush.
(Side-note this is why Republicans are bad at Economics, they claim to want small government, yet increase government spending and size, yet make so many loopholes for the rich, pretending that they are lowering taxes. And yes it does lower taxes, but if you decrease cash flow, and then increase cash spending, where does the money come from? It’s bad economics, and it’s why we are floundering. It annoys me that people think that Republicans are so economic savvy, when almost every Red controlled state is so economically crippled. And it’s because they increase government spending on what they want, while decreasing cash collecting. The government cannot operate without money, and they keep spending like they have a huge cash pile hidden away somewhere. Side-not rant done.)
But because of this, I don’t really feel to bad when those that have, especially spoiled white people, are portrayed as ass-hats. History is littered with them, and just look at whose in the White House, the biggest spoiled baby that has ever been produced. He’s basically the spoiled white Americans having a tantrum. Sorry I’ll stop, mainly because insults really don’t help, but they are in the spirit of this film. Thomas Wayne in this, could actually be compared to Trump.
And I am going to be a little bit more detailed below this, so spoilers for those who’ve not seen the film. My thoughts could be summed up like this, it was an okay movie, one of the better ones that has come out of DC in a while (My favorite still being Wonder Woman). I am glad I saw it, but I wish ‘Joker’ had been in it more. Joaquin Phoenix did a fantastic job, and I would love to see him as the Joker in another film.
Now back to a more in-depth look at the film.
The film dances around this idea, and it never really confirms it one way or the other, that the Joker is the bastard-child of Thomas Wayne. Now those that have seen the film may disagree, because it leans very heavily toward the fact that Arthur/Joker was adopted, and abused by his mother. However after all of this is reviled and the Joker has killed his mother, there is a moment where he is sitting looking at a picture of his younger mother, and on the back is a love note from Thomas Wayne. Now it could be a hallucination, the Joker has had a couple of them as the medication wears off, but I cannot say with certainty because the film doesn’t.
Thomas Wayne in this really is just an asshole too, it’s an interesting take on him. It could be argued that it’s from Arthur/Joker’s perspective, which it is, but I find it refreshing. Like in the films at least, Thomas Wayne is portrayed as the ‘saint’ rich person striving to save the city. This film makes you question that, especially since when the cameras aren’t on him he’s just a rude jerk, who doesn’t care at all about what happens to those who work for him, which earlier in the film he declared all Wayne employees are ‘family’. So his ‘savior’ personality is just a PR stunt. Honestly it makes you question Batman, more so in the films, because he’s just a rich person perpetuating the criminal system, and not trying to solve the root of why people turn to crime. I say the films, because the Batman cartoon from the 90’s has moments where Bruce Wayne tries to provide job and stability to criminals through the Wayne corporation. In the cartoon Bruce is trying to prevent and stop crime, both as Batman and Bruce Wayne. The movies, not so much, there he is just trying to punish those that turn to a life of crime.
But going back to Thomas, and how it is hinted at that he is the father of Arthur/Joker, I think the likely-hood of him being that is what the filmmakers were going for. Which would mean that Thomas had an affair, hid it so his reputation wouldn’t be ruined, then turned his back on Arthur/Joker’s mother. Who was broke, without a job, and started to date a man who abused her and her child. And I think this is the case, due to the picture I mentioned above, I think it is very much implying that yes the Joker is a Wayne, who was abandoned to his fate by a father who cared more about his reputation than doing the right thing.
Which, very big spoiler here, so if you haven’t seen it, please see it first, is the reason at the end during the riot the man in the clown mask tells Thomas “You get what you deserve.” Despite being another ‘flashback’ to the Wayne’s murders, I think it’s the film/filmmakers confirming that Thomas was the Jokers’ father, and through his actions this was the consequences.
There is a scene I thought was really good, and this was in the middle of the film where Arthur slips past the protesters outside a theater. Which highlighted how the elite of the city didn’t care, they were inside watching a Charlie Chaplin film, paying no attention to the mob outside. The anger of the mob is growing, and the elite oblivious to it. But during it Arthur/Joker confronts Thomas, who pretty much dismisses everything, insults Arthur’s mother, then when Arthur starts to have a laughing fit (sorry for not commenting on this, Arthur has uncontrollable laughter, which is important) Thomas just punches him. And to be fair to Thomas, the Joker did show up at his house and interacted with Bruce and I think Alfred, so it wasn’t unwarranted. But it does highlight Thomas’ uncaring attitude when it came to the Arthur/Joker.
This has nothing to do with the above, except it was another scene that I loved, and it’s because it tickled my macabre sense of humor, but I think I will end my post with it, almost like the punch-line to a dark joke.
I loved when the Joker killed the fat clown character. Because of all the conflicting elements coming together into this one scene. The Joker is getting ready, but all he has on is his white face paint. Two of the clowns he worked with come over to help him after his mother’s death. The Joker though tells them he is celebrating, and eventually gets between them and the door, locks it, then stabs a pair of scissors into the fat clown character’s neck. Right before his brutally kills him by slamming him against the wall over and over. Now I don’t know the politically correct way to say this, because I have heard each word be described as offensive (which this is an aside, and this is best left for another time, but that is the problem with PC language, George Carlin covers it better however so), the other clown character is a dwarf (I am going to go with that word, though I am not sure if that is correct), and basically freaks out while this is happening. However at the end the Joker lets him go, after words are exchanged. But the door is locked, and the other clown character can’t reach it. The Joker apologizes while laughing, gets up and lets him out, though for a moment it’s implied that he might not, but then he thanks the character for being nice to him. Kisses him on the head, and lets him leave.
There are so many emotional whiplashes in the scene, that the only response to the absurdity is to laugh. And I wasn’t the only one in the theater laughing. Like I joked above, this actually is a dark joke, and it really works. It is also what I would call the birth of the Joker. In this scene we are seeing the end of the Arthur character and the start of the Joker. And honestly, thinking back to this moment, this one scene made the movie for me. Even though I wish it had been earlier in the film, this scene was really worth it.
Matthew William Lindquist 