IMHO: Joker

I watched the Joker movie. It was pretty good overall… well, I liked it at least. The movie is only tenuously related to the Batman universe, and frankly I think this works in its favor. If you were looking for a feel good story about a hero, or an anti hero in the flavor of Deadpool, than you will probably be disappointed. But I find character driven stories that aren’t focused on vapid drama to create conflict very compelling. That’s a personal preference, so take it as you will.

But is Joker political, as some people have asserted? Yes… and no. Kinda, a little bit. Let me explain. But be warned that we will be drifting into spoiler territory, so if you just want a straight answer; no, it isn’t really political.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Joker, or Arthur Fleck as his real name is in the movie, is a clown for hire living in poverty. He faces continuous setbacks and troubles, most of which he did very little to deserve. At least in the beginning of the movie, he tries to make the best of things, though he very clearly struggles to cope with his life.

First, after chasing down some hooligans who stole his sign while he was on the job, he gets jumped and beaten by them. Worse, his boss reprimands him for stealing a sign that he had actually tried to get back from those who stole it, which was what led to him receiving the beating. There are a lot more examples of these types of events throughout the movie, some of which were partially or entirely caused by his own actions, but the details aren’t really important for this review.

The aspect I found most interesting of the character was his motivation. Early and often, we are reminded of what kind of person Arthur is. He has a rather strange sense of humor, a nervous tick where he laughs uncontrollably at inappropriate times, and a plethora of psychological issues. But throughout the movie, he isn’t upset about finances or the success of others. Repeatedly, he says he just wants a bit of happiness. Just some friends, some meaningful relationships… just some positive interactions with another human. It’s this lack of positive reinforcement that leads him to eventually turn to the mob for affirmation.

But while some would see this as an indictment on the society that creates the Joker, and it certainly is in part, there is another element to this. The Joker in this movie is not some irrational actor, nor is he striking back arbitrarily at a society that mistreated him. He kills people who did something to him personally, and when he is in a situation where he would benefit from killing someone who had not done anything to him, he lets them go. It was an interesting scene, as I really expected him to kill the man. He had just witnessed Arthur murder someone else, so letting him go would all but guarantee the police would catch up with him. You could argue this was solely due to him being crazy and not considering repercussions, but I don’t see it that way.

I felt the same kind of energy in Joker as I felt with Breaking Bad and Death Note, two other stories about the creation of a villain. In both, there is always at least one point where the main character could leave the path of evil and return to normality, avoiding the worst of the consequences for their actions. They always refuse, and that is not some accident. It is a conscious choice. The Joker’s first kills were not premeditated, and he could have absolutely escaped any real repercussions due to his clear mental instability and the fact he was, at least initially, only defending himself. But he didn’t do that. Even more notable, he was invited onto a talk show to talk about a stand up performance he did. He had a clear organic audience that found him funny, whether it was from his intended jokes or not, and he could have built his career from there. But even before he went on stage, he was more concerned with how the talk show host had poked fun at him. He took it personally, and thus took the drastic measure of cold blooded murder on live television.

The Joker in this movie was a man consumed by revenge. He was a tragic figure who could have handled things differently and gotten everything he wanted. A career as a stand up comedian and at least some number of people who would find him funny and attend his shows. Maybe he could have found some friends and built an adequate social support network from his new audience. But due to him losing faith in humanity, he decided in the end to just cause as much destruction as possible instead.

So, here is the political side of this movie. Yes, it is very much a criticism of woke culture, in that Arthur becomes the Joker because people are telling him he is worthless due to circumstances he can’t control. But there are no politically incorrect jokes beyond some very dark humor that he tells, and they are only told publicly once he has already committed to the path of revenge. So it’s less focused on such things as cancel culture and more focused on the more general lack of empathy people have when engaging in things like cancel culture.

If Arthur had received some level of social support, just one friend who he could talk to and get help from, the movie likely would never have happened. This isn’t excusing Arthur’s actions, but rather showing how the attitudes of those in a position to help serve to increase the severity of the issues to the point where they can no longer be ignored. Joker may have been the ignition point, but his actions alone are not responsible for the civil unrest. We get just a glimpse into the city of Gotham which is brimming with jaded, dishonest, cynical, cruel, self centered people. There is a breakdown that can’t be resolved by a single person anymore than it was caused by a single person. It is the product of a million individuals making decisions to ignore very real problems and not reach out to their neighbors.

This is the best way to do any kind of politics in fiction. The ideas are there, but they are a part of the story. They are not inserted to preach to an audience, they are instrumental to explaining how the characters think, what motivates them, and why events are unfolding the way they are. You can entirely disagree with the politics, and still enjoy the story. That is exactly what you want, because you don’t alienate your audience. You might even open people’s minds a bit more by introducing them to ideas they would shut themselves off from if presented in a different way.

SPOILERS END HERE

So, the long and short of it… was Joker a good movie? I think it was. It was no masterpiece, but it also wasn’t a complete garbage cash grab. The marketability of the character and the fact that the movies wasn’t terrible seems to be the reasons it is doing very well, though I can’t really say if the involvement of politics in marketing helped or hurt it overall. I lean more towards it helping, since people are generally fed up on cancel culture trying to ruin everything, but that could be my bias creeping in. If you liked Breaking Bad and Death Note, I think you would like the Joker movie.

It's a tragic story of a man becoming a villain because he could not cope with his life. It's dark by design, and the fact it is a prequel means the overall plot is predictable. Parts of it are kind of slow. I liked it despite these flaws.

But that’s just my honest opinion.