Joker movie: synopsis, analysis and history of the character

The movie Joker (Joker) by Todd Phillips shows how Arthur Fleck (played by Joaquin Phoenix) becomes the Joker, the Gotham City villain and Batman's arch enemy. The film has sparked all kinds of controversies: is it a justification for violence? Do we see in Joker one more version of the romantic argument according to which man is born good and society corrupts him? Does Phillips challenge the character's tradition?

Synopsis

Arthur Fleck is a clown with a strange mental illness. Responsible for the care of his sick mother, he dreams of his own show of stand up comedy. The situation is not favorable. Both his mental condition and his profession make him a frequent target of aggression in Gotham City, a city plunged into deep social tension.

Fleck is attacked in the subway by three drunken young men, but this time, he decides to be the perpetrator. The triple murder, reported in the media, generates the sympathy of the citizens. Watching chaos precipitate, politician Thomas Wayne, revered by Fleck's mother, announces his candidacy for mayor. But now that the underrated and mentally ill Arthur Fleck has gained popularity, his life and that of Gotham City take a radical turn.

Analysis

On Fleck all the elements that call to our compassion as spectators ooze: poverty, illness (psychiatric), dysfunctional family and a noble but precarious job.

Arthur Fleck is presented as the victim of a merciless, indolent, cruel and violent society. Gotham City is absolutely hostile, it is a sick society. Neither children nor adults are saved. Corruption has penetrated the system and thus, apparently, has built the Joker. But isn't this conclusion too easy? Could we do another reading?

Mass society and the media

Society is a collective character that weaves the warp where the Joker can stand. Gotham City represents a dystopian society in which irrationality and resentment are have overflowed, a product of political corruption that has increased the gap between rich and poor. In this way, the film's script introduces the political polarization between right and left.

The city has the characteristics of a mass society: anonymity, isolation, loneliness, indolence, dehumanization. The place of the popular has been replaced by that of media popularity and, as the Joker puts it, the media claim the authority to determine what is good and what is not.

The mass media play a decisive role: they are punitive. TV is the place where the operations of collective thought are oriented. It is the only channel for be someone in a society of anonymous. When the news broadcasts Fleck's triple homicide and wondered about a possible political reading, it become a symbol, much in spite of Wayne's efforts, that he sins in approaching the problem from a elitist.

In some way, it is the media that builds the Joker and precipitates the chaos, otherwise, Fleck's crime would be yet another crime in the already violent Gotham City. But the media exploitation of the information resignifies the crime and returns to Fleck his social "existence", encouraging his new "number".

The Joker's psychiatric illness and his trade

In Todd Phillips' version, Arthur Fleck suffers from a psychiatric illness known as pseudobulbar syndrome or emotional lability, caused by brain injuries. The disease induces involuntary states of laughter or crying, as well as dysarthria, dysphagia, and dysphonia.

However, as the film evolves, we note that Arthur Fleck is involved in a fantasy world induced by his imagination, whose fables have a high narcissistic tenor. It is not clear to the viewer whether these fantasies are the result of daydreams or hallucinations. Therefore, was the Joker really the victim of those injustices?

To this is added the office of Fleck who assumes the stage name of Joker. Joker means clown, clown, and is associated with jokes, tricks, tricks and, also, the worst nightmares. If something Phillips has achieved is to give prominence to this vocational choice of the character at a level never seen before.

Fleck sees his need for attention satisfied when the media covers the triple homicide and when he is invited on Franklin's show, despite the humiliation to which he subjects him, so that he assumes that negative attention to create the new character that will take the place of his person: the Joker

By denying his human face, Fleck has become a sadist who wants to see Rome burn and be applauded for it. This empireless Nero (how ironic that Nero was also insane, actor and tyrant!) Is the precipitation of social chaos, the kingdom of madness, the cry of anarchy. But if we look closely, this anarchic Joker is not truly political, because he was actually born from the marriage between anti-politics and the media, alliance generating monsters disturbing.

Fleck does not seek redemption or vindication of a cause, he does not want to save anyone nor does he act on behalf of a collective. He acts on his own behalf. He is the protagonist of the dance of death. He is not a sociopath, but a psychopath.

The movie Joker and dialogue with the comic book tradition

The Joker's past within the fictional Batman universe is deliberately uncertain. The Joker always lies about his story. This is clearly seen in the movie The knight of the night, directed by Christopher Nolan, where the Joker is played by Heath ledger.

Todd Phillips knows this context well. Would he risk turning the Joker into the mere determination of a cause? Would you reduce it to a social stereotype? Wouldn't this victimization take away villainy, based on psychological play? Is the Joker just a wounded soul seeking justice?

It seems that we are facing a omniscient narrator that sanctions the actions. But who is the narrator? Is it truly omniscient? The narrator does not know more than the character, but knows as much as he does; it makes us partners in what happens to Fleck and what he imagines, without being able to clearly distinguish one from the other.

If we agree that the film establishes a game between reality and fiction, a psychological game, we can conjecture that Phillips does not break with what we know about the Joker. If the development of the facts is uncertain, since we are before the double condition of insane and actor, then the origin of the Joker remains unknown, which underwrites the literary tradition of the character. The genius of the film would be, in this case, in having made us believe that we were witnessing a true explanation.

An irreverent movie?

I have read some articles that qualify this film as irreverent. In this regard, I ask myself some questions. The first would be: what makes it irreverent? Those who uphold this thesis see the irreverence in the way in which, for the first time, the Joker is placed in a socio-historical context that explains the origin of their evil, as if madness had no other cause than abuse.

Assuming this discourse, everything would indicate that evil is socially constructed. This romantic, Roussonian vision, according to which man is born good and society corrupts him, is it truly irreverent? Wouldn't this make the film a moralizing pamphlet?

It seems to me that if there was something irreverent it would be in the humorous irony of the Joker's crimes. The question of whether society has induced the Joker's madness does not seem to me as significant as the question of how a poor political reading of reality opens the doors to chaos.

It cannot be said that the film legitimizes violence or promotes it, but by not condemning it and by not saving any character from moral suspicion, it legitimizes the culture of anti-politics.

Distribution

• Joaquin Phoenix: Arthur Fleck / Joker or Joker
• Robert De Niro: Murray Franklin
• Zazie Beetz: Sophie Dumond
• Bill Camp: Cop Garrity
• Frances Conroy: Penny Fleck, mother of Arthur.
• Brett Cullen: Thomas Wayne
• Glenn Fleshler: "Randall"
• Dante Pereira-Olson: Bruce Wayne
• Douglas Hodge: Alfred Pennyworth
• Marc Maron: Gene Ufland
• Shea Whigham: Police Burke
• Josh Pais: Hoyt Vaughn
• Leigh Gill: Gary
• Bryan Callen: a dancer

Todd Phillips

Todd Phillips (New York, 1970) is an American actor, director, screenwriter and producer with a long career. He has mainly directed comedy films such as the trilogy The Hangover, War dogs, Starsky & hutch, Due Date Y Road trip. As a producer he participated in the film A Star Is Born starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. An interesting fact is that Joker It represents Phillips' first film in the drama genre and has earned him the Golden Lion Award.

Joaquin Phoenix

Joaquín Rafael Phoenix (Puerto Rico, 1974) is an actor, screenwriter and producer. He has been nominated for Oscars three times thanks to his performances in movies. Gladiator, Walk the line Y The master. He won the Golden Globe for his performance in Walk the line. In order to play the role of the Joker in Todd Phillips' film, he had to lose a total of 23 kilos in four months, causing episodes of emotional imbalance in the process.

The character of the Joker in comic book history

The Joker was created by Jerry Robinson, Bill Finger, and Bob Kane. He made the appearance of him in volume # 1 of Batman In 1940. From the beginning he was designed as a homicidal maniac, but the Comics Code Authority deemed him inappropriate and forced him to be modified. It was from that moment that he became a joker. It was only in the 80s that the Joker began to regain his sadistic character.

He has been portrayed by the following actors:

1. Cesar Romero in the television series Batman (h. 1960);
2. Jack Nicholson in Batman by Tim Burton (1989);
3. Heath Ledger in The knight of the night by Christopher Nolan (2008);
4. Cameron Monaghan in Gotham (start in 2014);
5. Jared Leto in Suicide squad of the company Warner Bros. and DC Comics (2016);
6. Joaquin Phoenix in Joker by Todd Phillips (2019).

Meaning of the Joker as a character

The word joker means jester, clown, joker or joker, but it is also the name of the "joker" in the card decks, which serves to create escape routes that change the direction of the game. in this way the name of the Joker alludes to the personification of chaos, mockery, opposition to order and justice.

Attributes of the Joker

With a deep tendency to sadism, the supervillain Joker stands out for having superior intelligence and great creativity. This constitutes his only power. He is absolutely incapable of feeling empathy or sympathy for any human being. Despite this, he never murders Batman, as this relationship provides him with fun; while Batman does not murder him because it is against his ethics.

His face changes depending on the version of the comic. In some versions, he has a cut at the corners of his mouth that simulates a smile. In others, the skin on his face is melted after falling into a bucket of acid. One of his weapons is the famous laughing gas or Joker poison (Joker). He uses clown gadgets: teasing flowers, magic wands, etc.