Topic of the Week - Send in the Clowns: The Joker Controversy

Since Joker was first introduced as one of the next slated DC comic book movies, hype began building quite rapidly. The hype of course grew in due time even more as Joaquin Phoenix was casted as the clown prince of crime and with set photos leaking which fans gave an overall stamp of approval to the look and feel the movie was showcasing. However, the movie has been dogged with rather a bit of controversy over its intense themes, questions have even surfaced about whether people would be too nervous to see it. Not just because it’s a violent, R-rated thriller featuring a murderous psychopath with no cape crusader to stop him this time, but also because much of the prerelease chatter about Joker has centered on fears of mass shootings at screenings, with the U.S. military advising service members to be alert, local police departments posting officers at theaters on opening weekend, and families of the 2012 movie-theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, expressing concern over the film content.

As Joker approaches its Friday release, this narrative of anxiety has taken on a life of its own and seems to be somewhat rooted in the broader fears about the state of the American pop culture as a whole. If audiences are nervous, those sentiments aren’t showing up in box-office tracking; Joker is projected to break October records with an opening of more than $80 million. As the movie marches to financial success and potential Oscar nominations this fall, the discourse it has inspired has the potential to curdle even further. After Joker’s premiere in Venice, where the film won the coveted Golden Lion, commentators started debating the movie’s portrayal of a psychopath who embraces cruelty and murder as us comic fans know he does. The Joker is usually presented as Batman’s archenemy, but in Joker, Batman isn’t a presence at all. Instead, the director Todd Phillips positions the Joker as an antihero or rather a monster of society's own creation. Phillips has pushed back against the notion that his movie could be blamed for any real-life violence. “We’re making a movie about a fictional character in a fictional world, ultimately, and your hope is that people take it for what it is; You can’t blame movies for a world that is so fucked up that anything can trigger it.” Phoenix as well chimed in saying, “I don’t think it’s the responsibility of a filmmaker to teach the audience morality or the difference between right or wrong.”

Joker of course is hardly the first movie in history to focus on a disturbing antihero nor a disturbing topic and wont be a last nor should it be. Film making isn't a craft that makes every one happy, but rather like any craft in art, it's to showcase different stories from all over the spectrum. It's about finding those stories whether its hard to tell or not, but simply a story that needs to be told and Joker fits that category. Much of the unease over the film seems rooted in the Aurora shooting, which took place at a screening of The Dark Knight Rises. According to the Colorado district attorney who prosecuted Holmes the shooter, George Brauchler, Holmes picked The Dark Knight Rises screening only because it was the big blockbuster being released that weekend not because he wanted to impersonate Batman's titular villain as people are theorizing. Families of Aurora victims have commented on the release of Joker however stating, “When we learned that Warner Bros. was releasing a movie called Joker that presents the character as a protagonist with a sympathetic origin story, it gave us pause,” read their letter to the studio,“We want to be clear that we support your right to free speech and free expression. But as anyone who has ever seen a comic-book movie can tell you: With great power comes great responsibility. That’s why we’re calling on you to use your massive platform and influence to join us in our fight to build safer communities with fewer guns.”

Of course to echo my previous statement, filmmaking is about freedom of speech for oneself to express themselves and tell a story thats to be told. Yes, Joker centers around a touchy subject, but shunning it away is the worst thing anyone can do. The studio responded by pointing to its donations to victims of gun violence as well as defending the release of Joker. “Warner Bros. believes that one of the functions of storytelling is to provoke difficult conversations around complex issues; Neither the fictional character Joker nor the film is an endorsement of real-world violence of any kind. It is not the intention of the film, the filmmakers or the studio to hold this character up as a hero.”Todd phillips also gave a rebuttal by saying, “Aurora is obviously a horrible, horrible situation, but even that is not something you blame on the movie,” he told the Associated Press. “I just saw John Wick 3. He’s a white male, he kills 300 people, and everybody’s laughing and hooting and hollering. Why does this movie get held to different standards?”Phillips is right in the sense that the Joker movie is getting unnecessary pushback because of its weird connection to the Aurora shooting where as other films like John Wick, get no pushback at all. Phillips also feels that his brand of humor has seemingly fallen out of favor in Hollywood. “Go try to be funny nowadays with this woke culture,” he said. “All the fucking funny guys are like, ‘Fuck this shit, because I don’t want to offend you.’” Phillips admitted to channeling that edgy, angry tone into Joker: “‘How do I do something irreverent, but fuck comedy? Oh, I know, let’s take the comic-book-movie universe and turn it on its head with this."

The state of our pop culture right now is very fragile. People nowadays whether it be musicians, artists, directors, or a comedian, they feel scared that whatever they create that it's going to offend something. It's almost like walking in the middle of no man's land hoping not to get blown up in the face half the time. People are scared of stories being told, music being listened, or jokes that go off script, but thats what art is. It's about pushing the envelope, its about saying what needs to be said, it's about simply telling a story that needs to be told. So i applaud both Warner Brother, Joaquin Phoenix, and Todd phillips as well as the rest of the crew for making joker. I applaud them not only for making a movie this crazy but going through with it even with this back lash. I have watched Joker and I must say it's one of the most crazy, weirdly beautiful movie i have ever seen and one that someone has to experience to fully understand. Joaquin is defiantly got his name on the ballot for the oscars that im sure. This has been the Topic of the Week, thanks for reading. Ricardo signing off.