I think the answer to that question is no. Ultimately, Joker is a story that empathizes with a violent sociopath. Fleck is a clown-by-hire and aspiring comedian living with his mother. The most ironic and tragic cruelty of his life is that he’s got a condition that causes him to laugh maniacally at inappropriate times. He is bullied and beat up — by a group of kids on the street, his coworkers, some rich suits on the subway — and the film uses these encounters to explain his murderous origins. “Joker is the antihero the alienated and angry have been waiting for, and that’s precisely the problem,” wrote Sarah Hagi in a column about the film for the Globe and Mail. “I do yawn at the idea of another story in which white men are offered a sort of understanding for their violence.”
That’s exactly why I couldn’t enjoy the film, even though I concede that it’s really well done. The message that “well, of course he became a mass murderer, society gave him no choice!” is dangerous on its own. But if you consider the larger social context of turning “a supervillain into a kind of folk hero” in a world where Dylann Roof, Elliot Rodger, and Faisal Hussain exist, it’s even more distressing.
I think a couple of mass murderers have already compared themselves to the Joker before this movie came out.
I guess some people just can’t handle these types of movies.
The plot to ‘Joker’ kinda seems like it was based off the series ‘Gotham’
Sure, Arthur Fleck becomes the Joker, but no one actually knows who the REAL Joker is.
In the trailers you can tell he’s created a fanbase by having thousands of people wear clown masks and going against the government and what not.
I think the first half will be based on the Joker’ s one thousandth origin story, but the end half will focus on how he creates such a mass following and gets people to follow his values.
Regardless of what it turns out to be, I’m not too fond of the story as I am with the actual development of the main character.
I think Joaquin Phoenix will make a great Joker! Hes a pretty weird dude so I think the role suits him well. Im looking forward to seeing this in theaters but inevitably there are going to be people who take it the wrong way and do stupid ■■■■
Sometimes I can get into watching something that is really ugly, foreign to me in nature, kind of like watching a boil being popped. I think that in a movie like that people have different takeaways from it. We certainly don’t need to admire this guy, or even like him, but we do need to understand him. I haven’t seen the movie, so I’ll withhold my judgement, but I recall a movie about people who had sold their souls for a pretty cheap price - just for a few moment’s pleasure - called “Leaving Las Vegas”. Only an alcoholic could empathize with this guy. I think anybody else would be repelled.
It looks awesome from an artistic standpoint and that’s the only way I see it. No doubt it will empower some people to commit malicious acts but many films have that affect unfortunately.
Yeah but he’s the Joker. It’s a character who is all about madness. It’s fascinating and I love it. Any movie where the protagonist is on pills is a movie I’m gonna watch.
I certainly don’t let art influence my actions. I played Call of Duty for like five years almost every day, but I hate guns and refuse to own or even hold one.
I’m torn, on the one hand I believe in artistic freedom. I dont care what the topic is about, I fear a government that says we cant make media about something. As long as no laws are broken there should be no regulation. I dont agree with everything I see or hear, especially messages of hate, but the consequences of governing what media is allowed to be produced are severe. I believe in combating hate through education, especially at young ages, than through government regulations.
On the other hand, this is a terrible time for this to be coming out. I hope it’s not leaning so heavy on his mental illness. In some adaptions Joker is schizophrenic, I really hope this isnt one of those adaptions. I agree with @Noise, this could be bad for us when the spotlight is on mental illness as a scapegoat.
Tl;dr bad time for movie to come out, hope they dont spotlight mental illness.
I guess I don’t look at comic book movies with any sense of relating them to the real world. It might be different if a Purge movie or whatever was drawing controversy. Or that movie The Hunt which was straight up cancelled.
I think it’s because the Aurora Colorado shooter said he was the joker and committed his vile act during the dark knight rises that people are starting to make the connection between comic books and real life.
