“The worst part of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t”.
When Joker was released last year and I saw the trailer, I just knew I had to watch it. It seemed very far away from the typical, explosive, action-packed superhero/supervillain movies we are accustomed to. This was a Joker we had never seen before, a Joker we could recognise in people we know, have walked past, or have crossed the road to avoid. This was a Joker just a little bit too close to home, a reflection on which is sicker; a person with a mental health illness or a society that turns a blind eye and ignores those with it. A spotlight on an issue that has long been swept under the rug that forces you to think about the world we live in and how we interact with those who need our compassion and understanding.
The quote above, something Arthur Fleck writes in this journal, highlights the antithesis of how people treat mental illness and its stigma. It is both powerful and sad and has lingered with many long since the film’s release.
I had a feeling when it was released that it would create a divide within those who watched it; there would be those who loved this new take, the ideas, the deeper questions it evoked, and there would be those who felt disappointed that it wasn’t a traditional villain movie that people get excited about and live for. It is probably clear already that I am a great fan of this movie and would like to outline why I think this was the Joker we all needed to see.
I will try to minimise spoilers and will not give too much away on the end or a certain number of twists, but there will be minimal spoilers within to allow me to explain my feelings in-depth and coherently. Let’s dig in.
The year is 1981 and we’re in an impoverished, dilapidated Gotham City where Arthur Fleck lives with his mum, Penny. Arthur has a medical condition that causes him to laugh at inappropriate times and he depends on social services to get his medication. If that wasn’t enough, he is also working as a party clown with dreams of becoming a stand up comedian. A difficult existence sure, but enough to turn him into a villain of the worst kind?
Well that is just where we start. It’s all downhill from here. He gets beaten up while working by a gang of thugs for no reason other than for the thrill of attacking a clown. That is just the first of work place blunders that lead Arthur to losing his job after being treated like a outcast even among those not looked upon highly in society. He has a mum who likes to call him “happy”, telling him that his purpose in life was to bring joy to others, seemingly oblivious to her own son’s pain and despair; at one point Arthur even says that he has never been happy his entire life. Despite her protestations that this is his purpose, she dismisses his ability at realising his dream, even she cannot bring herself to support him. Arthur is alone in his pain and in his hopes and aspirations, there is no one close who even tries to understand.
It is clear from the very beginning to the extent he is ignored and looked down on. He starts involuntarily laughing on a bus, and even though he gives a card to the disgruntled woman in front of him explaining it is a medical condition, she continues to look at him in disgust, turning away coldly. This seems to be a theme throughout the film, how easy it is to close our eyes and turn away, not even considering the pain and damage we can inflict in doing so.
That isn’t even all. Arthur can no longer get help from social services for his mental health issues; his social worker coldly informs him that the system just doesn’t give a shit about him or about her. The help that he so requires, the support system, is no longer there for him. It has also turned away, and with it Arthur is left to try and muddle through anyway, just find a way to be “normal”, as if it were as simple as flicking a switch. One could argue that being off his medication furthers his descent and transition to becoming Joker, no longer having what he needs to help him function in an uncaring society.
As society turns away from Arthur, and he feels more and more invisible to the world, he is yet again picked on, only this time seemingly by those with wealth, influence, high-standing. They should know better, and yet they don’t, and when Arthur fights back for the first time, he is no longer invisible and thus the Joker is born. No falling into a vat of acid, no vague but seemingly violent backstory, it is simply a man who couldn’t take anymore and snapped. It is that one bad day too many that caused him to fight back, to not care anymore, and to get revenge on those that hurt him. It is a possibility within our grasp, something so real, a chance it could be us given the right (or perhaps wrong) circumstances.
The beauty of this film comes from the fact that this is a villain we can understand, that we can somewhat empathise with. You can’t watch all the things that happen to Arthur and not have it pull at your heart strings, even just a little. The treatment of him is cruel and at times heart-breaking to watch. This of course does not condone his actions; murder is not ok, just like how the men that hurt Arthur were not ok. An eye for an eye is never a way to solve problems and it can’t be justified, no matter the pain felt. By the same token though, we cannot just see a person in a vacuum, to look at the worst thing they did and ignore everything that came before and how they came to be the person they are. That is not how life works. Even some convicted murderers have friends, relatives, spouses who experienced a kind and loving side to the person that did something so atrocious. The director paints this film purely in all the shades of grey that make up the human experience; nothing in Joker is totally black and white, and this is what makes it so incredible. It reflects back the world we live in, the intricacies of life and the uncertainty within it, it is a real experience and one we can all relate to.
Despite Arthur’s problems, he really did want to bring joy to the world, as his mum had told of him. He tried many times, but the world was just not ready to accept it from him. It’s a real kind of sadness to see that someone so sad, in so much pain, wanted to bring the opposite to people and share laughter and have it rejected over and over again. You can almost begin to believe that it is not Arthur who is sick but the world, a world that doesn’t deserve him.
The biggest gut punch comes at the end; it takes Arthur committing terrible crimes to end up somewhere that he can possibly, and finally, get the help that he so desperately needs. It’s an irony not lost on Arthur either, given the last scenes of the film, that it takes someone to snap for them finally to be seen.
Bruce Wayne is seen very little throughout the film, still a child, however something brilliant about the film was that it contains both the birth of Joker and of Batman; on the night that Joker causes an uprising, Bruce’s parents are murdered which we know is a reason that Bruce decides to become Batman when he is older. Both suffer an event that flips a switch for them and sets their path in motion, as well as tying their futures together from that point on. As it has been said, without Joker there is no Batman.
Finally, the cinematography is beyond beautifully done. The gritty, dark and depressing Gotham is so well depicted, you can almost feel the grime. The air seems heavy with apprehension and fatigue and even that seems to weigh Arthur down, yet when his transition into Joker is realised, there is almost a slight shift there as if to change like Arthur. The shot of Arthur on the stairs dancing almost seems beautiful, far from the harshness we see throughout the rest of the film.
This is a tricky section for me to complete because I think very highly of the film and truly enjoy it from start to finish. Some of the criticism that has been levelled at the film is the distinct lack of Batman or big references to the Gotham universe, which is rich and easy to fall into a rabbit hole over. I would say to this though that this is purely a film about Joker and how he came to be; it is a character analysis. It is not when he is fully-formed, violent and chaotic, but a nobody who is in pain. You can’t tell that kind of story with the depth it deserves in trying to be a conventional comic book film that is 100% true to the source material. It is a kind of parallel look at Joker, a Joker of a different timeline, that feels like he lives in our world and remains relatable.
Another criticism levelled at this film is the abhorrence at how the film tries to generate empathy for Arthur and how this is not how we should feel when it comes to mass-murdering villains. At face value, yes, I can see the argument, although in this regard I think they have missed the point. Empathising with someone and condoning what they do are not mutually exclusive. In fact, I would argue that taking someone’s worst actions and judging them eternally on that alone is part of what is wrong with the world. If someone judged you based solely on the worst thing you ever did, would you fare well under public scrutiny?
Arthur deserves to be locked away for what he has done, that is a certitude. You don’t get to murder multiple people and be free from reproach. However, you should be able to look at Arthur’s life, the pain, the depression, the way he has been let down so profoundly, and feel empathy for his situation. No one deserves that and if anyone at any point had bothered to show him any compassion, maybe Joker would never have been born and Arthur would be in a very different place. That said, he still made the choice to do what he did, but in choosing to turn away and vilify him, we are just continuing the path that leads to the marginalisation of those who need our help. Compassion and understanding can never be a wrong action, at least in my opinion.
A final criticism that has come this way, is that the film will somehow make those marginalised in society feel that this is the way to become noticed, understood, or even respected. Being completely frank, these kind of comments are so insulting to society at large and the majority of people, and I’m fucking sick of it. The media always like to suggest that film, books, video games are the cause for violent acts that are carried out and that this film will be one of them. The amount of people who commit violent acts because of media and art is extremely small and most often in these cases the person who carried out the offence had serious mental health issues at the time which were a big factor in what took place. All around the world though, people watch the John Wick movies, Mission Impossible, James Bond etc and don’t suddenly go out shooting people. If it was that serious an issue and that common we would know about it. I think that credit is not being given to the public here, like we are all children who do not know how to behave or what is socially acceptable and will see this film and think they can just go out and kill someone. The majority of people are not that fucking stupid, and I wonder how much different it is from these same news outlets who every day broadcast news of violent and horrific crimes right into your homes while the family is eating dinner.
When the film finally comes to its conclusion, there is one question left to ponder on: who is really the sick one in this story?
