Last night, just before I started running the DnD Campaign set in Middle Earth, I recieved a message from a friend - now this friend has impeccable taste (and similar tastes to me in some cases) - that they have thought about going to see Joker: Foile a Deux. They had seen the reviews, loved Lady Gaga, and really enjoyed The Joker itself.
I have never seen The Joker.
This will come as no surprise to my friends who are very aware that there are lots of shows that just everyone has seen that I have not... Game of Thrones, Stranger Things etc
I've now seen Stranger Things Series 1 and have tickets to go and see the stage show. I am a work in progress clearly.
Anyway, the DnD session ended, and I searched up The Joker on TV and there it was. 1hr 54mins and it was only 10pm. Why not?
So, I watched it.
Unsure what to actually expect. The sole description my friend had given was that it is "dark".
Although the actual story was slow paced it never seemed to be a slow film. It was mesmerizing. The longer it went on the more I was drawn into it, the less I could look away, and Arthur Flecks mind opened to me - and though I can manage empathy for him, I could not fully understand his views on the world, not deeply, I am not a socio/psychopath (thankfully - oh God, I hope)!
Arthur's depression, his mental illness, dominate the film, and though we learn that the trigger is in his youth, his upbringing, it is hard to forgive him for the things he does. Actually, in some cases that's probably not true*. The sounds are muted throughout the movie, colours are drab (I am colourblind, so correct me when you want to), and the tone of conversation has little life to them. Depression, sadness, being an outsider with little understanding of the world he experiences, the people and the relationships, must make it a scary place to exist.
Colour only really comes when he dons that suit jacket, that waistcoat and paints his face. He is wearing a mask, subsuming his fears, his worries, his misunderstanding behind that facepaint. Like Batman, the mask becomes the person - Arthur is pale imitation, a limited being, half-formed and broken, fragile and cracked like an ancient vase. Applying the makeup he becomes confident, outgoing, more sure of himself and purpose - even if that is a twisted purpose.
It would be fair to say that we all wear masks, changing them as the situation demands; professional, personal, parent, lover, husband, wife, customer, student, driver, stranger, friend, all the myriad of roles we play every day.
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
*The killing on the subway of the three Yuppies (80s child here) stuck with me to the end. It is that, I feel, where there is some justification (oh god, I am a psycho). What I mean is, I can see why he snapped, why he pulls the gun and, well, guns them down. I don't agree with his actions, but I can understand them. Anyone who has ever been bullied would understand them - and that's a lot of people, me included.
Who hasn't wanted the power to stop the bully, to take decisive action, to not feel that fear of physical violence and just stand up for yourself in those moments in those situations. For me, I was young, and my parents put me into Martial Arts - I learned to fall, to be hurt, but to stand back up. Fear remains, but it can be overcome and risks balanced. I also run fast; then and again now.
Arthur takes to the extreme, gunning down two and chasing the third, making sure of his kill.
No one could agree with his actions, but there's something in it I can understand. Forgive me.
The violence in The Joker is fast, shocking, and matter of fact. It just happens. The violence Arthur suffers, in the time of the film, is nowhere near the level he inflicts. His murder of his mother should be a shock yet it happens off camera - we see his reaction, but the act happens below the camera. He is killing her, but also the lies upon which he based much of his life, facing the truth of what happened when he was young. He is killing his history - she just personifies it.
Also, unlike Bruce's worship of his father Thomas, in The Joker we see perhaps a more realistic version of the father. Vain, judgmental, wealthy and uncaring. Convinced, due to privilege, that he has the answers which everyone else has missed - but like many solutions it is broad strokes only, one size fits all, ignoring the fine grain of society.
Thomas Wayne is a dick. His death, witnessed by Bruce, is true enough to the comics and films before, but we are not shocked by, expecting it maybe, but also through observing the real Thomas we lose some of the empathy.
And it isn't this Joker who kills him...
I really enjoyed the film and the experience. I can see the art in its making, and the fact that I've written this much about it a day later means that it is on my mind.
The question is, do I go and see the sequel?
Feel free to answer in the comments.
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