The Joker and the Culture of Fear
I maybe a bit late to the table with this story, but this took some real thought. I had to watch Joaquin Phoenix’s performance twice to fully understand what went on in this movie. As it begins very slow and colorless, the ending is colorful and hits home for me.
In America, people were worried about terrorist attacks taking place at theaters showing the film. But the film actually features very little violence. The film to me is more of a call to action, it reminds me of classic film “The Network.” An ultimate rejection of the system and the social hierarchy that’s existed in the USA for many years now. Though the movie is placed in the late 70’s, this country has changed very little.
Over the last 40 years the biggest changes in the US have been in defense, prisons and tech. These are not the same as infrastructure, one does not see them or experience their benefit everyday. Meanwhile everybody is glued to their technology. The next Instagram pic or the next twitter post and I can talk about this like a broken record but I won’t.
People think they are awake, but they ignorantly dream of electric sheep. They accept oppression while supposedly living in the most free country on Earth. Their minds and thoughts are suppressed and they are suppressed by technological devices, their diet and the general attitude around them. The social and political climate is at a boiling point, as it is in The Joker. Joaquin Phoenix’s protagonist was just one of many disenfranchised citizens of Gotham city (New York). Given the correct circumstances anyone could have become The Joker. We are all socialized as such, it is a part of the human condition to pull others down. Anyone could any day end up at the bottom of the pile, then throw a handgun or rifle in the mix. (If you aren’t from America you have no idea how easy they are to get, even for felons).
The Joker, the film, represents a very real and demonstrated threat in the United States. This threat is, the mass murderer or mass shooter. The Joker is a disenfranchised, mentally ill, white male. This is the type of person we are dealing with when dealing with mass killings in the USA. So the connection was made and the people of America were once again left in fear. Left in fear their loved ones maybe murdered in a movie theater while watching a comic book movie about their favorite Batman villain.
Though, when further examined, this film is not simply some social commentary about 2019 America. This is a story of vindication, where the bad guy is the good guy. This is a story of revolution, all be it accidental. This movie asks the viewer who makes the rules? Why do they make the rules? This film makes one feel bad for The Joker, because society treated him like shit and we all know how it is to have society treat us like shit. We can relate, people all over the world can relate and so they feel bad for the alleged bad guy.
It makes one wonder if all of these mass shootings are deserved or if we should’ve seen them coming. We should’ve seen them coming. We are now getting what we deserve for being so completely blind to the facts. This is what division and fear can breed within a population. Maybe these deaths are meant to wake us up, or maybe they’re just our Karma. You can decide.
