Joker Frightens Audience with Commentary on Evil, Classism and Existentialism

This October, Warner Brothers Pictures released a movie on the Batman villain, Joker and his previously unknown origin story. Prior to its premiere date, critics chastised the movie for its provocative violence and its attempt to humanize a villain. However, the acts of violence done by Arthur Fleck, Joker’s birth name, are the least unsettling aspects of the film.

There is an overarching presence of evil in Joker. The viewer witnesses Arthur experience horrible physical and psychological abuse from everyone in his life. This is what eventually causes him to snap and fight back. 

One of the most memorable and mesmerizing scenes in the film is the bathroom dance after Arthur kills the three abusive, rich white men in a subway car in an act of self-defense. He locks himself in the nearest bathroom and begins to dance to an eerie instrumental with a heavy focus on string instruments by Hildur Guðnadóttir. Through this somber dance, Arthur is reborn into his new identity as Joker. He will no longer be society’s punching bag, now that he knows he is capable of defending himself. Dance is a key form of expression for Arthur and it is what makes this film the work of art that it is. 

Courtesy of Movie Plus News

What is most upsetting about the movie is the feeling of angst, twentieth-century existentialism philosopher, Martin Heidegger’s German word for dread or anxiety. Joker holds up a mirror to the audience as they uncomfortably shift in their seats. Evil is not innate; rather people become evil due to external circumstances. During the climax, Joker tells his idol, Murray Franklin, a late night talk show host in Gotham played by Rober DeNiro, “If it was me dying on the sidewalk, you’d walk right over me. I pass you everyday and you don’t notice me!” We don’t see the signs and once people commit heinous crimes, we find someone to put the blame on. In our fast-paced and convenience oriented society, we are all to blame.  

Gotham’s decay is uncanny in how it parallels our own society. There are corrupt politicians running for office and a failing middle-class flounders, as the rich get richer and poor begin to die off. Arthur’s subway murders begins a revolution in Gotham. When he shoots Murray on air, he is seen as resistance's messiah as he is rescued by rioters from a crashed police car. During the penultimate scene, Joker is dancing atop a cop car as the rioters encircle him and cheer wildly. He has created this chaos so everyone has to endure the personal chaos he faced throughout the whole film. 

The film delves into the nature of existence to a great extent. After Arthur first kills, he has his final meeting with his government provided therapist. “At work, until a little while ago, it was like nobody ever saw me," he says to her. "Even I didn’t know if I really existed.” She is trying to interrupt him to let him know that their funding was cut and this will be their last meeting. He finally can’t take anymore interruptions and says, “I said, for my whole life, I didn’t know if I even really existed. But I do, and people are starting to notice.” Arthur only realized that he existed when he ironically ends another person’s existence. He is constantly bullied by the bourgeois of Gotham, but now that he has ruptured their perfect lives, they are taking notice of him and granting him existence. 

The two philosophers that thoroughly discuss our existence, or lack thereof, are Jean-Paul Sartre and Søren Kierkegaard. Sartre says that every choice we make is defining us while simultaneously revealing what we believe a human being should be. This is a burden that man has to bear thus relegating him to constant anguish. Sartre’s central claim in existentialism is “existence precedes essence.” This means that man’s personality is not based on a previous purpose. Through our consciousness, human beings create value and determine the meaning of life. Humans do not possess any inherent value. This theory can also be found in Kierkegaard’s work in the 19th century. He also argued against objective truth and emphasized the importance of subjectivity. 

Arthur seems to have an existential crisis once he is off his medicine and discovers the lies his mother had been telling him about his past. This is where he utters the famous line, “I used to think that my life was a tragedy. But now I realize, it’s a comedy.” Arthur solves this angst of realizing his life has no value by killing. 

Joker is infused with themes of evil, classism and existentialism. While it has received a wave of negative reviews, this film will transcend time because it is not a movie about a comic book villain, it is a film about the viewer. Everyone has experienced pain and mistreatment in their lives. Who is to say we are too strong willed to have a breaking point as catastrophic as the Joker’s?

Courtesy of Famous Movie Jackets