By Jaylin Jones
Five years ago, the world was introduced to Todd Phillipps' brand new representation of the “Joker” in theaters. With the recent release of the controversial sequel “Joker Folie à Deux,” I thought it would be important to revisit the original movie and see how my opinion has changed on it.
The movie opens up with the main character, Arthur Fleck, who is working his day job as a clown, spinning signs. Almost immediately, he is harassed by people on the street who knock him over and take his sign; after this incident, his boss lets him know that if he doesn’t get the sign back he’ll have to cover the cost. From the very beginning of the story, we are shown that Arthur has to deal with unfair situations that are out of his control, which becomes an important part of the story later on. One of his friends from work, named Randall, notices that he is bruised from the fight, so he hands him a gun and lets him know that he should protect himself when he’s outside working.
Later on, Arthur is caught with the gun and gets fired from work, and his boss informs him that Randall claimed Arthur had asked him for a gun before; at this point in the story, Arthur is full of feelings of betrayal and anger. That night, he takes the train, where he is harassed by businessmen who beat him up until Arthur snaps and kills them. From this point forward, Arthur begins to change as a person and begins to take more control of his life. He sees people idolize him for the first time, and he gains the confidence to go do stand-up comedy, where he bombs and his idol Murray Franklin embarrasses him on live tv. After this, he finds out his mother had lied to him about who his father was, and she abused him when he was younger, which causes him to snap and kill her. He then gets a call to come on the Murray Franklin show and tell jokes, but before he arrives, he gets revenge and kills Randall, and when he makes it to the show, he confesses to the murders and kills Murray live on TV.
A popular opinion about the overall message of the movie is that it’s about a man getting his revenge on a society that doesn’t respect or acknowledge him as a person. In my opinion, the movie is more about a man who's been pushed into becoming the evil that surrounds him. I don't believe his actions in this movie are all about revenge (even though that’s a part of it); I think that it would be accurate to describe a mentally ill man who believes that he must adapt to the unfair conditions around him. When he gets beat up in the beginning, he doesn’t even consider defending himself; he never gets violent with anybody until Randall tells him that he has to protect himself with the gun. Once he kills those first three people and sees that his actions are being glorified within the city through the “kill the rich” riots, I think he begins to believe that this is who he was destined to be. He mentions earlier in the movie that he has never been happy a day in his life, but that changes once he stops taking his medication and starts embracing his new persona.
Outside of my feelings on the story and how I feel it should be represented, I think that this movie has an amazing sense of style that makes it more memorable than other comic book-inspired movies. Some of my favorite scenes from the movie are based on the lighting and the music that's played, and not necessarily the actual acting. My favorite scene is when Arthur officially becomes the Joker, and he steps out onto the stage for the crowd under that blue lighting that really makes his orange suit pop out.
Overall, The Joker film has remained one of my favorite movies over the years, and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. I give it a huge thumbs up.
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