Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?
If you haven’t seen The Joker yet, you’re probably deliberately avoiding it.
We live in a world dominated by news of crime, terrorism and hell of a lot of hate. It’s all bad news, that’s partly why it becomes news in the first place. So when a movie comes out encompassing all of these things – most people’s initial reactions will not be; ‘Boy, I got to get me some of that!’
It’s a movie entailing a dark city and a character’s decent into chaos within it. The Joker, (a.k.a. Arthur Fleck) is an embodiment of suffering.
I can understand why it would deter people. It’s a motion picture about a psychopath causing a riot, resulting in absolute mayhem in the form of mass violence and death. It’s not a film for the faint hearted.
But looking in, there is something much deeper at force.
The joker may be a a psychopath; a patently dangerous one at that, but what’s most compelling to me is how he really came to be the joker.
It’s a self-imposed title after all. Imagine that you’ve endured a crippling childhood as such, where you were kicked to the ground, abused and lied to – heard stories of being an orphan and allegedly having a rich, narcissistic father who had gone astray. Fast forward decades later and this is the man now running for Mayor in the poverty-stricken, City of doom and gloom that is Gotham, who refers to the public as ‘clowns’. You’re suffering now because your mental health – because of such issues, is imploding before your eyes, whilst your career in clowning is a constant disaster and a jest to your own peers. Money is hard to comeby and rather than being taken care of yourself, you’re the sole carer for your very mother which the film later suggests is the architect of your own downfall? Yeah, I’d be p*ssed too.
Isn’t it ironic? A self-proclaimed name for a failed clown, with no jokes but himself. A deliberate satire of oneself with a name forged from the depths of self pity.
I’ts all rather convoluted, perhaps deliberately. but it’s definitely sad. I’m not sure the audience are meant to be able to piece it all together, it’s a puzzle Fleck couldn’t fully understand himself. His life was a lie and he wasn’t given the resources to combat it.
One of the things that makes the joker so iconic is his trademark laugh. It’s a villainous cackle, but what if I told you it’s simply the reflection of an inner depredation? It appears evil, but it’s uncontrollable – linked to the Pseudo-bulbar Affect. This condition causes him to laugh in inappropriate moments, often by accident.
We hear a lot of the expression that ‘If you don’t laugh, you cry’ which is used humorously, but there’s actually something very real about this. He has a lot to cry about, but when the only sound that’s let out is what is supposed to be an expression of happiness yet is actually a representation of deep sorrow, there is evidence of a huge disconnect in the feelings of an individual and the output of them.
It came to a point in the film where the character could no longer bottle these emotions up, and the institutions and charities which provided councelling services were shut down and Fleck had resigned to a diet of pure nicotine and drugs – and as his physicality deteriorated in accordance with his mental health, it’s easy to understand how one could completely give up on themself and once antagonised so frequently, would eventually bite back.
That’s not an excuse to be a criminal and a murderer, mind you, but I think the joker’s character is deliberately sensationalised to create a super villain for a comic book.
“Smile and put on a happy face”
That’s what Arthur Fleck’s mother always told him. Aside from the film, that’s actually not bad advice to encourage someone to keep going, but what it does do is sweep problems under the rug.
There’s never any point in suppressing or repressing your emotions because it doesn’t address the issues, and that’s where I think The Joker has never been so relevant in society as it is today.
There’s a lot more awareness now about mental health, which is hugely beneficial for this planet. People shouldn’t have to suffer in silence if they are struggling to deal with their thoughts and help should never be far away. Hate crime is still massive but what’s crucial is that people are actually there to help one another.
To synopsise, it’s really a film portraying what can really happen when people are mean to each other. If support isn’t available, and how such actions can leave scars on people and change one forever.
In unity there is strength, and the Joker should serve as warning of the kind of dystopia that could unravel if people were not kind to each other.
Maybe it is getting crazier out there, but with love and support, we can all smile and put on a happy face that is genuine.
Compulsively Human 