I
will not be rushing to watch the new Joker movie. Yes, I know it had
been critically acclaimed. That it won at the Venice Film Festival.
That it stars Joaquin Phoenix who was great in the Johnny Cash
bio-pic Walk the Line. I have read Batman comics since I was nine,
but I will not give this stand alone origin movie of the Joker my
support. My hope is that you will avoid it too. Unfortunately the
fanboys will flock to it.
Comics:
A Brief History
The
comic book genre at its most popular was made under the comics code.
Central to that code was that the villain should have his
comeuppance. For the post-war generation this was what they needed.
To be told that in the end the bad guys get beaten. Hope wins. It is
more than possible that the Joker in this movie will not loose and
not be caught.Where is the hope that evil will be beaten?
In
the 1980's when comics got darker emerged the bible for all Batman
movies, Frank Miller's The Dark Night Returns. Miller's dark, grim
and gritty tale of a much older Batman is a classic. For DC it is
holy writ, the template for super hero movies. This was the mid-point
in the rise of the anti-hero, the era called the Bronze Age. Here
began the rise of Wolverine and The Punisher at Marvel and so many
dark tales of other heroes gone rouge.
By
the turn of the millennium the comics code had been totally abandoned
the now older Gen Xers who were still buying comics and wanted
something more adult. By this time Watchmen, Deadpool, Spawn and
other ultra violent anti-hero stories were common. The whole “what
if the heroes were villains?” concept spiked and you end up with
Cyclops killing Professor X, Elongated Man's wife raped, and now
Kid-Flash is a murderer. Ok, they re-wrote that with a bit of time
travel but still, the story had Kid-Flash murder other heroes.
DC
comics executive Dan DiDio is often quoted as saying that all heroes
have to be tragic. It is not that Marvel is any better, but, that
Disney owns Marvel. For the Mouse, Marvel movies have to be a bit
lighter. One wonders how this is going to effect Deadpool in the
future.
Representation
Matters
Why
am I so deflated by this movie? It has to do with the reason why I am
so happy about other super hero movies, representation. Black Panther
showed the world a whole country full of African heroes. A whole
African Kingdom that is more advanced and better governed than any
other country in that world. They are powerful, and if they wished,
they could be a world power. They do not wish to be so.
Captain
Marvel (a movie that I have discussed before) is the most powerful
Avenger, and in Avengers:Endgame she fights Thanos single handedly.
Without the female heroes in Endgame Thanos wins. The damsel in a
dress is a lost concept for Marvel now. Unfortunately they still need
women to die for the male heroes character development.
The
Joker is a violent creation, a psychotic, narcissistic, chaotic
creature of spite. To make a movie that concentrates on all this is
going to raise the characters profile. Clowns of violence appear to
be the cinematic treat at the moment. IT with the vile and demonic
Pennywise is back for another go. It astounds me that we continue to
make films about these events and the violent characters with them
taking centre stage. Just wait for the made for tv series on channel
Nine about a certain New Zealand shooting.
The
Power of The Dark Side
I
have said at the start that I believe this Joker film will be a
success. The dark and gritty template is the default for DC Movies.
While Shazam, Wonder Woman and Aquaman were successful nothing has
been a bigger money earner than Batman. And the darker the Batman
movie, the better.
My
concern is that in this dark descent the hero is not longer the
focus, neither is hope. It is all about the villains. While we need
evil in a narrative to create tension we also need it to be beaten.
We need to see the hope that good can win.
To
concentrate on Joker, to have an origin movie about the character
leans too far away from hope. It concentrates on the selfish,
violent, unstable machinations of a character who is broken and wants
everyone to be as broken as he is.
So
I ask honestly; who is going to be inspired by this Joker origin
movie? Who is going to identify with the psychotic madman who kills
without remorse. The Joker who laughs at the gore and violence he
creates. Who is so utterly nihilistic to the point where life itself
is a joke. Do we want to celebrate that? I do not.
Phillip
Hall is researching Hope and Technology at The University of Divinity
in Melbourne. Phillip has been reading comics since 1979 and still
reads them today. While he knows many will see this movie, the whole
idea of a focused movie about The Joker seems wrong. He knows there
are many who will not see this point of view. It just has to be said.
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