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And today we're exploring the symbolism of the 2019 film Joker.

Mmm.

We've met many different versions of this iconic Batman villain over the years.

But with the 2019 film Joker, director Todd Phillips delivered a uniquely grounded cinematic take on the iconic character utterly lacking in conventional superhero action or any superheroes.

For that matter.

Joker is a dark and gritty origin story that places us in the perspective of the titular character.

It was an incredibly bold and risky film for Warner Brothers to Green Light, but the gamble paid off many times over, with the film going on to make over a $1,000,000,000 and it did so with an R rating, The West Shattering Records in the process.

The movie has been nominated for a staggering 11 Academy Awards after picking up two Golden Globes, including best actor for Joaquin Phoenix.

Much like its namesake character, this film is one of a kind.

You just wanted to make fun of me.

Long before it hit theaters, Joker was already generating substantial controversy.

The mere concept of putting such a troubling character in the spotlight generated a media firestorm.

We have people that are suffering with PTSD, and a corporation that is making money off of gratuitous violence needs to be taking care of society as well, much to the frustration of both the film's director and its star.

Due to the manner in which Joker reflects the ugliness of society, it became the subject of much speculation regarding the potentially negative influence of art, with some going so far as to suggest it would result in mass shootings and or in cell type violence inspired by the character.

When you make a compelling film around a violent killer, you're crafting an inherently challenging film, one that demands critical thinking from its audience.

Thankfully, Joker doesn't seem to have inspired any major acts of real world violence, but it has generated greater dialogue about its key themes.

They don't think it's it's the responsibility of a filmmaker.

Could you teach the audience morality or the difference between right or wrong?

I mean to me?

I think that that's obvious.

Joker is, first and foremost a film about mental health.

More specifically, the structures that allow issues of mental health to go unaddressed.

It's also a scathing indictment of the divided society in which we live, a culture that dismisses the poor as having failed to capitalize on the supposedly equal opportunities of the American dream.

Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?

It is certainly tense.

People are upset.

They're struggling, looking for work.

These are tough times.

The strength of Joker lies in its ability to draw attention to these dual societal failing simultaneously.

By focusing on an individual who suffers at the hands of both as journalists.

Chauncey Kay Robinson put it.

Joker is quote ultimately an in your face examination of a broken system that creates its own monsters.

You all right, Doctor?

Well, that was quite an entrance.

Arthur Fleck is a man who feels ill at ease in society.

He has dreams and seemingly good intentions, but he's ill equipped to realize them.

Okay, well, there's something special about you, Author.

I could tell where you from.

I live right here in the city with my mother.

Okay, hold on.

Nothing funny about that.

I live with my mother before I made it.

And so As life hits Arthur with repeated reminders of its inherent cruelty, he's progressively worn down to the point of snapping.

In this sense, he's a stand in for the frustrated, the disenfranchised and those who feel cheated by society's promises.

Many have identified him as a clear stand in for white male rage, but to dismiss him outright with these three words is to oversimplify the undeniably checks those boxes.

But he's also impoverished and has a history of severe trauma and mental illness.

He's a pitiable figure, one whose actions the film does not ask you to forgive or apologize for, but simply to understand in order to better grasp how people fall through the cracks.

His problems extend beyond any assumptions about what the world owes him.

He's in desperate need of help, but the solutions afforded to him are woefully inadequate.

In short, Arthur is a stand in for disadvantaged and marginalized individuals that society has failed just taken to its worst possible conclusion.

But I think if you're seeing is glorifying him, um, you might be looking at it wrong on.

I think really, what the movie's about is a little bit about empathy and the lack thereof in society.

When we first meet Arthur, he's in a sorry state.

His life is going badly by most metrics.

Work, friends, family, romance, health.

It's all bad, but he has just enoughto hold on.

He's got a mother who loves him, a roof over his head, a job, a social worker and seemingly a romantic interest.

He also has ambitions, however unrealistic they might be, is a guy who thinks if you just keep laughing, it'll somehow make you funny.

Check out this job in the killing joke, Joker famously says.

Quote.

All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy.

You had a bad day once, and I know I can tell.

In Arthur's case, that translates into the loss of the few things he did have.

Arthur has very few good days, but he sustains himself with what little he does have when one has so little.

However, a loss that would otherwise be manageable for a more fortunate person is devastating and a liar.

You're fired.

And so for Arthur, the loss of his job is the beginning of the end, and as the other pillars of his fragile, life falling kind.

So does his sense of self.

As his world crumbles, Arthur Fleck dies and the Joker is born.

Out of the ashes of Arthur's former identity rises something new and extremely dangerous.

An individual who, having repeatedly failed when playing by society's rules, has chosen to jettison social norms and conventions.

You don't listen to you.

I don't think you ever, really.

It's almost a survival mechanism.

And because his new attitude is such a stark departure from the norm, he is utterly unknowable to others.

Yes, he's free, but in this freedom he becomes an inherently dangerous force of nature.

His every movement is an act of chaos and destruction.

Knock, knock, Theo Joker is a monster.

Despite the sympathetic backstory, the Joker's actions are indefensible.

And yet, while we as viewers are absolutely horrified by what he does, we simultaneously cannot look away.

One argument is that were fascinated by him because he's so fundamentally other, he's unthinkably different.

But there's also an argument to be made that were fascinated by the Joker because he represents an aspect of all of us, not necessarily his violence or wanton disregard for life, but rather the act of freeing oneself from expectation and convention to live without fear of consequence, even if consequences are inevitable.

Killing those guys is funny.

I do, and I'm tired of pretending it's not.

By the time the film comes to a close, it's impossible to distinguish Arthur slash jokers reality from fantasy.

He's shown us in a variety of ways that he's an unreliable narrator.

So while there has been much debate as to what portions of the film or fantasy and which actually occurred within the onscreen reality at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter to quote the Joker again.

Sometimes I remember at one way, sometimes another.

If I'm going to have a past, I prefer to be multiple choice.

And while in Arthur's case this is a symptom of mental illness, there's a universal truth to be taken from a to about the subject.

Yvette E.

Of our Memories and Perspectives from would be Mayor Wayne to Arthur, social worker and even the Mother on the bus.

We each experience life through the scope of our own first person perspective, which, though never entirely objective, feels undeniably real to each of us.

I don't need you to tell me lies.

I know it seems strange.

I don't mean to make you uncomfortable.

I don't know why everyone is so rude.

I don't know why you are.

I don't want anything from you.

Maybe a little bit of warm.

Maybe a hard dad.

What?

Joker's journey and its significance functions outside the confines of reality.

Whether it happened in his mind, he drifted into fantasy halfway through the film or he actually committed every single one of those acts is beside the point.

When Arthur becomes joker, he intentionally seeks to detach from society, and its rules and objective truth is just a natural extension of that which he rejects.

By the time Arthur has become joker, he's abandoned the pursuit of success, happiness or acceptance by conventional means and instead finds power by choosing to dismiss the reality of others outright.

It's just, you know, it's been a rough few weeks.

Murray, Ever since I killed his three Wall Street guys.

Okay, I'm waiting for the punch line.

There's no punching riel or imagined.

However.

Joker's pushed back against a uncaring society inspires wider revolt.

All of you, the system that knows so much you decide what's right or wrong the same way that you decide what's funny or not.

It's a testament to the fact that he isn't alone in the dissatisfaction.

He feels.

The circumstances that gave rise to the Joker extend to countless other people.

A broken society encourages people to break free and kind and attempt to reshape their reality.

Civil unrest is inevitable in any system that serves some, but not others.

And when society turns a blind eye to those in need of help, the film suggests there's no telling what they might become and does this by showing us the worst possible outcome.

Everybody just yells and screams in each other.

Nobody's civil anymore.

Nobody thinks what it's like to be the other guy.

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In the case of Arthur Fleck, the combination of poor circumstances, a lack of resources plus mental illness needs to a catastrophic pushback against society and the birth of something truly terrifying, but also preventable with greater care and assistance to marginalized people.

What do you get?

I don't think when you cry mentally.

A floater.

Imaginative Police!

Police.

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