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.