{"id":17241,"date":"2019-11-01T15:05:33","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T19:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mdcthereporter.com\/?p=17241"},"modified":"2020-06-05T14:13:12","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T18:13:12","slug":"lets-talk-not-worry-about-joker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mdcthereporter.com\/staging\/8357\/lets-talk-not-worry-about-joker\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Talk\u2014Not Worry\u2014About Joker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aside from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdcthereporter.com\/search\/?q=%22Batman%22&amp;_siq_page=1&amp;_siq_sort=relevance\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Batman<\/span><\/a> himself, it seems like no other character can draw more controversy than the Joker. From Heath Ledger\u2019s initially controversial casting in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Dark Knight <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to Jared Leto\u2019s forever controversial portrayal in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Suicide Squad, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the role seems fated to draw rebuke. However, with fears of copycat violence emerging, never has that controversy been about more than the character itself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Families of the victims of the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting, where a gunman resembling Bane opened fire on a screening of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Dark Knight Rises, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">wrote a letter saying the violence presented could lead to other shooters who feel wronged by society. That led to the aforementioned theater not screening the movie and to heightened security at screenings nationwide.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the concern for violence is real, especially in an R-rated film displaying the grittier aspects of one of DC\u2019s more murderous villains, the controversy draws away from the film\u2019s greater themes of mental health and societal behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The film centers on Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), an aspiring stand-up comedian who suffers from a laughing condition. After he\u2019s fired from his clown-for-hire job, he embarks on a mental spiral that leads to him embodying the titular role.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What critics of the film fail to realize is that the role provides a path for other issues to be highlighted, not solely gun violence. Arthur\u2019s mental state is a thread throughout the movie, with the audience going on his downward path with him. There is violence along the way, though it isn\u2019t a focus. Instead, it is a side effect of society\u2019s treatment of Arthur, leading to a moment of self-defense becoming his awakening.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s not to say the film won\u2019t call out to people like him. Individuals afflicted with mental illness are often cast out by society, with those loners potentially finding a kindred spirit in Arthur. However, that shouldn\u2019t be mistaken as brushing off his heinous acts. The film doesn\u2019t glamorize his violence, with the third act fully enabling the audience to turn its back on the self-described \u201cJoker.\u201d He is no longer the victim, with his madness drawing him down toward darkness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What the film shows, however, is the pathway toward that darkness and how to counter that. When you watch the film, it\u2019s easy to think \u201cwhat if they were nicer to him?\u201d That question gets turned around on the audience, forcing them to think of how they act toward people similar to Arthur in their own lives. By doing that, they are forced to examine their own choices and, in effect, see if they\u2019re their own jokers.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aside from Batman himself, it seems like no other character can draw more controversy than the Joker. From Heath Ledger\u2019s initially controversial casting in The Dark Knight to Jared Leto\u2019s forever controversial portrayal in Suicide Squad, the role seems fated to draw rebuke. However, with fears of copycat violence emerging, never has that controversy been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":17242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[37,78,251,532,1336,1337,1338],"class_list":{"0":"post-17241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ae","8":"tag-film","9":"tag-movie","10":"tag-gun-violence","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-joker","13":"tag-controversy","14":"tag-behavior"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Let\u2019s Talk\u2014Not Worry\u2014About The Controversial Film Joker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Corbin Bolies claims that the increased focus on potential gun 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