"Joker" Reflections (and The Dark Knight)
Joaquin's 1980s everyman beat down by an uncaring ruling class and neglected by society fits particularly well in 2021
The Joker is a film so much about America and modernity. Joaquin nails it.
The weight of a society bearing down on you and splintering any support and stability you have. it's like the sort of older white mans version of The Message.
Actually, yeah, I think it's almost nothing about comic book stories, and a chillingly plainspoken tale about, for "life on the ground floor", for how fragmented white America is rn. The churches collapsed, a lot of families are not functional, and the types of employment that used to exist and be passable for working wages doesn't exist any more. the film is set in the 80s, but the Joker is basically 2020s white America in the every-man sense. And, of course, nobody in power cares about you.
Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge
I'm tryin' not to lose my head
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from going under
I haven't seen any direct commentary on it, but it really feels like there is a hidden undercurrent of the "no-stalgia" of gil scot heron's "B Movie", too.
on “The Dark Knight”
I'm re-watching the film for the first time in a while, and it's really interesting how his explanations to people are entirely just basically directions (or messaging , provocation, in the form of "a conversation"). I have said for a long time he's a perfect example of someone who you should never have conversation with or take seriously, "Don't talk to the joker", and it's an essence of seeing again how right and far beyond that is. Maybe his truest statement in the film is when he's burning the money, and saying its "about sending a message".
In a Tria sense, it makes me uneasy because there is a Tria impulse to "be a message" or "be a symbol" etc, which is one of Batman's conclusions at one point in the trilogy. Joker has no particular relational commentary with anyone, just messages he tries to send, and some gratification from seeing people's plans and functional reactions suffer exploitation and decay. He's sort of like, you know, some ugly elements of elitism in our society, with a purified focus on blood-lust, mayhem, and destruction, rather than elaborate trappings of fame or lording over the sorry people. It's quite an interesting piece of fiction, in that sense.
It makes me sad that some people have a hard time believing that there are not other people who have no qualms about being outright sociopath - and not even out of human idealism, but out of the sense that their sense of rules or regulations are something they cling to; it's not so much that its bad to be that way, just more or less defenseless, and (ahem) they often serve as the unwitting pans or enables of the very people prefer or are unable to see that exist.
Batman concludes "sometimes the truth isn't good enough. Sometimes people deserve more. sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded"
It's the same message concept, just, towards another end, no?