Joker (2019) is an American psychological thriller directed and written by Todd Phillips. The movie stars Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker in the first DC Comics movie based solely on a villain. Joker follows Arthur Fleck’s (a failed comedian) descent into insanity and villainy in the year 1981 in Gotham City. Joker premiered at the Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2019.
While Phoenix’s enigmatic performance was praised highly, the disturbing portrayals of Fleck’s insanity upset viewers and critics alike. As a result, there have been cries to remove Joker from theaters due to its triggering nature (Washington Post 2019). Despite the controversy, Joker is the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time, gaining nearly 850 million dollars worldwide (Surrey 2019) since the initial screening. The question of the century: is Joker too graphic for the theaters? Or is it the wake-up call we need to spread awareness about the mental health crisis?
At the heart of the controversy is the movie’s portrayal of Joker as a protagonist who, at times, evokes sympathy from the audience because of how he is marginalized from society due to his mental illness. Joker endures this mistreatment until he finally snaps. This portrayal has led to concerns that those who feel similarly isolated could get the idea to turn to violence as an outlet to their emotions.
In the year 2018 alone, there have been 27 mass shootings in the United States; two-thirds of the perpetrators had a history of mental illness with the most common reported symptoms being depression and psychosis (US Department of Homeland Security July 2019 Report: Mass Attacks in Public Spaces). The National Council for Behavioral Health found that perpetrators were most often males and suffered from hopelessness, apathy, and victimization related to relationships in all parts of their lives. One of the perpetrators from a May 24, 2018 mass shooting had posted online that everyone was against him, leaving him feeling hurt and alone (US Department of Homeland Security July 2019 Report: Mass Attacks in Public Spaces).
The FBI issued a warning to the US military about recent social media posts encouraging a copycat scenario from the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting in a movie theater at screenings of the Joker film nationwide (Gizmodo 2019). Police departments took these posts seriously and increased their presence at movie theaters across the country. Despite the precautions taken by law enforcement, there have been no known specific threats to the opening of the Joker movie on October 4th. According to US Army officials, the people who were posting these threats admire the Joker character’s representation as a man who has to pretend to be happy but ultimately fights against his perceived bullies (9/24/19 Gizmodo).
It is indisputable that Joker is, in fact, a profoundly disturbing narrative that explores the mind of a psychotic killer. However, it does well in educating viewers on what is happening to the mental health community. Many find the movie troubling and don’t realize that the events in Joker are a truth that some people live by; further emphasizing the knowledge gap that everyday people have concerning mental health.
“[The film] was a[n]…accurate prediction of the kind of background and circumstances which, when combined together, make a murderer” pushed to the brink by mental illness, says Adrian Raine, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania. By being an accurate representation of real-life people grappling with violence and mental health issues, the film gives ordinary people a glimpse of the struggles people like Fleck face on the daily. Joker also presents a call to action by exhibiting the warning signs of mental illness teetering into dangerous directions, such as murder.
Although it is unreservedly false to say that all mentally ill people incite violence as a result of their illness, it is known that mental illness is a notable prelude to violence. The warning signs of this cause and effect relationship must be identified and addressed so that people in the same situation as Arthur Fleck can progressively heal. Not only does Joker educate everyday people on the warning signs a critically psychologically ill person displays, but it also highlights the “restricted access to public mental health services” (Zayas, Chicago Tribune 2019) mental patients face, that transpires in both the film and in the real world, thereby helping to spread awareness about a very real and imminent issue.
While spreading awareness about warning signs of mental health and the deplorable state of public mental health resources is extremely important, another key thing Joker achieves is creating empathy among viewers towards the mental health community. It helps everyday people to further their understanding of the mentally ill and their motives. Essentially, Joker was the pivotal step that we needed to take in order to combat mental health stigma in today’s world; the next step to a better world.
Article by Cynthea Wang and Shaunak Dua of Herbert Hoover Middle School
Photo courtesy of Creative Commons