Joker — How to Make Evil Likable | Film Perfection

Society the definitive perspective what try the police I'll tell you what you call the police get what you deserve [Music] Joker is yet another 2019 Hollywood movie with a week or in some sense even non-existent plot and my initial intent was to make a video on some of the ingenious narrative devices it uses to get around this issue specifically our hero Arthur flex laughing condition where he starts chuckling uncontrollably whenever he feels unsafe or uncomfortable see the reason plot and strong character goals are so important in film is because they are the thing that creates conflict and situations for example the plot version of the subway incident would be that Arthur's current primary goal is to get something from Thomas Wayne and so here he needs something from the Wayne employees to get closer to him which incites the conflict but since Arthur doesn't actually have any goal he's pursuing here how can the movie then drive him to face obstacles and conflict and make the scene into an interesting situation exactly nobody tell us what's so funny however I've already touched on a subject a couple times before so it's not really worth a full video but I will say whoever came up with this laughing condition narrative device is a genius that said the other interesting aspect about Joker that to me is worth doing a video on is the fact that the sole protagonist of the movie that we are following and supporting is a bad guy when I say a bad guy I don't mean that he's a kind-hearted antihero doing questionable things to achieve a good outcome I don't mean that he's a self-entitled billionaire who learns to become a good person no what I mean is that our main hero Arthur Fleck is a full-on villain level bad guy who commits multiple hideous acts of true evil not only does he kill and execute people without remorse he also through his actions begins a widespread movement of death and destruction that for example orphans a certain innocent little boy and the absolute craziest thing about this is that despite all the atrocities Arthur commits we the audience never turn on him and instead continue to stick by him and actually support him until the very end the reason why is because the movie utilizes a couple very effective a narrative tricks to keep us on Arthur's side in terms of who is the person committing the evil acts who are the targets of those acts and what is the way some of those evil acts are committed and portrayed and so today let's see what those Joker tricks actually are let's see how to take an evil villain like protagonist and make them a likable hero that the audience can and will support right away the very first thing Joker does to get us on our hero Arthur side is by being very meticulous on how he is established like I've talked about before the usual effective way to make a hero likable is with a character moment called saving the cat which basically shows the hero doing something good for someone else and this way makes the audience want to support them this movie however utilizes a character moment that is kind of the opposite and in some aspects even more effective a moment called kicking the dog which not only is exactly how it sounds it's also exactly how this movie opens like to the letter when you see these Punk's deal the sign from Arthur aka the dog and then for absolutely no reason knock him down and beat him up aka kick the dog you just can't help but feel sympathy for him like he did absolutely nothing to deserve this and it's that sympathy and feeling bad for Arthur y-you instantly find him likable and someone you desperately want to succeed but the movie doesn't stop there in addition to Arthur just getting beat up this moment also leads to a big bunch of more unfair problems like him being wrongly accused by his boss for stealing the sign and then ultimately getting fired from his job because he's so-called friend lied about him I said you disappeared never even returned his sign because I got jumped basically the entirety of the first act is dedicated to establishing Arthur as a sad little man with almost nothing dude in his life who repeatedly and unjustly keeps getting hammered down by multiple different people representing this cruel world he exists in one unfair instance after another all of which gets worse and worse and worse until it finally culminates in a transition to the second act where Arthur commits his first deed of horrendous evil I'm not gonna lie when Arthur execute this defenseless guy from behind that is the kind of evil action that usually would turn the audience against him right away and make the whole movie fall apart but the reason that never happens here is because thanks to our kick the dog first act this action doesn't really seem evil as much as it does justified when the Wayne employees thump on Arthur while he's down you'll notice that's an exact replica of our opening stomping scene which subconsciously in your head positions these employees as yet another representatives of this cruel world that keeps whacking Arthur down and so when Arthur pulls out his gun and starts shooting our shock doesn't come from wow I can't believe we shot those guys but instead from wow I can't believe it took him this long to stand up for himself and that's basically what this moment is not Arthur committing a horrendous evil act but Hema finally standing up for himself what he does isn't by any means right but in the audience's eyes it is rightful and in film that's the only thing that matters a dog that unprompted Lee runs around biting people can and will be considered an evil rabid monster but a dog that gets repeatedly kicked for no reason and then finally bites back that's just an ordinary dog giving his kicker's what they're asking for that's Arthur Fleck and the cruel unjust world around him in Joker in addition to just establishing Arthur as being rightful in his evil actions to get us on his side this movie also builds on that in an effort to keep us on his side by being very careful about the way it establishes the people targeted by those actions in total Arthur in this movie kills seven people which is quite a lot for a hero in a runtime of two hours but with six out of those seven people the problem of the audience ultimately growing sick of Arthur's continuous killing spree and turning against him is averted by making the deaths of those six people in of themselves feel as miniscule and deserved as possible which is achieved in a couple ways firstly the film very wisely keeps each of these six victims fairly 2-dimensional we don't get any meaningful glimpses into their personal lives or the families they might or might not leave behind that would make us view them as full-on real-life people we mostly just see them as the superficial characters they are we have three douche bag Wayne employees who are just three douche bag Wayne employees we have the selfish bully clown who's just a selfish bully clown we have Marie whose sole purpose for existing in this world is to function as a host of a TV show which is the only environment we ever even see him in the one of the six victims that we do get some inside sins as a real-life person he's Arthur's mother but even there there's a couple factors to soften the blow she's not actually his real mother plus she's a lobotomist vegetable plus she's even about to die on her own anyway and so while killing her and the others is a big character evolving deal - Arthur as it should be the deaths in of themselves are not too big for us to become incapable of sticking by Arthur's side but secondly and more importantly each of these six victims have also very specifically treated Arthur in a way that makes his retaliation feel deserved don't sweat it on no one has to know your son was found tied to a radiator malnourished with multiple bruises across his body and severe trauma to his head the Wayne employees jumping and beating Arthur just because he's not normal yeah they had it coming the bully clone purposefully giving Arthur a gun to get him fired from his job yup he asked for it Arthur's fake mom neglecting him as a boy so badly that he was repeatedly beat to the point of developing his laughing condition what's fair is fair Murray first acting like a good guy but then revealing himself as yet another entitled Gotham bully who's willing to ridicule even his biggest fans just reviews there's only one sensible reply to this I'm not saying the audience agrees with the punishment Arthur deals out but when they see him acting as judge jury and executioner they understand it enough not to let the act itself turn them away from him after Arthur shoots Murray he doesn't start firing randomly at the crowd and the crew after he's done with the bully clown he doesn't turn to harm the tiny golfer dude because they haven't done anything to deserve it but those six specific people they did in a way that while Arthur's actions aren't necessarily morally correct they're not exactly incorrect either which is why in film the audience is able to allow them as much as what we've talked about dust build Arthur up as a likable and rudabeh protagonist there is one moment at the midpoint of Joker where all that work should come crumbling down and turned the audience against Arthur once and for all and that is the moment where he kills the seventh person we haven't yet talked about his neighbor also I know there are differences of opinion whether or not Arthur actually killed the neighbor and we'll get to that but for the sake of argument let's assume he dated the reason why Arthur killing his neighbor is so problematic and destructive is because all the previous evil balancing factors that have allowed the audience to stick by his side kicking the dog having superficial victims who get what they deserve none of that applies here firstly the movie once again tries to reestablish Arthur as this poor guy abused by the cruel world by having him find out the truth about his fake mom and his fake ties to the Wayne family and the fact that he truly is a worthless nobody who has no place anywhere but this time this just doesn't work because his neighbor has never been established as a representative of this cruel world like the others aka she's not the one kicking the dog and so therefore Arthur lashing out against her is not in any way justified secondly even though our relationship with her turns out to be fake we still know enough about her to make her more than just a two-dimensional superficial movie character we know she's in a similar struggling life situation as Arthur we know she has a little girl she's taking care of I'm not saying she has the deepest most significant supportive role ever but I am saying we know enough to view her as a person and thirdly unlike all the other victims she has done absolutely nothing to deserve what Arthur does to her she hasn't abused or wronged Arthur in any way just the opposite she's always been very friendly to him without even having any reason to do so I mean she's even being nice to him when he has broken into her apartment the other room because and the question then is if all the earlier reasons the audience has to stick by Arthur's side despite his evil acts don't apply here why doesn't this act of Arthur killing his neighbour turned the audience against him because the movie never shows it happening if we had seen Arthur blow the neighbours head off like he does with the others the movie would have fallen apart right then and there but all that we actually do see is Arthur having an ominous breakdown in the neighbors apartment and then marching home and reeling from whatever just happened and even though you could make the argument that Arthur never touched her the fact that we see all this along with police lights passing by it's pretty much as the rekt of an implication of it happening as any implication can be but because implying is all this movie does because it pales instead of shows this evil act just doesn't carry the same destructive impact we are aware of what Arthur probably did and how it shapes him as a person but because we didn't see him do it it's not enough to turn us away from him because maybe he didn't do it same with Bruce Wayne's parents make no mistake Arthur is responsible for what happens because what happens is a direct inspired reflection of his own actions [Applause] we all feel this moment in our gut due to the fact that we all know exactly who Bruce Wayne is as a person but once again because Arthur is not the one pulling the trigger because we don't see Arthur killing the parents it still doesn't turn us against him because it's like I always keep reminding showing is always more powerful than telling and what Joker the movie shows is that sometimes you can find more uncommon ways to use things just like telling to your advantage because that's what truly great writing is [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Filmento

Views: 893,034

Keywords: joker, joker murray show, joker ending, joker clip, joker movie, joker ending explained, joker 2, arthur fleck, murray franklin, you get what you f deserve, joker bruce wayne, joker neighbor, clown, the joker, joker sequel, joaquuin phoenix, todd phillips, venom, tom hardy, venom 2, joker laugh, iron man, mcu, video essay, movie, film, review, reaction, ending explained, expensive car house

Id: pnOoIXWBrNE

Length: 15min 18sec (918 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 10 2020