Joker: An Unreliable Character Study and the One Scene That "Ruins" It

this video is sponsored by Squarespace I'm actually using their awesome service to make my own website so stick around until the end to hear more we all know the basic setup of a story you have your protagonist with a fatal character flaw a heart to obtain goal that they are trying to achieve and an antagonist that is working overtime to thwart our protagonist at every step across the story our protagonist changes overcomes their fatal flaw defeats the antagonist accomplishes their goal and represents a moral lesson or philosophy well achieved this story can come in the form of any of the basic plot structures from rags to riches voyage and return overcoming the monster and so on stories like these where characters battle to see which side of morality prevails are the bedrock of narratives going back hundreds of years but there is another type of story in fact many others one of which revolves not around investigating a moral lesson but investigating a character themselves these narratives are aptly called character studies and are far more concerned with probing the intricacies of a unique person than telling a traditional story the character themselves become the allure their actions and reactions create the drama and the experience of watching their unique journey unfold gives us a rare opportunity to intimately acquainted with the person we very well might never meet in real life famous movies like taxi driver Serpico Raging Bull the king of comedy and the man who laughs are all a part of this character study sub-genre and coincidentally all are huge inspirations for Twentynine teens Joker that last one the man who laughs actually inspired the Joker's creation all the way back in 1940 but this most recent Joker was inspired by a curiosity of what could be done with the unexplored sea even though the Joker stands as one of the most iconic villains of all time very little is actually known about him as a character and that is mainly by design origin stories for the Joker had been proposed and thrown around but nothing definitive has ever been written look at these scars The Joker's background is ambiguous his identity is unknown and he has no ultimate goal or plan outside of causing mayhem the allure of his character is the mystery caused by his ambiguity Jerry Robinson has said they've given many origins of the Joker how he came to be that doesn't seem to matter just how he is now I never intended to give a reason for his appearance we discussed that and Bill and I never wanted to change it at that time I thought and he agreed that it takes away some of the essential mystery the bill that Jerry Robinson mentioned is Bill Finger and along with Bob Kane these three men are all credited with creating the Joker however even the Joker's real-world origins are uncertain as each of the three men have a differing account of the characters conception uncertain and mysterious subjects are the only ones worth studying and that opportunity is what drew Todd Phillips and Scott silver to write the script that endeavored for a methodical dissection of the most puzzling villain ever for as enigmatic as the Joker is he has really only been portrayed in two ways one such portrayal was the harmless prankster thief though that depiction came and went in the mid 20th century but after that a second style gained traction one depicting the Joker as a psychopathic genius with henchmen resources and over-the-top machinations for 60 years the Joker had been portrayed more or less as a force of nature there was literally no way to stop him only a hope to contain him and even that failed time and time again the Joker really existed by different rules than other villains because of his insanity and uncertainty no plan or action was ever too ridiculous for the Joker to engage in because the Joker is unknowable which means his limits are as well this is why an audience can accept the chokers ability to pull off nearly anything such as this Joker in Batman the Animated Series that's right friends new invention no military or commercial planes can safely fly over Gotham so if you want to avoid unhappy landings just send 40 million dollars to me the Joker or this Joker from under the Red Hood or this Joker from the Dark Knight todd phillips and scott silver as writers weren't interested in the Clown Prince of Crime that we all know they wanted to study the Joker that we didn't know and only one aspect of the Joker is even more vague than who he is and that's who he was that is what's at the heart and soul of 2019 s Joker it is a closed character study not really even about the Joker but about the man who became the Joker Todd Phillips has said as much in an interview with Empire that's what's interesting to me we're not even doing Joker but the story of becoming Joker and for those of you correctly considering that the story of becoming Joker is a man falling into a chemical VAT Todd Phillips recognized that as well but found it to be inadequate he thought that premise was too unrealistic especially for the character study that he had in mind in fact Todd Phillips moved away from almost everything in the comics during his writing of the script a move he predicted what anger fans but chose to do anyway the character study of Arthur Fleck was an original conception one that focused on the struggles of a poor mentally ill man who lived in a city that pushed him to the breaking point paving a clear and understandable pathway into how someone so average could become someone so dangerous and infamous but the very strength of a character study as a narrative format that intimacy in deep understanding of the character served as a monumental roadblock for the writing of the script the allure of a character like the Joker is his ambiguity as Jerry Robinson said a reason for the Joker takes away his essential mystery the Joker as a character seems character study proof because as soon as you make him certain he is no longer the Joker Todd Phillips and Scott Silver understood this dilemma and attempted to overcome it by introducing as much uncertainty into 2019 Joker as possible the character study turned from just a vulnerable man living in a brutal City to a study of a man who has no idea what is real about his life neither Arthur Fleck or the audience get any concrete answers about whether Thomas Wayne is Arthur's father or not documents claimed that penny isn't even his real mother but penny claims those papers are forged the disease that causes Arthur to laugh could either be neurological or caused from the abuse he suffered as a child the foundation that Arthur bases his life on is left completely in limbo the events of the narrative turn Arthur into a man without a past just like the Joker of the comics but creating ambiguity in Arthur's life wasn't enough for Todd Phillips and Scott silver to truly hit home how unknowable the Joker is they went a step further in paradoxically married together to antithetical narrative styles a character study from the perspective of an unreliable narrator unreliable narrators by their definition tell a story that the audience cannot fully trust but of course that stands in direct contrast to the purpose of a character study which seeks to find the answers to the mysteries of an interesting character while seeming nonsensical at first this combination is actually pretty ingenious since a character study is all about intimacy with a character and Arthur is a character with an uncertain life the truest way for an audience to study him would be to experience his existence as he does an unreliable character study puts the audience in the shoes of Arthur Fleck so that by the end of the film our reality of the events is just as varied in multiplicities as his Todd Phillips has said there's a lot of ways you could look at this movie you could look at it and go this is just one of his multiple-choice stories none of it happened and that multiple choice approach harkens back to alan moore in bryan Bolin's legendary graphic novel The Killing Joke wherein the Joker states if I'm going to have a past I prefer it to be multiple choice The Killing Joke might be the strongest inspiration for the film - and its influences appear time and time again the graphic novel centers around the Joker's dark theory that everyone is but one bad day away from madness that fits well - because it's only after Arthur lets himself into Sophie's apartment and whispers do we as the audience understand just how insane he is the relationship that we saw developed between him and Sophie was completely untrue all made up in Arthur's head because of the nature of the unreliable character study the audience experiences this revelation at the same time as Arthur since Arthur's perceptions and senses can't be trusted anything that the film shows him experiencing can't be trusted either and of course the entire movie is Arthur's experience he is in every scene in every shot the subject of the study that shrouds the narrative in uncertainty the entire premise of the film relies on studying the man who becomes the Joker but the study must remain uncertain in order to understand the mind of such a psychotic man which means that every piece of the movie has to include Arthur so that he can frame the events in ambiguity for the audience if there was ever a moment when the audience could view the events of the film independent from Arthur even for a single scene it would completely alter the DNA of the unreliable character study but don't just take it from me listen to Todd Phillips talk about it of course he did not kill this woman down the hall and her child so then people go well why didn't you put in because in the script again that was leaked we had her watching Murray Franklin why didn't we put it in well because we made a choice in the film to only show everything from Joaquin's perspective if we were ever to cut to her we cut out a great scene with Marc Maron and Bob De Niro that didn't involve walking because it didn't involve walking everything was being told through his point of view and perspective so to suddenly cut to this woman it would just literally change the DNA of the film however an issue arises with the Joker and a pretty big one there is a scene that switches away from Arthur during the riots at the end of the film the visuals cut away from Arthur for the first time to show a man in a clown mask he tells Thomas Wayne the same thing Arthur told Murray and then guns down Thomas and Martha Wayne in an alley this of course is the origin of Bruce Wayne's journey to become Batman but stands out in the movie as a distinctly separate scene from anything involving Arthur which then begs the question why was it included all the scene manages to do is exactly what Todd Phillips feared alter the movie instead of a deep ever-changing character study that focused on the perceptions of a mentally ill man the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne makes the events seem more definite and concrete the scene in validates all ambiguity linking Batman's creation to the Joker meaning that Arthur's journeys must have happened for some people it was a jarring departure from the rest of the film one that ruins its theme and feel but I'd like to offer another way to think about it it is in arguable that the death of Bruce's parents is different from anything else in the film in that it doesn't involve Arthur it doesn't fit with the formula that we as the audience had become accustomed to it's strange violent and comes out of nowhere and all those things sound perfect for a Joker movie that single scene changes the DNA of the film from an unreliable character study to something a bit uncertain that little bit of nonsense that aspect that just doesn't quite make sense is really the essence of the Joker as a character insofar as we think we understand how to conceptualize Arthur and what we just saw of him the Wayne scene throws a wrench into anything see there was now I'm not saying this is what Todd Phillips intended or even what is best for the film but we as the audience in our searching for answers and reasons and logic might be the ones that the Joker is talking to when he says thank you guys for watching all the way to the end it really means a lot it also means a lot that Squarespace has chosen to sponsor this video if you have ever been intimidated by the idea of making a website or thought it wasn't for you well join the club because that was me luckily Squarespace is around to make the whole process seamless and easy if you've ever played a video game more complicated than Tetris you can use Squarespace with the click and drag of a mouse you can create awesome photo galleries video backgrounds playable videos and more on a clean website page as I said before I am using Squarespace to make my own website for the channel and it really has been the easiest thing ever I will let you guys know more about it when I'm closer to being done anyway check out squarespace.com and by using my personal link in the description you can get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain again thank you to Squarespace for partnering with the channel thank you all for watching as always it was a pleasure and I will talk to you all again soon [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Savage Books

Views: 234,392

Keywords: Joker 2019, joker movie, joker ending, the joker, joaquin phoenix, joker ending explained, joker 2019, joker trailer, joker review, dc comics, video essay, joker explained, joker film, arthur fleck, joker analysis, joker video essay, bruce wayne, joker movie review

Id: xK6PgYtKZRQ

Length: 14min 39sec (879 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 14 2020