I won’t give too much away but I am excited to use the spoiler feature if somebody wants to discuss.
I loved every second of the film. It was a fascinating look into the mind of mental illness and the effects of being afraid of those who are different. Hatred grows from fear, not only from those who fear but those who are feared. It’s a very real aspect of life that is greatly overlooked because most of us don’t understand it.
I had a teacher in college tell me that if you’re ever afraid of something because it’s different don’t call it stupid or use defense mechanism, take a moment to understand why it’s different and say words like interesting or understanding. It’s the best way to avoid hate.
As for the movie, loved it. It was beautiful from the cinematography to the soundtrack to Joaquin’s portrayal of a completely misunderstood disability. Don’t be afraid of mental illness, attempt to understand it and you’ll find something interesting.
I couldn’t agree more. The mental illness aspect was fascinating to me, but made perfect sense. I walked feeling bad for him. Out of all of the great Jokers there have been over the years, this may have been my favorite one.
While I was watching it, I was pretty depressed as I thought back to my work with homeless/mentally ill folks and how much we’ve decreased (decimated, really) their safety net. It’s important to keep in mind that seriously mentally ill people are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. In order to like the film, I had to compartmentalize my time working with that population and just look at it as a Joker origin story, which it excels at. It’s by far the best origin I’ve seen for him in comics or films.
I should have included a huge caveat- it never felt like an origin story while I was watching it. It was only while thinking about all of the issues it brings up afterwards that I realized, “Hey, it’s a great origin story” precisely because it feels authentic without the burden of a following a checklist that other characters have (Batman’s parents get killed, Spiderman fails to prevent his Uncle’s murder).
I loved that Ledger’s Joker deliberately lied about his origin, and agree that it’s the most satisfying non-origin origin for a character this chaotic, but if you’re going to depict his roots, this was the way to go.