{"id":4759,"date":"2019-10-25T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T08:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bracketyackrc.wpengine.com\/?p=4759"},"modified":"2019-10-25T08:00:35","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T08:00:35","slug":"the-joker-in-2019-unsurprising-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=4759","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Joker\u2019 in 2019 – Unsurprising Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Charissa Roberson<\/em><\/p>\n

Even before its release on Oct. 4, Todd Phillips\u2019 <\/span>Joker<\/span><\/i>, a comic-book adaptation focusing on DC Comic\u2019s most famous villain, was making waves on an international scale. As reported by Screendaily, <\/span>Joker<\/span><\/i> won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, which is the highest award presented to a film.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, controversy quickly began to swirl around the film\u2019s global release. Many critics feared that <\/span>Joker\u2019s<\/span><\/i> disturbing violence might spark similar actions in viewers who sympathized with the Joker\u2014or Arthur Fleck, as he is introduced at the start of the film. The fact that audiences could feel sympathy for this super-villain shows just how striking Phillips\u2019 adaptation of the character is. Backed by a stunning performance from Joaquin Phoenix, Phillips shows the Joker through a new lens, following him as he descends from a lonely, delusional man into a grinning, dancing clown who kills with glee.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film is a true character-piece, with Phoenix as its break-out star. Our eyes are riveted to the screen\u2014we cringe as Fleck is mocked and beaten by ruthless strangers, we beg for him to succeed as he pursues his stand-up comedy career, and we watch in mute horror as he releases the reins of his own reality. For the first time, we understand the Joker of films like <\/span>The Dark Knight <\/span><\/i>(2008).<\/span><\/p>\n

But what if this crazy, murderous character is presented as too relatable? Fears arose that others who feel abused by society might see the Joker as a role model, leading to concerns about mass violence connected to film screenings. According to CNN, cinemas ramped up their security for opening night, and law enforcement officers were warned about possible threats. So far, however, the media\u2019s fears appear to be unsubstantiated; the film opened to great box office success, with Oscar buzz surrounding Phoenix\u2019s performance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the <\/span>Joker<\/span><\/i> controversy, if nothing else, has drawn attention to the difficult experiences of those suffering from mental illness. Warner Bros. stated in an official response to <\/span>Joker<\/span><\/i> criticism that \u201cone of the functions of storytelling is to provoke difficult conversations around complex issues.\u201d As Arthur Fleck asks, \u201cWhat do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash?\u201d The Joker is an extreme example\u2014but perhaps we need to be asking the question.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Charissa Roberson Even before its release on Oct. 4, Todd Phillips\u2019 Joker, a comic-book adaptation focusing on DC Comic\u2019s most famous villain, was making waves on an international scale. As reported by Screendaily, Joker won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, which is the highest award presented to a film.\u00a0 However,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}