13th October 2019, 7:34 AM
It's no accident this movie is set in 1981, the same year Reagan ended the national mental health program. I mean, it features as a major plot point, so yeah, no accident.
It's Taxi Driver, and in that respect, it isn't as good as Taxi Driver, but it does one thing better than that older movie, it reaches a much wider audience and gets it's ideas out there. I definitely think they could have done without the Wayne family entirely in this one and been a stronger movie for it (a common complaint I admit) but it is a stunning and frankly shocking movie. The whole thing is basically a study on what can drive someone to go to those lengths. That resistance movement would likely not have ended up in the form it did if not for the Joker's actions, it may have ended up more peaceful and less anarchistic. There's no way to tell, but what is clear is that there were systemic issues plaguing the city and the movie reveled in it.
I do appreciate Murphy's teardown of the Joker's defenses at the end. At first the Joker says he believes in nothing, then he goes into a diatribe, then that gets shot down, so Joker just sh- well see the movie. The Joker's meant to be sympathetic, but isn't at all meant to be emulated. If he's an "incel", then he makes incels look bad (which they didn't need any help doing, admittedly). In reality, he's damaged, and he didn't even need a tattoo to convince you of it.
It's Taxi Driver, and in that respect, it isn't as good as Taxi Driver, but it does one thing better than that older movie, it reaches a much wider audience and gets it's ideas out there. I definitely think they could have done without the Wayne family entirely in this one and been a stronger movie for it (a common complaint I admit) but it is a stunning and frankly shocking movie. The whole thing is basically a study on what can drive someone to go to those lengths. That resistance movement would likely not have ended up in the form it did if not for the Joker's actions, it may have ended up more peaceful and less anarchistic. There's no way to tell, but what is clear is that there were systemic issues plaguing the city and the movie reveled in it.
I do appreciate Murphy's teardown of the Joker's defenses at the end. At first the Joker says he believes in nothing, then he goes into a diatribe, then that gets shot down, so Joker just sh- well see the movie. The Joker's meant to be sympathetic, but isn't at all meant to be emulated. If he's an "incel", then he makes incels look bad (which they didn't need any help doing, admittedly). In reality, he's damaged, and he didn't even need a tattoo to convince you of it.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)