The Joker – ” I Thought My Life Was a Tragedy But Now I Think It’s a Fucking Comedy “

My first thoughts after watching the Joker were that this was a more real and believable version of the iconic Villain. Firstly the setting of Gotham City was more real and believable in the movie. The Bus rides that the joker took, the by alleys, the subways all reminded me of real American cities, it could be New York or Los Angeles for all you know. The movie starts with the Joker putting on his usual makeup in the morning painting his face putting on his clown mask, as we here on the Radio that Gotham is in decay, the streets are full of garbage , the city is rotting , people are unemployed and every6one seems to be going nuts blaming it on the others or the system . In the middle of all this Chaos, our Central character Arthur is getting ready to go to work. His job is to make people happy that simple and make them laugh. These were the values he was given by his mother,” Put on a happy place and make people laugh .” He sure is on his way to doing that. The Joker. Makes his living by dancing around holding for Sale placards infant of departmental stores that are about to go bust. He is doing his bit to make people laugh by doing his clown act. But then he gets ambushed in a back alley by a bunch of street kids who beat him up and steal his placard. Arthur gets no sympathy from his boss who fines him for the loss of the placards and cuts his wages.

We see he is sitting in front of a social worker who also doubles up as his shrink. She talks to him about his negative thoughts and what he has written in his diary. Arthur has a laughing disorder, he can’t stop laughing when he is tense and he has no control over his laughter. He does it on the bus once in-front of a little girl, and then sticks a card that explains his disorder to the little girl’s mother. Arthur to the vision of his mother wants to be a stand-up comedian, his diary is also his joke books.

We see a strong bond between him and his mother as Arthur bathes her in a Tub, feeds her and looks after her with great care only to find out from his mother that he was the bastard child of Mr. Wayne, yes Batman and The Joker are half brothers in a twisted way. We see a need for recognition in Arthur as he feels he is a nobody,” You see my whole life I thought I never existed, he Telles the social worker .” When he shoots three wealthy investment bankers in a subway, it is this very need for recognition of his that gets fulfilled. He is now a somebody, he is a symbol of rebellion for the have nots, the no body’s the downtrodden unemployed of the city, who feel betrayed by a. Failed system and resent Mr. Wane his rich wealthy friends who live behind closed gates ion Tehri ivory towers. It is this need for recognition that gets Arthur to come on a talk show and shoot the host while the show is on air. Now the world knows him as somebody and the masses love him as a sort of a twisted Vigilante who stands up against the elites of the city. The neglected people of a decaying city have a new icon and the is the Joker.

The crazy tap dancing on the lonely stairways of the tunnels, the time he runs away with the file of his mother in the mental asylum, how he runs through tunnels and moving traffic to avoid the cops all make him a maniac that he gets transformed into. His medical condition worsens as he even imagines having an affair with a neighbor. In one scene he imagines himself sleeping with his imaginary girlfriend just after the subway shooting. There is a physical side to the Joker’s madness as his body structure is as twisted as he is, his arms are thin and crooked, his back deformed and his spine twisted, his limbs loose and crooked. With his constant launching, wheezing he does look the part, rather than his predecessor who would just stick out his tough and stick a blade into everybody’s mouth. Our Arthur enjoys shooting people with his gun.

The movie is dark and at times spine chilling, it has a bizarre sequence when he stabs his old boss who comes to his flat to make enquires and then sits near his body coughing and laughing, blood splatted on his clown mask , we know that the joker is sinking further and further into the depths of madness . But the more insane he becomes the more the rioters and the losers of Gotham identify with him until the burning mob dances and chants his name as the joker soaks in their applause in the middle of the street with blood oozing out of his neck as he waves to them. He has now become a somebody, from a nobody he is now a somebody. The Arthur who just wanted to make people laugh has transformed into the menacing, deranged Joker who shoots a talk show host in between the show just to get his recognition and show people, that it is the likes of him who have been wronged and neglected. The system failed him and he is the result of that failed system. Total anarchy that to get attention all one has to do is burn buses, riot or shoot people in the subway, that is the only way to be heard by the ruling minority and the likes of Mr. Wayne. The climax shows the shooting of the Wayne’s in an alley by a rioter as his sone Bruce ( Batman ) looks on in horror. Yes, the Joker has truly arrived and taken center stage, the rioters save him from the police and surround him in a protective circle as he socks in their chants and applause. No stand-up comedy show this, this is an insane man egged on as a messiah by an equally insane mob, who have wrecked Gotham a city that has truly defended into chaos, neglect, and decay.

Joker wears colourful suits, brandishing a gun, sticking a red nose on his face or painting his face with white, blue and red paint. As the movie progresses his hair and his body seem to distort, so does his walk and his hand gestures. It is all part of the act and the Joker plays it with Elan. This is truly his show however twisted it maybe he is the master of the orchestra. In the end, he tends to his sick mother in the hospital who he suffocates to death. He has no place left to go in the world but the mental asylum. The end is as it was in the beginning, we find him in front of a social worker’s desk. My best like from the film,” At first I thought my life was a tragedy but now I realize that it is a fucking comedy .” I enjoyed the film it was more real then most Batman and Joker films, he was more human to me even if his acts were inhuman. You feel his pain in the first half of the film as he walks across empty and dirty streets carrying his food parcel, all alone a loner in a degenerating city. His dancing in-front of the Tv with his mother gives an even darker and twisted turn to his character. His quest for his father Wayne and his need for a father figure is also a theme of the film at times he sees the talk show host played by Robert De Niro as his lost father, a dad he never had. His neglect and loneliness are evident when he sits huddled up in a corner scribbling away in a diary. Joker is a loner alright and the killing is retribution to the lemons life has grown at him, it is his way of having some fun, with a city which screwed him up so much, why shouldn’t he have the fun he has nothing to lose, absolutely nothing to lose.

The imagery the sets and the cinematography pay homage to the theme and show this slow descent into madness. Instead of telling jokes from his joke book he instead decided to shoot the talk show host himself. The very act gets him of all the Tv channels, what’s the point of making people laugh with your comic timing when you can become the talk of the town by just shooting the host in broad daylight.

I loved the performances and the twisted imagery, the flashbacks and the imaginary dreams of the joker, even his love interest is imaginary.

Two thumbs up, you will be glued to your seats and will not lose attention watching this film the movie does its job keeps your bums glues to the seats as scenic after scenes unfold in front of the audience.