The Joker - Spoiler Alert!

[Loco23]

Has anyone seen the film? I want to know your thoughts and feelings?

For me, it's up there as one of my favourite films ever! I don't usually like films as a lot of the time I go to the cinemas it's usually predictable, cheesy superhero films. But this movie... it definitely made you think!

[Helen91]

Hi Loco,

I saw this last week and loved it. Joaquin Phoenix was brilliant, I hope he wins an Oscar for it.

It was great to see that he did his own version and showed the humanity in him, and he didn’t take anything away from Heath Ledger’s brilliant Joker.

[Gizz_36]

Yeh good movie I hope he play joker again and faces off against Batman

[calmseeker]

So I finally watched this movie. I had held off for a while knowing the content was going to be heavy. I have to say its quite brilliant. I found it profound what joker writes in his journal, " The worst part about having mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don't". I found it disappointing thought, that the movie may back up the stigma and myths that mental illness sufferers are violent. In fact, those suffering MI are more likely to be the victims of violence than the instigators. I thought Joaquin Phoenix was absolutely awesome in this movie. I am going to watch it again soon.

[Guest_6465]

Interesting as to what actual mentally ill people thought of this movie. *Spoiler alert*

I was really hesitant to watch this, but after a really bad day, I relented. I was expecting Hollywood gratuity, but I found this a thoughtful study of how a mentally ill person, could be pushed to violent expression out of anger and frustration.

- I saw myself in Arthur as a victim of childhood abuse and CPTSD

- As a victim of workplace bullying I related to AF being marginalised at work by his colleagues and blamed for incidents beyond his control at work. I related completely when he got revenge on the "colleague" who made out to be his friend but his dobbing and made up stories got him fired

- As a victim of relentless school bullying I had ZERO sympathy when he killed, in self defence, his three attackers on the subway, which made him realise violence was the only way anyone was going to take any notice of his plight

- I emphasised with his killing of the DeNiro character, who invited him on his live show just to make fun of him, having no understanding of the condition that made him act like he did whilst trying to pursue his dream of being a stand up comedian. IN NO WAY do I condone what happened at the end, but sometimes mentally ill people are pushed and pushed, sometimes by the same attention seekers that organised all the "Movember" events at work and such. Mentally ill people, simply by being different, are natural targets for bullying. Watching Joker I was reminded of the original Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, after years of rejection because of his appearance, The Creature relates to himself before his crusade of violent revenge on innocents: "If I cannot be loved, I will the monster you want me to be".

Joker is a tragedy. I felt I had a mirror held up to my life watching it. It was very hard, I won't go into detail.

The commenter who said he can't wait to see him in a sequel facing off against Batman, please think. That scene at the end, with Joker in the mental hospital tragically laughing at the chaos he has inspired, and the flashbacks to a 12yo Bruce Wayne standing over the bodies of his parents. Again, the cycle repeats itself, poor young Bruce so tormented by the murder of his parents he turns into a sociopath bent on (justified) revenge on the Criminal Class. One of the reasons Batman, even though starting out as a comic, has been such an enduring theme, mostly revenge on others that have inflicted harm on us.

Please note, Joker is a reinvention of The Jokers origins . There was no canon origin story to The Joker, apart from the fact he was always a criminally insane psychopath. This was merely another re-invention, a very clever "what if?" if the Joker was a genuine mentally ill person pushed beyond the edge by society and its indifference to the mentally ill?

The flashes of the young Bruce standing over the bodies of his murdered parents remind of us of the cycle of violence and insanity of which some people have no control, Bruce ends up as mentally ill and driven for a desire for revenge as The Joker, though Bruce's vigilantism against the criminal class, we hope we can agree, is justified. Chaos cannot be allowed to rule. Batman/Bruce Wayne and The Joker are a classic Yin/Yang if you understand the analogy.

[Yonath]

If I was writing the script for the face-off between Batman and the Joker I would have the two of them shake hands and then conspire amongst themselves to create a utopian society.