I went to see the Joker movie opening weekend. I have always been an avid comic book fan, and the possibility of seeing Joker in his own solo film greatly peaked my interest. The character himself has been, for me, an ongoing intellectual exercise in finding out the ideals, psychological nuances and history of this beloved character of pop culture. I was quite content with how director Todd Phillips handles the Joker in a way that is both original and yet stays true to his comic book manifestation. However, surrounding the film is a sea of controversy. With TIME Magazine calling it "The Most Controversial Movie of the Year," and many people are enraged with almost everything about it. From the fact that the movie involves the "False Victimization of a White Man," to the "Promotion of Gun Violence."
However, Joker has long been a symbol for those who are fed up with society and culture as it is, with many seeing him as the perfect example of a true Anarchist, and the 2019 film seems to confirm the statist's conception of Anarchy as nothing more than a valueless, nihilistic stream of chaos. But is he really? Or is there a deeper symbol that many commentators are missing that is pivotal to the essence of the Clown Prince of Crime?
The 2019 movie had conflicting messages about Joker to begin with. He was neither nihilist nor moralist. He was neither good nor bad. The conflict between these dichotomies is symbolically represented between the internal struggle between Arthur Fleck and Joker. He wasn't a true nihilist in the film because, for him to be one, he must not believe in a form of justice or goodness. However, Arthur did feel the pain of being mistreated and getting the short end of the stick. He was the victim, and thus there is a sense of good and evil. The true nihilist would say that there is no such thing as good or evil, whereas Joker is fed up with the injustice of the autocratic system that benefits only the rich. The problem is, Joker does claim to not believe in "anything." The problem for Arthur Fleck lies between his desperate want for justice in the world, and the incredible silence from the universe.
There is a philosophical term for the want of meaning and the eerie lack of a response. The term is "The Absurd." The 2019 Joker takes on a twist that is previously foreign to the character. He shifted from a nihilist to an absurdist.. Absurdism is a branch of existentialism that states that life is without meaning, yet can be enjoyed nevertheless. You do not create meaning but instead enjoy the lack of meaning. Joker mirrors Camus and his philosophy in many different ways.
To first fully understand the philosophical themes of Joker, he must throw out any preconceived notion of him being a Nihilist. This is what makes the 2019 Joker seem so different yet oddly similar to the past manifestations of the character. To explain the existential relationship between Joker and his existence, we must ponder the three absurdist themes that appear in Joker. These are- Suicide, Acceptance, and Anarchy.
Throughout the film, there were inexplicit allusions to suicide, with Fleck mimicking shooting himself and joking about how his death would make more "cents." This is another change in the continuity of character. Before, the idea of depression was foreign to Joker. Joker is the manifestation of irrational joy; while Arthur Fleck is the manifestation of rational despair. As the movie progresses, and the walls of rationality crumble, we see Joker accept his uncontrollable "condition" and embrace it as a part of reality. Throughout the film, we see Fleck's struggle between suicide and laughter as a response to his status in both society and his mind represented by many symbols and motifs like his dancing, the stairs and music shifts. This is represented clearly in the literary works of Camus and in other existentialists like Kierkegaard.
The void laughs at your pain. You laugh back. No need to create meaning, just revel in the apathy of the powers above you. Laugh at your foolishness for placing your trust in the broken systems of religion and government. In the face of a meaningless universe, all you can do is laugh.
These are themes that both apply to Joker and Absurdism. Especially when Arthur Fleck is explaining his relationship with his own existence. "For the longest time," Fleck explains, "I thought my life was a tragedy." As he smothers his mother, he continues, "But now I've learned, that it's a comedy." This absurdist theme of enjoying your doomed fate is prevalent all throughout the film. The Myth of Sisyphus Camus illustrates the same ideas that are altogether manifested in Joker. The theme of rejecting any hope of resolving the strain is also to reject despair. Indeed, it is possible, within and against these limits, to speak of happiness. “Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth. They are inseparable” (MS, 122). It is not that discovering the absurd leads necessarily to happiness, but rather that acknowledging the absurd means also accepting human frailty, an awareness of our limitations, and the fact that we cannot help wishing to go beyond what is possible. These are all tokens of being fully alive. “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy” (MS, 123).
The last theme that manifests in the film is not necessarily Absurdist but instead manifests itself in the other works of Camus. Camus himself never made a secret of his attraction towards anarchism. Anarchist ideas occur in his plays and novels, as for example, La Peste, L’Etat de siège or Les Justes. He had known the anarchist Gaston Leval, who had written about the Spanish revolution, since 1945. Camus had first expressed admiration for revolutionary syndicalists and anarchists, conscientious objectors and all manner of rebels as early as 1938 whilst working as a journalist on the paper L’Alger Republicaine, according to his friend Pascal Pia.
Albert Camus’s book L’Homme Révolte (translated into English as The Rebel), published in 1951, marked a clear break between him and the Communist Party left. It was met with hostility by those who were members of The Communist Party or were fellow travellers. Its message was understood by anarchists and revolutionary syndicalists in France and Spain, however, for it openly mentions revolutionary syndicalism and anarchism and makes a clear distinction between authoritarian and libertarian socialism. The main theme is how to have a revolution without the use of terror and the employment of “Caesarist” methods. So Camus deals with Bakunin and Nechaev among others. “The Commune against the State, concrete society against absolutist society, liberty against rational tyranny, altruistic individualism finally against the colonisation of the masses…”
Both Joker and The Rebel end with a call for the resurrection of anarchism. Authoritarian thought, thanks to three wars and the physical destruction of an elite of rebels, have submerged this libertarian tradition. But it was a poor victory, and a provisional one, and the struggle still continues. The problem with the end of the Joker lies in the fundamental misconception of anarchy as nothing more than riots and chaos. Anarchy is not chaos or nihilism but instead based on moralism and idealism that brings forth an ordered society.
Is Joker a true anarchist?
Or has the misrepresentation and misunderstanding of Anarchy created a false god that incorrectly symoolizes the fundamental principles of libertarian fundamentalism? We find this same misconception of Anarchy many in many movies and books. The confusion lies, as usual, in the false definition of the term. Anarchy has three distinct definitions each of which are separate. Anarchy is a homophone for three ideas.
1) Chaos
2) Nihilism
3) Political Liberty
a) Abolition of Government
b) Abolition of Hierarchy
The problem of the Joker movie is that it merges the first two definitions under the guide of the last, thus painting political liberty as nothing more than chaos and nihilism. There is a distinction that is often glossed over. The same principle applies to the Walking Dead or the Purge. Thus, in order to fully understand the films, you must first know what interpretation of Anarchy they present, and from that, understand the bias.
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