Joker (3/5 Stars)

Politically Correct Psycho Killer

Paul Schrader, screenwriter of Taxi Driver, once stated in an oral history of the movie:

“I had written the character of the pimp [that Harvel Keitel plays] as black, and we were told by Colombia we had to change it to a white guy because the lawyers were concerned “if we do this and Travis kills all those black people at the end, then we’re going to have a riot. And we’re going to be liable for this.”

Imagine for a moment that Taxi Driver had not cast Harvey Keitel as the pimp. That the movie instead had cast a black man and that Travis Bickle ends the movie by murdering that black man to save the thirteen-year-old prostitute played by Jodie Foster. Such a scenario would make sense for Travis Bickle’s character. He is a racist. That isn’t the end all be all of his personality, but it is there. He has a great disgust for the city he is living in (1970s New York) and black people are clearly a part of his disgust. If this detail were more overt, would anyone have had the guts to think of Taxi Driver as a great movie? Or would it have been completely overwhelmed by the political reaction? If Scorsese had made the decision to stick with the original plan in casting, would that have been an act of racism? Is it itself racist to make a good movie about a racist?

This kind of question is relevant now given the several controversies over the movie Joker, wherein the creators have been accused of providing a platform for incels and other kinds of gloomy white men to expound their hatred. Little do these critics know that they have already won the war. (Most have only seen the trailer). Joker preemptively self-censored itself. This gloomy white man named Arthur Fleck, played by Joaquin Phoenix, only targets rich white men and ends up creating a protest movement against income inequality. Now, who could argue about that?

There is a strange disconnect in the setting of this movie. Everything looks like it takes place in the “bad old days” of New York. It is painted in the bad fashion, subway graffiti, and super rats of inner-city decay. There is even a very important scene that initiates Arthur Fleck on his journey to become the nihilistic arch-villain of Gotham. He is jumped on the subway, pulls a gun, and kills the men who attacked him. Does this remind you of anyone? Clearly, it is Bernie Goetz, the subway killer, reborn in movie form. In the early 1980s, this man shot four would-be muggers in a city subway and was lionized by a large section of the city who were also sick of getting mugged. Of course, the difference between Goetz and Arthur Fleck is that Goetz shot four black teenagers. Here, Arthur Fleck kills three drunk white wall street assholes.

I’m making a big deal about this because of what Joker is supposed to be: a gritty realistic origin story of a villain. It would make sense if the audience didn’t approve of the man’s motives and it would have made the movie far more weighty and interesting if the motives matched the environment being evoked. But it seems that the movie’s creators were too scared to make the character controversial out of concerns that certain critics wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the point of view of movie makers and characters within a movie. In effect, we have a movie that wants to instill a mood akin to great 1970s movies but lacks the emotional depth to actually do so. It’s like a player piano. It hits all the correct notes, but has no feeling. You won’t walk out of it unnerved like the way you felt when you watched Taxi Driver. It probably will make far more money though.

Joker contains a very good performance by Joaquin Phoenix, great production design, and an evocative score. It was directed by Todd Phillips, best known for comedies like Old School and The Hangover who shows that he can at least play the right notes in a drama. If anything, it is much better than all the recent D.C. comic fare. They ought to make more movies like this one, more character based and less effects driven. I only wish, well, that it wasn’t a comic book movie. That would be more interesting.