What I Got From Watching 'Joker'

Now that the hype has died down and a good majority of people have seen this movie I thought I'd talk about the Joker flick. After watching Joker I felt the intention of the movie was to not only provide me the viewer with solid entertainment. It was also meant to make the viewer look at the type of person they are when they're around others. One of the few things that bothered me about the movie wasn't even in the movie. It was people saying they understand where Arthur was coming from, or they could relate to him. Or they understand why he did what he did when he was spiraling out of control. It seems like little to none of those comments online were people saying we've got to treat each other better. Yes because we might potentially send a fellow human being off the edge of sanity, but also because it's just the right thing to do. Every Gothamite felt like they were in their own bubble concentrating on their own world and own problems. The lady on the bus who wanted Arthur to stop making her kid laugh, to Arthur's coworkers. They all reminded me of people in the city I live in (Seattle). Very few greet you happily or strike a genuine conversation with a stranger, and if they do they're most likely from out of town.

The main message I felt this movie was trying to deliver was, "Society creates its own monsters." It could be the kid being bullied that comes to school the next day and shoots everything up. The guy asking for a few extra days to give his land lord rent. Someone who just got fired, someone who just lost a loved one and in some cases someone who just got rejected asking a person out. There's a quote from Alan Moore's Batman novel The Killing Joke that I'd like to share and it goes like this, “All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.” I think we all have that "1 bad day" within all of us to turn us into monsters. I personally don't want to be an aiding factor that helps trigger that day for someone. Now I'm not saying that land lord should give the person a few extra days. Or the rejector (I know that's technically not a word) should have gave the person a chance to go out with them. I'm talking about when you unknowingly encounter that person. We all have a choice. We could add to their problem or just be a great person. Were all going through crap. It makes no sense at all to add more bull crap to the world.

Overall the movie watching experience was amazing. The final scene had me feeling dread and sadness for the city of Gotham. The citizens have unknowingly created their darkest and most evil citizen plus he's developed a cult like following also. You can almost feel the fear of whats to come during the final scene. The music that was playing and emotions Phoenix went through had so much layers to it, I could write pages upon pages of that scene alone. The society part of the movie drew similar feelings of when I watched 2004's Crash. That is a reason I personally wouldn't want a sequel for this movie. It's perfect as it is. It's drawing discussions with viewers just like Crash. Also Moore's classic Killing Joke novel which is viewed as Joker's origin story was meant to be a one shot. There were no retelling's or rewriting of the origin. It was just perfect. Just like this movie. If I were to give it a number between 1 and 10. 1 being bad and 10 being perfect. I would score it a 10 out of 10. Moore has Joker's origin perfect to a t, and Todd Phillips has it in the film world. 10/10