The Joker is a staple of the Batman franchise and DC as a whole, but in the 2019 film, The Joker, Joaquin Phoenix explains a side of the iconic character that many viewers have never imagined before. The backstory of this infamous villain makes the audience root for a man who has struggled with mental illness for his entire life. 

This movie makes viewers uncomfortable at times, but that tone seems to be completely intentional.   The Joker isn’t meant to be happy. The joker character who has been broadly known as the villain but is now portrayed in a different light. He is not oversimplified as the person who simply loves to watch the world burn, but rather a man who has been cast away by society and mistreated for as long as he can remember. This social mistreatment has created a person that has, as the Joker himself puts it, “nothing left to lose.” 

The Joker is an outcast, and his actions, no matter the intent, results in something much larger than one man. He started a movement, this was never his goal but nonetheless a revolution came from what he did. The same way viewers saw The Dark Knight become a symbol of hope for a better time, the viewer sees the Joker as a symbol of hope for a time that is more financially equitable throughout the movie.  

Using mental health and the impact that it can have on a person’s life as a reason for that person to become a “villain” can be taken as a gross representation of actual mental health disorders. The story explains in a quite spectacular fashion how someone with a mental illness can be seen so easily as the antagonist when in reality the only one to blame is the people around him. I think that the creators were trying to show how someone with a mental illness can be turned into a villain so easily, and how our society is so willing to place the blame on anyone except society itself. The Joker explains how society can shape a person, in 2019 the viewer does not need a vat of acid to create a villain, being subjected to daily life and the toxicity of it all is all it takes to create this person. 

From a man that has been suppressed by everyone in his life, to a symbol that so many in Gotham City admire, the story of how The Joker came to be is truly amazing. The film dives deep into many topics ranging from mental health to financial differences and how that impacts everyone living in the society. For a viewer that wants a more dramatic adaptation of an iconic character and strives to ignite a more meaningful conversation about a few crucial parts of our current social climate, the Joker is a great movie to watch.

Final Rating: 4.25/5