Joker 2019

Undoing of Rebel

The comments I make could be considered by many as sacrilege.

But before that an anecdote here. In Pune, we have a place called Koregaon Park, wherein many oddities of culture survive. It is in this area where during the late nineties and early noughts you could find Kinetic Honda vehicles with a banner of Liverpool plastered across the front grill. Yes, fans of Liverpool, in the entire nation of India were found here. Mind you, not of the Liverpool of European conquests of 80’s nor the recent Klopp mania Liverpool post 2015. Fans of a club, which was essentially then a feeder club to giants like Real Madrid.

Today if you go in this area you might spot and odd man sporting a West Ham t-shirt, look at which even Russel Brand will go, “that’s odd”

Anyways for a brief period I was a member of this odd club. No, No I did not live in this area, the thing is, of all the Joker’s I liked the Joker from Suicide Squad. Not just that, I liked the movie so much that I had a Suicide Squad t-shirt, which I sported for a long time, until one day mysteriously holes started appearing in it. (In case you missed, the sacrilege is …..)

Now lets return, Jokam (Joaquin) Phoenix’s Joker is more in the vein of Taxi Driver’s De Niro. It’s intense, dark, and poses difficult questions to the audience. It tries to capture the journey of a character, in time a matter of weeks, in terms of perspective a matter of  a lifetime. A story from the point of view of the Joker.

In India, there is a rich tradition of point of view writing, the same story approached from many angles. The best I remember and recommend the Mahabharata from the point of view of Karna, captured in ‘Mrityunjay’. History they say is written by the victors, however nuance can come from the point of view of loser. However, If you were to believe in the ‘Rashomon Effect’ then neither view is right and every view is self justifying, but you need to check all of them out to form a wholesome picture. However, still the picture formed will be prejudiced by your bias.

Joker viewing is going to be an exercise in bias testing.

The extreme leftist who believe in a world distorted by inequalities will find the justification for the Joker’s actions in his circumstances. A discard, whom the elite despise, ridicule, reaches a breaking point and strikes back in violence.

The liberals for whom mental health is a prime campaign issue other than climate change, will sympathize with the psychological destruction of the character and how we care so less about mental health. They will see a cautionary tale, and warn us about the dangers of not supporting mental health programs.

The revolutionary may seek justification of violent struggle, nothing to lose, edge of the cliff, why not just plunge.

The reasoned rationalists might agree with his motivations but disagree with his actions and propose better solutions.

The conservative might utterly despise the whole movie for trying to defend the morally indefensible. They will argue for the morality that underpins modern civilized society.

Just watch the movie and your first reaction will give you an insight where do you lie on this spectrum, from left to conservative.

However, objectively speaking, the Joker in a way transcends the spectrum all together. Recently I heard Slavoj Žižek (Slovenian Philosopher) talk about ‘doing nothing as a form of extreme violence’. His argument is that any social structure is underpinned by expectations, like being at a job, being a student, being a professional, etc is circumscribed by a set of rules. A form of rebellion would be to move against the rules in a forceful manner, do something the rules prohibit, like assemble a giant meeting when curfew is imposed. Žižek argues another form of rebellion would be to just do nothing, do not acknowledge the rules. Reach passivity, for example reach office, sit in office, but refuse to engage in any work. However do not refuse actively, do not argue, listen to everyone, nod your head, but do not act on the orders or instruction.

Joker’s rebellion is similar, it breaks the conventional boundaries of rebellion. He does not subscribe to any ideology, he refuses to actively engage even in the demonstration and political action caused by his own actions. In a proverbial way, ‘knowing the truth sets him free’. All his life he wants to be bracketed in some conventional form. He wants acknowledgement for the way he takes care of his mother, he craves a romantic ideal relationship, he desires recognition for his work. But the moment he faces his truth, he just leaves all of it, rather stops caring for all of it.
He utters the haunting lines, ‘till now I thought my life was a tragedy, now I realize, it is a comedy’

What ensues is debatably right or debatably wrong, however for the Joker all meaning is his meaning, all his life he cared for validation from others, now he does not care. Hence, even when he receives validation as the leader of a rebellion, he does not care, no speech, nothing, he just dances to his own tune.