Photo courtsey of Hersson Piratoba, Flickr
The media seems to be getting crazier out there with all the hysteria surrounding “Joker”. Before this movie was even released, people frantically jumped on social media preaching how this movie was dangerous to society and will inspire mass shootings.
After seeing “Joker” on opening night, all this panic is complete and utter nonsense, considering there have been hundreds of other movies released each year that have been much more graphic than this.
Why didn’t the audiences boycott “American Psycho” with Christian Bale, a movie that takes the viewer into the mind of a serial killer as the movie’s main character? People don’t seem to mind that movie or link it to a spike in serial killing sprees after its release.
Additionally, there are more recent films like “Deadpool” or the “John Wick” franchise. Both movies are loaded with gratuitous violence, and center around a character who kills scores of people with no moral conflict within them. These movies release and the media doesn’t bat an eye at them for being dangerous to society. In comparison to other movies from this past year, “Joker” does not seem to be on the same violent tier, so to call it dangerous for its violence is total nonsense.
This movie is loaded with deep, thought provoking themes, begging for the viewer to strike discussion. This movie displays how cruel society is towards people who are mentally ill. These people are often defunded of therapy programs, given the cold shoulder and flushed out to the margins of society.
The movie also questions the idea that people in real life are being created to mimic a character like the Joker.
Have you been cruel, unfair or a bully to someone struggling in life?
Dark themes of self-evaluation and taking responsibility for poor, toxic actions are highly uncomfortable to experience and view, but that is the point. This movie is by no means getting the viewer to understand the mind of a psychopath, or even asking you to agree with him, but it sparks intensity.
As a matter of fact, when the Joker does bad things in the movie, his actions come off as impulsive, and are extremely unsettling to watch. So, the notion that this movie is going to empower white supremacy or inspire mass shootings is a dangerously false narrative.
What else would people expect from a film with a dark subject matter? This is who the Joker is. His character is a deeply disturbed, murderous, lying psychopath.
This is not rocket science to figure out, and to propose the notion that this movie was made to incite violence is more dangerous than the movie itself. The media put a gigantic target on this movie with all the false hysteria they created by running egregiously false articles designed to ignite fear.
Those types of headlines and hysteria create copycats, hoaxes and panic. These things are dangerous, and with the media still trying to shove this garbage narrative down our throats, it almost seems like they want to speak such a tragedy into existence.
Luckily, it seems like a vast majority of people do have common sense, because audiences are raving about the movie. It seems like most people are in agreement that this narrative was ridiculous and dangerous. That is the world of clickbait journalism: put out a story designed to create hysteria so it will generate views and streams.
Any press is good press, and this has led it to be the highest grossing October opening for a movie, surpassing “Venom,” with a total of $96 million at the box office.
Overall, it’s okay to love or hate this movie; everyone has different preferences. The only thing that is not okay is to throw dangerous labels on a movie and use that as the reason for mainstream violence.
mcaprio@ramapo.edu
