I finally got around to watching “Joker” (2019). This movie was the perfect counterpoint to Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” Trilogy. Being rallied to emulate the public personas of our betters, or preferably stunned into accepting rule by them, is the barely disguised subtext behind nearly all superhero movies, and it makes no difference whether the hero is a man, a woman, both or neither. This movie challenges that paradigm, just as did “The Watchmen” (2009), but “Joker” takes a very different approach from the earlier movie. Both films taken together help me understand what increasingly bothers me about the films of Christopher Nolan.
“Joker” is about mental illness, the fact that a very high percentage of people have been left behind economically and socially, and those with power are alternately patronizing towards them (Bruce Wayne’s father, the billionaire) or ridicule them (Robert de Niro’s talk show host). The character falls into the pit of despond when he is abused by street punks, loses his job, is beaten by investment banker types and finds out everything his mother has told him was a lie. His is the “liberal” version of tragedy in which each of the fallen is society’s failure more than his own responsibility, but none fail worse than the entitled rich who get what’s coming to them. Joachin Phoenix was brilliant in the role, which had already been immortalized by Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger. But one never sympathized with those guys because Batman had to be good against their evil. In this story Bruce Wayne appears only as a child.
“The Watchmen” also shows the failings of society gone wrong for so many, but more than anything it explores power corrupting absolutely with respect to superheroes. Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias are literally godlike. They show in practice that means the little people can and should be led or squashed by them. Ozymandias in particular believes he should rule them all for their own good, and will kill however many it takes to enforce his idea of the best outcome on the rest. Here I think Nolan is in the same place as the “heroes,” Ozymandias and Dr. Manhattan, who in this story are challenged by a man who is far less a metahuman and far more a cynical realist who yet believes humans should be free whether or not they deserve to be. In this story agency is important, and nobody owns his shit more than does Rorschach, who is a sociopath with good reason like Joker; but who uses his power, which is merely that of a courageous, motivated human with good reflexes and extraordinary self possession, for good despite everything. However, like Dirty Harry, he knows his limitations. Rorschach is a humble devil.
“The Dark Knight” trilogy shows a Joker who is unremittingly dark and sociopathic, but is pitted against a Batman who is nearly as sociopathic but “good” and also rich. But Joker doesn’t make him, nor is he Batman’s most interesting foil. That honor goes to Ra’s al Ghul and his successors. In the series Ra’s is wonderfully portrayed by Liam Neeson, who makes one seriously wonder whether he is right and Bruce Wayne (Batman) is wrong. Ra’s trains Batman but Batman turns against his master when Ra’s tries to burn the rot out of society. Bruce has a messiah complex and has to be an outlaw who is scorned by the public for whom he sacrifices.
It is to Nolan’s credit that he gets the complexity across without letting the story degenerate into buffoonery. Unfortunately, in this writer’s opinion he fails the Rorschach test. Bruce’s girlfriend learns both sides of him (played by Katie Holmes and then Maggie Gyllenhaal). She views his lifestyle with disdain, first because he appears to be a playboy who is wasting his gifts, and later because he betrays the law (cue Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd), while taking unnecessary risks. She is the perfect picture of the privileged white girl, who wants to save those who are beneath her without confronting the ugliness or getting her hands dirty. But Batman in this story knows that while even the lowest can choose to be human, much to Joker’s chagrin; the people can’t be trusted with the truth, and need supers like him to stay above the law and in the shadows in order to protect them.
One cannot help feeling that Nolan agrees with Batman. This comes across in his inclusion of a copy of the absurd tribunals of the French Revolution as the only kind of justice of which the mob is capable. This sentiment comes back in “Interstellar,” where humanity can only be saved by the heroic acts of a few special ones. Again, it fails the Rorschach test. Only sociopathic CEOs, politicians, CIA directors and the like can believe this crap. Normal people know better.
I have read a fair amount about the making and use of the atomic bomb. I don’t think of Oppenheimer as anything close to Prometheus except in the crudest sense. I don’t trust Nolan to tell it true, or even to understand its meaning.
ATwork space 