I know that I'm not a movie blog by any stretch of the imagination, but yesterday I went to watch Todd Phillips' 'Joker' and I just have to talk about it. Therefore I have devised this clever ruse of looking at Joaquin Phoenix's depiction of the eponymous character in comparison to those that have played him in games (and animation, I guess.) This way I don't break my one rule and I can get all cathartic about what was is possibly the darkest superhero-adjacent film that will ever release. (No spoilers for the movie. Although there will be spoilers for other Batman properties, so be warned.)
Firstly, this in no review but let me start by saying that I absolutely loved the film. In many subtle ways it side stepped my expectations and delivered upon the promise of being gripping and intense without succumbing to wanton acts of violence. Don't get me wrong, the violence is there and it is brutal, but the movie doesn't succumb to it like so many lesser storytellers would have. Arthur is also much more open to the audience then I was expecting. After watching some similar genre movies to prepare for this one (I was really excited) I came in with the assumption that Joaquin Phoenix would play some aloof mysterious figure who's inner workings are a mystery, (Thus safely ensuring that the audience can separate themselves from the character and be reassured that he could never be them.) but 'Joker' really bought us into the man and gave us a story of someone who, although not always sympathetic, always did ring with a sliver of authenticity. Perhaps that is the reason why I came away from the film with one word ingrained in my mind, although I'm yet to know if it describes the movie or Arthur himself, and that would be 'Haunting'. 'Joker' was truly a great movie and one of the only one's that I feel the urge to go and watch again. (Which means a lot coming from me.)
Now that I've got that out the way, let's delve into the meat of this blog. You see, one of the elements of the movie that I appreciated the most was the way in which Joaquin Phoenix leaned on no other interpretations of the Joker to deliver his own. Even though we saw a 'what would happen if we took the Joker and bought him into the real world' with Heath Ledger's portrayal, Todd Phillip's movie manages to take that concept even further and distinguish this Joker from his peers. Yet despite that, we can see recognizable snippets of the character that we know here and there to let us know that this movie isn't just wearing a Batman Skin. (Although I will say that the 'King of Comedy 2' comments that were being made do feel somewhat valid.)
With such a wonderfully complex character as the Joker, he can be bought into being with so many different approaches and still be fundamentally the same person, so it can be hard to establish a baseline for what the quintessential portrayal is. However, if we are being frank, there is one actor who has done more to shape the role than any other in his many years donning the makeup, and that is undoubtedly: Mark Hamill, so we will start with him.
The big complication would then be figuring out which version of Mark Hamill's Joker that we want to focus on, as he has run the gambit with the character too. Luckily, this is a gaming blog so I can cut through all that noise by just focusing on the one Joker video game appearance in the brilliant Arkham franchise.
Rocksteady very much put the Joker on centre stage for the entirety of the Arkham franchise, even for the ones in which the character wasn't even physically present. Therefore we get a good glimpse of who he is and what he wants. This incarnation borrows from the Joker in the Killing Joke and the original animated series (Both of which are also voiced by Hamill) in that he is obsessed with proving to Batman how they are linked. Besties, in his opinion. Although the first game just plays out as a typically convoluted Batman plot, later entries really dive into the duality between them and the similarities. The greatest indication of this comes in Arkham: Origins. (Even though that Joker was technically played by Troy Baker. He was pretty much doing an impersonating of Mark Hamill in every way so I'll link the two as one and the same.) The Joker tells Bruce straight up that they are like brothers because they were both born from the same chaos. "We only exist because of them!" This is a character that is defined through his relationship to the caped crusader and who shares a connection with him that transcends earthly bonds. (Literally, if Arkham Knight is anything to go by.)
Another important Joker, at least by my reasoning, would by the older incarnation that was played by Brent Spiner in the animated version of The Dark Knight Returns. This is a story that takes a look at the world of Gotham in a distant, though ever approaching, future in which most heroes and villains have retired and the streets have sunk back into despondency. Batman has had to give up his cowl after sustaining a severe back injury from Bane, and has spent the past few decades sinking into seclusion with Alfred. In response, The Joker has entered a hibernative state in which he has abandoned all of his scheming and appears to be a reborn, functioning member of society.
This story leans on my personal favourite interpretation of Gotham, that all the heroes and villains are facsimiles of Batman's own psyche and his struggle to seek purpose. (Or at least all the best characters are. Still don't know where The Electrocutioner fits into Bruce's psychological profile.) In this world it makes sense that his former arch nemesis would stop his spree of crimes because he no longer has anyone to work off of. However, once Bruce finds himself being drawn back into his old ways, injury and all, it isn't long before word reaches the Joker and he snaps back into action.
This version of Joker is very distinct from others in it's two-faced attitude. Rather than wearing the crown of chaos, Spiner's Joker seems a lot more cold, calculated and murderous. He goes so far as to convince the world that he is a man reborn before switching back into his persona so fast that you know it was an act all along. (Yes, the scene does show Joker becoming his old self again in a manner that appears like an involuntary reaction, but it's apparent, from the way he acts, that this is the moment that he had been waiting decades for.) This Joker kills with impunity just to drawn Batman in before purposefully killing himself in the knowledge that he will implicate the Dark Knight by doing so. The fact that the Joker made a major choice with a specific consequence in mind means that he is in a very different ballpark from versions of the character that actively opposes the very concept of rationality, such as Heath Ledger's Joker.
Christoper Nolan's Dark Knight opens with that iconic bank scene that lets us know exactly what sort of Joker we would be getting from the film. We see the Joker conduct a huge chaotic bank robbery that, slightly betraying the angle of chaos that usually follows this character, is a highly thought-out affair in which he steals his money whilst murdering everyone in his team that could possibly relate it all back to him. Heath Ledger's Joker exists in a beautiful dichotomy between random and organized; he exists to perpetuate disorder yet he undergoes elaborate plans to prove a point. What point is that exactly? "All it takes it one bad day." (Yes I realize that line is from The Killing Joke but it just goes to show you how similar these interpretations can be whilst being fundamentally distinct.)
Heath ledger ditches a lot of the more fanciful elements of the Joker and focuses heavily on the irreverence, all the while not forgetting to keep the character feeling homicidal and a little wild. (This version is far removed from the old Cesar Romero one.) This performance was memorable in how it reinforced with audiences the fact that the Joker could be scary, even terrifying. He was built to be a dark reflection on the society that bore him with no line he won't cross, all he wants to do is help everyone around him reach that place too. Batman, on the otherhand, works to prove that people aren't as fragile as he thinks. This debate of philosophy cuts into the core of who Joker is and what he represents and is part of the reason why people consider Heath Ledger's Joker to be the definitive interpretation.
Joaquin Phoenix's Joker almost appears to be the predecessor to that, whilst still being his own beast entirely. It's still the day after the movie hit the theatres, and I've only seen it once, so I'll have to wait until I can rewatch it a few times to really get a handle on the character (Which I fully intend to do) but immediately you can see the bones of the man that would become the terror of Gotham. As much as I want to I can't get into specifics, (the movie just came out) but I will say that this is story of a man trying to deal with everyone failing him, and I think it's a logical, if twisted, path for him to want to teach that to everyone else down the line. Not that we'll ever get a sequel, Joaquin Phoenix reportedly hates franchises. (This movie doesn't exactly need one, either, it stands strong on its own.)
I've always considered Joker to be one of the greatest villains in media and am pleasantly surprised to see that the character was able to sustain such a gripping story on his own. Much of who the character is has been historically intrinsic to his relationship with Batman and I was certainly impressed to find out that the character was tough enough to forgo those shackles (mostly) and still hold up vividly. I would say that I'm excited to see how this will effect other superhero movies, but I honestly think that it'll be a long time before we get anything even nearly this evocative in the Marvel/DC landscape. (If ever again.) Be that as it may, at least we got one fantastic movie and another iconic version of the Joker to fondly look back on after we see him butchered again by Jared Leto. (Oh god, he's going to be in Birds of Prey, isn't he?)
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