Joker director says his movie shouldn’t be linked to real-world violence
September 25, 2019 by Samuel Brace
Todd Phillips, the director of Joker, has responded to accusations that the film could lead to acts of real-life violence.
With Joker soon to arrive in cinemas, some critics are concerned that the film portrays violence in a way that could lead to real-life incidents. Some are citing the tragic Aurora shooting that took place at a theater where The Dark Knight Rises was playing.
Todd Phillips doesn’t think it’s fair, however, to link Joker to acts of actual violence, especially when other films don’t get held to the same standard. Speaking to the Associated Press, he said:
“I mean, I think that Aurora is obviously a horrible, horrible situation but even that is not something you blame on the movie. Quite frankly, if you do your own research about Aurora that gentleman wasn’t even going in as Joker, That was misreported, his hair was dyed red he was having, obviously, a mental breakdown and there’s something horrifying about that but it wasn’t related to it outside of the fact that it happened at a movie theater. This is not the thing that the movie is trying to represent. The movie still takes place in a fictional world. It can have real-world invocations, options, but it’s a fictional character in a fictional world that’s been around for 80 years. The one that bugs me more is the toxic white male thing when you go, oh I just saw John Wick 3. He’s a white male who kills 300 people and everybody’s laughing and hooting and hollering. Why does this movie get held to different standards? It honestly doesn’t make sense to me.”
It certainly makes sense that if you are to criticize a film for violence, other similarly violent movies should also be criticized. So you can see where Phillips is coming from in feeling that his film is being singled out.
SEE ALSO: Joaquin Phoenix’s Clown Prince of Crime featured on new Joker posters
Do you think films should be more responsible for the violence they depict? Let us know in the comments below and on Twitter @flickeringmyth…
Joker centres around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone story not seen before on the big screen. The exploration of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a man disregarded by society, is not only a gritty character study but also a broader cautionary tale.
Joker is set for release on October 4th 2019 and stars Joaquin Phoenix (The Sisters Brothers), Robert De Niro (Goodfellas), Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), Bill Camp (Red Sparrow), Frances Conroy (American Horror Story), Brett Cullen (Narcos), Glenn Fleshler (Billions), Douglas Hodge (Penny Dreadful), Marc Maron (GLOW), Josh Pais (Motherless Brooklyn), Shea Whigham (Kong: Skull Island), Douglas Hodge (Robin Hood) and Dante Pereira-Olson (You Were Never Really Here).