A man sits at a vanity painting his face in the colors of red, black and white.
A clown.
Most associate clowns with happiness. Carnivals, circuses and birthday parties. They all seem to be having fun with their jobs.
But, this man isn’t.
He sits at the vanity and smiles. Then frowns. Then smiles again, only this time forcefully as a tear, black from the makeup, falls down his face.
As the audience watches this opening scene, they can already tell that the movie is going to be amazing.
Joker (2019) stars Joaquin Phoenix as the infamous Joker from DC Comics Studios. However, in this story, the Joker isn’t known as “the Joker.” Instead, he has the name Arthur Fleck and isn’t mentally insane.
Arthur Fleck simply has mental disorders and situational factors that lead him to insanity.
The opening scene of Fleck painting his face and smiling is only one of the many times the audience is able to feel his pain.
In a scene, we are with Fleck at a therapist appointment. This therapist, however, isn’t like your typical therapist. They’ve been appointed by the state, so Fleck didn’t have a choice in his therapist.
In this scene we are met with Fleck uncontrollably laughing due to a medical condition that causes frequent laughter that doesn’t match how he feels. When the camera pans from Fleck to the therapist, we are able to see that she doesn’t look interested. In fact, she stares at Fleck like he’s a typical crazy person.
Someone who is in therapy doesn’t want to be seen as “crazy.” We want to be seen as someone who is understood. So, by this therapist looking at Fleck this way, it is a large commentary on how many people stereotypically think of mental health as someone who is crazy or abnormal.
As the scene continues, he is displaying many red flags of someone who isn’t mentally well. He writes alarming things in his journal and suggests equally alarming subjects to talk about.
There is a moment where he asks for his medication to be increased because it doesn’t seem to be working. As the audience, we can tell that something is wrong with him. Fleck isn’t in a good spot mentally, and after eight minutes of watching the movie, we can see this to be true just based on how Phoenix portrays Fleck.
However, the therapist states that he is on seven medications and that “surely one of them must be working.” She dismisses his request and he rides home on a bus where he, once again, laughs uncontrollably.
Throughout the movie, we are able to watch his mental downfall as he imagines and is convinced that certain situations have happened even though they truly haven’t. For example, Fleck wishes to become a comedian. Yet, while he is doing a comedy bit on stage, no one is laughing. Not a single person. But, in his head, he thinks they’re laughing.
Another example would be when he meets a woman on an elevator, but as the days go on, he thinks that they’ve had all these interactions and have fallen in love. However, they have never even spoken to each other in reality.
Arthur Fleck seemingly has schizophrenia, and if we go back to how many medications he is taking, we can assume that none of them are correct for his mental state of mind.
When Fleck finally snaps from his mental downfall throughout the movie, he finally becomes the one and only Joker.
Once you watch the movie, you are able to see the symbolism between Fleck and Joker despite them being the same person.
Fleck represents all the people who have been failed by society. The people who have had assumptions made about their mental health instead of looking at the facts. The people who are treated poorly all because they don’t seem “normal.” Joker, however, reflects when a person finally snaps and succumbs to who society assumes them to be.
Joker is who a lot of people are forced to be. In a society where mental illness is seen as taboo and abnormal, many people can become their own Joker.
Joker may just be a character in a movie, but we’re all Joker in at least some ways. It just depends on when we become him.
