Joker Close Viewing

Todd Phillips’ Joker

The concept of the human psyche is one of great ambiguity. Lying just outside of focal awareness, our subconscious is a flowing stream of intangible power and idle knowledge, in a ceaseless entanglement with its own creation. Swedish philosopher and physician Paracelsus was the first ascribed with the scientific mentioning of a subconscious level of thinking, to which he accredited a great deal of his successful work in toxicology. It wasn’t until centuries later, when an Austrian neurologist by the name of Sigmund Freud developed an in depth psychoanalytic theory on the complexities of this layer of the human psyche. Our subconscious goes far beyond the act of learning and obtaining information. It is not a storage facility, but rather a serpentine network of instinctually pre-programmed data that dictates the majority of our interactions with the world around us. Directed by Todd Phillips, the 2019 psychological thriller Joker explores this concept, bringing a new level of profound depth to the superhero genre, and divulging the mysteries and psychological intricacies of a longstanding fan favourite - ‘The Joker’. Through deconstructing the life and mind of this infamous supervillain, Phillips unpacks the arcane nature of the human psyche, and with the help of three key film aspects places emphasis on the effects which societal pressure puts on the enigma that is the human subconscious.

Social constructs are a feeble attempt to grasp an understanding of the unknowability of ourselves and the

world around us. However the true problem with social constructs, is that society paints these assumptions

(often based on minimal prior knowledge) as objective truth: what many of us perceive as reality is reliant on

theseshared preconceptions. Because of this, we create boxes. We create categories for a collective, and in

doing so reduce other individuals - and ourselves - to a definitive label, a set criteria, a set manual on how we

ought to behave and how others deserve to be treated based on the box they’ve been placed in. In the case of

Arthur Fleck, who was no more than a boy when the abuse of his stepfather forced him down a winding path of

life-long trauma and debilitating mental health issues, these constructs have formed a suffocating reality.

After being attacked for a lack of control over his laughing condition on the subway, Arthur murders

two men in self defense, and another in a loss of self-restraint. He soon finds himself shaken and alone

in a public bathroom. Leading up to this point, Arthur had been consistently met with a lack of compassion

and an abundance of ignorance for his mental health conditions. From the verbal and mental abuse of his

coworkers, to being physically assaulted by strangers on two separate occasions, the consequences of falling

outside of society’s ideal benchmark had taken its toll. One foot after the other, Arthur steps into a delicate

accompaniment of the melody that resides in his heart. His body cuts through the air with an unprecedented

grace, balletic gestures mimicking an almost fluidic sequence of motions. He has music deep within his soul.

This display of unchained self-expression is not initially a representation of an abrupt or spiralling loss of

control, nor is it a failure to contain his ongoing list of mental health issues - this is his subconscious fighting

to break free from the conforming identity that Arthur has strenuously moulded himself to for so long.

However as the story continues, the motif of Arthur’s dancing develops into a more sinister foreshadowing

of destructive behaviour, the final scene showing Arthur dancing down the hallway at Arkham State Hospital

after evidently murdering his psychiatrist. Through the of this simplistically rich motif, Phillips dissects the

inner workings of a man thrown into a world designed to tear him down, and a society hellbent on trapping

him in the confines of a labelled box. For the audience, this is a telling portrayal of how the pressures of

societal normality can affect the psyche. We put limitations on our subconscious for the comfort of

others - and when our subconscious feels trapped, it grows desperate to break free.

Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis divides the human psyche into a tripartite model, each layer

pertaining to different levels of the conscious and unconscious mind. These three layers are the ego, the

superego, and the id. While the superego represents the database of learned knowledge which exists in our

conscious mind, the id represents our repressed instinctual urges and desires. The ego represents the perpetual

conflict between the two, or the contradiction between our knowledge of what is right and what we long for.

This concept of Freudian psychoanalysis is best understood when applied to one piece of literature in

particular: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. This tale depicts the life of Dr. Henry Jekyll, a man in

a constant struggle to maintain the dormancy of his alternate personality, Mr Edward Hyde. While Dr. Jekyll

was a prestigious and well-admired scientist, his alter ego Hyde was a manifestation of his worst impulses,

and a satisfier of his most rudimentarily innate desires - the id. Much like the superego and the id, whilst Hyde

and Jekyll are binary opposites, paradoxically, they are one in the same. This aspect of Freudian psychoanalysis

can also be applied to Arthur Fleck in Todd Phillips’ Joker, a purposeful combination of colour and lighting

in the scene following Arthur murdering the men in the subway working to characterise this idea of an

imbalance of power between the id and the superego. A flickering light illuminates the bathroom, a sickly pale

green washing over the decrepit stalls. An extensive degree of desaturation instils a sense of unease in the

audience, as the potency of this green hue overpowers all warmth. Immersed, Arthur continues to dance.

Embracing this imbalance, he welcomes chaos with open arms. The superego gives way to instability as

Joker moves into the flickering spotlight of this rundown Gotham bathroom, and Arthur reverts to his

default visceral state. Apathetic, impulsive, and perfectly devoid of morality, the id has silenced any surviving

slither of reason. Colour allows for visual representation of a transfer in power to be put forth to the audience

in this moment. An alike use of colour can be seen in David Fincher’s Fight Club. In this film, the director uses

desaturation and pale green hues to differentiate between the unnamed protagonist’s true self, and his neurotic

alter ego Tyler Durden. Through a similarly cunning use of green, Phillips and cinematographer Larry Sher

vividly illustrate Arthur’s acceptance of who he believes Gotham’s people have forced him to become in their

cruelty and limiting archetypes.

Paired with lighting, colour serves a second distinct purpose in the unveiling of Arthur’s descent into madness

throughout the film. Following a disheartening encounter with Thomas Wayne, we see Arthur alone in his

kitchen. The man he believed to be his father had rejected him without second thought, and the only woman

who had seemingly offered him love, nurture, and protection from his harsh reality was not the woman he had

dedicated his life to caring for. He stands over the counter in a trance-like state, looming shadows unfurling in

the deepest corners of the room as the malevolence that lurks in his subconscious once again fights to break

free from an exhausting face. The absence of light also draws attention to the sombre essence of the scene,

constructing a darker atmosphere and placing emphasis on Arthur’s declining mental state. Despite all he had

done, this atmosphere assists the audience in finding reason to sympathise with him for his ill-fated

circumstances. The dissonance between a warm orange glow emanating from the dreary Gotham streets and

the array of cool blue hues flooding the room around him reflects an inner struggle between Arthur and his

neurotic Joker persona; the conflict between the superego, encompassing Arthur’s remaining hope in society

and the knowledge of what is morally right, and the id; the embodiment of the most instinctual, primitive

strand of his subconscious, and his desire for violence and serving self-indulgent ‘justice’. With this use of

complementary colours and lighting, Phillips and Sher successfully establish a striking parallel between

Arthur and his environment, accentuating the symbiotic relationship between these two entities in the entirety

of its disharmonious nature.

Throughout Joker, director Todd Phillips uses the film aspects of colour, lighting and motifs skillfully to

delineate the deteriorating psyche of a man suffering from mental illness. Most importantly, however, Phillips

does well to separate Arthur from his conditions, and recognise him as an individual rather than defining him

by these pivotal traits. Elyn Saks is a professor of law, psychology and psychiatry at the University of Southern

California, and a woman living with chronic schizophrenia. In a powerful retelling of her story, Elyn delivered

this line in regards to the portrayal of those with mental illness in media - “Portray them sympathetically, and

portray them in all the richness and depth of their experience as people and not as diagnoses.” By creating

these alternative methods of understanding Arthur for the audience, most notable with a brilliant use of

complementary colours to reflect his subconscious battle, Phillips fabricates a story in which Arthur can bee

seen in a sympathetic light despite his flaws, as a man living with schizophrenia, rather than labelling him as

a schizophrenic. These details are not only crucial to understanding the entirety of Arthur’s narrative - they

also hold significance on a larger scale. The stigma which society has created around mental illness and

diverging from normative behaviour and ideals is exhausting for those who are unwillingly shoved into

these boxes. A study carried out by the World Health Organisation suggests that at minimum, 30% of those

with mental health issues will not seek help. This includes approximately 55% of those displaying signs of

a severe anxiety disorder, 56% of individuals with major depression, and around 50% of people who have

Bipolar Disorder. These shocking statistics outline exactly how these labels and the subliminal baggage

they encompass negatively impact our society. If anything is to be taken away from Arthur’s story, it’s this:

do not reduce yourself or others to a single word. It is a cheap and dwindling expression of your character.

Don’t be quick to define others with a label - the subconscious isn’t designed to be cornered.