Todd Phillips Says the Backlash Against His Film JOKER Is Unfair
Yesterday, we reported that the Todd Phillips-directed film Joker is under fire with the recent report that the Aurora, Colorado movie theater that was under attack at the 2012 screening of the film The Dark Knight Rises will not be showing Joker, and five members of the victims families sent a letter to the CEO of Warner Bros. asking for support and a call to action against gun violence. A representative of WB responded to the letter which extended deepest sympathies, expressed support, and clarified that the film and the character should not be interpreted as “an endorsement of real-world violence.”
The director has now weighed in on the controversy and the claims that his film sympathizes with a villain whom they portray as a protagonist. In an interview that was tweeted out by APEntertainment, Phillips addressed the fears of the correlation between his film and inciting or glorifying violence by saying:
“This is not the thing that the movie is trying to represent. This is not the, you know, the movie still takes place in a fictional world. It can have real world implications, opinions, but it’s a fictional character in a fictional world that’s been around for 80 years.”
He went on to add that there is a double standard in the judgement of violence in films, saying:
“You know the one that bugs me more is the toxic, white male thing, when you go, ‘I don’t know, I just saw John Wick 3. He’s a white male. He just killed 300 people, and everybody’s laughing and hooting and hollering.’ Why does this movie get held to different standards? I don’t know, it just doesn’t make sense to me.”
That makes total sense. Violence is violence. This film is no different than another in its genre. If it were the story of the Aurora shooter, and they tried to portray him sympathetically, that would be problematic. But on the other hand, I can see how a film which portrays the backstory of a villain linked to the film of that which was being screened during the shooting could be a trigger for the people affected, and while I don’t think that should lead to the censorship of the film, I do hope it acts as a catalyst for change and progress.
Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix and will be in theaters next Friday, October 4th.