Joker Preview

Batman first appeared in the comic book Detective Comics #27 in 1939.  A year later, he had his own comic book.  And in the very first edition, we were introduced to his arch nemesis, Joker.  Batman and Joker first came to life in the 1960's with Adam West in the role of the Caped Crusader and Cesar Romero as Joker.   They made a movie from the TV series in 1966, but it wasn't until 1989 that the dark, odd, beautiful, genius mind of Tim Burton unleashed a Batman movie that arguably is the reason the character is still popular to this day.  Mega movie star Michael Keaton wore the pointy-eared costume.  Instead of the powder blue that West had donned, his was all black with accents of yellow on his belt and chest bat-emblem.  The Joker was masterfully performed by Jack Nicholson.  The movie resulted in three additional films with Burton directing Batman Returns before the franchise took a nose dive with Val Kilmer and George Clooney taking over the role.  But this isn't about Batman, it's about Joker.  So I digress. 

Batman, the Animated Series was next with Star Wars' Mark Hamill lending his vocal talents to the animated Joker in the 1990's.  In 2005, Christopher Nolan took the movies to an even darker place with Christian Bale as Batman.  He originally wanted Heath Ledger to play the role, but fans were much happier that he signed on the play the white-faced villain in the second movie in the trilogy in 2008.  The TV Series Gotham traced the beginnings of Detective Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne in his teens.  Shameless star Cameron Monaghan played twins Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska that lead to the Joker character.  In 2016, it was Jared Leto's turn in Suicide Squad, which was the first time we saw Joker without Batman chasing him down.

And now, in 2019, it's Joaquin Phoenix's turn to play the tragic, psychopathic clown known as Joker.  As many times as the Joker role has been performed, there have been as many back-stories told about who he is and how he came about to be.  The preview for 2019's Joker portrays him as a failed comedian Arthur Fleck who is publicly mocked, is beaten, is cast out by society and drives him down a spiraling decent into madness.  The result: the Joker.

The preview shows Fleck on a bus making silly faces for a small boy who laughs with delight.  The boy's mother demands he stop bothering them and gives a nasty, glaring, disapproving look that makes him sheepishly apologize.  We see him dressed as a clown, holding an advertisement sign on a sidewalk.  Bullies take his sign and beat him down in an alley.  He is in a hospital and there is a girl in the hospital bed beside him.  It is unclear their relationship, but it is obvious that she is the patient and he is the visitor.  On the television, he lights up with excitement as a popular comedy talk show host mentions his routine.  His excitement turns when he sees the host is only mocking him for having no talent or humor.  And then things turn chaotic, which is really the common theme with every Joker: inciting chaos, disrupting the status quo, making people crazy - like him.  At the end, it appears he is given a chance to appear on the very talk show that had ridiculed him, and he has a request of the host.  He asks to be introduced as Joker.

Phoenix's repertoire is quite extensive and eclectic.  His movies range from popular blockbusters like Hotel Rwanda, The Village, Signs, Walk the Line and Gladiator, to the more obscure and odd ones like Her, I'm Still Here and You Were Never Really Here.  Joker looks like the best of both his worlds.  It looks haunting and scary and yet humanizes the psychotic clown in a way that no other Joker has done before.  

Unlike Batman, it's difficult to decide who was the best Joker since each of them is so unique and brilliantly evil in their own way.  By the same token, there aren't a lot of debates over who was the worst Joker, while it's not hard to come up with a couple names when it comes to Batman's character.  From the preview, it looks like you can already add Phoenix into the mix of yet another wonderfully terrible, maniacally twisted Jokers like his predecessors before him.  I'm excited to see his creation and take on the classic villain.  The movie looks disturbing, but not in a violently gruesome way.  More in a psychologically terrorizing way.  I'm giving Joker a 4.0 Star Prediction.  I think I will enjoy it in the theatre, I'll want to see it again, and it will have a solid chance of making it to my home collection.  Am I right?  We shall see.