Joker (2019) and Its Respective Position in Arthouse Cinema
by Isaiah Berra

Dr. Michael Thoma and Gregory Coyes
MOPA 409
22 October 2019

Contact the author at isaiahfberra@gmail.com

Berra 1!
Joker has been a popular topic in the late 2019 news due to its controversial nature. There
is public concern that the story glamorizes a mentally ill man who turns to violence because he
feels society does not understand him and that his criminal actions are justified. The fear is that it
may provoke an audience member to also become violent. An article in Vox reports that “Joker’s
studio Warner Bros. and family members of those killed in the 2012 Aurora, Colorado, mass
shooting have been in conversation over the possible danger the movie poses to moviegoers.”1
An opposing article from Vanity Fair praises the film’s subject matter, interviewing a
neurocriminologist who claims the script “authentically traces the way a man could be driven to
deeply troubling acts of violence by a combination of genetics, childhood trauma, untreated
mental illness, and societal provocation.”2 The film’s ethics have been equally reviled and
defended in the news and on social media for several months—this controversy plays into the
philosophical ideas that are at work both on- and off-screen.
Directed by Todd Philips, Joker received the Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Film
Festival. In the book Extreme Cinema: The Transgressive Rhetoric of Today’s Art Film Culture,
author Mattias Frey notes, “Hardly a season—and certainly no major festival—passes without
headlines about a controversial art film.”3 Frey’s breakdown of a controversial art film asserts
that they will “appear reliably in the media cycle, often accompanied by a critic, politician, or
lobby group’s consternation at how these productions might deform our brains or our
impressionable children.”4 If this were the only requirement to become a controversial art film,
then Joker would have exceeded the mandate. However, the most important point that separates
Joker from the art films that Frey uses as examples is genre: Joker belongs to the superhero
1 Alex Abad-Santos, “The fight over Joker and the new movie’s ‘dangerous’ message,

explained,” Vox, September 25, 2019, https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/9/18/20860890/jokermovie-controversy-incel-sjw.
2 Julie Miller, “Leading Neurocriminologist Considers Joker “a Great Educational Tool,” Vanity

Fair, October 14, 2019, https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/10/joker-joaquin-phoenixpsychology.
3 Mattias Frey, Extreme Cinema: The Transgressive Rhetoric of Today’s Art Film Culture (New

Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2016), 3.
4 Ibid.

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genre, and there has never been a superhero art film. The argument posed in this essay is that
Joker is the first superhero-inspired film to be classified as arthouse cinema; it undermines the
established superhero genre by provoking its audience to think and participate in its discussion
versus allowing passivity.
By subverting the audience’s expectations of the superhero genre, Joker is not another
superhero film but instead a subgenre to the genre; the first arthouse-superhero film. Genre
theorist Ralph Cohen writes, “The question for the genre critic is why and how such a subgenre
is initiated.”5 Cohen uses The Excellent Ballad of George Barnwel (ca. 1600-1624) as an
example for how a subgenre may be formed. In 18th century England, the ballad was considered
a genre for the common people and of no interest to the social elite or the intellectuals, much like
comic book-inspired films are for the entertainment-lovers and rarely of interest to the art scene.
Recently, cinema legends Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese spoke out against the
Marvel Cinematic Universe (which is different from DC Comics, the company behind Joker).
Scorsese went as far as saying the MCU movies are “not cinema” and compared them to a
“theme park.”6 In the 18th century, ballads like The Excellent Ballad were on the same level of
appreciation, being printed on cheap paper and sung in the London streets. However, in 1731,
playwright George Lillo adapted The Excellent Ballad into a tragedy to be performed in the
theatre. His version was renamed to The London Merchant. Cohen explains the role of The
London Merchant in evolving the tragedy:
Here we have an elevation of a low genre into a high one; a tragedy about common
people addressed to common people, altering the genre of tragedy that characteristically
was about kings and aristocrats and dealt with affairs of state … What this implied was a

5 Ralph Cohen, “History and Genre,” New Literary History 17, no. 2 (Winter 1986): 215, doi:

10.2307/468885.
6 Catherine Shoard, “Francis Ford Coppola: Scorsese was being kind—Marvel movies are

despicable,” The Guardian, October 21, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/oct/21/
francis-ford-coppola-scorsese-was-being-kind-marvel-movies-are-despicable.

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conceptual change in tragedy. The genre was now a model for what critics called
‘domestic’ tragedy.7
On the question of how a subgenre such as domestic-tragedy is formed, Cohen theorizes,
“The most obvious explanation is ideological: the plot of a known popular form becomes the
subject of a traditionally elite one.”8 As is required of any comic book-inspired film, director
Phillips and his co-screenwriter, Scott Silver, researched the source material before writing the
screenplay for Joker. They borrowed from classic comic books like The Killing Joke (1988) and
The Dark Knight Returns (1986), as well as the 1928 silent film The Man Who Laughs, which
was the original inspiration for the character when he was created for the debut issue of Batman
(1940).9 Joker is written as a character study of Arthur Fleck, the man who will become the
Joker. Philips and Silver elevate the low genre, superhero film, into a high genre, arthouse,
through the exploration of the Oedipus complex as a theme.
The Oedipus complex is a concept from Sigmund Freud that theorizes male children have
an unconscious sexual desire to sleep with their mother and a hatred of their father. The concept
is in reference to Sophocles’ Athenian tragedy Oedipus Rex (c. 429 BC), in which the titular
character, Oedipus, unwittingly marries his mother and kills his father. The exploration of the
Oedipus complex is often restricted to the independent cinema, including Spanking the Monkey
(1994), Savage Grace (2007), and Mommy (2014). Major studios have allowed very few highbudget films to portray the subject, but Psycho (1960) and The Reader (2008) are examples, and
now Joker is, too. The Oedipus complex is not a theme that allows for a passive viewing, but
instead a thought-provoking one. Nearly all films that invoke it are considered arthouse due to
the dark, confusing, and disturbing effect that the exploration has on the viewer.
In Joker, the Oedipus complex is studied through Arthur in an indirect manner. In the
story, he is raised without a father and in his mother’s old age he takes on the role of her
caretaker. In an early fantasy scene, Arthur appears on a late night talk show and acts like a well7 Cohen, “History and Genre,” 215.
8 Ibid.
9 Todd Philips, press conference at the Venice Film Festival, celluloidVideo, August 31, 2019,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyeFmjHadvk.

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behaved child. He proudly tells the host that he is “the man of the house.”10 A scene depicts
Arthur bathing his naked mother and it quickly turns into a fun splashing game. Other superhero
films spoon-feed the audience information, but not Joker. Arthur and his mother never have a
sexual interaction, which forces the audience to participate in the discussion of their relationship,
questioning every creepy scene they have together and looking for moments when Arthur may be
repressing an incestuous urge. As the plot progresses, Arthur finds out that his father may be
mayoral candidate Thomas Wayne. He is at first excited by the idea and tries to pursue Wayne,
but a series of events lead to Arthur causing Wayne’s murder. So, Arthur fulfills the Oedipus
complex through a strange and intimate relationship with his mother and by playing a part in
killing the man who might be his father.
The Oedipus complex is interwoven throughout the entire narrative. A separate
philosophical idea using music occurs over only a short dance sequence and it manipulates
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which deals with manipulation itself. The allegory describes a
group of prisoners who have been trapped in a cave “from childhood with their legs and necks in
bonds so that they are fixed, seeing only in front of them.”11 This cave is the ancient version of
the movie theatre. The prisoners watch shadow puppets on the cave wall and perceive the
performance to be reality because it is all they know; however, if a prisoner can break free and
turn around then they will discover that it is an illusion manipulated by puppeteers. Freed
prisoners take on the role of the philosopher, questioning the world the puppeteers are presenting
and self-reflecting on how it effected them. The superhero genre has become so predictable with
certain conventions that the audience members are willing prisoners who enter the cave and
passively accept the shadows without any intellectual benefit. One specific convention that has
dulled audience minds is the use of music.
It has become a standard convention for the superhero film to purchase the rights to a
popular song and associate it with their characters. These songs are more often than not rock and

10 Joker, directed by Todd Phillips, Warner Bros., 2019, Theatrical.
11 Plato, The Republic (Basic Books, 1968), 514a-515a quoted in Patrick J. Deneen, “Escaping

the Cave: On Film, Reality, and Civic Education,” Perspectives on Political Science 31, no. 2
(Spring 2002): 69, doi: 10.1080/10457090209604073.

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roll hits from the 1970s or 80s and serve to invigorate the audience. Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant
Song” from 1970 is about Vikings charging into war, with reference to “the hammer of the gods”
and “Valhalla.”12 It is used several times throughout Thor: Ragnarok (2017), most notably when
the God of Thunder bounds into battle with bolts of CGI lightning bursting from the sky and his
body. The Guardians of the Galaxy franchise (2014-) has even managed to construct (nearly)
their entire soundtrack from retro hits, pointing to Star-Lord’s “Awesome” mixtapes as the
source, which were gifted from his deceased mother.
Patrick Deneen, a political theorist, argues that since moviegoers are willingly entering
into Plato’s cave, they can choose to be either prisoners or philosophers. Their choice often
depends on what the film is trying to accomplish. Deneen’s view is as follows:
[Illusion] challenges us, when in the cave … to attend carefully to images that pass before
us, to discern the ways those images might on the one hand merely reinforce our caveinduced assumptions, and alternatively—in the hands of a master puppeteer—challenge
those assumptions from within (in precisely the way that Plato does).13
While past superhero films have pampered the prisoner, Joker challenges the philosopher.
The film breaks the standard music convention when Arthur fully transforms into the titular
villain: dyed green hair, creepy clown make-up, and a brand new red suit. By this point in the
film, Arthur is beyond saving, having only moments before murdered an innocent, albeit cruel,
ex-co-worker by stabbing him repeatedly in the eye with scissors. Arthur is scheduled to appear
on the live talk show (the same one he fantasized about earlier). He knows that the host intends
to humiliate him over his failed stand-up routine, which was videotaped and mocked on the talk
show a week prior. But Arthur is not going to the interview—the Joker is.
When a viewer hears a recognizable rock song in a superhero film they become passive
because the convention has conditioned them how to react and feel—they are willing prisoners in
the cave. Joker aggressively distorts the convention. As the Joker leaves his apartment en route
to the talk show interview, the 1972 song “Rock and Roll (Part 2)” plays. The Joker is soon
dancing on steep exterior steps to the song, as if he can hear it. “Rock and Roll (Part 2)” is a
12 Led Zeppelin, “Immigrant Song,” Led Zeppelin III, Atlantic, 1970.
13 Deneen, “Escaping the Cave,” 70.

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popular sports anthem used to energize an audience and it functions with the same intent in this
scene. The superhero film’s prisoner has been pre-programmed by the puppeteer to cheer when
they hear these types of songs at pivotal moments in the story, except now they are instinctively
cheering for a murderer to murder more people. The prisoner realizes their mistake and breaks
the bonds so that they can think. The use of popular rock is no longer a passive experience for
the viewer but a self-reflective one as they are assessing their immoral reaction to the scene.
The use of “Rock and Roll (Part 2)” sparked controversy outside of the cave. A firestorm
of news outlets reported on backlash over the song’s inclusion, all of them having a headline
similar to that of Global News: “Joker faces new controversy for using song by convicted
pedophile Gary Glitter.”14 The Global News article reports that “a number of upset fans have
taken to social media expressing their anger and concern that Glitter would be receiving
royalties” for the song’s inclusion in the film and its respective soundtrack.15 It would later be
reported that no, Glitter did not receive royalties, but criticism still remains for Joker supporting
the music of a pedophile.16 This is an example of the prisoners turning on the puppeteers to
question and criticize the reality that they are fabricating.
Joker is incorporating the history of music into the film to provide insight into the
character, a method that has been used in past superhero films. For example, Spider-Man:
Homecoming (2017) links the Queens-based web-slinger to the 1976 hit “Blitzkrieg Bop,” which
is a song by the Queens-based punk rock band the Ramones. Knowing the history of the song
and the band provides information about Peter Parker. Joker is further distorting the convention
by introducing the Joker, a murderer, with “Rock and Roll (Part 2),” a song by Gary Glitter, a
convicted pedophile. Gary Glitter is an evil man who preyed on innocent children and was sent
to prison for it on numerous occasions. If the viewer is familiar with Glitter’s history, then they
14 Adam Wallis, “Joker faces new controversy for using song by convicted pedophile Gary

Glitter,” Global News, October 10, 2019, https://globalnews.ca/news/6005955/joker-backlashgary-glitter-song/.
15 Ibid.
16 Ben Beaumont-Thomas, “Gary Glitter will not receive Joker royalties, say rights holders,” The

Guardian, October 15, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/oct/15/gary-glitter-jokerroyalties.

Berra 7!
know that associating his music with Joker reveals that the Joker is an evil man, too. It is
important the song plays at this point in the film because before Arthur transformed into the
Joker he was a victim, but the transformation has changed his status from prey to predator.
The audience is seated in the cinema, a modern rendition of Plato’s Cave. They are first
disgusted they have let themselves passively cheer for the Joker, a fictional character, to kill
more people because “Rock and Roll (Part 2)” energized them, and then they become horrified
when they break the bonds, turn around and learn that it is Gary Glitter, a real life pedophile,
who has been manipulating the shadows on the wall. The result is a guilt-ridden, self-reflective
experience for the audience.
In conclusion, Joker is an arthouse film because it employs philosophical ideas that
function both on- and off-screen. The film’s controversy in the news and on social media proves
that it forces people to participate in its discussion. To return to Frey and his book Extreme
Cinema, he writes that all controversial art films have critics say that “they dumb-down and
devalue artistic cinema.”17 It is no surprise, then, that the Times review from the Venice Film
Festival complained, “Phillips may want you to think he’s giving us a movie all about the
emptiness of our culture, but really, he’s just offering a prime example of it.”18 Seen through
Frey’s perspective, the negative response is actually supporting Joker’s case as an art film. And
the dissection of themes and scenes in this essay have shown much greater evidence for it.
Through the exploration of the Oedipus complex as a theme, the traditional superhero story
becomes the subject of a strictly arthouse theme, the result is the superhero genre’s first arthouse
subgenre. When Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is applied to the controversial use of Gary Glitter’s
music, we see the prisoner breaking their bonds to question the intention of the puppeteers and
also self-reflect on their own moral failings. The audience at a superhero movie is passive, the
audience at Joker is provoked to think and participate in the discussion. There is no telling when

17 Frey, Extreme Cinema, 3.
18 Stephanie Zacharek, “Joker Wants to Be a Movie About the Emptiness of Our Culture.

Instead, It’s a Prime Example of It,” Time, August 31, 2019, https://time.com/5666055/venicejoker-review-joaquin-phoenix-not-funny/.

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the next superhero film will risk as much as Joker has, but when one does, it is certain that Joker
will be the film that all compare it to.

Berra 9!
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