OPINION:
The Joker is a pathological supervillain.
He can’t stop himself, he’s a monkey on Bruce Wayne’s back, and seemingly, he’s a maniacal genius destined to haunt Gotham City forever after because of the toxins coursing through his veins.
That’s the storyline in the world of DC Comics.
In the real world, the U.S. Army is concerned. Not about the Joker, though.
The Army is concerned about Joaquin Phoenix’s “Joker,” which is due to hit movie theaters next Friday, and the “disturbing and very specific chatter” online that was discovered recently.
As colleague Andrew Blake reported this week, “A memo issued this week to Army personnel stationed in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, said that the base’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID) received intelligence about a ’credible potential mass shooting to occur at an unknown movie theater during the release of the new Joker movie scheduled on October 4, 2019.’”
What would Victor Hugo say? What would he do? Would he ask theaters not to screen “Joker?”
No one can answer with certainty.
Why would he concern himself?
Well, Hugo was a prolific 19th century writer. He penned not only “Les Miserables” but also “L’Homme Qui Rit,” or what the global world of stage, screen and music has redubbed as the “The Laughing Man” or “The Grinning Man” — which all centered on characterizations of a man with a disfigured face that appeared as a perpetual, grotesque grin.
Jack Nicholson’s 1989 version was supremely comedic, opposite Michael Keaton’s Batman, er, Bruce Wayne.
Cesar Romero’s was as campy as campy could get in trying to outwit Adam West’s Batman in the over-the-top TV series of the 1960s.
Heath Ledger’s acting in 2005’s “The Dark Knight” brought to light the darker sides of the Joker and the darkest sides of humanity — perhaps even beyond those of Hugo’s era.
It was during a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in July 2012 in Aurora, Colorado, that a man dressed in tactical clothing set off tear gas grenades and shot into the audience using multiple firearms. James Eagan Holmes fatally shot 12 people and wounded 70 others.
At his home, investigators found a Batman mask.
Holmes, who is now 31, was sentenced to 12 life sentences without parole and a maximum 3,318 additional years on attempted murder and explosives possession convictions.
While the fictional DC Comics and Marvel Comics characters are considered superheroes — and we love to cheer them on — they, too, have dark sides that arguably could be considered mental derangement. Holmes’ dad argued that his son was mentally ill.
Whenever such mass shootings occur — whether at a gay nightclub, a movie theater, a school or an office building — mental illness is cited as a motive and/or defense.
And, understandably, judges are fond of allowing jurors to accept testimony that speaks to what someone was thinking or believing.
Much boils down to free will. The free will to view a movie or not. The free will to deny your children the right to watch the superheroes and the supervillains or not.
The free will to petition Warner Bros. and movie theaters to not screen “Joker.”
The free will to screen “Joker.”
I cannot imagine that “Joker” is going to be a blockbuster or big-time award winner for Joaquin Phoenix, who gave us a convincing Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line.”
But getting into the twisted mind of the Joker character, I’m not so sure.
Besides, who could believe the Joker has a love interest? Those who cannot separate romantic (Victor Hugo) characters from fictional comic book characters.
⦁ Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
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