Todd Phillips' Joker Nearly Crossed The Line With Just One Scene
Were it not for Todd Phillips' creative decision, any sympathy for the mad clown would have vanished in an instant.
Todd Phillips' take on an iconic Batman villain in his 2019 film, Joker, was praised for many things.
The film received warm reviews from critics and an even better response from audiences, who praised Joaquin Phoenix 's brilliant portrayal of the titular protagonist, the compelling story of a man descending into madness, the visual style, and more.
But the most interesting thing about the movie is that even though Arthur Fleck is undoubtedly the villain of the story, the audience kept rooting for him until the credits rolled.
And all that audience sympathy could have vanished in one powerful scene if not for the director's ingenious approach.
Throughout the movie, we see Arthur being systematically mistreated by society. He is beaten by punks on the street for absolutely nothing, fired from his job when it is not his fault.
He is set up by a co-worker, which leads to him losing his other job. So when he finally stands up for himself and kills Wayne employees in the subway in cold blood, the audience feels that it is completely justified.
After all, they were the ones who attacked him in the first place.
The same is true when Arthur kills the aforementioned selfish colleague. He spares the other one because he did absolutely nothing wrong to Arthur and was kind to him.
When Arthur kills Murray, he doesn't shoot the crowd, because they are didn't do anything wrong, unlike the arrogant late-night host.
Even when he suffocates his own mother, it does not turn the audience against him, since it has been established that she neglected him as a child and allowed Arthur to be beaten by her lover.
But one scene comes pretty close to the line of audience approval. When Arthur, at his lowest point, breaks into the apartment of his neighbor, Sophie Dumond, played by Zazie Beetz, viewers held their breath for what would happen next.
Though Arthur has imagined most of their interactions in his delusions, in those that can be considered real, she has always been kind and likable.
Even when Sophie sees him in her living room in the middle of the night, she doesn't make a scene, but calmly asks him to leave.
The next scene we see is Arthur hastily leaving the apartment, only to have a breakdown in his own room. It is debatable whether he actually killed Sophie, but ominous music and police sirens in the background strongly suggest that he did.
This ambiguity absolutely saves the movie, because if the audience had actually been shown the supposedly grisly scene, it would have completely destroyed any sympathy for Arthur that was left there.
A sequel called Joker: Folie à Deux has recently finished filming and Zazie Beetz will apparently reprise her role. However, it is unclear if Sophie actually survived or if she will appear as a hallucination or in a flashback.
The movie is scheduled to be released on October 4, 2024.