When a person has the hidden details of a movie pointed out to them it’s clear that there are a few different reactions to rely upon ranging from a high level of interest to ‘okay, why is this that important’. To those that make the movie and those that obsess over the minutiae and fine details that go into the making of said movie it might be highly important, but to the casual moviegoer it might be a point of interest that’s nearly forgotten once they move on. Evan Jacobs of MovieWeb points out several things within the movie Joker that might be of interest to those that have been following Batman lore and even the Joker for a long time now, though to those that enjoy the story and don’t delve any deeper said facts are likely details that don’t matter quite as much. While some of them do manage to shine a brighter light on the ideas that Todd Phillips, the director of Joker, might have been thinking about during the process, others are hard to get as excited about largely because they obviously meant more to people that are willing to stick around long enough to divine every last little secret that the movie could dish out.
How Joker took the big screen by storm isn’t too hard to figure out, it’s controversial, dramatic, and involves mental health and the fallout from someone not being treated properly. This is something that, in this era, was bound to be seen in a few different ways but was also bound to be embraced as people from every walk of life can at times relate to Arthur Fleck and his fairly depressing life. At some point many have felt like the downtrodden, the wretched refuse, and even the hopeless dreamers that want more but can’t figure out a way to get it without causing even more trouble. Joker is a movie that was released at the right time to an audience that was looking for something to cling to that would light up their sensibilities and create a great deal of drama and controversy, things that people thrive on no matter how much they might claim otherwise. But the hidden details, those bits of information that supposedly help to drive the movie forward, are often unnoticed by many until they’re pointed out later. For instance the name of the comedy club, Pogo’s, was apparently in relation to the name of the clown played by notorious murderer John Wayne Gacy, therefore giving it a little more meaning.
The other mentions, such as Ethan Chase, Debra Kane, the burning limo, and Zorro: The Gay Blade are references that only those that have followed Batman for years and studied every bit of his story might really know, since two out of those four link directly to the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne, who have been killed by a couple of people at this point according to how the story has been told. If one remembers Tim Burton’s version it was by none other than the man who would eventually become the Joker. In Christopher Nolan’s version it was Joe Chill, which coincides with the comic books. In Joker they were shot as well, though whether it was Chill or some other random gunman is hard to say. The burning limo of course is seen as symbolic, which is to say that many people are going to draw their own conclusions. In short, the hidden meanings in this movie are bound to be plentiful if one is willing to look and make their own observations since despite the fact that some want to state that this movie doesn’t belong to the DC universe it does in fact belong in a few very telling ways that keep it from being able to just cherry-pick the elements it wants without being inclusive at all. If we’re getting into alternate universe material then it’s very likely that a series of events could happen where Batman never came to be, or perhaps became more like Marvel’s Punisher, or any number of things happened to combat the discontent in Gotham. But it’s a part of the DC universe all the same, even if it’s an alternate story that doesn’t want to conform as much to the overall canon that people have been trying to discern for so long. Richard Newby of The Hollywood Reporter has more to say on this matter.
Among the most confusing aspects of comic books and the movies they tend to spawn is that there is no one universally-accepted idea that will be lauded by every individual that’s ever read the comic or watched the movie. Everything is up for interpretation and every last bit of the story is there to be observed and taken in a variety of different ways depending on the individual. That’s why noticing hidden points in the plot isn’t quite as obvious to everyone, not everyone is looking at the same thing.
Follow Us
