'Fight Club' director David Fincher says Joaquin Phoenix's 'Joker' was a 'betrayal of the mentally ill'
- In an interview with The Telegraph, the director David Fincher said he thought Joaquin Phoenix's "Joker" was a "betrayal of the mentally ill."
- Fincher, whose next film is "Mank," said: "I don't think anyone would have looked at that material and thought, 'Yeah, let's take Travis Bickle and Rupert Pupkin and conflate them, then trap him in a betrayal of the mentally ill, and trot it out for a billion dollars."
- "Joker" grossed over $1 billion and earned 11 Oscar nominations, including a win for Phoenix, but its depiction of mental illness has been the subject of both praise and criticism.
In an interview with The Telegraph, the director David Fincher said he thought that Todd Phillips' movie "Joker" — starring Joaquin Phoenix — was a "betrayal of the mentally ill" and that it wouldn't have been possible without Christopher Nolan's Batman movies.
"Nobody would have thought they had a shot at a giant hit with 'Joker' had 'The Dark Knight' not been as massive as it was," Fincher said. "I don't think anyone would have looked at that material and thought, 'Yeah, let's take Travis Bickle and Rupert Pupkin and conflate them, then trap him in a betrayal of the mentally ill, and trot it out for a billion dollars."
Travis Bickle and Rupert Pupkin are characters (both played by Robert De Niro) in two Martin Scorsese movies, "Taxi driver" and "The King of Comedy," who some argue had a big influence on Phillips and Phoenix's Joker character. The presence of De Niro in "Joker," as the talk-show host Murray Franklin, compounded that.
Fincher, the "Social Network" director whose next movie is the coming Netflix drama "Mank," which has gotten awards buzz, continued: "I'm sure that Warner Bros thought at a certain price, and with the right cast, and with De Niro coming along for the ride, it would be a possible double or triple. But I cannot imagine that movie would have been released had it been 1999."
While Fincher — who has also directed classics such as "Se7en," "Fight Club," "Gone Girl," and "Zodiac" — is clearly not a fan of the movie, "Joker" remains a runaway success. The movie grossed over $1 billion (and became the highest-grossing R-rated movie) and earned two Oscars from 11 nominations. Phoenix won best actor, while the movie was also given nominations for best picture and best director.
The film's depiction of mental health has been the subject of both praise and criticism. Two junior doctors — Annabel Driscoll and Mina Husain — wrote in The Guardian last year that the movie's depiction of mental illness was "dangerously misinformed."
"One of the more toxic ideas that 'Joker' subscribes to is the hackneyed association between serious mental illness and extreme violence," the two said. "The notion that mental deterioration necessarily leads to violence against others," they added, was "not only misinformed but further amplifies stigma and fear."
Conversely, the psychiatrist Kamran Ahmed wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald that he was "blown away" by the movie's depiction of mental illness.
"Phillips has clearly done his research and illustrates the path to the development of these conditions elegantly," Ahmed wrote.
He continued: "But the major difference between the 'Joker' and other less favourable on-screen accounts of mental illness is the attempt to explain how Arthur got to this point. This is not your typical stigmatising tale of a crazed villain who should be exterminated by the hero."
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