welcome back to new rock stars I'm Eric Voss and this is a breakdown of Joker fad do the 2024 follow-up to the 2019 Todd Phillips film starring walking Phoenix as Arthur Fleck a struggling comedian who becomes the Joker in this elor version of Gotham set in the early 80s this sequel pairs walking Phoenix as Arthur Fleck with Lee quinzel hey take on Harley Quinn played by Lady Gaga in a musical fadu means a kind of shared Madness between two people and in this video I'm going to break down this film it's controversial ending details you
missed and what I think Todd Phillips was aiming to do with it as a musical that comments on society and the justice system in the style of the 2002 film Chicago this film opens with a classic Warner Brothers animation bumper with a leon Schlesinger Mary Melodies intro from the 1930s this Looney Tune style short is called Joker in Me and My Shadow animated shorts like this would often precede feature films in the early days of Hollywood and it seems like that's what this film is kind of going for here now the classic music that we
all know is actually a song called Merrily We Roll Along it's from 1935 by Eddie caner Marie menure and Charles Tobias the lyrics Are merily We Roll Along my honey and me why we get along his easy to see and when you consider this movie as a follow do even merily We Roll Along thematically fits with that this short that we see in the beginning of the Joker sequel was animated by the company of syane CH the animator who created the amazing The Triplets of Belleville back in 2003 the short somewhat Recaps the events of
the 2019 Joker film but really reimagines it as this little story of the The Joker wrestling with his own shadow much like Peter Pan in some ways Lee quinzel is Arthur's shadow of this movie we see this cartoon Joker arriving on the red carpet to the Franklin Theater which is reference to Murray Franklin Robert Deniro's talk show host whom Arthur killed on live TV in the previous film the music that we're hearing is actually slap that base from George and Ira gerswin from the 1937 RKO PR a stair film slap that bass this cartoon Joker
Goes Down the theater hallway passing various posters for famous movie musicals including sweet charity that's a 196 Bob bossy Neil Simon film shall we dance the 1937 Fred a stair Ginger Rogers film and modern times the 1936 Charlie Chaplan film that really marked the last time Charlie Chaplain played the little [ __ ] archetype character and that film was being screened in the 2019 Joker film the screening where Arthur Fleck snuck in as an usher and confronted Thomas Wayne the cartoon Joker's Shadow overtakes him and applies the clown makeup in the dressing room on the
mirror you see written put on a happy face and behind him on the wall is a portrait of Robert Deniro's host Murray Franklin with Blood Stained on it the shadow now walks out on stage singing Bert beer what the world needs now is love and it ends up becoming a kind of duet as the Shadow sings and puppets around Arthur's beaten body and then we have some cops Runing in in the classic Hub Hub Hub Hub Hub Hub cartoon style and then they beat him to death covering the screen with some cartoon blood we transitioned
to Arkham state hospital where Arthur was incarcerated at the end of the 2019 film we hear a guard whistling When the Saints Go Marching In and this guard is Jackie Sullivan played by Brendan gleon mat I Moody from the Harry Potter films and Oscar nominee for the Banshees of V airan one could argue that suvin whistling this tune is what could Inspire the inmates of Arkham to excitedly Riot throughout the film while singing the same song first out of the cell is Ricky melene played by Jacob Laughlin the sweetest character in this film who gets
scapegoated suffering perhaps the worst fate when Sullivan will later beat him to death out of Rage when Ricky sings this song actually many of the songs that Arthur and Lee quinzel and all the inmates end up singing are kind of like classic Jazz era Romance songs that they really first hear from Sullivan's casual whistling throughout Arkham then we hear the Deep cello notes of the Joker's theme from the 2019 film returning these were composed by the Icelandic composer Hilder G I'm so sorry I mispronounced that she actually won an Oscar for her music in that
film and we push in on cell e258 and we find Walking Phoenix is Arthur Fleck his emaciated body holding his chamber pot to be emptied like all the other inmates are doing this practice in the UK is called slopping out and it was supposed to be abolished in England and Wales by 1996 and in Iceland and the years after though supposedly might still be done in limmerick prison this practice is not really known to be done in the United States because most prisons were built in the 20th century and were built with indoor plumbing not
the best conditions of Plumbing but like not like requiring people to empty out their own chamber Bots but I'm wondering since Arkham State Hospital in this movie is depicted as being on an island like Alcatraz or Rikers or black aate Isle in the DC Comics it might be just a very very old European style institution and might use a similar barbaric practice at least in the eward Sullivan asks if Arthur has a joke for him today as supposedly every day Arthur opens with a joke but today of all days Arthur has no jokes in the
2019 film an undercurrent of Arthur's life was really bad jokes and his uncontrollable tick of laughing in this film it seems like the way he has stifled that tick is through Song Arthur passes a breakroom area where on the TV we see Showbiz bugs the 1957 Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck short to prep for his meeting with his lawyer Arthur is shaved by the guards the white shaving cream that they smear on his face likely reminds Arthur of the white clown paint he would smear on his face to become the Joker and notice how the guard
Nicks his lip and we focus on the blood trickling just a little bit this foreshadows the final shot of the film as the blood seeps from the same corner of his mouth as he bleeds out after getting shived now while he's being shaved we hear Jackie talking about one of the new guys who just randomly bit someone one day I think he's referring to the young inmate that's played in this movie by Connor story the guy who ends up stabbing Arthur at the end of the movie Sullivan tells a joke about a man who brought
a dead dog to a priest for a funeral and was denied and then offers two grand for the service and the priest says what you tell me the dog was Catholic Arthur is Led from this horrible e Ward to the minimum security B Ward The Umbrellas of the guards start out black but when Arthur looks up at the rain The Umbrellas suddenly change into bright colors this is an homage to a shot in the 1964 musical film The Umbrellas of Sherborn hymn will The Circle Be Unbroken and he makes eye contact with Lee quinzel Lady
Gaga this movie's version of harleen quinzel or Harley Quinn she wanders out of the hall to shout after Arthur and she pames offine herself we learned later in the film that Lee is not required to be an Arkham she checked herself in she's a rich doctor's daughter with a psychology degree who's really faking her mental illness a reveal that I will admit is closer to harling quinzel known origin as a doctor working at Arkham Who falls in love with the joker but the fact that in this scene she can just kind of wander out of
music class into the hallway kind of shows that the orderly of this plays don't really take her that seriously they don't worry about her as a security risk or a Flight Risk Katherine Keener from get out in a number of great films plays maranne Stewart Arthur's attorney she preps him for an interview with Dr Luis Bey a potential expert in his defense case whom this lawyer hopes will be able to prove that the five murders Arthur was charged with the three guys on the train his clown cooworker Randall and Murray Franklin that these killings were
not committed by Arthur but rather from another identity in his mind a shadow self this movie refers to his condition as potentially multiple personality disorder but remember this is also set in 1981 the better understood clinical term is dissociative identity disorder or did and we don't call them identities or selves we refer to them as alars I do appreciate that this film starts to touch on how a 1981 legal system might try to categorize whatever Joker Is But ultimately just moves away from it and doesn't try to frame it within any known clinical category Dr
Bey asks if he sees bright lights and I was just reminded of the mentally unwell prisoner from The Dark Knight that that movie's Joker had a cell phone bomb sewn into his gut he said he'd go inside and replace him with bright lights like Christmas and I only bring it up because this Joker movie ends with a very weird tie-in to Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight that I just did not enjoy Arthur says that all he remembers about the night he killed Murray Franklin was the music and I think this movie wants to imply that
really the Final Act of the 2019 movie showed Arthur Fleck giving into the musical elements of his delusion from his dance down the stairs to the music of Murray Franklin show when Dr Bey asks to talk to the Joker a spotlight Rises on Arthur right here in the meeting room so Todd Phillips goal with this film seems to be to do a joker film in the style of Chicago Rob Marshall's 2002 Best Picture Winner which really was based on the 1975 Bob FY Musical that adapted the 1926 play and Chicago and its stage musical is
really the story about the murder trial of Roxy Hart an aspiring Cabaret performer and how she and her lawyer Billy Flynn are able to kind of tap dance through a corrupt criminal justice system to reach a not guilty Verdict by any means necessary that's Chicago now the 2002 film used lighting shifts to smoothly transition in and out of settings like a prison or a courtroom and just kind of transform them into a smoky nightclub and it was a really really effective cinematic technique this Joker movie seems to try to do a similar thing but uh
there are some reasons it's just not as successful Chief among them why does this need to be a movie set to in the universe of DC characters the cynical economic answer is if you're Todd Phillips making something connected to a major IP is the only way you're going to get it made for a certain budget I get it I understand the economics of it it just makes for a very mismatched and misaligned and confusing cinematic experience because while the 2019 movie at least you could say had like Alfred in it and a young Bruce Wayne
this movie gets even further away from this Bean in Gotham we see that Arkham in this film is connected to Gotham via a long long curved Bridge which I got to say is completely impractical like there's no way city leaders would ever aot resources to building a whole freaking Bridge just for the staff who work at a facility for the criminally insane on a little island like cities build bridges for thousands of commuters to get to their home to work back to wherever they need to go every day it's a huge investment to build a
bridge they wouldn't build a bridge to Arkham but Jackie references they made for TV movie about Arthur that everyone saw sounds like there was a TV special that restaged the events from the first movie I guess they're trying to say this is like Ryan Murphy's the people versus OJ Simpson or Ryan Murphy's dmer or Ryan Murphy's monsters about the Menendez brothers but we never see in this movie what that TV movie was Jackie takes Arthur to the music class where we see their singing get Happy by Harold Arland and Ted kler most famous from Judy
Garland's rendition from 1950 Summer Stock her final MGM film get happy was the original Mary Melodies intro music from 1931 to 1933 that's why when you watch some of those Looney Tunes they actually begin with now in the way that some people theorized that all of the first movie could have been in Arthur's head you know Fight Club style a case I think could be made that this entire trial is a merry melody in Arthur's mind from the frequent early Hollywood jazz songs featured in this film to the recurring Warner Brothers animation shorts on the
TVs to the fact that the movie ends with Arthur going to see a visitor and we never know who it is could it be actually his lawyer prepping him for trial I don't know maybe all of this is actually the Looney Tune of Me and My Shadow Arthur talks with Lee for the first time and I don't know if it's coincidence but taking together Arthur and Lee form the first two names of the primary suspect believed to be the Zodiac Killer Arthur Lee Allen Lee of course spelled differently there Lee goes back to singing get
happy and together they softly sing the parts of it where it's sing Hallelujah come on get happy get ready for the Judgment Day now this is Lee's form of encouragement she wants Arthur to get happy and gy ahead of his literal day of judgment but also considering that he dies at the end of this movie he is facing a final judgment in other ways on the TV they see a press conference from assistant DA Harvey Dent played in this movie by Harry lty this is the latest film Harvey Dent after Billy D Williams Tommy Lee
Jones and Aaron eckart though ly said that he didn't watch any of those performances so that he could have a fresh young prosecutor that wasn't affected by any of the takes in the past Dent plans to seek the death penalty he says now Gotham City is known to be in the state of New Jersey which outlawed the death penalty in 2007 but this is in the early 80s Arthur responds by singing Acappella for once in my life the 1965 mtown song written by Ron Miller and Orlando murin best known for its uptempo cover by Stevie
Wonder but originally written as a slow ballad which is how Arthur sings it here Todd Phillips keeps the camera on walking Phoenix without cutting away as the instrumentation kicks in we see another inmate pantomiming the piano and the young inmate who will stab Arthur by the end is leaning against the back wall just kind of bobbing to the music waiting for his time to take over but the musical reality breaks when we cut back to Arthur being asked if he scared and we cut back to Arthur still looking at the TV smoking so all this
even his ability to know all the words of the song was just in his head in this moment Arthur signs a book for a guard the night the laughter died by Jean uffland Jee uffland was Murray Franklin show producer played by Mark Marin in the 2019 film you can see his very serious author photo on the inside sleeve so we see how Jean is cashing in on the drama like everyone else's Arthur was going to write put on a happy face but he crosses it out and writes I hope you get cancer smiley face they
watch a movie screening of the bandwagon a 1953 MGM films starring Fred a stair and centuries directed by Vincente Manelli Judy Garland's husband for 6 years and father to Liza Manelli this is the scene where the song That's Entertainment plays and we hear Fred a stairs singing a clown with his pants falling down or the dance that's a dream of romance or the scene where the villain is mean that's Entertainment now the lyrics actually kind of describe what happens in this movie The Clown making a fool of himself and specifically his pants are off when
Jackie and the other guards drag him back to his cell the dance that's the dream of romance is really what he's doing with Harley Quinn throughout this movie it's a dream of romance not a real romance and a scene where the villain is mean Arthur is pretty mean to Gary when he cross-examines him we also hear the lyric in the background of the scene it could be edus Rex where the chap kills his father and causes lots of bother and just a reminder that in the first film Arthur believed his father was Thomas Wayne and
wanted to kill him Lee starts a fire in the piano and she and Arthur stay behind in this pretty cool shot of them directly in the beams of the film projector like they are trying to beam themselves into a film reality they sing if my friends could see me now this is from sweet charity that we saw a poster of back in the animated intro this song was originally sung by Gwen verin who is Bob fy's longtime partner and in my opinion the more talented of the two actually watch fx's fosy ver and it's going
to break down a lot of this Broadway ancestry for you now we see how this movie transitions into musical sequences in two different ways the first category is characters singing known Hollywood and Broadway show tunes in the context of the scene Justified as these characters just kind of singing or humming to themselves and then kind of flailing about their spaces the second category is the true classic musical style characters transporting into imaginary dream world stages with glitzy lighting and sets and costumes as we are now in a full-blown musical I like how in this film
generally we heighten from the first category to the second category the problem with the way this movie approaches the musical structure is it just has way too much too many reprises of too many of the songs like a good musical could pick one song or one Motif and they reprise it just once or maybe twice to show the character's Evolution throughout the film like callbacks are a big thing in musicals but you are precise about the way you do it what this movie does is it brings back like five of its classic songs and it
reprises them at least like five times each so it just feels really redundant and it just really starts to drag in the second half cuz each time you reprise it it just saps away more of the meaning and we don't really know why we're hearing the full version of the song every time me and every single person I know has at some point in their life been living paycheck to paycheck it's so stressful and every little extra expense from a parking ticket to a sick pet or a utility bill that's higher than usual just becomes
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by evolve member FDIC but Arthur while in solitary confinement imagines himself and Lee dancing top the hotel Arkham literally dancing with the devil in the pale moonlights he could say it's a waltz an original song composed by Lady Gaga called fol Ado and it's great to hear an original song in this musical you know it'd be great if it all could have been original but you know I get it the arkhom has a vacancy sign you'll note and I just like that little detail cuz it's like saying hey more room for Rogues Gallery villains if
you guys want to show up while in solitary Arthur wakes up to find Lee there with him she says a guards let her in because she was being released she promises that they're going to build a mountain referring to the 1962 Sami Davis Jr song that comes back later throughout the film in this scene where they have sex is crazy to me was it all imagined by Arthur probably right the whole pregnancy subplot seemed to Be Imagined all in Arthur's head I just can't imagine why the guards would let someone who just checked herself in
into a solitary confinement cell with a violent criminal currently on trial Arthur does an interview with TV host Patty Myers played by Steve kugan he's a Tom Snider her all the Rivera type back when they would do these types of interviews in the 80s Arthur starts off okay but Patty goats him and then Arthur gets hostile there's a lens flare that causes a red circle to appear on Arthur's chin and we're reminded again of the drop of blood from the Shaving Cuts with blood in his mouth now he shows a similar aggression to Patty as
he did to Murray even calling him Patty the same repeated underlined way in which walking Phoenix kept repeating marray right before he killed him in the 2019 movie then Arthur sings Bewitched Frank Sinatra song that was actually transposed from a female sung version bewish bothered and bewildered by Haron Rogers for the 1940 musical Pal Joey a version that you might have heard sung by elep Fitzgerald Lee watching on TV through a storefront does the right thing and throws a trash can through it and as Arthur is driven into Gotham City among the buildings in the
skyline is one labeled Wayne for Wayne Tower Arthur is driven to the courthouse surrounded by supporters wearing Joker masks with signs reading things like free Joker at the door leading into the courtroom light beams through like the lights of a stage the Bale even opens the door saying okay Showtime Arthur is totally seen this courtroom as a theater stage very razzledazzlecelebrations D calls Dr Lou played by Ken long mil strong from lost as a witness to refute Arthur being insane Maryann cross-examines and questions whether Dr Lou looked at his and his mother's medical records that
detailed the physical and sexual abuse that Arthur suffered during this part we see inserts of the file with all the medical records the photos the news clippings about that from the 2019 film that Arthur had read through and I thought the news clippings were always very weird because why would this rise to the level being printed in the newspaper like especially the very specific details when it comes to crimes against children there are journalistic standards to show how you talk about that in the newspaper and I I just thought it was a weird choice to
have like news clippings about it in the 2019 film and we hear the subway gunshots again and on the third one Arthur flinches now one of the details we used to speculate that the 2019 movie could have all been in Arthur's mind was the fact that he fired a sixshot revolver eight times without reloading and we looked at it it was not an eight chamber revolver it was definitely a six chamber revolver Sharon Washington returns from the first film as Deborah Kane Arthur social worker and she reads from his diary only because Arthur dated the
entry with November 17th the day Arthur killed Randall and Murray Could Dent admit it as evidence the entry reads I almost never dream what do I got to do to remember and we see a new shot inserted in this film that would have taken place after Arthur killed Randall but before he went on Murray's show music really seems to be this movie's answer to how Arthur can remember his dreams because while dreamed images and words often fade from our memories music is something that sticks with us marann reveals to Arthur that Lee has actually been
lying to him that her father is not dead he is a doctor and she lives with both of her parents on the upper west side this is a classic example of the cult runaway they come from privileged upbringings one thanks of Patty hurst's involvement with the syane Liberation Army and we transition to another Sound Stage The Joker and Harley show made to look like the sunny and share variety show in the' 70s they sing 1967's to Love Somebody by Barry Gibb and Robin Gibb yes the Gibb brothers from the bgs the ones from SNL's the
Barry give talk show the words you don't know what it's like really came from Arthur telling Maryann that she wouldn't understand their love Lee turns away and starts soloing though and Arthur stops singing the Music Stops as Arthur teases her for making it all about herself and then she pulls a gun and shoots him so really his sweet dreams with Harley have now been corrupted by this nagging suspicion Arthur confronts Lee about her lies to him and she owns up to it but she finishes with yet another lie saying that she's pregnant and she sings
Bert backx they long to be close to you it's her way of justifying that these pestering noisy birds flock to Attractive people just to be in their Aura Lee describing herself as a bird this way recalls how we have in the past seen Harley Quinn as one of the birds of prey now we get the iconic shot of this movie where Lee drops draws a smiling lipstick on the glass and the camera focuses to line up perfectly walking Phoenix smiling so that he smiles just right to fit the arc that was previously drawn an impressive
practical accomplishment of blocking and perfectly timed Focus pulling Kevin McCarthy asked Todd Phillips how they pulled it off it was harder than it looks because what you just said lining it up but what we basically did was we put a little bit of a grease pencil Mark where he would line up to where where she had to hit and then he knew to sort of just do this and it was you know it was actually it it was it probably took an hour and I was sweating it because I'm going oh if this does end
up being cringey we're just like wasting an hour trying to get this thing you know so yeah they made a grease pencil mark on the exact Arc of Walkin Phoenix's smile which would be slight enough that they could remove it in post- production before Lady Gaga's hand would draw the lipstick over it and then they did this take over and over and over again for about an hour until they got the exact shot in which walking Phoenix could lean just slightly enough into position to fill the lipstick smile and symbolically it's a really effective way
to show how Arthur doesn't want to play into society's perception of a raging clown smiling is really a blood red path that this unhinged Society is drawing for him to obediently follow zi beats returns in this film as Sophie Dumont but didn't return in Deadpool and Wolverine's Domino which was kind of weird she testifies that Arthur's mother Penny to help young Arthur through his laughing condition made up a story that God put him on this Earth to make people laugh which led to Arthur pursuing his career as a standup comedian despite not really being funny
Arthur disassociates and transitions into a version of the courtroom lit with Chicago nightclub style lighting where he sings The Joker by Leslie bruse and Anthony newly from the 1964 musical the Roar of the grease paint the smell of the crowd Arthur slams the stool on Harvey Dent and like he imagined in the Arkham exercise yard he starts shooting around the room aiming specifically for the Press camera operators he picks up an oversized gavel and violently clubs to death judge rothwax and then offs himself at the end of the song waking up from this reality he
decides to fire Maryann and represent himself on the ride back to Arkham we hear Stan L Brook on the radio this is the same radio announcer from the 2019 film and it's an not to Stan Z Burns radio announcer of New York's 1010 WS throughout the 80s his broadcast ends with a brief mention of Mayor Thorndike who's one of the many past mayors of Gotham City mentioned throughout DC Comics this one showed up in flashbacks from the made of wood storyline in 2003 we see Lee walking back to Arthur's old neighborhood up the same steps
that he danced down in the 2019 film this is actually in the Bronx connecting Shakespeare and Anderson Avenues at West 167th Street in the hybrid neighborhood Arthur now representing himself with his Joker makeup fully on faces Gary Puddles the former cooworker and witness to Arthur killing Randall in the 2019 movie Arthur's cross-examination of Gary transitions through various different character personas first as a proud Southern lawyer and then when he lers his voice to talk the judge takes on this New York mobster voice and then when he gets real close to Gary he uses an English
accent to more Gary maybe he don't know who it really was Gary doesn't let him walk away from this he tearfully shames Arthur for making him feel small and Powerless and for once in this movie Arthur realizes that he is not the victim of all of this Gary is an example of one of the many people who have been hurt and continue to hurt based off of what he has done the state rests their case and Arthur decides to rest his he calls no Witnesses so Lee and Arthur start to go into a musical interlude
singing Sammy Davis Jr's going to build a mountain with an uptempo gospel beat they walk out together toward the back doors even though think about it Arthur would still go back into custody right so we must be slipping into a music fantasy which we do we go into another dream set with Arthur and Lee's wedding day where Gary is forced to be the ring bearer now I think it was in this transition where this shot from the trailer was removed from the movie this is one of many shots that you might have noticed in trailer
footage that did not appear anywhere in the film but this must have been part of a musical dream sequence because that's why the newspaper reads free on all charges that would not be how a verdict would be reported in a newspaper now a detail that I really like about this wedding chapel set there's a curvy foot bridge over water that leads to the altar the altar is an island which I think is to represent the curved bridge that leads to Arkham's Island the wedding transitions to an Afterparty at pogos remember pogos was the comedy club
where Arthur did a stand up in the 2019 film and it was named after the clown Persona of the serial killer John Wayne gasy Jackie beats Arthur back at Arkham stripping him down and triggering his childhood abuse from his mother's boyfriend back in a Cell Block Ricky sings in support When the Saints Go Marching In and Arthur listens as Jackie strangles Ricky to death and In This Moment Arthur flashes back to the subway bathroom from the first movie when he first danced to celebrate his killing of the guys in the train because now Arthur once
again feels like he has blood on his hands so between Ricky and between Gary are just two people for whom Arthur's continued Antics are bringing pain and suffering Lee applies her own Harley Quinn Diamond patterns on her face on the steps of the courthouse we see that her outfit includes Harley Quinn Diamond patterns on the jacket on the corset and on the pants I think it was hearing Ricky die that led Arthur in his closing statement to claim that there is no joker there's just him and that he killed six people including his mother he
says I just want to blow it all up and start a new life m Choice words to say to a violent Mom that's listening outside Lee leaves Arthur leaves a voicemail for Lee singing 1959's If you go away by jacqu brell English lyrics by Rod mckuin and when the verdict is read Arthur has now wiped his clown makeup off of his face and we hear the verdicts count one guilty count two guilty count three guilty and on this third one a man who I assume is the father of one of the guys on the subway
lunges at Arthur chaos fills a courtroom judges banging the gavel and then boom an explosion rocks the courtroom the later radio broadcaster claimed this was a car bomb which would mean most of the casualties outside would have probably been Joker supporters the news camera is broken the bayith is dead Arthur somehow still alive he gets to his feet and the camera swings to Harvey Dent and hey half of his face is scarred by Burns he's still in shock of course canonically two faces face is scarred by acid thrown in his face by Sal [ __
] during a murder trial in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight it was burning fuel from a trap bombing set by the Joker's gang we do not cut the camera is handheld and follows walking Phoenix through all of this maybe there were some Cuts hidden in the smoke but we can't be sure Arthur is found by another supporter who's dressed more like the Joker than he is he puts them in his car and they're driving celebrating it's just crazy that we're still in the car Todd Phillips has not cut away yet even when the car stops
and they have to get out and it's a foot chase now even when those clowns get hit by police cars we're still all in one handheld take and it's pretty impressive Arthur runs back to his home neighborhood finding Lee on the steps she's cut her hair and Lee says all we had was the fantasy and you gave it up he brings up their baby but Lee doesn't answer she just sings That's Entertainment implying that she made up that too Arthur is taken back into custody he watches a Pepe Lew short somewhat reflective of his situation
A Lover chasing after an uninterested lady whom he thinks is the one just because she has white paint on herself Jackie tells Arthur he has a visitor now notice how Jackie leaves Arthur alone in the hallway for far longer than he's ever left him alone I kind of feel like Arthur did not really have a visitor and Jackie just set him up to be shived the young inmate catches up to him to tell him a joke a second a walks into a bar and sees a famous clown sitting there all alone totally drunk it's pathetic
I can't believe you're here he says what a disappointment I used to watch you on TV what can I get you the clown turns to him and says well if you're buying you can get me anything perfect the psychopath says how about I get you what youing deserve which of course is exactly what Arthur said to Murray right before he shot him and the young inmate stabs him to death Arthur collapses and flashes back to Joker and Harley singing going to build me a mountain specifically these words I want to find young son to take
my place I'll leave my son in Heaven on Earth with the good Lord's Grace the implication being that Arthur is now in a way passing the torch of the ultimate Psychopathic Joker to a younger generation to take his place as Arthur bleeds out blood drips from his mouth the same place as it did in the opening scene when he was shaved in the background we see the young inmate using the knife to cut his own face giving himself a glasgo smile so it would appear that Todd Phillips wants to at least reference Heath Ledger's Joker
from The Dark Knight who had similar scarring scars with a never revealed backstory because Christopher Nolan and Heath Ledger Joker embraced the multiple choice origin story from Alan Moore's The Killing Joke I'm pretty sure Todd Phillips cast Connor's story for his uncanny resemblance to a young Heath Ledger now I don't think Todd Phillips intends on this guy being exactly Heath Ledger's version of the character the timeline wouldn't match up this story is in the early 80s The Dark Knight is set in the late a but the fact that this movie is even referencing a film
and a performance that DC fans considered to be sacred feels for lack of a better term pretty toned deaf if you want your Joker to exist in its own elor that's fine but don't confuse viewers by linking it to one of the most iconic Batman films and for many people their favorite Joker so that's where this film leaves us good riddance Arthur Fleck we saw some fine performances from walking Phoenix and Lady Gaga impressive camera work by Todd Phillips an interesting trip down Hollywood symphonic history some interesting commentary on America's obsession with True Crime and
legal drama but it all just came together kind of like an orchestra full of first chair musicians each playing from completely different pages of sheet music but what did you think of Joker F do comment down below with your thoughts follow me at eaos subscribe to all three channels of the new rockstars Network for breakdowns and news coverage of everything you love thanks for watching and I'll see you next time bye [Music] [Music] a
