‘Joker‘ was released in November of 2019, and upon its release the film has been a talking point among many circles who have taken many positions. Some believing it to be a dark and gritty masterpiece, others considering it a dangerous dog whistle to certain people with violent tendencies. Whatever your position the film was a massive hot both commercially (grossing over a billion dollars) and critically (garnering 11 Oscar nominations, winning best actor and best score). and now it has a pretty substantial new fan voicing their support of the film. Quentin Tarantino.
While speaking with Edgar Wright for the new Empire Podcast, Tarantino had this to say about the climactic talk show scene:
“It gets to the talk show scene and you feel the entire atmosphere in the theater change…The subversion on a massive level, the thing that’s profound is this: It’s not just suspenseful, it’s not just riveting and exciting, the director subverts the audience because the Joker is a f***ing nut. Robert Deniro’s talk show character is not a movie villain. He seems like an asshole, but he’s not more of an asshole than David Letterman… He doesn’t deserve to die”
He continues:
“While the audience is watching the Joker, they want him to kill Robert Deniro; they want him to take that gun, and stick it in his eye and blow his f***ing head off. And if the Joker didn’t kill him? You would be pissed off. That is the subversion on a massive level! They got the audience to think like a f***ing lunatic and to want that. “
However, while Tarantino had glowing praise for this sequence of the film he went on to describe the rest of the film as a little bit “one note” and even outright said he has little interest in most modern movies anyways, especially when they follow a template of something that came before them, as the Joker did with its intentional similarities to the Scorsese classics ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘The king of comedy’.
‘Joker‘ is currently streaming on HBO Max, what are your thoughts on the polarizing DC film?
Born and raised in DFW Texas. 24 years old. Studied at Texas Wesleyan University. Positively love movies and love writing about them and everything that goes into them.
